Sustainability
The Hoyles family take great pride in farming sustainably with the environment, and have been a LEAF Marque certified farm since 2004. Looking after the health of the soil is integral to producing high quality crops in the fields year after year.
An eight-year crop rotation, meaning that there is a gap of eight years for most crops to be back in the same field, keeps the natural build up of pests and diseases minimal. The farm has taken poorer performing areas of land out of food production and these have been planted with flower rich grass areas, wild bird seed patches and areas of nectar rich species to help the pollinating insects. This includes over 35km of flower rich grass margins next to dykes, drains and ditches. Owl boxes, sparrow apartments and bee & bug pods have also been made and put around the farm to help enhance the local wildlife.
The farm uses state of the art equipment and machinery and precision farming techniques to only supply the growing crops with inputs as and when they need it.
Following regular soil sampling and scanning, the crops are grown with variable rate seeding and variable rate nutrient applications. Nutrients are also placed in the soil near the plants rooting zone which has allowed us to reduce man made fertiliser inputs by 30%. The tractors are auto steered by GPS, and ensure that the planting, cultivating and harvesting equipment operates at the highest levels of efficiency; saving time, fuel and wearing parts. The preparation of the soil and the raised soil beds which the olive trees were planted in, and the olive tree planting machine itself all used this technology to establish the olive grove.
Water management is also a key focus on the farm. Having good land drainage to allow excess water to move away as soon as possible from the growing crops, and having reservoirs full of water to help irrigate the fields during prolonged periods of dry weather. We have an Environment Agency abstraction license which allow us to abstract excess winter ditch & drain water and store it in our reservoirs, and we also collect roof rainwater. We can store over 180,000m3 of water, which is the equivalent of 72 Olympic swimming pools. Soil moisture probes and a good spade are used to check on soil moisture levels and the larger fields are irrigated when needed by booms (giant sprinklers) and the olive grove by trickle tape (permanent tape in the ground with small holes), allowing more precise application.
The farm also makes the most of its location and infrastructure, and has a wind turbine and 1,200m2 of solar panels on farm building roofs to produce 70% of our energy needs from this renewable energy.
The wind turbine and solar panels produce about 440,000kW of energy a year, which would be enough to power about 100 houses.
