On Your Farm

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Getting to the heart of country life with a look at individual farming endeavours

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On Your Farm: A Wilder Way to Farm

A Wilder Way to Farm

BBC Radio 4 - On Your Farm, A Wilder Way to Farm

Jake Fiennes explains how farmers can help restore Britain's wildlife.

Tom Heap meets Jake Fiennes, Conservation Manager of Norfolk's huge Holkham Estate, to find out why he believes that farmers are crucial in the battle to restore our wildlife.

70% of the UK's landscape is farmed.  For the writer and estate manager, Jake Fiennes, that statistic alone shows that farmers need to lead any effort to bring back our depleted wildlife.

As brother of Ralph and Joseph, Jake grew up in a bohemian family of artists and actors but he always felt the pull of the land.  A spell helping to run the legendary Limelight nightclub in London in the 1980s had him rubbing shoulders with George Michael and Tina Turner but, exhausted by the high life, he retreated to the Knepp Estate run by his friend Charlie Burrell.  There he learned his trade as a gamekeeper and quickly absorbed the skills of estate management.  

After rising up through the ranks he took on the role of Conservation Manager on the enormous 25,000 acre Holkham Estate in North Norfolk, a position that has given him the chance to pursue his instinct that productive, modern agriculture can be adapted to become much more friendly to nature.  The transformation of the estate is outlined in his book, Land Healers.  For On Your Farm he guides Tom Heap around Holkham's acres, explaining how crop yields can be maintained whilst wetlands expand and fresh territory is carved out for natterjack toads and turtle doves.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

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