Teesdale hill farm collects award (From The Northern Echo)

Teesdale hill farm collects award

11:51am Friday 16th July 2010 in News

FARMERS who use conservation techniques to improve the environmental standards for their livestock and their lands have been recognised at an awards ceremony.

The Tye Trophy Awards are awarded by the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) and the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to the farmers in the region who have gone the extra mile on their land in the name of conservation.

The issue of environmentalism in farming has been rising up the political agenda as farmers come under pressure to increase food yields, while maintaining and enhancing the countryside at the same time.

Henry Lucas, national president of FWAG, said it was important that farmers begin to carry out conservation projects on their land without being pushed into it by an outside body.

He said: “Lots of people know we can have agriculture and the environment hand in hand.

“It’s about encouraging people to go that extra mile on their little patch of England.

“FWAG works to help farmers improve their land while also having a commercially successful business.”

Judges from across Yorkshire and the North-East visited 15 farms and narrowed them down into five regional winners.

In the Tyne Tees area, the winner was Richard Ward, of Cragg Top, in Langleydale, near Barnard Castle.

Mr Ward, who has almost 500 acres of organic hill farm, was also named as reserve champion in the overall competition.

He was praised by the judges for planting new hedgerows and transforming an old railway siding into a nature pond.

“A lot of what we do is for practical reasons,” he said.

“We have been replacing fencing with hedgerows over 25 years and we built the pond because otherwise it would have just been unusable land.

“We are quite remote but we sell our meat online and we often get customers coming to visit us and see our animal welfare standards and surrounding, people are becoming a lot more aware of things like that.”

The North Yorkshire regional winner was Mark Rooke, of Beadlam Grange, Pockley, near York.

The overall championship was awarded to John Fenton, of Yokefleet Farms, near Goole, who will now go through to the national championships.