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The Corncrake (Crex crex) was once a common species in the UK and it’s hard to deny that modern farming methods are responsible for pushing the species to the north western fringes of our islands. They spend only the summer months in Western Europe, breeding here before returning to winter in sub-Saharan Africa. They are one of three globally-threatened species identified by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Corncrake (Crex crex); on the verge of extinction by the late 1960's A secretive bird, the corncrake is more often heard than it is seen, preferring to creep and hide in long vegetation...

You may have heard us talk about ‘Conservation Grazing’ in the past and not be exactly sure what it involves. In the simplest terms conservation grazing is the keeping of animals with the primary objective being the management of a wildlife habitat, as opposed to rearing for meat or dairy production. The process involves raising animals on the land in a way that mimics once common farming methods in order to preserve or recreate biodiverse grassland habitats. These methods have fallen out of favour over the years as farming techniques have changed. With new machinery, chemicals and breeds of livestock...

‘Are you organic?’ was a question put to me recently by a new customer at Rosewood. It’s a question we hear a lot and it's always a difficult one to answer because we’re not registered with any organic certification body but neither are we a ‘conventional’ farm. Taking a look at the Soil Association ‘Organic farming’ webpage we would appear to fit their definition to the letter, however, we're not members so we can’t legally claim to be organic or label the products as such.   We rarely plough at Rosewood, but when we do we add loads of organic...