Bedingham Hall Farm wins top Norfolk conservation award

The Ian MacNicol Memorial Trophy is awarded annually by Norfolk FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group) to celebrate farms which have implemented conservation measures alongside their usual commercial business.

The 2024 award was won by Louise Bond, who manages Bruce Seaman Farms at Bedingham Hall Farm, in Bedingham near Bungay.

The judges were particularly impressed by the way conservation measures had been implemented on the arable farm, by "sensitively balancing crop production and areas for wildlife".

The farm uses companion cropping and cover crops to help with pest and weed burdens, and "takes the use of chemicals seriously, and monitors use carefully," they said.

Judges also praised the survey work on birds, water voles, great crested newts, meadows and hedgerows which "combine to highlight the work that the farm is doing for the natural environment".

And the farm has enhanced natural features including three wildflower meadows - and the restoration of 16 ponds.

Bedingham Hall Farm, in Bedingham near Bungay, has won the 2024 Ian MacNicol farm conservation trophy (Image: Norfolk FWAG) Bruce Seaman Farms also has a range of diversification measures, including a solar array, a caravan park, and commercial business units.

The runner-up for the Ian MacNicol award was Bruce Paterson at Worstead Estate, a large arable and livestock business near North Walsham which has undertaken a "wide range of measures to enhance the natural environment", including historic parkland restoration, and expansion of grasslands and woodlands.

The other two finalists were highly commended for their conservation work: Silfield Ltd, based near Kimberley, and Fen Farm, near Attleborough - both mixed arable and livestock enterprises with farm-wide Countryside Stewardship schemes.