A "pseudo rewilding" project which replaced arable crops with wildflower meadows has brought "astounding" benefits to nature - while helping shield a Norfolk farm from economic shocks.
Andy Thornton's nature-focused farm in Shropham, near Attleborough, welcomed about 60 visitors for a farm walk hosted by Norfolk FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group).
He said 40 years of intensive production of irrigated vegetables and arable crops had left his land "tired", prompting a fundamental transformation in 2019.
Now the 750-acre Manor Farm is in the fourth year of a five-year Countryside Stewardship agreement which has put aside traditional food crops in favour of growing conservation features to benefit pollinators and wild birds, including flower-rich fields and margins.
As well as boosting biodiversity and soil quality, Mr Thornton said it also works financially - protecting the business from economic risks such as the soaring fuel and fertiliser costs driven by the effect of the war in Ukraine on world commodity markets.
"We have cut out all the risk," he said. "We have got a guaranteed payment for five years, we are reducing all our fixed costs, so I am not affected by the fertiliser being so expensive, and I am not using the amount of fuel I used to.
"We were at a crossroads four years ago. We could see there was a storm coming when we left the EU, with all the uncertainty of Brexit and what were we going to do without subsidies.
"We wanted to ride that storm and reduce the risk as much as we could. And after 40 years of growing vegetables, it was time to give the farm a rest."
The scheme has left the farm buzzing with insects, and has returned fertility to the soil, with biological analysis showing an improvement in its organic carbon, nutrients and biomass.
Henry Walker, farm conservation adviser for Norfolk FWAG, described the ambitious Manor Farm project as "pseudo rewilding".
Rather than a 10-year scheme to replace cropped land with permanent pasture, parkland and trees, he said arable stewardship options have been chosen which mean Mr Thornton can cultivate for food crops again at the end of the five-year agreement if he chooses to.
"This is in year four now, and I think it is astounding what Andy has achieved," he said.
"On the majority of the whole farm he has managed to establish these flower-rich plots organically without the use of herbicides or spot-spraying, without getting too many injurious weeds in there. So it is credit to his diligent management.
"He is used to growing crops, and he has grown this as a crop.
"It is benefiting the whole food chain. By providing so many flowering perennial plants the whole suite of invertebrates will be able to get through their entire lifecycle within these fields. And insects are so critical for functioning ecosystems."
Norfolk FWAG managing director Neil Punchard told visitors that while this week's publication of the government's food strategy had sparked debates about rewilding and food production, his organisation wants to instigate sustainable farming practices to show how "food, farming and wildlife go hand-in-hand".
Mr Walker said although Manor Farm's whole-farm approach was an extreme example of farming for nature, it was an important part of that balance.
"We have been farming the land so hard since the Second World War, and we have seen such a decline in our wildlife as a result, so if a handful of farms are deciding to give their land a break for five years, I don't think that's a bad thing," he said.
The farm's transformation has also included the establishment of a glamping enterprise and miscanthus energy crops, while some land is still let for chickens, pigs and turkeys.
And the pastures are home to a herd of Belted Galloway cattle, whose grazing is controlled using innovative virtual fencing technology.
Adult animals are fitted with "Nofence" collars, assigned to a pasture designed digitally on a mobile phone app.
They are given an audio warning when they approach the virtual boundary, and if they breach it they receive an electric pulse, as if they had touched an electric fence.
Mr Thornton said it takes about a week for the animals to learn to respond to the audio cues.
Physical fences are also used, but he said the system helps to manage grazing areas within the fields, monitor cows during calving - and to find the animals if they escape.
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