Happy Birthday Hope Farm

A unique Cambridgeshire farm is celebrating its twentieth birthday. So Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner is taking the Shadow Environment Minister Luke Pollard and a tractor-shaped birthday cake there later this week, to drop in for a socially distanced birthday bash. 

Owned and managed by the RSPB, 181 hectares Hope Farm at  Knapwell, Cambridgeshire, is an arable farm with a difference because it not only turns a profit but also researches and encourages wildlife-friendly farming.  

Two decades ago only two crops were grown - wheat and oilseed rape, but since then other crops such as spring barley, winter beans, winter linseed and spring millet have been successfully sown in their fields.  

On Thursday, Mr Zeichner and Mr Pollard will meet farm manager Georgie Bray who will explain how biodiversity has soared. The farm has become a haven for wildlife with 29 different species of butterflies and seven species of buzzing bumblebees.  As you would expect for the RSPB, it is a paradise for twitchers too - with goldfinches, grey partridges, kestrels, rare turtle doves, and yellowhammers flying by.  

Daniel  Zeichner MP said: "Happy Birthday Hope Farm! Congratulations on this milestone. Hope Farm is showing how it’s possible to run a farm that produces high-quality food, makes a profit, and is valuable for wildlife as well. That's good news for farmers, the countryside, shoppers and our wildlife. We need to ensure these nature friendly lessons are fed into the Agriculture Bill going through Parliament." 



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