OAKBANK NEWS AND BLOG

Supplementary winter feeding bridges the "hungry gap" for farmland birds from December to April, when natural seed sources run low. Under Countryside Stewardship (AB12) and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI, AHW2), farmers supply a compliant seed mix weekly across a minimum of two feeding sites per hectare. Using small seeds alongside cereals, feeding little and often and placing feed near existing habitat helps support species such as yellowhammer, corn bunting, linnet and

Ministers say they want to hear about the positive and negative impacts of gamebird rearing, release and shooting in England. They have said the call for evidence, which started on the 4th September and will remain open until 1st November, could be followed by public consultations. Be under no illusion that the Government is ‘gunning’ for game shooting so please take the time to fill in the survey below. If there are questions for which you do not have sufficient knowledge, t

As many of you will know, we have been pushing the benefits of Miscanthus for game cover for a number of years, and this year, more than ever, miscanthus has proved a saviour for many shoots. There is now an opportunity to grow this crop as an alternative cash crop, as we have teamed up with ESG Natural Capital to offer long-term, lucrative contracts to grow this sustainable, carbon sequestering, low-input crop. We are looking for growers from across the UK although, due to h

Companion cropping has been moving from niche practice to mainstream arable management for a few years now. Increased interest from growers has looked to improve resilience, reduce inputs and build healthier soils. As the 2026 drilling season approaches, Phil Jarvis, Head of Operations at Oakbank, and Harry Moffat, Senior Advisor, discuss why the focus is not simply on growing a crop, it is also on choosing the right companion for the right outcome. Oilseed rape is coming bac

Defra's offer of £225m capital grants for farm investment in England including an interactive summary.

The government's 25-year roadmap puts soil, habitat and farm wildlife at the heart of food production. We'd urge every land manager to read carefully how it intends to pay for all this, because the smart money may be on acting now. Yesterday (24th June), Defra published Farming Roadmap 2050: Growing England's Future, alongside its response to Baroness Batters' Farming Profitability Review. For those of us who have spent our careers arguing that productive farming and a recove

The UK’s funding mechanisms for supporting innovation in agriculture have repeatedly exposed gaps between agricultural research and real-world application. Farmers looking for financially beneficial and environmentally responsible production systems often hit the buffers when it comes to interpreting complex trials data and results. So, the latest ADOPT fund (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies) was launched last year. In particular an Oakbank/Toby Simpson/

On 15 April 2026, Defra published responses to two parallel Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) consultations and opened a third on an additional targeted exemption for brownfield residential development. Together, the responses confirm when major infrastructure projects will start drawing on the off-site biodiversity unit market, exempt around half of the smallest residential sites, and broaden the geography in which a land parcel can supply units to a development. What has been con

This week, a new global report published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) examines the interdependencies between business and biodiversity. In a world that has to grapple with new ways of achieving economic growth, without further degrading nature, the assessment is that despite data quality and methodologies improving, global business remains too tangled in complexity to deliver meaningful nature-positive action

Another season closes and, unless you are packing for late partridges abroad, the game book and a few photographs are doing most of the talking. Before those memories fade, February is the month to look after what’s left, walk the ground with clear eyes and set foundations for next season. Keep feeding, keep cover Natural food is at its thinnest in February and March, and winter cover is at a premium, especially in locations particularly badly affected by the 2025 drought and

Today, the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published the new Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) for England , - a "detailed roadmap" to deliver legally binding environmental targets under the Environment Act 2021. Alongside the EIP, the government has announced £500 million in public funding for Landscape Recovery , designed to leverage private finance such as Biodiversity Net Gain units and carbon credits, and £85 million to improve and r

This month we bid fond farewell to Ian Gould, who retires from the Oakbank business at the end of 2025, and Jamie Gunn, who is beginning an exciting new chapter in the North of England. We salute their achievements and celebrate how Oakbank-trained talent is helping shape the UK countryside and our industry. Ian Gould: cover-crop revolutionary As co-founder of Oakbank alongside Tim Furbank, Ian has spent more than two decades setting Oakbank up for success as a centre of exce

There’s never a day without food on the ground at Brewery Farm, Suffolk. That’s how farmer and keeper Graham Denny has managed to ring over 80,000 birds across his 200-acre holding - proof that when supplementary feeding is done right, it transforms the fortunes of farmland wildlife. Graham’s approach is simple but relentless. Most mornings through winter, he’s out on the quad scattering seed by hand; feeding along the hedgerows and into the cover crops where the little birds

At Oakbank, we spend a lot of time helping clients design and establish new hedge plantings. Done well, they can transform a farm - in...

We spend most of our time working away, alongside farmers, landowners and estate managers, helping to design and deliver habitats that...

The start of August saw us welcoming our newest member to the Oakbank team. Max Cowell is currently studying at Harper Adams University...

You can hardly go to an arable farming event without hearing about "cover crops" and "catch crops". But are they worth the space, time...

August is a critical month for game cover management. By now, the season’s early optimism has given way to reality: some plots look...

Herbal leys are more than just a latest fashion in livestock grazing swards - they play a strategic role in arable rotations, delivering...

Discover how to make the most of the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) including tree survival during extreme drought - with innovative mulching, GPS planning and sustainable grant-backed solutions.