A Cotswolds livestock farm has been highlighted as a national showcase for how nature can be restored using 100% pasture-fed animals.
Will Mann, who runs Oxleaze Farm near Lechlade, said that 100% pasture-fed livestock were 'fundamental' in helping to the environment.
The farm has taken part in a biodiversity research series by Pasture for Life, a movement that champions the restorative power of grazing animals on pasture.
The project aims to highlight how farmers across the country are helping to restore nature by using pasture-fed livestock.
Oxleaze had switched to pasture-fed farming methods, with rotational grazing techniques that use the cattle as management tools to mimic natural processes and stimulate plant growth to sequester carbon.
The 700-acre farm has abandoned the more intensive methods and is now mostly grassland that is extensively grazed by a herd of 70 Aberdeen Angus cattle.
The animals are 100% pasture-fed on the herb-rich leys and grasses rich in chicory and sainfoin.
According to Oxleaze, the move has noticeably boosted the variety and number of plants and animals and encouraged carbon fixation in the soils.
The farm has also planted 30,000 new trees and 26,000 hedging plants as a long-term project to encourage flora and fauna.
As a result, the farm has seen a revival - from Barn Owls and fallow deer to massive numbers of voles, field mice, worms, plague populations of hares.
They play host to a thriving population of over 15 broods of thriving English Grey partridge, one of the most rapidly declining farmland birds in Europe.
Flocks of 300 lapwings pass through in winter which follow the cattle around, and an RSPB survey found that the farm has the highest density of linnets recorded in the UK.
Oxleaze sells their finished meat to a local farm shop, with produce bought by local residents who switched to buying more locally during the pandemic.
Will Mann from Oxleaze farm said: “We have a keen focus on conservation and the 100% pasture-fed livestock are, without doubt, fundamental to this.
"We have been practising with different grazing techniques and are already seeing our forage production increase as a direct result of advice and information from other Pasture for Life farmers.”
