Abbeystead Estate, Lancaster The Royal Agricultural Society of England in conjunction with the Duke of Westminster's Abbeystead Estate nr Lancaster, staged the last in its programme of one-day regional meetings for this year.
The event is designed to bring disparate together a wide selection of RASEsociety members together to learn about how rural business and estates co-exist alongside each other and what their goals are for sustaining future business in upland dairiesareas.
Visitors from as far afield as Northamptonshire and Derbyshire made the journey to join a 48 strong group of the Ssociety's members who were driven around toured the estate.
In the morning, they met two tenant farmers. during the visit, Tthe first was John Drinkall, whose family have farmed at Abbeystead their land for 174 years. His farm comprises sheep and a dairy herd and Mr Drinkall explained the challenges of working a is an LFA (Less Favoured Area) farm, receiving subsidies to support the continuance of farming in a challenging environment.
The second farmer was Jim Curwen a director of Bowland Forest Foods. This , a group was formed in 1998 by farmers to boost sales of local produce co-ordinate pricing and sales for their output (which includes game, poultry, beef, and lamb reared in the Bowland area) to shops, restaurants, the internet etc. and local people in order to help sustain farmers' livelihoods. The group has recently received is fundeding from by the Duke of Westminster to cover marketing and administration costs.
During the afternoon, guests were taken to the grouse shooting moors on the estate where they were met by two gamekeepers who talked in-depth about the management of grouse and the moors. They spent time discussing their initiatives for maintaining a long-term relationship with the land they work on such as heather burning, and stressed the need to adapt environmental needs to address specific areas of the locality
The total area set aside for shooting on the estate is now 20,000 acres and the Abbeystead estate stages around 30 shoots per year between the 12th August and 10th December.
"Guests were very interested in the remote and rugged landscape particularly since the estate is just 10km miles from Lancaster, and were delighted during the tour to see some
samples of the local wildlife including Swaledale sheep, Curlews and Peregrines," said
Angela Lea from the Royal Agricultural Society, and continued "but the overriding impression taken away was of the positive means by which the Abbeystead estate ensures that shooting and farming successfully co-exist together".
