Farming and wildlife Norton Suffolk

Four Barn owls and two Short-eared owls hunting a meadow at the same time, a large flock of Yellowhammers taking off in a golden swirl, watching brown hares from a track and loosing count because there are so many. These are a few of the high lights that stand out for me so far this year. These incidents were not the result of visiting nature reserves or responding text message alerts, I saw all of them on the same intensive Suffolk arable farm a few miles from where I live.

I have visited Halls farm Norton owned by the Honeywood family for many years to get horse food produced on the farm from chopped straw. Father and son team Robert and Stephen are passionate about the wildlife on their farm, this is typified by the large modern barn used for straw for the Honeychop feed production. The back of the barn is filled with old worthless grey straw bales contrasting with new bales at the front, this is because a pair of Barn owls and Kestrels live and nest here, the old straw will not be moved until the bales disintegrate or the birds leave.

The Honeywood family intensively and profitably farm 900 acres including neighbouring Little Haugh Farm, run a feed business and employ more than seven people. Intensive arable farming has a strong impact on wild life, some farms near me are almost wildlife deserts compared with Halls and Little Haugh Farms. In these pages I will show you some of the birds, animals and plants living on the farms and describe the management used to maintain the high wildlife population and diversity.