In autumn 2011, Natural England launched a new service of one-to-one farm visits to help farmers in Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) get the most out of their agreements.
Existing ELS holders can request a free on-farm visit from an experienced adviser to discuss the on-going management of their agreement and how it can best achieve environmental benefits. Up to 2,000 visits are being made available to ELS agreement holders per year, with an additional 4,000 places available at group events, including farm walks and workshops.
Ian Fugler, director of land management at Natural England said: “These face-to-face farm visits offer our agreement holders the opportunity and support to review how their ELS and UELS options are working on the ground, and will help to identify any changes necessary in the future management of their options.” To request a free farm visit please contact 0300 060 1695.
For OELS participants, an organic competent adviser should be available and should be able to link both organic and OELS best practice. ORC believes this should be demonstrated by Institute of Organic Training and Advice (IOTA) accreditation. To check if the adviser allocated is IOTA accredited, see: http://www.organicadvice.org.uk/directory.htm.
