The farming community in Dorset says it has an 'ongoing commitment' to food production and the environment and is already taking action to reverse a decline in nature.

This news comes after Dorset Council declared a nature emergency.

The National Farmers Union has written to the council to open-up discussions about farmers working alongside the local authority to ensure a more positive future for the environment in the county.

Wakely Cox, NFU Dorset chair, said: “We have written to the council and are pleased that they want to work with us so we can continue the good work farmers are already doing looking after the environment, enhancing it alongside producing local, traceable, high-quality food for the country.

READ: Dorset farm set to turn field into a lake to improve diversity

“We all want to maintain our green and pleasant lands here in Dorset and farmers across the county are doing all they can to care for the environment while doing what we need on farm to keep feeding the nation.

“Dorset farmers are already implementing techniques on their farms to benefit the environment alongside their day-to-day farming, planting hedges and trees, putting in seed mixes for birds and pollinators and doing many other positive things to bolster biodiversity.

“I think the future for the wellbeing of our environment is a positive one – I’m out in the fields every day and the wildlife is abundant without any evidence that nature is depleted.”

Dorset boasts almost 500,000 acres of farmland with over 2,000 farm holdings, which are mainly family farms grazing livestock, general cropping and producing cereals like wheat, oats and barley.

George Hosford, who farms near Blandford Forum with his brother Dougal and nephew Fred, is embracing the use of innovative techniques as part of their efforts to encourage more diversity to benefit the health of the soil, crops and beef cattle herd.

The Hosfords started introducing herbal leys onto the farm five years ago in an effort to increase diversity, giving their 70 cows more plant variety to graze while improving the health of the soil.

They grow six metre wild flower margins around fields and sometimes across them and are rejuvenating and planting new hedges.

George said: “Nature has taken a battering from many historic farming methods, as well as from house and road building, sewage pollution of rivers and the endless stream of delivery vans flying all across the country, but I’m disappointed that there is no mention of farming being part of the answer to the council’s declaration of a ‘nature emergency’.

“Many farmers are doing fantastic work to bring back nature into the countryside – they are re-discovering the value of providing new habitat for the natural predators of crop pests, of growing crops that fix their own fertiliser from the atmosphere and are paying more attention to soil health, and much of this is encouraged by the newly introduced Sustainable Farming Incentives now on offer from DEFRA.”

A motion was passed by councillors setting clear strategic goals for nature’s recovery by 2030 and one of their aims focuses on working with farmers to improve biodiversity.

The motion also recognized the council’s role as the responsible authority for the development of the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) for Dorset – a spatial strategy which plans, maps and creates priorities for nature within the county.

LNRSs were introduced as a legal obligation under the Environment Act (2021) with their principal aim being to create space for nature to deliver Biodiversity Net Gain.