White Peak Farmers is a facilitation group and was one of only nineteen groups first set up through Natural England’s innovative Facilitation Fund back in 2015. The funding provided a novel approach to foster cooperation among farmers, conservation organisations and others, and was based on a foundation of providing environmental advice to groups of farmers rather than one to one. This has allowed a network of farmers to come together, learn from one another and to work with others to help solve some of the environmental problems we face.
Our group has been awarded further funding from Countryside Stewardship in 2020 and 2023 to continue its work and is now part of a network of over 250 facilitation groups and 6000 farmers.
Who we are
Our group is comprised of farmer and landowner members and a part-time facilitator who helps run the group and manage its activities.
The group provides opportunities and activities that bring people together to meet and share information. We run and hold training events, workshops and farm visits, covering topics from animal health and nutrition, sustainable food production, soil health, regenerative farming and water quality to habitat management, nature-based solutions, climate change and carbon, and nature recovery. These activities allow us to upskill, exchange experiences and knowledge and keep up to date with new ideas or ways of working.
We also provide advice to farmers and land managers on schemes and funding, support delivery of habitat works, such as meadow restoration and apply for funding for projects on behalf of the group.
We hold regular meetings to manage and guide group activities and link with local organisations.
We are managed by a steering committee made up from our members and facilitator.
Find out more about us
What we do
As well as putting on events for our members and providing advice on schemes, we also bring in funding to deliver projects and activities that our members want to do. This includes habitat work, running farm walks for the public, working with volunteers (see our projects – link), running webinars for the facilitation group network (you can view them on our YouTube channel) and working with other farming and conservation organisations.
We are always trying to find new ways for farmers to embed sustainable practices into their farm businesses and are developing ideas around local food, marketing wildflower seed and green hay, investigating nature markets and how our members may be able to benefit from them.
Nature markets – wildflower seed
The group has its own seed harvester machine and our members have wildflower meadows from which we can harvest wildflower seed for restoration of other sites. We are fully licenced and registered as a wildflower seed collector with APHA via our facilitator (registration number 7570).
We use most of this seed for restoring our members’ fields, but if you are interested in purchasing seed or green hay from us, please get in touch.
Our volunteers also grow plug plants and we can offer some for sale – please get in touch if you are interested purchasing plug plants or you would like to volunteer at our wildflower nursery.