On a sunny summer’s evening in early August, the Ross-on-Wye branch of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust met at Ben Taylor-Davies’s farm to see how farming and nature can thrive hand-in-hand. 

'RegenBen', as Ben is known, is a bundle of energy and an evangelist for nature friendly farming. The family farm, Townsend Farm in Brampton Abbotts, works to “produce nutrient-dense, high welfare food whilst enhancing the environment”. The new kid on the block in farming circles these days is “Regenerative Farming”, an approach that makes all this possible. Hence the name RegenBen!

Standing in front of a stunning mural called “New Horizons” that’s painted on the side of a barn, Ben explains the five principles by which he farms, each depicted in technicolour behind him. In a nutshell these are:

• Keep soil covered at all times helping to regulate moisture and temperature
• Maintain root structure. Incredibly, roots put sugar-rich carbon into soils feeding the microorganisms that keep soil healthy
• Keep soil disturbance to an absolute minimum – reduce ploughing with no agrochemicals
• Ensure diversity of plants and species wherever possible, avoid mono-cropping to reduce pests, weeds and diseases.
• Integrate livestock and their manures for natural fertilising.

Central to regenerative farming is soil health and achieving this ensures we can continue to farm the land for many generations to come. 

According to Ben, climate change is most definitely here. Looking back at weather records since the 1930s, there were just 11 extreme weather events - such as drought and flooding – between 1930 and 1970. Moving forward, between 2000 and 2025, there have been 19 extreme weather events. “Dry and wet, those are the two seasons we’re seeing now,” says Ben, “instead of the four we’re used to.”

We then walked along some of the tracks that crisscross the farm. Their layout is designed to stop soil from being washed downhill and into the river Wye. Ben said soil is our largest export! Good soil runs off the land and flows out to sea; this he wants to stop. The tracks are bordered by hedges, 23km of them, planted with native trees that provide food for birds over the lean winter months. Beside the tracks are 6m wide margins planted with a diverse mix of wildflowers which provide nectar-rich areas for insects of all kind and corridors for wildlife to move across the farm. 

First stop on our tour was a field with free range chickens which are fed on a home-grown mix of bean and oats. To our surprise we spot rheas, large emu-like birds, in with the chickens. They do a good job of scaring foxes away, it’s not hard to see how. 

Mob grazing is widely used for the cattle, sheep and pigs kept on the farm. It’s a practice where animals are moved to new pasture frequently. Large fields are divided by electric fences and animals are packed into a small paddock for a short period of time (depending on stocking density but on average 1 day movement). There are a multitude of benefits of this approach including a reduction in pests such as intestinal worms, improved soil health as plants have an opportunity to put down deeper roots and plants have a higher nutritional content for the livestock to eat, a result of resting between grazings.

In the distance we see sheep – Soay’s, a breed of sheep that naturally sheds its wool as the weather warms. Now there’s no need to apply insecticides to kill maggots that would otherwise burrow into the fleece and feed of the sheep’s flesh. Shearing is a thing of the past, previously a cost burden as wool is almost worthless. 

Using the agroforestry approach, fields are sliced through by rows of fruit and nut trees of many different types, spaced 24m apart. Crops such as Triticale, a cross between wheat and rye, grow in the area between. Triticale is a good alternative to wheat, with higher protein levels and lower input costs. Potatoes, oil seed rape and spring barley are also grown.

Finally the tour looked at how cover crops which cover 20 hectares of the farm are good for wildlife, not just the game birds. These areas see a three-year rotation where plants such as chicory, sunflowers, buckwheat, phacelia and linseed dominate. These undisturbed areas (apart from the twice yearly shoot) also provide homes for hedgehogs, voles and other mammals. 

Farming is a business and like any business the books have to balance. At Townsend Farm this is achieved in a way that also supports wildlife and the environment. Ben talks about how linnets, song birds, brown hares and swifts have returned to the farm in recent years. Then as if on cue, we see a pair of hares playing in the evening sunshine across the valley.