02 — The Land

The fool on the hill.

In 2021 Andy planted trees through his best field — and a neighbour told him he might as well concrete it over. Rothamsted Research has been measuring what happened next ever since.

The trial

Twelve years.
Seven farms.
Real science.

Elston anchors the Devon Silvopasture Network — a twelve-year farmer-led field trial run with Rothamsted Research, the Organic Research Centre, the Woodland Trust, FWAG SouthWest and Innovative Farmers. Silvopasture means trees and livestock sharing the same ground: shade, shelter and soil life for the animals; grazing between the rows.

In 2021, 5,600 trees went into 26 acres of Elston's grazing in rows fourteen metres apart — oak, alder, Scots pine, downy birch, lime and field maple, with walnut, chestnut and apple for future harvests, guarded by hawthorn rather than plastic. Ninety-two per cent survived. Across the whole farm, with the hedges, the count now exceeds twelve thousand.

Wildflower margins at Elston — 15 acres of pollen mixes, 15 of wild-bird seed plants
Photograph — Wildflower margins at Elston — 15 acres of pollen mixes, 15 of wild-bird seed plants
5,600Trees in the 2021 trial planting
92%Tree survival rate
15Bat species recorded in the alleys
1,000+Baseline soil samples taken
What the ground says

Soil, waking up

Researchers already record improved worm counts, soil porosity and beneficial insect life in the planted alleys — on land that spent fifty years under the plough.

Wildlife, returning

Surveys across the Elston cluster found fifteen bat species, bush-crickets and small mammals moving through the young alleys — with butterflies working the flower margins by day.

Faster than anyone hoped

Andy expected to wait twelve years before stocking the planted fields. On current growth, cattle will summer-graze among the trees in about five.

“You can grow anything on it, and I'm planting trees. I'm seen as the fool on the hill.”

Andy Gray — The Observer, May 2021
A butterfly in the flower margins at Elston
Photograph — A butterfly in the flower margins at Elston
Beyond the trial

Scruffier edges, on purpose.

Alongside the trees: fifteen acres of pollen and nectar mixes, fifteen acres of wild-bird seed plants, and hedgerows deliberately left to spread “into tussocky margins that support species from whitethroats to grass snakes,” as Andy puts it. Local volunteers still come each winter to plant the next stretch of wildlife hedge.

The whole farm is certified RSPB Fair to Nature — farming with a fixed share of the land working for wildlife.