Sensitive redevelopment of redundant farm buildings is a key part of the approach to property management at Dyson Farming, ensuring the working history of the estate is preserved. It complements our overall farming ethos to create a long-term model that will leave a positive legacy now and in 100 years’ time. 

How it all started

The Dyson Farming holiday cottages’ journey began in 2018 when it was proposed that the derelict farm buildings on our farmland could be redeveloped to be given a new life and purpose. Work then started on transforming these buildings into modern, luxury holiday cottages, in a way that maintained and protected their heritage.

We now have 12 self-catering holiday cottages of varying sizes (sleeping 2 to 12 people) available across Lincolnshire, Berkshire and Gloucestershire which can be viewed here. They boast impressive 360-degree views of picturesque farmland, woodland and conservation areas and include a range of luxurious touches such as Dyson Technology products, hot tubs, pizza ovens and electric car charging points. However, it is the stunning, tranquil locations of our properties that make them special.

Our 2021 pea harvest campaign is now complete. The 18-strong team has worked around the clock for 58 days from June through to August to collect over nine thousand tonnes of quality peas, providing nutrition not just for consumers but also for the valuable soils across Dyson Farming’s land.

The importance of peas

Their high nutrient content, sweet taste, crunchy texture, and minimal preparation time makes peas the ideal ingredient or accompaniment for many meals.

Peas also play an important role in how we farm and look after the environment, particularly soils.  As they grow, peas capture nitrogen from the air which they use to flourish through the whole growing season. They also ‘fix’ a proportion of this nitrogen into the soil, making them great to grow and rotate across our farms, keeping the soils healthy and contributing towards Dyson Farming’s sustainable farming system.

Rotating crops around different fields is important. Planting the same crop in the same place year after year drains nutrients from the soil that future crops need to thrive. This is why we won’t grow our peas on the same land for 8-10 years in order to preserve optimum soil health.

Planning and technology

Growing a high-quality pea crop requires meticulous planning.  Before planting the seeds, individual fields are mapped using technology such as satellite imagery and electric conductivity scanning to assess soil structure. This allows us to vary the number of seeds we plant in different places to optimise crop performance, meaning we can plant more seeds into the poorer areas of soil and fewer seeds into the better areas, resulting in a more even crop from edge to edge.

When the crop reaches maturity, there is a window of approximately 48 hours during which the peas will be at their optimum quality.  We know when the peas are ripe for harvest by using a ‘tenderometer’ which tests the growing peas in each field and informs us when the peas are at their best.  If the planning is right, we can harvest peas at the right time and in the right field to achieve a consistent supply of high-quality peas.

The first harvest of Dyson Farming’s strawberry crop, grown in the 15-acre glasshouse in Carrington, is now complete. During the 5-month long harvest, we produced and sold 470 tonnes of strawberries (approximately 23 million berries!).

The meticulous care and attention to the crop by the team has enabled us to produce delicious strawberries which have been sold across the country. 

The importance of Birds

At Dyson Farming we have a team dedicated to protecting and enhancing the environment, who take great steps to monitor and improve our Natural Capital, which includes soil, ecosystems, air and water. The birds that benefit from a healthy farmed environment use Dyson Farming land for feeding and nesting and importantly, provide us with a good indication of the overall state of our natural capital. 

Monitoring their numbers provides us with important insight.  We conduct regular surveys, and the results provide us with data to assess landscape management activities, monitor success and to tailor future improvements.

Monitoring bird life

We have been conducting bird surveys for the last 3 years across Dyson Farming land in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and South Gloucestershire. Bird Surveys are carried out twice a year and take a few hours to carry out in each transect. The areas we survey are known as Transects, and surveyors walk from point A to point B along a defined path. They count the number of individual birds (of each species) that are either seen or heard within a specific distance from their path. The same approach is replicated every year to establish a trend.

Bird surveys are conducted from a list of 1km squares, chosen at random across key areas of Dyson Farming land. Locations are not chosen based on where we expect a high number of birds, as it is important for us to see the overall success and management of the habitat across the entirety of Dyson Farming’s land.

We are fortunate enough to have bird experts who are skilled enough in distinguishing a bird through the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Understanding how to visually identify a species of bird takes great knowledge and experience, picking out the different colours, sizes and flight patterns of the bird. Similarly, distinguishing them through listening to the bird calls and songs takes a well-tuned ear.

We believe our meat is special, not only because it tastes great, but we also have an interesting story to tell. Our overall farming ethos is to create a long term, regenerative model that will leave a positive land legacy now and in 100 years’ time. Our farming practices have been designed to protect and improve animal wellbeing and to look after the environment.

The South West is where our livestock farming started and just over two years ago, we began working with Farleigh Road Farm Shop, a local farm shop near Hinton farm, selling them lamb and whole carcass beef. The partnership is still going strong, with beef & lamb going there every week, and importantly, clearly labelled as Dyson Farming so that people can be reassured that it is indeed our beef & lamb.

We have learnt a lot in this time and gradually we have expanded our customer list into a variety of different butchers, restaurants, pubs and hotels. 

We also supply beef & lamb to Dyson’s Malmesbury Head Office every fortnight, and this collaboration has allowed us to develop a close relationship with Dyson’s Executive Chef, Joe Croan, who uses our beef & lamb to feed over 4000+ Dyson employees at three separate catering locations. The feedback we get from Joe is invaluable and his experience as a top chef helps us understand what he requires in terms of meat quality and consistency.

Award-winning quality

It is important that our beef & lamb quality is tried and tested. To do this, we entered the Taste of The West competition last year to get some feedback from independent food experts about the quality of our meat. This included the tenderness, taste, visual appearance and packaging of the cuts. We were delighted that our topside joints, ribeye and sirloin steaks achieved GOLD awards, with the topside joint selected as the highest placed beef product in the 2020 competition