FARMING

Fasque and Glendye Estates include not only thousands of acres of outstanding heather hills and moorland but also a patchwork of farmland ranging from upland livestock farms to some of the most productive arable land in the area. A large part is tenanted by farming families who have been on the same land for many generations while the remainder is farmed in-hand by the Estate.

The current Estate farming operation includes a developing organic enterprise growing oats and beans and producing free range chickens and high quality slow grown beef. In addition, 125 acres of arable land have recently been converted into a dozen small broadleaved woods under the Farm Woodlands Premium Scheme with the aim of enhancing both the landscape and biodiversity on the Estate and yet further land is allocated to conservation management under a Rural Stewardship Scheme.

Another significant and growing area of the Estate farm’s good arable ground has been converted from growing arable crops into producing premium quality Nordman Fir Christmas trees, in association with a number of expert and highly experienced Danish growers. The sale of Christmas trees is a growing part of the Estate business and an annual production of target of 100,000 trees should be reached in a few years. This enterprise has also made use of the traditional Estate walled garden to provide a sheltered nursery and produce pot-grown trees.

Fasque & Glendye Estates have made a firm commitment to develop as farmers and growers in their own right but in a way which recognizes the need to think laterally and outside the narrow confines of the world market for commodity crops. The key to the success of Fasque is the production of quality products for specialist markets and this applies throughout all the enterprises on the Estate.