Since RSPB acquired Hope Farm in 1999 there have been three farm managers: Roger Buisson, Darren Moorcroft and Chris Bailey. With Chris having migrated north to join our RSPB Scotland team as Head of Advisory, I have become the fourth farm manager.
This, however, is not my first stint working at the farm. Between 2006 and 2009 I was Senior Research Assistant, overseeing monitoring of the range of taxa which we consider important indicators of how successful our work here has been, and small-scale trial projects. This makes taking over as farm manager very much easier, as I know the farm very well and importantly know our farming contractors equally as well.
My main role here is to oversee the running of the farm and to ensure that work towards delivering the current farm 5-year strategy progresses well.
As well as maintaining our core objectives of maintaining, or even increasing, the profitability of the farm while concurrently delivering high-quality habitat and food resources for birds, we now have the considerable challenge of reducing our carbon footprint and diffuse pollution over the next few years. The broadening of our strategy fits well with the objectives of the RSPB in protecting our natural environment as a whole.
An immediate question from many of you will be am I a farmer? Until now, the simple answer is no, but I do have a very good understanding of both arable and livestock farming having lived on a beef farm in Orkney for several years and working on many farms during RSPB farmland bird-related projects.
Clearly, when coming into any new job there is a huge amount to learn, and thankfully between many of my colleagues and our farming contractors I have a very knowledgeable team to fall back on.
There is also a huge amount of experience and knowledge across the farming community. I hope that I will be able to learn from your insights and experiences, either in person or via this blog, so that I can continue to deliver a profitable farm, with excellent yields and conserve the fantastic array of biodiversity that we enjoy here.
The farm is a great place to see how it is possible to successfully combine conventional farming and conservation. We are always very willing to host visits by visiting groups of farmers, or those linked with the farming industry. If you are interested in visiting, please contact me at ian.dillon@rspb.org.uk
I look forward to seeing many of you over the next few years and to reporting back on future successes here at Hope Farm.