Caldecote Manor Farm

By Sam Topham

“We currently have 15% of our farm in conservation which hugely benefits all red list species such as linnets, yellow hammers, corn buntings, lapwings and many others, but also improves the habitat for game birds. Walking around the farm is a bird watcher’s dream!”

Caldecote Manor Farm is an arable farm in Cambridgeshire with an emphasis on conservation, biodiversity, game management and diversification. Our family has been farming in the area since 1550 and at Caldecote Manor Farm for three generations. We are very much a family farm: I run the day to day workings of the estate, the arable side of the business is under a contract farming agreement, my mum Janice does the bookkeeping and my sister Louise helps out between looking after her young children and working as a vet. We employ a gamekeeper who also helps to run other parts of the business such as Top Storage, a new diversification project providing secure self-storage.