Thoresby Farming
At Thoresby, we farm a total of 3,400ha (8,400 acres). 2,700ha of this is arable land, with the remaining 700ha used as grazing for our heritage livestock. Some of our land is designated as Sites of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) and National Nature Reserves (NNR).
We farm on two different types of soil on the estate – light sandy soil (Bunter Sandstone) and heavier (Keuper Marl) soil. We grow a range of different crops including:
agriculture: By the Numbers:
- Bread-making wheat and wheat for animal feed.
- Vegetables – we grow 8,000 tonnes of potatoes - which is around 42 million individual potatoes, 2,500 tonnes of onions and 92 million carrots for the fresh vegetable market.
- Sugar Beet – we have 12,000 tonnes of quota, which works out at 2.2 million bags of sugar.
- Oilseed Rape used in cooking oils and biofuel.
- Maize - used in two Anaerobic Digesters, which produce methane gas used in the main gas grid.
- Spring Beans used for animal feed and for human consumption.
- Winter Barley for hybrid seed multiplication and Spring Barley for malting.
We have invested heavily in our farming enterprise over the past 20 years. This includes making our irrigation system as efficient as possible, and we have 22 rain guns that apply water to all crops on the sandy land, the water comes from rivers, winter storage reservoirs, and boreholes.
We offer a flexible range of contract farming and land rental agreements – please contact us for more information.
Thoresby Livestock
Our heritage grazing operation includes 130 English Longhorn cows, their offspring, and a trio of bulls. They live for much of the year in the ancient oak woodland, helping to enhance the biodiversity within this area. We work in close partnership with English Nature to keep this vital ecosystem healthy by controlling heather and brambles sympathetically and naturally.
As well as the livestock in our heritage grazing scheme, we also rear 2,000 sows (female pigs) of which each produces around 21 piglets a year which are then fattened on the estate.
Livestock: By the Numbers:
- 130 English Longhorn cows
- 250 Hebridean sheep
Find out more:
