The wider farm

The Sainsbury family farmed wheat, barley and oil rapseed before they planted vines – and Candover Brook sits within one of our two farms. Lockerley Estate (near Stockbridge) and Preston Farm (at Preston Candover) pioneered regenerative agriculture and are an integral part of what we do.

The farms cover 2,300 hectares of land and are managed by Craig Livingstone, Director of Farming and Estates. Over the last decade, he, along with Mark and Julian Sainsbury, has overseen a transition to regenerative agriculture.

All arable, the farm’s rotation includes winter and spring wheat, winter oats, spring barley, oilseed rape, beans and peas, with no soil left bare.

Fully no-till, the site no longer uses phosphate or potash, with nitrogen, pesticide, fungicide and herbicide use all significantly reduced. The goal is to use minimal inputs, favouring compost, cover crops and beneficial predators over chemicals. The cover crop mix includes clover, vetch, buckwheat, radish and phacelia to intercept rainfall, fix nitrogen and feed soil biology year-round. As in the vineyard, sheep graze the cover crops in winter – requiring a flock of around 1,300.

The farms now include 55km of uninterrupted hedgerows, 235 hectares of woodland and wildflower rows, making them a haven for wildlife. Corn buntings, stone-curlews and nightingales, various moth species, owls, bee orchids and more can now all be found on the estate. A large swathe of the farm – 426 hectares – is managed under the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier, with two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and one Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Alongside the main crops, underperforming land has been repurposed – used to grow miscanthus (a biofuel) and for a solar project, all helping reduce the estates’ carbon footprint. Today, Lockerley is verified net zero, sequestering over 2,000 tonnes of CO2e a year.

Since 2019, the estate has been a LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) Demonstration Farm and a Beacon of Excellence for Regenerative Agriculture.

The work here continues, however, with the goal to be carbon negative.

Find out more about Lockerley and Preston here