The farming collective providing up land to sustainable companies

From Scotland to Cornwall, an natural, regenerative collective of UK farmers is trying to pair up with sustainable companies that want entry to land and instruments.

Pitch Up! was based in 2021 by Tim Could, of Kingsclere Estates farm in Hampshire. It gives land, sources and experience to companies with huge concepts for sustainable tasks – in different phrases, ‘no gear, all of the concepts’.

The concept is to duplicate nature’s ‘closed loop’ system, with waste being reused to create a thriving round farming neighborhood.

“Our purpose is to have a various mixture of enterprises all working off the land – utilizing one another’s by-products or waste, and sharing data, gear and expertise,” says Could. 

Six farms have signed up to date, providing up a complete of 12,000 acres of land to hopeful enterprises.

“Nature thrives on variety; it additionally fuels financial resilience, helps create a closed-loop system, and builds stronger rural communities,” Could explains. “As farmers we’ve got an abundance of land and pure sources – we wish to share these sources and produce extra folks on to the land.”  

Pitch Up! has already helped to launch a handful of companies, together with a foraged pet meals model, an insect farm, and a tallow maker. Under, a number of the farms concerned with the scheme share what they’ve discovered to date: 

Pop-ups and markets at Balcaskie Property 

Balcaskie Property covers 2,000 hectares of land in Fife, Scotland, and has hosted markets, a butchery, and pop ups by Scotland The Bread, an organisation that works to get extra folks consuming higher bread. 

Rosie Jack, Balcaskie’s enterprise growth supervisor, says: “We all know that there’s an actual demand for rural land so our message is: ‘We now have land, come and use it!’ We actually do welcome approaches from companies of all sizes and styles.”

Jack has seen companies at Balcaskie thrive by collaboration. “What one enterprise perceives as waste, one other views as an important uncooked ingredient; one enterprise’ fallow interval is one other’s peak time,” she says, including that joint staffing helps all of the groups concerned. 

Planton Farm’s food-based companies

At Planton Farm, Shropshire, co-founder Clare Hill says she’s been impressed by Pitch Up! enterprises, and the way their variety makes sustainable use of the land. As a regenerative farmer, becoming a member of the scheme felt like the suitable factor to do, she says.

“I perceive the challenges of operating a food-based enterprise with out getting access to land. Increasingly more persons are eager to develop or become involved with nutrient-dense meals, however the mechanisms of the meals system within the UK could make that tough,” Hill says.

“Pitch Up! actually felt to us like an revolutionary answer to that downside, by offering land-based companies with area to work and develop, in a method that advantages the entire system from the bottom up.”

Upcycling and cellular providers at Kingsclere Estates

As the unique Pitch Up! location, Kingsclere Estates in Hampshire has supplied land and supplies to a number of companies.

One such enterprise is The Roaming Dairy, a cellular milking service that makes use of the 450 cows on the farm to supply natural milk whereas grazing the land on rotation.

One other profitable enterprise, The Roaming Smoker, created a cellular natural meat smoker upcycled from outdated agricultural equipment elements. Its founder, Chris Saunders, says: “The Pitch Up! scheme has actually enabled my enterprise to develop into financially viable, with higher margins. Utilizing outdated dairy cows from Kingsclere Estates, the place we’re primarily based, makes the enterprise extra resilient – because it’s utilizing low worth cuts of meat that might in any other case be became pet food, or wasted. For me, it’s invaluable to have extra folks to bounce concepts round with, and the kind of farming that the Pitch Up! group does is absolutely entrepreneurial.” 

This 12 months, the Pitch Up! farming collective is eager to listen to from entrepreneurs who wish to use pasture land, natural milk, oats and grain, animal hides, woad, wool and even hedgerows for foraging. 

“We’re on the lookout for sustainable companies in any respect phases of the enterprise life cycle, however significantly people who have an concept of how they’ll match into the round methods in place at a Pitch Up! Farm,” says Could. “It may be a cheese maker for instance, who can add worth by utilizing the natural milk from the cellular dairy enterprise right here.”

Functions for the 2024 season start on 1 November by Pitch Up!’s web site, and shut on 30 November

Essential picture: Planton Farm group. Credit score: Ben Pryor