Cornwall FWAG

1st Place for Cornwall FWAG in the Best Practice Awards

Cornwall FWAG's Farm Environment Link Project (FELP) has just been awarded First Place in the National competition for the Best Practice Awards, run by the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM).
FELP shone through the competition in meeting the objectives of the award, ranging from education and training through to advancing the science of ecology and furthering the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity.
FELP was set up early in 2004, funded through Objective One, the European funding stream, with support from Cornwall County Council and the Environment Agency. Its aim was to deliver Whole Farm environmental advice, highlighting where economic benefits could be achieved whilst actively improving the environment, thereby creating a true ‘Win-Win' situation.
FWAG Farm Conservation Adviser, Sean Bennett, said ‘ I am thrilled that Cornwall FWAG has won this award. This project has been a great success in helping farmers to make the most of the assets on their farm, encouraging new ways of looking at how the farm business and the environment can work in harmony. The project has been well recognized locally as being an outstanding success, but to have won this national acclaim is just fantastic.'
In addition to the individual advice delivered to farmers, a small grant fund was available to allow for recommended capital works to be implemented.  For example, grants were awarded to install systems for separating clean and dirty water, thereby reducing water bills and having less dirty water to deal with.
Other key elements looked at in this project were biodiversity, resource management, water and energy use. These were tackled in a practical way, through taking soil and manure samples and working out the nutrient values needed, going on to analyze how much could be accessed from the manures and thus reducing the amount of fertiliser required, hence saving wasted nutrients and minimising costs. As the project progressed, energy became a strong element, with particular focus on saving energy use on dairy farms.
Says FWAG Development Manager, Jillie Dale ‘ FELP has been an exciting and progressive project to have been involved with and it is great credit to our whole Team in Cornwall that they worked so hard to create opportunities for our farmers to tap into and gain new insights into how their own business can benefit from looking at the environment as an integral part of their daily management. We too, have benefited from some excellent training and being at the forefront of the changes that have affected agriculture over the last few years and we look forward to continuing to impart our knowledge to farmers across the country in our role as the largest provider of independent on-farm environmental advice in the UK.