Routes to Regen

Nomad Foods and Birds Eye are working with Lincolnshire & Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts to support growers via a Wildlife Advisory and Funded Nature Action on Farm Service. 

Routes to Regen, as explained by the The Royal Countryside Fund is, ‘A free programme, led by a cross-sector collaboration of leading food, finance and agribusinesses, giving farmers a menu of resources and opportunities to help them make regenerative farming a practical and rewarding option for their farm. The programme also includes free on-farm advice from Ceres Rural to help identify the best options from the menu for each farm, such as: 

• Routes to premiums for sustainably-grown crops
• Discounts on cover crop, pollinator and specialist seed
• Demonstration days and knowledge-sharing events
• Support to begin collecting environmental data’

Nomad Foods and Birds Eye have recently joined the movement. 

For more information on the wider programme visit: https://www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk/how-we-help/on-your-farm/routes-to-regen

East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire (North and North East Lincolnshire authority areas) are key production areas for Birds Eye and Nomad Food growers. Working with both Lincolnshire & Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts either side of the Humber estuary where various rivers flow through the highly productive land to the estuary, we wish to trial a new service with our growers to build local nature networks that deliver benefits for our growers, wider society & wildlife. 

The boundaries should be seen as soft boundaries, so if you are nearby, you can still be considered. If successful, the service will be rolled out across Eastern England.

Firstly, if you are in this area, you should take the usual route of having a discussion about your business with Ceres Rural. Together you will identify the best sustainability options for your farm. If through these discussions you decide the our option is good for you and your business, Ceres Rural will provide you with details to get in touch with Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, including via our dedicated email inbox, which is monitored daily by Lincolnshire colleagues who act as the initial contact point for the service:

WTBirdseye@lincstrust.co.uk

On receiving your email, you will be allocated a dedicated officer from the relevant Wildlife Trust, who will get in touch. They will require your SBI number and import your landholding information into Land App. An initial desk-based assessment of your landholding will be undertaken against the relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy, nearby wildlife sites, river catchment plans and other relevant records and strategies. The aim of which is to identify possible network connections, which will then be discussed with you. An example might be a pollinator highway or chalk stream beck buffer.

Once our adviser has done the initial scoping, they will get in touch to arrange a farm visit to discuss these initial options, and to agree which are to be taken forward. This may include the need to have a walk around the farm together. This conversation will also include discussing possible funding options to support creation and management of the nature assets. 

Once options are agreed then an appropriate baseline survey will be undertaken to inform the habitat creation, management and monitoring plan. Once this plan is agreed between you and the Wildlife Trust adviser, the latter will support you to apply for funds either direct from Birds Eye and Nomad Foods, or via other mechanisms. This funding may pay for the habitat creation, or complex hydrological modelling, or management of the site, etc. 

Continued support will be given in regards to delivering against the plan from the Trusts, and a monitoring visit maybe required thereafter.

Birds Eyes and Nomad Foods are setting aside a small grant pot for you to deliver nature assets on farm. The criteria are currently being developed, and more details will be available from when the scheme opens in January 2027.

Working together Lincolnshire & Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts, Birds Eye and Nomad Foods wish to create local nature networks across farms that deliver practically for the farm business, for the wider local community and wildlife. This is a joint venture between the partners.

Practical advice will be given on what can be done where looking to achieve more for nature in consideration of the wider landscape including improvements to water environment and retention of soils on farm. Nature-based solutions will be considered in this process, so habitats enhanced or created deliver more, for people and wildlife.

Examples of what could be done on farm:

• Pond creation, or ghost pond restoration
• Hedgerow gapping up or creation
• Chalk streams and watercourse buffering and restoration 
• Farmland birds habitat feeding grounds and nesting zones

Pollinator full life-cycle habitat and feeding zones, creating a highway

Email for all areas: WTBirdseye@lincstrust.co.uk 

Call: 01507 526667 and ask for Rebecca Agate, Conservation Administrator, who will then arrange your initial appointment with your farm adviser, either in Lincolnshire or Yorkshire.