How to start a farmer cluster

You may have heard about Farmer Clusters, and maybe you’re a farmer and want to join one, first double check there isn’t a group already near you. To check if there's a group near you, visit our map. If there isn’t one near you, then read on about starting one.

A brief history of Farmer Clusters

Farmer Cluster was a term coined by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) in 2013, after success in joint farmer lead projects such as the Malborough Downs Nature Improvement area. The idea was bottom-up conservation projects, with farmers deciding what priorities to pursue collectively in their local area. From 2013, the idea has gained pace with Farmers getting together in over 100 clusters across the country. A process sped up by the Facilitation Fund, introduced by Natural England, and which provides a small amount of funding for clusters to hire a facilitator.

Kent now has multiple Farmer Clusters, with facilitation from KWT as well as Natural England, Farm Conservation for the South East (FWAG South East) and Countryside Partnerships.

Here at KWT we agree with GWCT and suggest asking the simple question:

“What wildlife do you want on your farm?”

This is the first step in generating a farmer-led and outcome-oriented approach, in which farmers appoint a lead farmer, choose their own advisor, set their own targets, and record their own progress.

Ultimately, a cluster is farmer-led, outcome oriented group. Normally this involves a lead farmer, a steering committee and facilitator. The cluster sets its own priorities and targets and records progress.

Identifying a lead farmer

It’s useful to have a lead farmer identified form the start who can drive the process forward. Ideally a respected farmer locally with an interest in nature and strong community spirit. The job of the lead farmer is to invite local farmers to an informal initial meeting, to discuss their different land management practices, what they could achieve together and so on. The cluster could be defined around a geographical feature, such as river valley or catchment, or start simply as a group of friends farming a contiguous area.

Information gathering

An early step is to gather information about the scale for the initial cluster group. And recording any existing projects of schemes members are involved in, what a local records centre may have on priority species or any significant wildlife features locally such as SSSI’s. Gathering this early on helps inform decisions and provides a basis to compare against in the future.

Choosing a facilitator

If prospective members agree, then the next step is to find out what kind of facilitation support your group can get. Farmer clusters finding the most success often have a facilitator helping with the task of arranging meetings and trying to quantify the impact of the various activities the cluster decides to take. Facilitators can support in clusters setting goals and choosing priority activities, and can introduce other local expects in different fields– although keep in mind this should be a farmer led process.

Funding a Cluster

The most common approach is an application to the government Facilitation Fund, although funding in this way can be limited. KWT has worked with farmers to also get funding for support through water companies, Farming in Protected Landscapes and by building in farmer cluster support into other funded projects.

If you are looking for a facilitator or funding, do contact us to see if we can help.