The Lingham family has been farming Court Farm in Kent since 1871. The farm covers 900 acres of land close to the North Downs and the Pilgrim's Way. This is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and home to much wildlife.

Three generations of Linghams currently work on the farm, making them acutely aware of the need to conserve the land for future generations to enjoy and benefit from.

The farm has arable and livestock. Crops include winter and spring wheats, including heritage wheats for home produced bread flour, winter beans, spring oats, spring linseed and millet. We also grow 300 acres of multi species cover crops to enhance our soils and provide winter feed for the sheep and cattle.

Conservation grazing with cattle and sheep play a big part in the landscape enhancement of the North Downs.. We care for our animals in the most welfare-friendly way possible. We use homeopathic remedies to treat our animals when the need arises and so avoid an overuse of antibiotics.

We also take care to manage the crops in a way that replenishes, rather than depletes the soil. Since 2007 we have we have been establishing our crops with a no-till drill and cover cropping. These practices, known as Regerative Agriculture, combine to reduce soil erosion, increase biodiversity and drought resistance, help to reduce the reliance on pesticides and artificial fertilizers and generally build soil health and soil organic matter. In some instances  we have doubled our soil organic matter % since 2007.

Farm shop

We opened the Butchery and Country Larder farm shop at Court Farm in Upper Halling in 2003. We specialise in naturally-reared beef and lamb, which is fully traceable - we know exactly where it has all come from.

The beef and lamb is certified 'Pasture for Life' which guarantees the animals have never eaten grain, only grass and forage crops their entire life. This makes it the healthiest meat you can buy.

We collaborate with the wildflower charity Plantlife, grazing our beef cattle on their species-rich meadows at their reserve at Ranscombe Farm. The grazing helps restore and support rare plants and wildlife.

We also manage a conservation grazing scheme, involving 100 hebridean sheep for our Landlord, Tarmac, on land they own at Halling. We sell the meat from these animals as mutton in our on-farm butchery.