Campaigners reach £100,000 milestone in fight to save Shropshire organic farm
Campaigners fighting to safeguard the future of a Shropshire organic farm and its special cow and calf dairy herd have topped the milestone figure of over £100,000 in their fundraising.
Between £800,000 and £1.5m is needed by the end of September to put 117 acres of Babbinswood Farm, near Oswestry, into community ownership.
The alternative is open market sale which campaigners say risks huge change for the farm and its native woodland through development or intensification.
Daisy Kirtley, one of the directors at the non-profit Babbinswood Community Benefit Society that hopes to buy the land, said it was a significant milestone for the farm and its supporters.
“We are £100,000 closer to protecting the homes of over fifty bird species, like the beautiful Curlew and Woodcock, both classed as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ but who have a safe home here. To do that while safeguarding food security and community services is so exciting, and we’re obviously all over the moon to have reached a six-figure campaign.
“It shows what can be done when communities put their heads and hearts together,” she said. “£700,000 to go now for the minimum amount we need, so we’ve celebrated briefly and now we’re back to work.”
The Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society – a type of charitable co-operative – is raising funds to buy part of the farm through community shares, donations and grants.
Saving the sustainable organic farm will also save Babbinswood’s unusual cow and calf dairy herd, a farming method which has been gaining popularity across the UK in recent years.
The current farmer, Casha Bowles-Jones, whose family have farmed the land at Babbinswood Farm for five generations, explained that under the cow and calf system, calves were kept with their mothers until naturally weaned with milk shared between the calves and the dairy. This is a low-stress farming method that was historically much more common than it is today.
The society plans to use rent from a farming tenancy to build on the community initiatives at the farm, such as outdoor education and gardening therapy for children and vulnerable people.
Casha and other members of Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society will be on hand at the farm’s open day this Sunday, June 8, to talk about the community ownership scheme and its plans for the future
Further information on the fund raising and community shares is available on the website babbinswoodfarmcbs.org.uk.
