ANGUS STOVOLD

The Surrey beef farmer has planted ‘a couple of thousand trees’ over the last 30 years

Angus Stovold’s family have been farming the Surrey Hills for “quite a few generations”. It’s a mixed arable-livestock farm, with a prize herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle. Stovold started planting trees on the site in the late Eighties, before taking over the farm in the early Nineties.

Planting and tree care has not always been a high priority, Stovold admits. “In the past, they were functional farmers. In the drive for production, the trees weren’t maintained.”

But Stovold has always appreciated trees, and planting them became a key tenet of the farm’s ethos. “I would say it was mostly for aesthetic reasons,” he admits, “but we were putting in hedgerows at the same time, creating wildlife corridors.”

Planting a large number of trees is an evolving task. Some flourish, others die, and you never know what disease is around the corner. Yet Stovold has planted around “a couple of thousand” trees in 30 years, covering 750 acres, including small-and large-leaved lime, field maple, beech, sweet

chestnut and English oak. He has also created coppices, which will add shady spots for cattle in what was once arable field.

Planting large trees is labour intensive and costly. “You need to keep weeds away, and I don’t spray, so I need to pull them away.” Protecting newly-planted trees from deer is tricky, requiring considerable investment in tree guards.

But all the effort is having a positive effect on the farm’s biodiversity. “We’ve seen an increase in bird life, it’s as good as I’ve ever seen it.” Stovold says not all farmers could follow suit, particularly tenant farmers; he’s lucky to own the land he farms.

The full effects of the planting drive may not be felt for years. “I have a vision of what it’s going to look like, I have a 10-year plan. I’m in my early 50s now, and want to retire when I’m 65-ish. I would like to hand on something that is environmentally sustainable, pleasing to the eye, and is something to build on. A functional, profitable farm, but working in unison with nature.”