In November 2024, we picked up the Sustainable Farming Award at the National Pig Awards. It was a proud moment for the family and the team, and it has prompted a useful conversation in the months since about what sustainability actually means on a farm like ours and where we go next.
It is easy to use the word “sustainable” so often it stops meaning anything. The way we think about it, on a pig and arable farm, is fairly practical: are we leaving the land in better shape than we found it, are we reducing the inputs we have to bring in from outside the gate, and are we using the energy and the time we have well?
What the award recognises
The award is judged on the whole picture of a farm’s environmental and welfare performance, not on a single project. The judges looked at the way our farming is set up end to end: the crops we grow, how those crops are used, how the pigs are housed and fed, what happens to the manure, and the energy that runs the whole system.
In our case, the elements that earned the recognition were straightforward, just unusually well-joined-up. We grow arable crops on the farm. We mill the grain on-site, with the milling operation powered by solar electricity generated on the same farm. We feed the milled grain to our pigs. The manure goes back to the fields to fertilise the next crop. The pigs go to nearby abattoirs, keeping the food miles low, and the pork ends up in Procter's Sausages, which we acquired in 2024.
“It is a circle, not a line. Each step feeds the next. That is the model.” On the FJ Bosworth approach to sustainable farming
What we have changed to get here
Some of this is the result of decades of family decisions. Stuart’s father and grandfather built the foundation; we have been making changes on top of it. In the last few years, the main shifts have been:
The solar installation, which now meets a meaningful share of the farm’s electricity demand and powers the mill directly during the working day. RTK guidance across the contracting fleet, which means we are putting fewer wasted passes on the land and applying inputs more accurately. A clearer focus on home-grown feed, which has reduced the volume we have to buy in from outside and tightened the link between what the crops do and what the pigs eat.
None of these are headline-grabbing on their own. The point of the award, as we read it, is that they add up.
What we are working on next
Two things, mainly. The first is a more formal carbon audit of the whole operation, so we have proper numbers rather than directional confidence. The second is more conversation with our customers, particularly the people who buy Procter's product, about what the model actually is and why it matters. Most consumers do not know how their pork is produced; we think they would care if they did, and we are interested in being more useful in that conversation.
We are also looking at the next stage of the contracting business, where RTK precision and well-maintained equipment are giving customers a measurable improvement in the way their fields perform. Sustainable farming is not just about what we do on our own land; it is also about helping other farmers do better work with less waste.
Fourth-generation farmer at Spains Hall, Willingale. Runs the contracting team and writes most of what appears here.