Sir Charles Burrell Bt.
Organisation
Knepp Castle EstateField of expertise
Private LandownerCountries
About
Sir Charles Burrell Bt., born in 1962. Sir Charles was educated at Cirencester Agricultural Collage and took over the family's Estate in 1985.
Knepp Castle Estate
The 1400 ha (3,500 acre) Knepp Castle Estate has been the family home of the Burrells for over 200 years. The land is a gently undulating area on Low Weald clay, most of which was under intensive arable and dairy farming until 2001, when there was a complete change of focus .
Since then, almost all the arable land has been taken out of production and dairy farming has ceased. The Estate has been fenced with stock-proof fencing and much of it is now grazed with low numbers of longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies, Tamworth pigs and fallow deer. Roe deer and rabbits are also present, as in the wider countryside. The overall aim of the project (visit the Knepp-website under "Wildland Project) is to let the land ‘rewild' as far as possible, allowing the livestock to drive natural dynamic processes. This in turn is hoped to benefit nature conservation, as well as restoring a more natural landscape .
The grazing regime
The grazing regime is one of minimal intervention, with animals free to roam throughout the year, through grassland, woodland and wetter areas. No supplementary feed is given. The aim is for them to behave as naturally as possible. However, the project does have to operate within certain constraints. Animal welfare issues are paramount, and in order to achieve the more natural grazing regime and to comply with UK legislation. The Estate also needs an income, and aims to sell its beef, pork and venison. It is intended that culling for meat may go some way to compensate for the lack of natural predators.