Sustainable farming: Mum and daughter farmers take part in pilot

Jess and Tracey Langton say they would like their land to be more sustainable

A mother-and-daughter farming family is among the first in the country to be part of a government pilot scheme.

Dairy farmers Tracey Langton and her daughter Jess, from Langley Mill, Derbyshire, are trialling a new way of paying farmers for land management.

The family welcomed the pilot, which aims to make farming more sustainable.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the scheme would eventually be open to all farmers.

Jess hopes to incorporate sustainable practices on the farm

The three-year pilot is for a scheme known as the Sustainable Farming Incentive, which is part of plans to replace the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Under CAP, farmers received taxpayers' cash proportional to the amount of land they owned.

But the government plans to make payments for protecting species, planting trees and hedges, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and protecting water courses and the soil.

Jess said: "Today we have been planting some silver birch trees.

"We don't really use the area where we planted them and we would like to use it to become more regenerative and sustainable and tackle the challenges of climate change.

"By incorporating sustainable practices on our farm, we are more likely to be able to do our bit for climate change."

The dairy farmers said they jumped on the pilot as soon as they could

Her mother Tracey added: "To be honest, the woodland just happens to be here and we don't see it as such a valuable asset but now, as farmers are learning, these are probably our most valuable assets."

She said the details of the new payments had been slow to be revealed.

"I think the detail has been a little bit late, but that's why we jumped straight onto the pilot as soon as we could," she said.

"We're getting the information and we're getting it first."

The new initiatives have their critics, with some - including wildlife trusts - branding them "unambitious".

Jess said there were challenges involved in how farming should respond to the threat of climate change.

"If we're talking about rewilding a lot of the land, then that land can't be used for food production and therefore we have to import more [and] the carbon footprint is raised from the fuel costs," she said.

A Defra group spokesperson said: "The Sustainable Farming Incentive will fund sustainable farming activities, and will eventually be open to all farmers.

"We are designing it in partnership with farmers and it is all about supporting the choices they take for their own holdings."