The Morley Agricultural Foundation

The Farm

Morley Farms Ltd is a commercial farming enterprise which principally farms the land owned by The Morley Agricultural Foundation.  In addition, some land is rented from The John Innes Foundation Norwich, and land at Easton College is contract farmed, also near Norwich.  The total area farmed is 760 hectares with 710 currently being cropped.  The remainder is permanent pasture and woodland.  The current crop rotation is typical for this region, i.e. wheat, malting barley, oil seed rape, sugar beet, and beans. 

Summary of land cropped by Morley Farms (hectares)

Cropping areas harvest 2011 (hectares)

Morley Farms employs a manager and two full-time members of staff, and is well equipped with machinery to carry out all farming operations with the exception of sugar beet harvesting which is contracted out.

Morley Farms also hosts field trials for several organisations, principally The Arable Group.  This involves numerous 2 x 12m field plots within a commercial crop.  There are also larger, field-scale, un-replicated trials.  The total area for demonstration and trials areas is approximately 20 hectares for harvest 2010. 

Manor Farm has been hosting field trials since 1965.  There has been a wealth of history and information generated which can be viewed in the Archived Reports. 

Manor Farm has been in various countryside stewardship and ELS schemes over the last 12 years.  This has involved sowing 6 meter margins around many fields, planting new hedges and managing existing ones, and growing areas of crop specifically to feed wild birds during the winter months.

Manor farm recently was accepted into Higher Level Stewardship (HLS). This continues with existing environmental work but also include a education access option. We aim to host 10 visits per year for schools were we will show the children how and why we grow crops, e.g. linking a crop of wheat to a loaf of bread.