Dennington Hall Farms opens doors for Open Farm Sunday

Along with many other Suffolk farms, Dennington Hall Farms enjoyed another successful Open Farm Sunday on 11th June, welcoming over 200 visitors.

Visitors of all ages enjoyed displays of large scale modern machinery and tractor and trailer rides around the farm to look at the Red Poll beef suckler herd, growing crops and conservation management.

Open Farm Sunday is an initiative by LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming), and is one of the farming industry’s biggest success stories. Since the first Open Farm Sunday in 2006, over 1500 farmers across the UK have opened their gates and welcomed more than 1.8 million people onto their farm for one Sunday each year.

Dennington has been the home of the Rous family since at least 1320. Dennington Hall Farms is a family partnership created in 1974 and is currently made up by Robert Rous, his wife Teresa and their daughter Laura Rous.

Dennington Hall Farms oversees the farming of around 3,800 acres of heavy land, with 220 acres of woodland.  Around 3,000 acres is family owned and the rest is contract farmed. They grow oil seed rape, winter wheat, spring beans and sugar beet amongst other crops. The farm is also home to a small beef suckler herd. The farm combines modern equipment and the latest technology with a 19^th Century landscape.

The Rous family has great respect for the environment; some areas include wild bird, pollen and nectar mixes, bare fallow and grass. Because of such long-term family ownership, the landscape is little changed. There are some larger fields at Dennington Hall stemming from when it was a Deer Park in the Domesday Book.

Dennington Hall Farms aims to lead the way as a progressive and diversified large farm, whilst maintaining the landscape and conserving the environment. It has as small solar array and two woodchip boilers, fueled from the farm’s own woodland. The electricity and heat provided by these makes all the estate buildings carbon neutral.

Dennington Hall Farms was recently awarded Best Large Farm and Best Conservation at The Suffolk Agricultural Association (SAA) Agricultural awards and previous winner of the FWAG Conservation Award.

Main Photo: Robert & Teresa Rous and their dogs

Below photos are from this year’s Open Farm Sunday