It’s a mild summer’s evening, but the grey sky is threatening rain. I’m bumping along a farm track in an ATV driven by James Robinson, the fifth generation of his family to farm at Strickley, a dairy farm a few miles east of Kendal. The gently rolling hills, glimpsed through thick hedges, are such a contrast to the more mountainous…

Imagine a mixing desk built for land managers. Running left to right are a series of sliders, allowing the levels of the inputs to be increased or decreased. Each of the sliders is labelled, but instead of vocals, guitar or drums, the labels read livestock, arable crops, trees, wildlife, water, carbon, employment, access and beauty. Every land manager is working…

Farming is facing a challenging future. Now that we’ve left the EU, the government is busy trying to design a new system of agricultural support. The intentions sound good, with a focus on rewarding farming which helps nature, locks up carbon and reduces flood risk, but the details are painfully slow in coming. With the old system already being phased…

Set back from the road that hugs the shore of Ullswater, Glencoyne Farm sits encircled by looming fells. When I visited in June, the hay meadows that flank the track towards the 17th Century Farmhouse were taking on their summer colours, while swallows zipped in and out of the huddle of stone barns. The dramatic rocky hills above were softened…

Snaking across a gorse-studded common where skylarks play chicken with the sparse traffic, a lane leads towards Dalefoot Farm. On the face of it, Dalefoot looks much like the other farms that are dotted along this side of the Lowther Valley. Machinery is scattered haphazardly around a group of fell ponies munching on last summer’s hay. House martin nests decorate…

There is an incredible diversity of approaches to farming in Cumbria. Ennerdale, in the far western fells, is perhaps where its definition is stretched almost to its limit, but livestock and farming play a more important role in the valley than perhaps many people realise. Home to one of England’s largest and longest running rewilding projects, Ennerdale is looked after…

There’s a revolution happening on the tranquil shores of Ullswater. Across the lake from Hallin Fell, a broad, tree-fringed valley reaches back towards the Mell Fells. Closest to the water, the fields are neat and green, squared by hedges and dotted with proud veteran oaks. Higher up, the land is rougher and wetter, with alder trees tracing a network of…

It perhaps won’t come as a surprise that I’m going to kick this series off at Haweswater. As senior site manager, I’ve been overseeing the RSPB’s work here for the past eight years. Haweswater isn’t a typical farm, and it’s not a typical nature reserve either. It is, however, a case study that highlights some of the many challenges, controversies…

Farming in the dramatic landscape of the Lake District goes back a long way. Neolithic people were the pioneers, making space to rear crops and fatten their primitive livestock in clearings they’d hacked out of wild woods that clothed the fells. Celts, Romans, Vikings and Normans arrived, each bringing new ideas, incrementally increasing the productivity of the countryside they relied…