The aim of farming on the Lees Court Estate is to maximise profit by producing crops with the highest quality and yield from a sustainable agricultural system, whilst conserving the natural environment.

The majority of the soil on the Estate is listed as Grade One (under the Agricultural Land Classification of England and Wales) and is therefore extremely fertile. Less than ten percent of Britain’s soil is listed Grade One. This means that high yields are achievable.

Combining Peas

The Farm is a member of LEAF, Linking Environment And Farming. This is a bi-annual audit to encourage the farm to adopt the aims and principles of Integrated Crop Management (ICM). ICM is a method of farming that balances the requirements of running a profitable business with responsibility and sensitivity to the environment. It includes practices that avoid waste, enhance energy efficiency and minimize pollution. ICM combines the best of modern technology with some basic principles of good farming practices and is a whole farm, long-term strategy. The Farm is also undertaking the Voluntary Initiative. This is an initiative for spray operatives to continually develop better management skills and standards in regards to pesticides and fertilizers.

Current conventional cropping includes winter wheat, peas, spring beans, oilseed rape and set-aside (land for which farmers are paid subsidies for not growing any crops). For the 2009 harvest the farm produced 10.05tonnes per hectare of milling grade, winter wheat, 4.07tper hectare of oilseed rape, 4.52t per hectare of peas, 0.33t per acre of calendula, and 0.10t per acrea of echium.

The Estate works very closely with its tenant farmers, who farm a mix of dairy, arable, vegetables and fruit and the local community. In keeping with that tradition, the Estate hosted the 2003 East Kent Ploughing Match. This was a huge success, breaking previous attendance records with over 4000 visitors. Tours highlighting the innovative work of the Estate were sponsored by Bayer CropScience.  The Estate will again be hosting the Ploughing Match in 2011.

The Estate  regularly hosts tours for a diverse range of organisations and individuals to showcase its work.

2010 sees the Estate participating with a new LEAF  project "Let Nature Feeds Your Senses" which is a new Big Lottery funded project, offering groups sensory-rich experiences of nature, food and farming.  It has been designed to account for the needs of older people, people with special needs such as learning, physical or sensory impairments and people living in some of the most disadvantaged areas of England who have never had the chance to get onto a farm.