Ian Pigott

The Pigott family is renowned for its farming expertise and has been working the land in Harpenden, just 30 miles north of London, since the 1400s, and at the Thrales End Farm for 100 years.   Ian Pigott who lives with his wife Gillian and two young children has been managing Thrales End and neighbouring Annables Farm for 11 years.

Ian left school to study Agricultural Business Management at the University of London, and then worked as a Commodity Trader and Broker in the city, specialising in Tropical Oils for 7 years, before returning to the family farm.

In Ian’s father’s day, the 400 acre mixed farm at Thrales End employed 6 men.  Nowadays, Ian farms 2,000 acres of land spread over 5 farms near to Harpenden with the help of just one man.  He follows a traditional crop rotation of wheat (used for local biscuits), oilseed rape (for biodiesel), spring barley (for malt whisky) and beans (for animal feed locally).  Hedge and tree planting, pond restoration, beetle banks, field margins and conservation headlands are among the conservation activities at Annables Farm. 

This works together to create a biodiversity rich farm with a wealth of wildlife habitats and food sources.  The Pigott’s have always carried out farming operations with sensitivity and adjust their activities to safeguard nesting sites of farmland birds such as the skylark and the lapwing.  In 2005 the farm became a LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) Demonstration Farm and hosts many visits to fellow farmers and a wide range of public groups, from local schools to the Women’s Institute.

Ian, who founded the idea of Open Farm Sunday, is very committed to reconnection.  In 2002 he was granted a scholarship to research the reconnecting of children and adults with food and farming.

For a great day out and to find out more about how your food is produced and the countryside around you cared for, visit Ian at Thrales End farm on the 13th June for Open Farm Sunday 2010.

• For more information visit www.farmsunday.org and for up-to-date campaign information, follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/openfarmsunday

To arrange an interview with Ian contact:
Naomi Barry or Amanda Wadlow
Open Farm Sunday Press Office   
T: 01189 475956 M : 07920 098498  

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