Global swarming: Eco-friendly Suffolk pig farm 'feeds a million bees'

- Victoria Lampard reports on the Suffolk farm abuzz with bees.

A pig farm in Suffolk which turned over half its land to wildflowers is now "feeding one million bees".

That's according to a study which monitored activity on the plot at Dingley Dell Pork near Woodbridge.

Four years ago, brothers Mark and Paul Hayward decided to farm 33 hectares - the equivalent of 83 football pitches - in the most "wildlife positive" way.

That involved planting nectar-rich blooms with the aim of embracing a more eco-friendly and sustainable way of farming.

“This was our target when we started – to grow enough to feed a million bees on a single day,” said Mark, a third generation farmer.

“We are acutely aware that bees are under threat from modern farming methods and that East Anglia is one of the worst offenders for bee foraging diversity.

“Every third bite of food you eat can be attributed to pollinators and we wanted to create an operation on our farm that did not push nature out but rather embraced it – as a central part of our eco system and our food cycle.”

The farm uses a seed mix of phacelia, sainfoin, birds-foot trefoil, alsike clover, musk mallow, campium and vetch.

Paul said: “We are taking a very minor role in helping society restore a more favourable balance and this starts with plant diversity to encourage in insects, bees, small mammals, and birds.

“At the end of the day, we see ourselves as caretakers of this land. Between us we have six children and we owe it to them to farm sustainability and set an example for the generations to come.”

Mark’s eldest daughter Grace, 18, has taken the lead on the big bee count, part of a wider set of surveys under the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme.

This involves marking out square metre patch of land and counting the number of flowers in the patch and then the bees feeding there over a one minute period. The team carried out counts in different flower mixes with a high of 19 bees counted in the phacelia.

These figures were then multiplied by the land space for each type of flower mix to give an estimate of the total number of insects feeding.

The total number of bumblebees estimated on the land during the count was 1,186,300.

The farm has developed a rotational system for its pork production which allows it to grow both grass and wildflower mixes.

According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, many types of bumblebee in the UK have seen their populations decline by 70 per cent, and two species have become extinct.

Gill Perkins, CEO of the Bumblebee Trust said: “The 'bees per square metre' figure can take a bit of finessing but even allowing for some extrapolating, the studies show that Dingley Dell is feeding at least one million bees at any one time.

- Gill Perkins spoke to ITV News Anglia's Raveena Ghattaura.

“Nobody has done anything of this scale before and the point that should be made here is how committed Mark and Paul are to ensuring that their farm is pollinator friendly.

“Their commitment and passion for protecting bumblebees has to be applauded. And what they have done here is truly exceptional.”