Meet the team
The humans and animals living and working at Lynbreck
The Crofters
We met in 2012 working in the south east of England for the National Trust as apprentice Rangers. In our time there we gained practical skills and an introduction to ecology. We shared a vision to live closer to the land – raise our own animals, grow our own produce and live a happy and healthy life.
Sandra
Sandra has a natural affiliation with animals and leads on all the livestock elements, with a focus on low-stress, high-welfare animal handing. She excels at practical land management and has a natural flair for craftsmanship and joinery. She designed and built a lot of our animal infrastructure, and is brilliant at recycling and upcycling. Sandra is also our chief butcher, nearly entirely self-taught, and leads on all our meat box planning and added-value products.
Lynn
Lynn is a qualified educator with a postgraduate degree in teaching from the University of Edinburgh. She has many years experience of practical conservation and has a particular interest in all things trees and woodlands. Lynn leads on sales, marketing and financial planning for the croft. She built and sustains the foundations of our healthy business by engaging with customers, successfully applying for grants and communicating our work more widely.
Our cattle
Our fold of Highland Cattle (5-8 animals depending on the time of year) help us with the restoration of our grasslands and woodlands. Their job is to graze, trample, and fertilise our fields, building more biodiversity. We work with our fold to maximise the grazing of naturally available forage and ensure that our cattle have everything they need.
In summer, we move them around in small, targeted paddocks. This means they are kept on fresh ground, while grazed ground is given a long rest to recover. We monitor the impact of the animals, making sure they are grazing enough but not too much, and move them on when the time is right. They also spend long summer days mooching across the flats, a large expanse of boggy ground where a buffet of plants and flowers await them.
In winter, we move our cattle in larger paddocks and less frequently. We give them locally-grown hay as well as bundles of tree and nettle hay. We use techniques such as bale grazing to target specific areas that need a fresh input of seeds and dung.
Our pigs
Our native, rare-breed pigs are hardy, hairy and good-tempered. They come to Lynbreck as weaners (around 8 weeks old) and we are lucky to have some trusted breeders close by. We use pigs in our woodlands to break up the dense mat of vegetation, allowing tree seeds to germinate. This improves the long-term resilience of our woodlands by diversifying the age structure of the trees and by allowing space for new species to colonise. We also use pigs in our areas of rougher grazing where they work in a similar fashion, allowing a more diverse flora to set seed and spread.
We use electric fencing and work pigs in large paddocks that we monitor carefully to make sure the ground doesn’t get too broken up. We have a mobile wooden pig hut that we can take apart and relocate when the need arises. We make sure that areas which have been ‘pigged’ are rested for a long time to ensure they get a chance to regenerate and new species have a chance to colonise and establish.
In return for all their hard work, we like to think that our pigs get nothing but the 5-star treatment from us. We visit them at least twice a day to feed them, check their water and fence and give them a well-deserved back scratch or tummy rub.
Our hens
Hens were the first animals we got after moving to the croft and the numbers have steadily grown. Out of all of our livestock, they are definitely the species that have made the greatest positive impact in the shortest time on our pasture. We have two flocks, one of them being our homestead hens who live in a static house. They are 100% free to range and spend long days scratching, dust bathing and welcoming visitors.
We have a mobile hen house called the Eggmobile. In the summer months we move this around our fields. The hens scratch through the moss and thatch, scatter cow-pats and add their own fertility.
We also have 2 small hen houses. We use these to rear spring born chicks which we raise in the homestead before integrating them with the main flock.
Our hens lay a range of coloured eggs from brown to blue, green and bright white which we sell via our subscription based Egg Club or through our honesty box at the entrance to the croft.
Our bees
Our bee-team play a key role in helping with the restoration of our grasslands and woodlands. As the flowers and trees start to bloom, our bees are key in helping to pollinate these, enabling them to reproduce and therefore helping more to grow in the future. They get very busy again in late summer when the surrounding hills become an intense colour of purple with flowering heather.
And then of course, there’s an added benefit for us – delicious honey! However, our priority is always the health of our bees, so we only take surplus honey and ensure we leave a full stash of honey stores for the bees themselves in winter.