The North East Cotswolds Farmer Cluster (NECFC) is a growing network of farmers, land managers and community partners working together to accelerate the transition to a financially and environmentally sustainable farming system.

The network includes the newly established Cherwell Farmers Cluster (CFC) and, together with the NECFC, the total number of farm businesses involved is over 200, operating across three river catchments; Cherwell, Evenlode and Windrush.

Nicholsons is delighted to be part of this and are heavily involved to support the initiatives wherever we can.

The aim is to grow as an inclusive and pro-active group of local farmers, growers, landowners, foresters and advisers who work and learn together to enhance the natural capital on land, tackle the climate emergency and build more resilient food and farming businesses.

The Clusters’ projects enable collaboration, innovation and knowledge exchange with the objective of connecting people with nature, food and farming in meaningful ways.

All Cluster members can benefit from:

• Catchment Sensitive Farming advice: Farmers can access free, expert support on navigating Defra’s ELMS, infrastructure grants and schemes via an in‑house advisor.
• Events: There is a year-round calendar of events for Cluster members and associates. These events are usually held on-farm and carve out valuable time for sparking ideas, making connections and building confidence to deliver ambitious projects.

Collaborative Cluster projects include:

• Evenlode Landscape Recovery: A 20‑year, farmer‑led vision to integrate productive farming with large‑scale habitat restoration across 60 farms in the North East Cotswolds. The highly novel and large scale model is designed with expansion and replication in mind.
• Windrush Floodplain Meadows Restoration & NFM Strategy: This project targets priority floodplain meadow sites while designing natural flood management features to enhance resilience and biodiversity.
• Fostering Collaboration: Promoting Local Food and Brokering Goods & Services: The Cluster is taking practical steps to build more connected markets, knowledge and skills in the area. This includes building an online directory for food production and sales, exchanging skills, equipment and opportunities. Supply chain networking events will be running in 2026.
• Supplementary Bird Feeding: By bridging the hungry gap for our dwindling farmland bird populations, this long-running project not only demonstrates the efficiencies of farms coordinating locally to source cheaper home-grown seed but also provides each participant the satisfaction – and friendly competition – of increasing bird counts through regular on-farm feeding.

Together, these activities form an impressive coordinated effort by our farming community to strengthen the environmental resilience and social fabric of this beautiful landscape.

If anyone is interested in knowing more or joining then please visit their website.