Farming more sustainably
We believe in continuous improvement in our farming with sustainability in mind.
Our main tool for this is the LEAF Marque, an environmental certification system that we joined in 2003, one of the first arable farms to sign up.
Everyone who works at Luffness Mains is aware of our priorities and committed to applying them in their daily work on the farm. We are fortunate to be farming on some of the best land in Scotland and we are aware that as custodians of the land, our role is to look after it.
LEAF Marque
LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) is a charity set up in 1991. It launched the LEAF Marque in 2002 and this is now the leading scheme in the UK for supporting improved sustainability in farming, with retailers such as Waitrose, M&S, Lidl, Tesco, Aldi and Asda asking all their growers to take part.
The system involves a whole-farm approach that seeks continuous improvement in nine key areas including managing soil and water, conserving energy, protecting crops, enhancing wildlife habitats and reaching out to local communities. An annual audit tracks our progress.
Our LEAF Marque room was added as part of our new cold store in 2005 and is used when we welcome visitors such as school or community groups.
A family visit to Luffness Mains as part of the Gullane Food Festival
Community involvement
We supply potatoes direct to local retailers to ensure a connection between locally grown produce and the people who live near our farm. We encourage farm visits from schools and community groups, and our LEAF Marque room was purpose-built to help with this.
School visits – we host visits from school groups but we also go to schools when they can’t come to us (cost of transport is often a problem). We reach schools in Edinburgh and the Lothians through the Royal Highland Educational Trust (RHET)
Aberlady Gala – our tractors and trailers are the children’s floats for the annual Gala parade in our home village, and are decorated on the farm before the event
Gullane Food Festival – we are the main farming partners for the Gullane Food and Drink Festival in April each year for which we host two walks around the farm, one especially for families
Information boards – you can find our ‘LEAF boards’ beside the bridleway that runs across the farm, packed with information about wildlife on the farm
Sunflowers – planted in a part of a field that is too wet to grow wheat, our sunflowers can be cut and taken home by local people and have become a notable feature of area
Geert at a school in Edinburgh where children have grown their own potatoes
Landscape and nature
Currently about 7 per cent of our land is set aside for wildlife, more than the minimum requirement of 5 per cent. Field margins, wild flower strips and hedgerows all provide habitats and food sources for insects, animals and birds.
Wild flower strips – sown with a seed mix that includes phacelia, vetch and clovers mixed with a cereal such as oats or wheat (the grain is a food source).
Hedgerows – we have about 7km of hedges on the farm, 1.5km of which we have planted
Grass margins – maintained next to hedges and watercourses, these also contribute to biodiversity.
Key species – the four species of birds we track are yellowhammer, skylark, grey partridge and barn owl. Our grey partridge are monitored with the help of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust
NatureScot POBAS – NatureScot exists to care for Scotland’s natural heritage and we are one of the pilot farms for their project Piloting an Outcomes Based Approach in Scotland (POBAS), which looks at future approaches to supporting nature conservation on farms
Our LEAF Marque room has information on the walls about our four priority species of birds – yellowhammer, sykylark, barn owl and grey partridge
Water
Rainfall affected by climate change is now one of the biggest problems facing farmers, with flooding at some times of year and drought at others.
Reservoirs – we capture winter rain in reservoirs to minimise summertime extraction from watercourses.
Field margins beside watercourses – wider margins in low-lying areas help protect watercourses from the effects of run-off
Weather stations – we measure rainfall locally at all locations we farm, so that we can water where crops need it as a priority to maintain quality.
Drainage – we maintain and improve field drains and ditches to help keep our land productive
The Peffer Burn runs along the side of our fields and into the nature reserve at Aberlady Bay, so its health is very important to us
Soil
Soil health is important to us and we are involved with a number of organisations that support our work, including the Soil Association and Agrii. We use traditional crop rotation together with advanced technology such as GPS-guided tractors
Soil analysis – we have for years analysed our soil including organic matter and both major and minor nutrients. Our fields can then be zoned according to what they need.
Global positioning – our tractors have been guided by GPS technology since 2009, which helps us avoid overlap and excess applications.
Crop rotation – in this traditional way of farming, carrots, potatoes and other vegetables are grown as ‘break crops’ in between crops of wheat on a rotation that helps soil health. A typical rotation on our best land would be wheat / brassica / wheat or oats / carrots / wheat / potatoes (and back to the start).
Our soil is analysed regularly to make sure it is in good health
Energy
Technology is our best way to reduce both our energy use and its carbon impact. We have two small wind turbines to generate electricity for our cold store. We look for opportunities to reduce carbon through more efficient systems and regular carbon audits measure carbon use in electricity, fuel use, inorganic fertiliser and sprays.
Improved equipment – a new potato planter trialled in 2024 reduced the stages of the process from seven to three and had a significant impact on energy use.
Electricity generation – Our two small wind turbines each produce 75,000 KW a year and because the supply is intermittment, surplus in sold into the grid.
Two small wind turbines supply electricity that is used for our cold store and fed back to the grid
Crop health
Technology plays a very important role in helping us to maintain healthy crops while minimising the impact of, for example, pest control measures.
Biostimulants – used to promote root health and establish stronger crops, these mean we need to spray less to keep a crop in good condition
Observation and recording – we visit each field weekly to observe and measure a crop’s progress. We use an online tool called Greenlight Grower Management to make comments and photos accessible to the rest of the farm team and to record treatments such as spraying
Traceability – the same system can be used by retailers such as supermarkets to see how our crops were managed before harvest
Healthy potato crop, kept that way by careful monitoring
Waste and pollution
Careful pollution control backs up our efforts in soil health, maintaining the integrity of our watercourses, and improved biodiversity. We are committed to recycling as much as we can.
Soil erosion – we are committed to good practices that avoid soil erosion, such as planting in a direction that counteracts tillage erosion (across, not along, a slope).
Recycling – we are very conscious of recycling and recycle all waste oil, plastic bags, chemical containers, paper and boxes. We also try to minimise what we buy and source as much as we can from local suppliers.
We reecycle all plastic waste through a specialist recycler