Agroecological farm wins £40k top prize in Farm491 Challenge Series

A Scottish agroecological farm with a mission to show how ecological restoration, community learning, and viable food enterprises can co-exist on the same land has been announced as the winner of the Royal Agricultural University’s (RAU) 2025 Farm491 Challenge Prize.

This is the second year of the competition, which is run by Farm491, the RAU’s agritech incubator, and generously supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The challenge has a theme of Mixed Land Use and, earlier this year, companies developing innovative products and services to support nature friendly, multifunctional land use were encouraged to apply.

More than 15 companies entered the competition and, after a shortlist of six pitched to the judging panel – Dr Katharina Watson, Associate Professor in Animal Science at the RAU; Chris Clark, Partner in farm-based Business Management Consultancy Nethergill Associates; and Stephanie Morren, Funding Manager at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation – earlier this month, Lochhill Agroecological Farm was announced as the winner with Wild Woodland Celebrations being named as the runners up.

Stephanie Morren said ‘’Both the winner and runner up of this year’s prize really impressed us with their vision, passion, and creativity, as well as the replicability of their projects.

“Lochhill set out an incredibly clear business plan and we particularly liked their approach to enterprise stacking and being rooted in the local community. We felt that Wildwood had come up with a really innovative way to build financial resilience when trying to protect smaller areas of woodland which are so important for communities and for biodiversity.’’

Lochhill Agroecological Farm is a 75-acre farm in Dumfries and Galloway which has been owned and managed by Richard and Jane Middleton for the last 15 years. Now in their 80s, and wishing to leave a legacy, Richard and Jane reached out to friends last year through the Regenerative Farming Network to rethink the future of the farm.

A Community Interest Company was formed in February 2025 with an aim for the farm to be a living, working, example of diverse and mixed enterprises, combined with a centre of excellence for training and skills development.

This year’s competition was the second in a three-year series of the Farm491 Challenge Prize and it is hoped that the annual competition will enable companies, which are developing innovative ways to solve challenges in the natural world, to invest in their businesses and develop their products.

Stephanie Morren added: “Esmee Fairbairn Foundation is delighted to once again be able to support a monetary prize to businesses or groups who are working on multi-functional land use for nature, climate, and people. We look forward to seeing how their work progresses over the next few years.”

Abi Mordin, Director at Lochhill Agroecological Farm, explained: “Lochhill uses an enterprise stacking approach to boost biodiversity, to improve ecological health, to create resilient and sustainable livelihoods and to have a programme of education, training and learning built into that.

“This award is going to make such a difference to launching the business into 2026/27 and making a real success of everything that we’re trying to do. It’s incredible!’’

Gloucestershire-based Wild Woodland Celebrations has a rustic woodland venue which is available for weddings, naming ceremonies, and other family celebrations.

Owner Estelle St John-Smith said: “We’re chuffed to bits have been selected as the runner up! This prize money means we can start putting our efforts in to track renovation, which will increase the number of visitors we can welcome to the woods and enable us to continue our work transforming the woodland into a multifunctional landscape that delivers biodiversity gains, carbon sequestration, and sustainable income.’’

Judge Dr Katharina Watson, Associate Professor in Animal Science at the RAU, added: “Land is under unprecedented pressure in the UK and globally, to make space for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, food and energy production, and housing, and one of the possible solutions is to stack land uses, finding synergies that mitigate this resource competition.

‘’Having this Challenge Prize as a means to inspire innovators to develop solutions to pressing global challenges is so valuable. As this is the second year that Farm491 has facilitated the Challenge, we were able to draw on feedback from last years’ finalists and judges to make 2025 even bigger and better with an audience, more networking opportunities, and an awards dinner enabling everyone to celebrate in style!’’

The 2026 Challenge Prize will be launched in the Summer. Watch the Farm491 socials for more information.