Fertiliser: each year the farm purchases 75 tonnes of imported fertiliser with a 34.5% nitrogen content. It also takes 300 tonnes of chicken manure from Sun Valley Poultry (reduced from 700-800 tonnes). The farm now uses large quantities of farmyard manure and digested sludge from the local water authority (which they supply and spread for free).

Pesticides: the farm monitors the levels of weeds and pests. Reaching certain thresholds triggers the application of pesticides, herbicides etc.

Stock feed: each year the farm uses:

• 16 tonnes per month of maize gluten
• 70 tonnes of home grown barley
• 500 tonnes of stockfeed potatoes (bought from one local grower who grows 360 hectares including land rented to him by our farm)
• 80 hectares of wheat straw and threshed ryegrass
• a volume of sugar beet pulp and soya for use in lamb and calf rations

This year the farm has also bought 400 tonnes of stock feed potatoes. This feed is in addition to what the farm produces itself (see 'Outputs').

Fuel: in a year the farm uses 4,500 litres of white diesel and 18,000 litres of red diesel.