Cumbria has some fantastic hay meadows that have been maintained by farmers for generations. Hay-Day aims to help farmers identify, protect, restore and manage these meadows using traditional practices to increase plant diversity. This will benefit them and increase biodiversity in the Lake District National Park and the Orton Fells area; a band stretching from Askham to Kirkby Stephen.

During this three-year project, we aim to survey, enhance and restore over 350 hectares of hay meadows, some of which have been part of the farming heritage of Cumbria since the mid-18th century.

We offer farmers:

• a free botanical survey of your hay meadows
• free no-obligation hay meadow management suggestions based on the outcome of your survey
• free advice on hay meadows and their inclusion in agri-environment  schemes
• to organise contractors to collect seed/green hay from a donor site (the farmer will be paid for species-rich seed/green hay)
• to organise contractors to spread seed/green hay to enhance or restore species-rich meadows on specific sites.

However, we need farmers help to:

• find flower-rich meadows (do you have any on your farm?)
• gain permission to survey your fields
• identify fields you would like to restore to former meadows
• identify good flower-rich meadows that you would be willing to let us use as donor sites. We would only need to harvest a proportion of the seed to restore other meadows (a payment will be given).

For more information contact Claire Cornish, Hay-Day Ecologist, or Bunty Wright, Hay-Day Project Adviser, on 01539 816300 or emai This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it