Conservation Grazing - Hoof Powered Nature Restoration with Alex Crawley
May 19, 2026
Alex Crawley, founder and co-director of Grazing Management Ltd, is a new entrant, first generation farmer, who, in his own words, ‘has a passion for sustainable farming balanced with financial sustainability.’
His conservation grazing projects now cover 500 acres over 25 different sites, for organisations such as the Woodland Trust, Monmouthshire Meadows Group and Welsh Heritage. Projects range from providing livestock to training a whole volunteer team, supporting infrastructure, site monitoring and arranging grant funding.
‘‘Working with Natural Resource Wales and Plant Life, goats were used to clear a cliff to save a species that was in danger of extinction in the UK,’ Alex explains. ‘We’re grazing a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the birthplace of steel and organising heathland restorations for adders and night jars with the Welsh Government. We're involved with invasive species removal with the Wye Valley National Landscape and Severn Trent, plus flood mitigation, carbon storage and SSSI management with Natural Resource Wales on a peat bog. For me conservation grazing is where the priority is restoring and conserving the habitat with food production as a byproduct. It’s about ecology and biodiversity. You’re working in harmony with animals to deliver an ecological outcome.’
The interactive half-day workshop at FarmED on 8th June is ‘aimed at graziers who would like to do conservation grazing and landowners who would like to work with graziers to deliver conservation grazing on their lands,’ says Alex. ‘It’s about finding workable and sustainable solutions for both parties. Landowners might see it as free grazing and even want to charge a rent, whereas the graziers see the landowner being paid a relatively large subsidy while they (the grazier) is doing all the work with fencing and water, while making some money from meat. These arrangements often fall apart with one side feeling out of pocket so it’s a question of how to get a balance that’s fair because if we have a fair solution then hopefully we'll have a sustainable solution that will result in good conservation outcomes.’
Want to hear more from Alex? Join us for his Conservation Grazing Workshop at FarmED!
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