About Albanwise

Albanwise was established in 1976. The company has grown over its 40 years of activity starting with 400 acres at the time of its incorporation to over 10,600ha today.

Albanwise Ltd is currently one of the ten largest agribusinesses in the UK. The agricultural land holding is primarily farmed through its various tenancies by Albanwise Ltd’s sister company Albanwise Farming Ltd (AFL). AFL has a dual role and responsibility to its tenant clients and Albanwise as landowner. Firstly AFL provides all the management, labour and machinery, and focuses on the operational delivery and performance of the farm land and rural estates. Secondly, the management team and its board of directors provide advice and guidance to Albanwise Ltd on the strategic view and long term operational and infrastructure investments required within the estates.

Albanwise Farming Ltd prides itself on being a technological leader in the industry and a low cost producer as well as a provider of premium quality crops. Synergistic to its role as producer of primary food products AFL takes its role as provider of the public goods and environmental benefits extremely seriously.

The Albanwise Group

• Albanwise Wallace Estates
• Albanwise Insurance
• Albanwise Synergy
• Albanwise Farming

We farm a total of 10,600ha split evenly between Norfolk and Yorkshire.

The company employs 45 permanent members of staff across all farms.

Albanwise Farming Ltd’s principal base is located at Green Farm, Saxlingham, North Norfolk, three miles from the historic town of Holt, and four miles from the pretty coastal village of Blakeney.

Our aim is always to farm in a commercial but sustainable way, pushing crop yields to the economic optimum but having the greatest respect for the environment in which we work, and for the property owners around which we farm. Soil management and the protection of environmental features and internal waterways are at the heart of our management philosophy, making sure our major asset, our soils, are in the best possible condition for successful crop production and environmental sustainability.

We employ external expertise in the form of agronomists and soil scientists to enable us to make the best decisions for our sustainable farming practices.

The successful integration of livestock onto the estates is a current project in helping us to improve our soil condition through farmyard manure, and as an added benefit to provide local employment.

We aim to be at the forefront of new technology where we believe there can be a tangible benefit to the business. Our machinery fleet is fitted with GPS technology to allow us to cultivate and drill with the minimum of overlaps, hence saving time and valuable inputs. We have the capability to variably apply nutrients once the fields have been mapped if required. Sprayers are fitted with the latest auto shut off devices to prevent overlapping on headlands, and automatic boom height control to reduce drift and improve efficiency.

Soil management is at the heart of our approach where we use the latest equipment for cultivations and crop establishment. We have a range of cultivation equipment available to allow us to establish crops efficiently within ever shorter weather windows. Our trailers are all on flotation tyres, and wheeled tractors operate on the latest tyre technology, all with the aim of treading carefully on our most valuable asset.

AFL aligns itself with the best technical companies and technical people. This brings experience and added value to our crop production systems; an example of this is in the recruitment of external agronomists providing full field walking services.

All consumables are bought on a ‘least cost’ basis by combining the requirements of our total farmed area.

We use the Geofolia program for recording all our applications and field operations, and Farmplan to produce accurate accounting and month end figures. All aspects of our paperwork are processed on farm. The accounts are completed in-house by our financial controller.

Crop production costs are accurately monitored as we record all operations on a daily basis, therefore costs of production are reliably known. All farms have weighbridges, which are used to accurately record and monitor crop yields on a field by field basis on intake into the central grain store. In addition this gives us accurate information to manage crop sales allowing maximum advantage in volatile market conditions.

Very rare to UK Agri-business the AWE group has both a specialist Farming and Environmental services business who work synergistically together to oversee the environmental planning and delivery to the highest of environmental standards. The team help oversee approximately 10,000 mature landscape hedgerow trees; in excess of 165 miles of hedgerows; more than 40 miles of public footpath (including two of historic significance), 20 historic (Grade 1 and Grade 2) properties, 5 historic landscapes of National Importance and numerous archaeological sites of Historic Importance including a number of Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

AFL is committed to the continual renewal through proactive management to restore, enhance and augment these semi-natural and historically significant assets. As a private sector company it fully recognises its stewardship responsibilities and exemplifies through environmental protection its deep rooted commitment to the sustainable management of those areas in which it invests. AFL is committed to the conservation and enhancement of these assets, and in turn delivering benefits to the wider community as a whole.

Setting land aside for Environmental features has proved a great success in diversity enhancement. Across the estates various renewable energy schemes have either been implemented or reviewed as part of our desire to reduce our carbon footprint. We have two community heating schemes using wood pellet biomass boilers. We also make secondary use of farm building roof spaces across the estates for photovoltaic generation of electricity. When investing in our machinery fleet we look to reduce the use of carbon based fuels. 

AFL delivers added value taking a long-term approach to whole farm estate enhancement through the implementation of rolling 5 year Estate Plans.

This whole farm holistic management approach, stems from a recognition of the need to identify, understand, respect and develop the unique character of each individual farmed estate.

AFL is successful in part due to its ability to establish and build the necessary effective collaborative working relationships, often delivering multiple environmental benefits on the same parcel of land.

AFL has the flexibility to fully comply with environmental assurance schemes, including LEAF.