The arable and livestock enterprises complement each
other with arable cropping producing cattle feed and
animal bedding, and manure from livestock contributing
to the high fertility.

Some 95 per cent of the feed for the cattle is grown on
the farm. More than 5000 tonnes of grass and maize
silage are made each year, and stored in a clamp covering
an area the size of a football pitch.

On the arable 'upland' the farm is achieving high yields
of the main arable crops — wheat, sugar beet and
approximately 185 acres of maize for forage.

Wheat yields average around 10 tonnes / hectare
(4 tonnes /acre) while the target for the sugar beet is
70 tonnes /hectare (28 tonnes / acre) of clean beet.
The farm's quota of 6531 tonnes of beet is equivalent to
more than 1.25million 1kg (2.2 lb) bags of sugar.

Cantley was in fact the first UK factory to be successful
in producing sugar, developed by Dutch capital and
expertise and opened in 1912. It was the Dutch who
also once owned the land around Cantley and Reedham,
acquiring it in the 1920s when traditional Norfolk farmers
were reluctant to grow sugar beet because it was a ‘new’
crop and was seen as a threat to fodder beet. Arable
performance is monitored closely by the farm's agronomist
who also advises on soil management and other cross
compliance issues.

Set aside is managed to benefit wildlife. Set aside strips
around woodland, hedgerows and field margins provide
wildlife corridors, and 20-metre wide buffer strips prevent
nutrient enrichment of water courses.