June, 2026

Excluding land purchases, Dyson Farming has invested almost £200m in new technology, equipment and infrastructure, shaping the business into the farm of the future.

Far from being an investment to avoid inheritance tax, as has been falsely claimed, Dyson Farming is large-scale commercial farming business and a top 5 UK food producer of wheat grains, malting barley, oil seeds and potatoes in the UK (source: Financial Times). It also rears sheep and cattle.

It employs around 270 people directly who have an average age of 39, versus the industry average of 59.

• 40,000 tonnes pa of wheat,
• 9,000 tonnes pa of spring barley
• 12,000 tonnes pa of potatoes
• 29,000 tonnes pa of sugar beet
• 1,500 tonnes pa of vining peas
• 1,250 tonnes pa of strawberries
• 90,000 tonnes pa of energy crops

• Restored 10,000m of drystone walls
• Managed nearly 400,000m of hedgerows
• Planted an additional 20,000m of hedges
• Built 111 barn owl boxes – with chick numbers increasing each year
• Built a 50-million-gallon wildlife-friendly reservoir

Dyson Farming was established in 2012 and is the largest farming businesses in the UK, extending to 36,000 acres across Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset. 

It also produces sustainable energy to power the equivalent of 10,000 homes and has over 200 tenanted properties.

Dyson Farming is a UK-based family-owned enterprise unlike any other. Established by James Dyson in 2012, it is focused on long-term investment in British agriculture and the countryside. Excluding land purchases, James Dyson has invested almost £200m into his farms in new technology, equipment and infrastructure, shaping the business into the farm of the future, even though farming businesses return only modest profits. 

As James freely admits, there are easier ways to invest for a return – but this was about something different. The Dyson family believes there is an opportunity to drive a revolution in agriculture through the use of precision technology in regenerative food production, working in harmony with the natural environment.

Dyson Farming is a long-term farming business with a clear ambition to produce food sustainably, profitably and using the very best technology. The largest farming business in the UK, Dyson Farming spans over 36,000 acres across Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset.

As reported by the Financial Times, Dyson Farming is a top five producer of malting barley, wheat grains, oil seeds and potatoes in the UK, growing over 100,000 tonnes of food every year in the UK, for British consumers. The farms also generate renewable energy – equivalent to the power needed for 10,000 homes – manage extensive environmental schemes and dedicate large areas of land exclusively for cutting-edge research. These enterprises are deliberately integrated, allowing us to operate a circular farming system where energy, data nutrients and insights flow across the business.

And the farms work hand in hand with Dyson Technology, too. Today, consumers all over the world can get their hands on Dyson products containing real ingredients grown by Dyson Farming. Dyson’s haircare formulations include our beauty-grade sunflower oil in the Omega TM leave in conditioner and hair oil and also our barley in its Amino TM scalp bubble treatment.

Ownership and intent drive our approach. The Dyson family owns the land, which allows us to invest for the long term rather than optimise for short term yield. That long-term view gives us the freedom to experiment, to take risks, and to apply engineering-led thinking to some of agriculture’s biggest challenges, from soil degradation to food security. 

Our perspective is shaped by a deep respect for farming knowledge, combined with a determination to improve how things are done.

At its core, Dyson Farming is driven by the belief that food production is another form of manufacturing and that, as with manufactured products, it’s precision engineering that can unlock better food for the UK.

The Dyson family approaches farming with the same entrepreneurial, risk-taking spirit that drives its global technology business. The family’s investment in Dyson Farming has brought new, long-term capital into UK agriculture ensuring the application of the best, most cutting-edge techniques and innovation to British farming.

As a boy, James Dyson worked on farms where he grew up in Norfolk, in the eastern part of England, known for its rural economy. This work in the school holidays – rushing parsley to the local soup factory and loading sacks of potatoes – instilled in him an understanding of the importance of fresh, quality produce, farmed in the British countryside. From day one, Dyson Farming has been focused on getting the basics right – improving soil quality, infrastructure, new technology, and environmental schemes. 

We are investing in technology and research to improve yields and biodiversity while also reducing our impact on the land and the environment. And we have worked to turn the farms into a viable business; making them profitable whilst providing food and energy for consumers. Data analytics, new crop rotations, new cover cropping techniques, advanced drones and visions systems, targeted crop spraying and agritech are some of the ways we incorporate precision technology into our farming system.

We grow high quality British strawberries out of season. Inside our glasshouse powered by renewable energy, each berry is nurtured using robotics and automation allowing us to grow British strawberries all year round in Lincolnshire. 

Our strawberries – rated 4.5 out of 5 by a total of 274 Ocado shoppers who have left reviews – are grown in Lincolnshire in a state-of-the-art glasshouse, kept warm by the waste heat from our anaerobic digesters. They are carefully picked by a team of robots which use vision technology to select the best strawberries and place them into punnets. We also use robots to kill mould using UV light and distribute insects to eat aphids. We also have LEDs to enhance daylight over the winter and irrigate the plants through designed systems.

Dyson Technology is always looking to maximise efficiency of the farms and the quality of their produce. The most recent development in the glasshouse is Dyson’s Hybrid Vertical Growing System. The engineered innovation has proven to boost yields by 250% whilst optimising the quality of the fruit.

Rather than arranging the strawberries in rows, the system arranges them on 5.5 meter-high ferris wheel-like structures which rotate the strawberry plants, making use of the full height of the glasshouse, dramatically increasing the number of strawberry plants which can be planted in the same area.

Two aluminium rigs rotate the strawberry plants to ensure they get optimal exposure to natural light while also supplementing them with LED light when daylight levels are lower in the winter months. A continuous and novel irrigation and drainage system ensures root health is never compromised.