Category: Meet The Team

I’m Izzy, the FCT Agricultural Data Analyst. I have been part of FCT for six months now, but I am still constantly blown away by the passion and expertise shown by our Team when they start digging through a farmer’s soil and eyeing up herbal leys.

Each day in this job can be different, thanks to the breadth of data that FCT collects and uses. From tractors to goats to nitrogen and anaerobic digesters, we count it all. The speed with which our projects progress means there is a great demand for efficiency in handling the data, and so I get to employ every coding technique I can to make the data flow as smoothly and insightfully as possible. The end of July saw us compiling a full data set of carbon footprinting data to calculate the emissions and sequestration for 82 members of the First Milk dairy cooperative.

There is such variety in the farms that we work with, their livestock, crops, inputs and building materials rarely fit easily within one category. Our Farm Carbon Calculator has been built with an eye for detail designed to capture the complexity of the farming world as best we can, but it still makes analysing the data an exciting challenge. As FCT continues to engage in large projects and extend its reach across the UK and beyond, we will be developing and advancing the software we use for collecting and mapping out our data to give us further insights into the way farmers can lead the charge against the climate emergency.

Read more about Izzy and the rest of the team here.

Written by Stefan Marks one of our Farm Carbon and Soils Advisors.

July marks the midpoint of 2023, with the first half passing by swiftly. It has been a varied year thus far and trying to encapsulate what a typical day might look like working for FCT can be difficult. A week can be a mix of farm days, office work and deadlines but perhaps this milestone provides a good opportunity to reflect on the progress made in the first 6 months.

So far this year my involvement in projects such as Farm Net Zero and the Duchy of Cornwall have been somewhat limited though they are certain to be a key focus in the coming months. The foundation of my projects this year have been varied including sampling in the South West for FERA, remote GIS work collating our GPS sampling data for Yeo Valley and the completion of the Durham AONB project.

The Durham AONB project has been a singular focus with a significant amount of sampling and an equally significant amount of data to process from the 29 farms in the North Pennines. Much of this was conducted over the winter period with considerable efforts from samplers in some rather adverse conditions. Indeed, whilst sampling myself I observed first hand some of the difficulties of farming in such a challenging landscape. So, when we returned at the end of May, marking the end of this project, it was fantastic to see the North Pennines at their best with nature in full flow!

To conclude the Durham project, we ran 3 days of farmer focused events in which we presented the results of the soil analysis and potential options for improving soil health to consider on farm. These events provided an excellent forum for a positive dialogue and knowledge exchange between those in attendance. I found being part of this discussion hugely beneficial providing me with greater context of farming in this distinctive landscape which does not closely resemble many farms I visit in Cornwall.

From my own experience I have found farm events are the highlight of the job and these were no different with such genuine interest and active discussion initiated by the farmers themselves. Among the discussions there was an emphasis on enhancing the natural environment and tailoring on farm operations to benefit the unique wildlife in the AONB.

It has been a busy and rewarding 6 months ending with Groundswell 2023. An opportunity to see some familiar faces, catch up with the FCT team and listen to inspiring talks from some from some of the industry’s best. I am looking forward to the second half of 2023!

Read more about Stefan and the rest of the team here.

As the Calculator Manager, I keep the Calculator running for our thousands of users and our expanding team of soil and carbon advisors.  

Monday morning means a remote team meeting at FCT. In just a 45 minute conversation, I heard about advisory work going on in Aberdeen, Lincolnshire, Cumbria, Dartmoor and the Isles of Scilly. 

Next up I spent time catching up on some research into specific products used in potato storage to inhibit sprouting, where they come from and what their carbon footprint might be. This was followed by an hour to respond to some user queries around how to enter data in our Calculator (including questions on batches of chickens, how to include anaerobic digestion, and requests for new specific brands of fertilisers to be included).

I squeezed in a conversation with a project partner who is helping us improve the interoperability of our Calculator so that users will be able to do more with their data, as well as one with an agronomist in Italy to discuss the needs of footprinting farms outside the UK. 

After lunch it was onto a weekly meeting to check in with our software developers who are working with us to improve the interoperability of our Calculator, solving  issues and scheduling the testing for the week. 

There’s a lot to keep track of in the Calculator and people use it in all sorts of different ways. My next meeting was with another project partner for whom we are footprinting, not only the farms who supply them with fresh produce, but also the rest of the downstream supply chain. Engaging the whole supply chain is important if we are to understand the opportunities for decarbonisation, reduce GHG emissions and support farmers in the long run.

Towards the end of the day, I was sent some news about the release of an academic paper on hedgerow carbon sequestration, so I made sure that that reached a colleague and then  rounded off the day with some prep for welcoming Michael Oldman, our new Technical Support Officer, feeling very excited that we are growing the team at FCT.

Meet all the FCT team

Find out more about Lizzy and the rest of our friendly team here.

Written by Rob Purdew, one of our Farm Carbon and Soils Advisors.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the final farm meeting wrapping up an Innovative Farmers trial looking at the use of diverse forage mixtures for overwintering. Apart from being the perfect demonstration of how empowering farmers to be able to trial new practices on their own farms can produce results far greater than the sum of their parts (especially when compared to multi-million pound research projects) the big take home message for me was how powerful diversity is in our farming systems, at all levels.

A diverse mix of plant species above ground is reflected in increased diversity below the soil surface and the benefits this brings are many fold. Increased organic matter, nutrient availability and the ability of the soil to hold water are just a few. When out on a farm you can always guarantee that the best soils occur where the above ground diversity is greatest, relative to the surrounding area. This is one of the reasons that herbal leys have received a lot of much deserved attention over the last 10 years. 

Having had firsthand experience grazing large groups of animals on herbal leys I can certainly vouch for their benefits, and spending a lot of time digging holes on farms has only reinforced this. And where the establishment of new herbal leys don’t fit or are unaffordable, simple changes to grazing management or stitching additional species into existing pasture can be equally effective in bringing diversity into your sward. These are the things that get me up in the morning, that and the views from one of the many fields I’ve been soil sampling in recently.

Find out more about Rob Purdew and the rest of the team here.