Category: Soil Farmer of the Year

Soil Farmer of the Year 2021 with Arable Winner Tom Sewell

Posted on August 4, 2021 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

On a sunny evening, a group of farmers met in Kent to hear why Tom Sewell had been awarded arable Soil Farmer of the Year for 2021 and to dig a little deeper into his farm and soil management.

Tom is a second-generation farmer, working in partnership with his wife Sarah and his parents. They are both Nuffield scholars and have also completed the Worshipful Company of Farmers management course, both of which he credits with helping him continue to innovate and develop the farm system.  Tom is an early adopter of direct drilling in the UK, being a founder member of BASE UK and being a regular columnist in Direct Driller magazine, so it was a great opportunity to come and hear more about how the system works.

They are currently farming about 1500 acres with 15 different landowners, across 8 different parishes in Kent, and so logistics can be a little challenging!  Tom explained to the farmers present that he is often known for the ‘things that they don’t do’ which include applying any bagged P and K or working on Sundays.

The soils across the farm are variable, the farm starts in the Medway valley – and comes up from there. Across the farm there are some areas of Grade 1 river silt which is lovely but floods, as you come up the valley the soil changes into heavier soils which are rocky; these have good structure but are hard on machinery. Tom explains “We maintain the good structure by not ploughing and using our worms.”

Tom constantly evaluates the business in terms of operational efficiency and costs, and challenged the farmers present to do the same,

“Look at what you do and why you do it and see if you can cut it out.”

The system that Tom runs is fairly low cost and simple, although the farm was one of the early adopters of a cross slot drill (which isn’t low cost!), and he is operating across multiple land owners, the underlying principle is as little (preferably no) tillage as possible. Almost everything across the farm is direct drilled, cover crops are used where possible and compost is applied to help build soil health and carbon. All straw is chopped, nothing is baled (even when the price is high). One of the main motivators for the transition to direct drilling was the high stone content of the soil, Tom comments “Why would we want to bring the rocks up? We want them to go down and with this system they are a lot less of an issue. They are really abrasive and heavy on machinery; when we used to plough we were changing a set of points at lunchtime.”

Tom has been at the forefront of the transition to no till for many years. He started with a disc press, then a Simba  Free flow drill when he realised that moving to no till could work for the soil and system. During his Nuffield travels he focussed on long term no till and visited farmers in Paraguay who had been running a similar system for over 30 years. On his return he purchased his cross slot, and was the second one in operation in the UK. After the introduction to the farm at the grain store, the group loaded onto the trailer and went off to see some crops.

The first stop was to a field which the farm has only recently taken on last year after it had been farmed using a fairly intensive cultivation system with all residues removed.  Tom has direct drilled it with a second wheat, and is taking the time to ‘get some life back into it’ although he admits the process will take 5 years. He will apply compost to the field, chop the straw and aim to get the soil health to improve. When the field was taken on, the field just had a basic soil test, but Tom does test using a more biological analysis routinely across the farm.

The group stopped in front of a big pile of compost which Tom uses to help awaken the soil life. He explains,

“I just want to improve the soil, I use compost and feed the worms, they’ll do the rest.” 

Worms are in abundance on this farm, Tom has done some testing in the past and cites 12 million worms per ha. The compost is made from a lot of horticultural by products which are in abundance in Kent, this heap is made from spent raspberry and strawberry plants and are freely available and a key attribute for turning the soils around.  The compost is applied where it needs to go, there isn’t a set application rate, flexibility is important as well as the logistical challenges!  The compost pile here will be applied to this field to get the roots and the worms working,

The discussions moved onto cover crops and their use across the farm. They have been included as part of the rotations for about the last 8 years.  Cover crop selection depends on budget, what he is trying to achieve and length of time before the next crop, it’s not imperative that everything is cover crops, if there is only going to be a short gap, it’s not the end of the world if it is left. However if he has taken off winter barley or rape then there is space. 

This field had a cover crop planted which was a mix of species and planted March / April time just to get some life back in the soil because it was pretty bare. “The cover crop help to provide that living root,” Tom explains, “and to get organic matter and carbon back into the soil and help the soil to perform. This field was full of rocks from the previous cultivation, we’ve probably picked up 20 tonnes of rock over the winter which we will continue to do, but if we can get the worms to help then so much the better.”

The next stop on the trailer was to look at some wheat from some land that had previously been down to orchards. The range of fields that were visible had been taken on by Tom over the last few years to try and help even things up. The wheat field was Extase, which was looking pretty good on the top but Tom admitted that the conditions had been less than ideal when it went in. There were discussions about the benefits of using the Cross slot or the Horsch drill and whether you could tell which field had been drilled with which!  “The fields can be in a bit of a state after the orchards have been taken out,” Tom explains, “the trees are ripped out and tracked all over with a digger, we’ve literally just run over with a set of discs lightly to level it and then put a crop in with the Horsch drill.  Most of the winter I was thinking it wasn’t going to make it but the crop came through, but it shows what we have to deal with. We will probably low disturbance sub soil it for the remaining roots this year, pick up a load more rocks and it will go into winter beans.”  This was an example of some of the variation that is found across Tom’s farm and the flexibility of management that is required to get the fields into a condition where crops will thrive.

The trailer then took us down through some fields of lavender and up to some fields of wheat that have been under Tom’s management system for much longer.  The wheat field looked absolutely fantastic and one thing that Tom was commenting on was how smooth the tramlines were, which he is seeing more and more as his system develops. “We have been through this field 10 times  with the sprayer as we use it to apply liquid fertiliser as well, so some areas will have had 20 passes, but if you go and have a look at those areas – they look great. This just shows how well structured the soil is, we would have been out in February putting on liquid fert but you can’t even see a mark.”

The field has previously been a pear orchard about 7/8 years ago. The field was drilled with the cross slot on 9 inch rows. The soil looked brilliant, well structured with plenty of worm activity and aggregation.  Questions were asked about the time it takes to get it to this condition, and the ability to transition land which is rented.

“We look after the land like its our own,” Tom explains, “if you can farm it regeneratively then we cover our costs and three years is long enough. We’re confident that if we can look after it right then we’ll maintain that area, its also about relationship building with land owners, we explain our system and our philosophy and that seems to work. We’ll get it right, but it takes time, effort and attention to detail.”

Discussions moved onto Nitrogen and Tom’s current regime, which is a liquid based system. Over the last three years Tom has managed to reduce his Nitrogen by 10% per year which seems to be working well with no adverse impact on crop yield.  He is ensuring that a carbon source is applied with his Nitrogen, to ensure that the microbes are fed and the application is balanced and is keen to experiment in the future with biology though brewing. Tom is also making use of beans within the rotation, to allow for a fertility building phase, growing wheat after beans, then a catch crop and then into a second wheat.

The final block that we stopped at was Rock Farm, which has been developed over the last 10 years, the fields had been in permanent derelict orchards, which were then grubbed and brought into the cropping rotation. The field which we stopped at was growing spring oats which will be followed by first wheat. The oats were all drilled using the cross slot into over wintered stubble.  The challenging weather this year has been problematic for this block, and after 12 successive frosts in April, the crops were looking stressed, but patience and good soil health have carried them through.

The group then headed back to the farm to more discussions and questions. What was evident from the walk was that Tom’s system, which he cites as being low cost and simple has taken years to perfect, which has required dedication, patience, flexibility and attention to detail. The results were to be seen in the fields where the crops looked fantastic and the soil was alive. Everyone went away with a lot of food for thought!

Thank you to Tom and the team at Sewell Farms for a fascinating evening.

Soil Farmer of the Year Farm Walk with Antony Pearce

Posted on July 27, 2021 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

On a muggy evening, and in a COVID compliant way, a group of farmers gathered in Buckinghamshire to hear more about why Antony Pearce was awarded runner up in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.

Antony started the evening giving an introduction to his journey into regenerative agriculture, explaining that his first inspiration was from reading David Montgomery’s book. It was this book that helped to transition from a ‘safe and conventional system’ to a place where he was focused on advanced soil health. This provided a lot of food for thought and alternative ways of thinking about some of our traditional management practices. A key example of his questioning, he explained to the farmer attendees came from the nutrient availability and soil pH graph, that depicts the amount of a nutrient that is available depending on the soil’s pH. 

“It just seemed counter intuitive,” Antony explained, “how could a plant growing in a soil of pH7 never manage to access sufficient quantities of iron?”.  He went onto share his experiences of attending Elaine Ingham’s soil health course which allowed him to satisfy his previous dissatisfaction.  Through learning undertaken within the course, he started to understand the importance of the plant root zone and the ability of plants to create the right environment around the root zone for accessing nutrients, through microbial activity.

“Plants are able to secrete 30-40% of their energy through their roots to feed the bacteria and fungi in the soil, which is why I started to get concerned about the impact of fungicides. If we are relying on the soil fungi to feed the plants, what negative impact are the fungicides having to this relationship?”

As such, Antony started on a quest to remove fungicides from his crop protection programme, instead investigating the use of genetics and varietal choice to ensure that his crops has the best chance to ward off disease pressure. This started with a reduction in applications and now no fungicide is applied on the 150ha of the farm which is managed in a regenerative manner.  However he wasn’t planning on stopping there, the next aspiration was to drastically reduce (and eventually eliminate) Nitrogen fertiliser). Again he credits this decision to learning from the soil food web course – explaining that the application of Nitrogen requires a carbon source for the microbes, and the most readily available carbon source is the liquid carbon being pumped out of the root exudates. He has started dramatically reducing the amount of Nitrogen that he is applying.  

Antony has split the farm in half and manages 150ha of it in a regenerative, low input manner and 150 ha of it conventionally. This provides the opportunity for him to analyse the financial performance of each systems and also see whether there are visual differences in weed pressures, yields and soil health. Initially he was relying on organic manures to provide some nutrients, however it is proving an expensive method of importing nutrients and organic matter; as such, he is looking to move away from organic manures to including more cover crops.  

“My original reason for looking at low input system was after some conversations that were showing the yields that organic farmers expect. My 10 year average from the conventional system is 9.1t. Comparing the numbers, I was spending £130 per tonne for every additional tonne over organic yields. This seemed like something to focus my attention on.”

At this point we left the barn and started to head towards some crops to see the philosophies in action!

The first field that we stopped in was a field of oilseed rape. Immediately the discussions turned to the amount of Nitrogen that had been applied. This field has had no soil applied bagged Nitrogen; it has received 30kg of Nitrogen from digestate and 15kg applied through a foliar application at flowering. The field has also had no fungicides or insecticides. Antony explained that last year he had grown some zero nitrogen wheat which had yielded 6.5t. Discussions soon moved onto blackgrass control, as there were some plants visible in the rape crop. The field has an understorey of clover that was blown into the standing rape crop.  Antony shared some thoughts about whether clover was a useful control measure for blackgrass as in his experience “they don’t seem to get on very well together.”   The clover covers the gaps and provides ground cover and weed suppression, and that is the main reason for it. He explains, “whether it helps my rape yield is immaterial, I don’t want a carpet of blackgrass!”

Antony is planning on utilising more cover crop and spring cropping options through stewardship, as such, is not massively worried about current blackgrass levels, as he feels there are options that allow his to deal with it. His clover understory was blown into the previous wheat crop in April, and when the wheat was harvested, the clover went from something that looked a bit poorly established to a thick mat of cover. In July a rape / fenugreek mix was blown into the standing wheat before it was combined.

“Weeds wise we vary across the farm, but I seem to find there is a direct relationship between soil health and the length of time since the field has been in grass. The longer it has been out of grass the less vigorous the seeds establish.”

 The soil type across the farm is heavy clay. As Antony has transitioned to this farming system, he confesses to being ‘less scared of his land than he used to be’. He is also starting to see results, with last year being the first year that he didn’t find a crack across the farm. The heavy clay soils bring their own challenges, in terms of being able to get on the land and trafficability. He has been improving his soil in the past with the use of compost and is positive about the benefits that compost brings, not just in terms of organic matter, but also in terms of available nitrogen over the longer term. He has worked out that if he regularly applies compost over 5 years, then the following wheat crop will be able to access 200kg of Nitrogen, which provides an interesting experiment to see whether it persists to become available. Compost is made ideally from a 50 / 50 mix from woodchip (Antony runs a free tip service for local tree surgeons) and cow manure.

Ideally all the straw from the farm is chopped and returned, but occasionally there is a swap for some manure with a neighbouring beef farmer.

Being heavy land, (and still including rape in the rotation) the discussion inevitably moved onto slug control and the measures that were in place on the farm. Antony stubble rakes after the rape has been drilled potentially up to 5 times, starting at cotyledon stage. He admits that it is a challenge, which is exacerbated by his desire to get a cover crop in. “It’s a balancing act,” he explains, “ if you need to go for slug control, you need to rake, rake, rake, but you then forego your ability to have a cover crop. Sometimes we manage to get cover through the rape volunteers, and it fulfils the function at the same time.” 

Another aspiration for Antony is to start to be able to hold water across the farm. When he was visiting Gabe Brown in America a lasting memory was discussions about holding more water and providing cover – which gives the rain time to percolate into the soil. He has found a similar experience on his farm, “back in the winter we had a big crop of mustard, and there was a big rainfall event (around 100ml), the field walked beautifully – it managed to hold onto the water and  soak into the soil.” 

One of the other benefits of the transition has been the ability for the rotation to be more flexible. “Originally the risk factors for me to start to adopt spring cropping was the potential for a spring drought,” Antony explains, “if we can now start to develop a system where we can effectively capture water over the winter through the use of a cover crop which lets the rain work its way into the soil, then I don’t need to worry about spring droughts as the water reserves are there.” The ultimate aim is to transition 100% of the farm onto this system.

After the rape field, we crossed the road to go and visit some wheat which has been managed conventionally. The wheat was spring sown and drilled on the 15th March, and was used as a comparison. Across the farm, the aim is always to have a conventional versus low input to be able to scrutinise the results, and look at the costs. The reasoning behind the comparison, is so that Antony can assess the regenerative practices from a cost benefit perspective. The ultimate aspect of success is if these practices are then undertaken on the conventional land.  The field had a mustard cover crop that was spun on with a fertiliser spinner which was then grazed with sheep in early winter before the crop was drilled. The ability to conduct such large scale trials is brilliant in terms of the ability to provide the direct comparison across half the farm. Antony is doing it to show other people what is possible and what isn’t, and he documents his journey through his You Tube channel where he is keen to not just show the successes but also the times where it doesn’t go so well.

The benefits of livestock were then discussed and whether the benefits could be seen immediately. The wheat field had 1000 sheep on it over the winter that were moved regularly, and Antony was keen to point out that on the heavier land, there was a need to leave a rest period between the sheep leaving the field and drilling the subsequent crop. 

“I had a go with a range of options this year from drilling straight behind the sheep, to leaving it up to 2 months, and where the land was left, the crop came better. Without a doubt we need to leave at least a month between the sheep coming out and us drilling. The soil needs time to recover, the worms need to come up to grab the muck and reintroduce the air into the soil.”

In the field that we were looking at, the sheep had come out on the 20th December and the wheat had been drilled in mid March. “We want the sheep to hit it hard and then move on,” Antony explains, “which sometimes can take some explaning. Its worked quite well and I worked together with the shepherd to explain what we wanted and to come up with a system which benefited everyone, and meant as few logistical challenges as possible.  We try and design it so the sheep are hitting the mustard stands earlier in the season and then move onto the vetches later.”

The final fields to look at were a comparison of two fields of oats, The first field has been in long term arable, and was direct drilled. It was visibly different compared to the following field which had been in arable for 3 years after grass. The oats are the Elianne variety and are grown on a gluten free contract for human consumption. Again the oats are managed using a low input system and had only had 15kg of foliar N. They had been stubble raked to liberate some Nitrogen.

Antony is experimenting with different Nitrogen products to see what the best format is for his system, and explains how he ensures that there is a control strip so that a direct comparison can always be made. He then summed up the importance of trialling things out.

“There is a need to provide the evidence as to what works on your farm.”

This epitomises the system that Antony has developed; not just the visual differences in the crops, but the numbers to back it up and an ability to try new things and continue to innovate.

On the walk back to the farmyard, there was an opportunity to see some of the farm’s other diversification projects to ensure future resilience, including turkeys, sloe gin, and the creation of dog arenas.

A fantastic and thought provoking walk which provided lots of new ideas. Thank you so much to Antony for a brilliant evening. To follow Antony’s progress make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel here.

Soil Farmer of the Year: New sponsorship announcement

Posted on February 23, 2021 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

The Farm Carbon Toolkit is delighted to announce that the Soil Farmer of the Year 2021 will be sponsored by crop production specialists, Hutchinsons.

The Soil Farmer of the Year competition is now in its sixth year and aims to promote and champion those farmers who are putting soil health at the core of their farm business management.  Previous finalists and winners are some of the leading lights in the soil health and regenerative agriculture movement, inspiring other farmers by showing what can be done.

“We are very excited to work with Hutchinsons on this year’s competition,” explains Becky Willson, technical manager at Farm Carbon Toolkit. “Their support will allow us to devote more time to the competition to develop resources that can be used to share best practice from our fantastic Soil Farmers.  It will also widen the network of farmers and growers that know about the competition which creates more opportunities for discussion and learning.”

The competition is still open for another 2 weeks, with the deadline for applications on the 5th March. Applications can be taken online through the Farm Carbon Toolkit website and farmers can apply themselves or nominate another farmer who they feel is safeguarding soil health.  Shortlisting will take place during April, and the final farmers are likely to be judged in person during May. The final results are announced in June, with presentations from the farmer finalists taking place at Groundswell.

Ed Brown, Head of Agroecology at Hutchinsons says:

“We are delighted to be supporting the Soil Farmer of the Year competition in 2021. Soil health, integrated crop management and holistic farming practices undoubtedly form a key part of UK Agriculture, so it is important that those farmers who are leading the way and providing a great example are celebrated. The competition is fantastic way to exchange knowledge and experience in soil management and we will be encouraging farmers all across the UK to get involved.”

The Soil Farmer of the Year competition is run in partnership between Farm Carbon Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture, with farmer prizes generously provided by our long term supporter Cotswold Seeds. For more information on the competition please contact Becky Willson at [email protected] 

Soil Farmer of the Year Partners and Sponsor Logos

Soil Farmer of the Year 2021 – finalists announced

Posted on May 20, 2020 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

Soil Farmer of the Year Winners 2021 at Groundswell

The Soil Farmer of the Year competition 2021 has selected seven farmers as finalists. 

The competition, now in its sixth year is organised by the Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) and Innovation for Agriculture (IfA) and is generously sponsored by Hutchinsons and Cotswold Seeds.  

The competition aims to find famers and growers who are engaged with, and passionate about managing their soils in a way which supports productive agriculture, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and builds soil health, organic matter and carbon.

A wide range of farmers applied to the competition, showcasing different farming enterprises, systems and management practices, and seven farmers have made it through the preliminary phase of judging to become finalists.  The judging process now involves visiting each finalist and hearing more about the soil management taking place.

Deborah Crossan Soil and Water manager at Innovation for Agriculture comments “This competition goes from strength to strength and its contribution to highlighting passionate soil management is immeasurable, the summer farm walks are one of my favourite calendar events.”  

Ed Brown, Head of Agroecology for Hutchinsons says “It’s great to be involved with some of the best soil managers in the country. The entrants show how a profitable and sustainable business can put soil health and improvement at the very heart of the enterprise, showcasing industry-leading practices and techniques.”

The seven finalists in this year’s competition are:

  • Casha Bowles Jones from Shropshire
  • Jack Martin from Staffordshire
  • Mark Oldroyd from Oxfordshire
  • Anthony Pearce from Buckinghamshire
  • Rob Raven from Suffolk
  • Tom Sewell from Kent
  • Sam Vincent from Dorset

All of these finalists will now be judged to decide the final positions which will be announced at Groundswell in June. The farm walks are due to take place on the top three farms in July.

Soil Farmer of the Year Partners and Sponsor Logos

Soil Farmer of the Year 2020 Farm Walk with John Martin

Posted on September 23, 2020 by - Insights, Soil Farmer of the Year

Learn more about why John Martin was awarded runner up in this year’s competition.

John farms 300 acres in Dorset on an all arable rotation with two thirds of the farm in spring cropping. The farm was a former dairy farm until 2000, and since then the overarching aim of the management has been to keep the soil status in good health. John’s farm is situated in an area with a high degree of designations on it, being within a Class 1 Soil Protection Zone, an NVZ and the Poole Harbour Catchment, meaning that there has been a large focus on efficient nutrient use, especially on nitrogen.

A key strategy employed on the farm to boost soil health and also to help capture nutrients has been the use of cover cropping. All of the land that is in spring crops has a cover crop before it, and John has been experimenting with increasing the diversity of the mix. The mix now includes sunflowers, buckwheat, phacelia, linseed, and various clovers to ensure that the soil biology have a diverse diet.

John explains:

It’s like taking a coach party of people to a fish and chip shop, some will want fish, some sausage and some pie and chips. All of the soil bugs bring something to the party and are all important, so we need to provide a diverse food supply for them so they can do their jobs.”  Nothing is set in stone however and everything is flexible. The farm grows a high proportion of spring cropping, which allows the cover crops to be utilised fully. John explains “We harvest sunshine for 6 months of the year to feed the combine (and the bank manager), we can spend the other 6 months feeding the soil.

The diversity of cover crops grown provide lots of roots to feed the soil microbes and rapid breakdown of Nitrogen release for the spring.  

The group then moved onto look at some flower strips which John has planted in one of his fields through the ASSIST project. The overarching aim of these was to encourage biodiversity into the fields rather than just being round the edges, and also to allow the farmer to move away from insecticides and use natural pest management. The strips are 8m wide with 2m of tussocky grasses framing the flowers in the middle. John is seeing the benefits of these strips, but is learning as the project develops.

The first year we just planted some annual strips of flowers, but it was a little bit like a drive through McDonalds; so we then replaced them with permanent strips that provide food and habitat throughout the year.

The strips were established at the end of March with a Vaderstaad Drill.  and were cut every 8 days.  John has these strips in a variety of fields and has three strips per field. Next year the plan is to cut them once or twice.

John is farming on chalk soils and enjoys the challenges that this soil type can bring. He first started looking at soils in the 80s, digging his first soil pit in 1985. This then prompted a move towards bigger, low ground pressure tyres and focussing on axle weights of machinery to minimise compaction. There is always a spade in the tractor allowing John to assess the structure of the soil at two key periods in the year; in winter when the soils are wet, to assess how the drainage is doing, and then after cultivation to see whether the machine has achieved its goal.

The chalk soils mean that John is keen to build resilience in his soils to aid water retention. A key strategy is focussing on returning organic matter to the soil to build humus. All of the crop residues are chopped and returned to the fields and 75% of the farm is cover cropped to ensure that there is something growing all year round. When John started his transition to enhanced soil management he took some baseline soil samples.

He explains

“We tested fields for organic matter and they weren’t bad, but we wanted to get another 1 – 1.5%. If we can get hold of that then we’ve got more resilient soils to do spring cropping. We can tell that we are moving in the right direction as the soils are much more springy. That elasticity is coming from the humus and the soils are developing the resilience to carry us through.”

The farm is situated in a highly protected area for water qualiy. The farm sits above a Wessex Water pumping station and as such Nitrogen is limited and cover crops are always grown. John’s next step is looking at how to cut his Nitrogen back on his spring barley and is making good progress on its reduction. “We’ve got to make more out of Nitrogen,” John explains, “which is all about looking at holding onto nutrients over the winter and then using it efficiently during the growing season.”

John has been running various trials on the farm, including one with Wessex Water looking at cover crops after peas, to try and find a way of harvesting the Nitrogen in the soil after peas. After the peas were harvested, a cover crop was drilled and when the cover crop was up and away in mid November the next crop wsas direct drilled into it. The cover crop was sprayed out in the spring. Although this approach led to a 20% yield penalty the leaching from the porous pots (which Wessex Water had installed to look at leaching rates) dropped from 67% to 4%. This trial is being run again this year with different mixes of cover crops that are established and terminated in different ways to look at the optimal method which effectively captures Nitrogen but provides a good yield.

John’s focus on his soils is linked to his overarching aims for the farm which is to develop a more sustainable way of farming with consistent yields. “You never stop learning when you are focussed on the soil” John explains, “and it’s a fascinating adventure.”

Thank you to John and his family for a brilliant walk.

Soil Farmer of the Year 2020 Walk with Jake Freestone

Posted on September 23, 2020 by - Soil Farmer of the Year

More information about the farm walk which took place with 2020’s Arable winner Jake Freestone.

On a cold but bright day after months of lockdown, a few intrepid farmers gathered to attend the first of 2020’s Soil Farmer of the Year Farm walks with Arable winner Jake Freestone.

Introduction

Jake has been managing Overbury Farms since 2003. The farm sits within the wider business of Overbury Enterprises on the Gloucestershire / Worcestershire border and is a mixed farm with 1600 ha of farmland, both permanent pasture and arable cropping, some land let out for vegetable production and a flock of 1000 ewes. The soils are incredibly varied on the farm from Cotswold Brash to an Evesham Clay series, and the farm has a diverse and wide rotation to help deal with the variety. The rotation includes wheat, spring barley, oilseed rape, peas, beans, linseed and quinoa. Jake started focussing on soil health and looking at adapting management following his Nuffield scholarship, working on a reduction in cultivation, improving organic matter and diversifying the rotation.

The first step on the tour was to see a new experiment of Jake’s which he has developed recently with the aim of growing a fungally dominated inoculum to treat the seed with. He has three IBC’s currently in use, for the three different soil types that are found on the farm. Within each one there is a mix of woodchip, FYM, poultry manure, hay, straw and grass clippings, which should create a fungally rich seed dressing. Each IBC can do 250ha worth of seed dressing, which should be a fine crumbly dark structure which is applied at 1kg/ha. It is mixed with molasses (for an energy source) and milk (a food source) and put into a specially adapted front mounted tank and sprayed in the furrow.  The IBCs need a watering system set up to keep it moist and the temperature is monitored with a probe. Jake reckons that it will take about a year to make, which will then be trialled on next years crops.  He is planning to make another two over the winter for application in spring 2022.

Video on biological seed dressings

“Its so important to ensure that we are putting enough back,” explained Jake, “being able to identify what are producing would be very exciting, however the worth of it is to improve the fungal levels within the soil. It should last a long time depending on how good what we make is. If it’s good enough quality then we can keep some back and add some more base material. What’s great is that we are using the biology that is born and bred on our farm so is hopefully adapted to our conditions.”

After looking at the bioreactors, the group moved to the drill and the brewing shed. Jake is brewing mixed which are applied from a tank and pump that he has fixed to the drill. The preparations are brewed for 24hours before they are used. Jake explains that timing is everything – “It can be hard work with the logistics! It needs to be used on the day of manufacture and temperature is critical, as ideally the water should be 22 – 24 degrees C. The mix includes molasses, amino N which is a bacterial feed, and Nitrogen fixing and phosphate releasing bacteria which are introduced to aerobic water which is bubbling constantly. The IVCs are on a trailer and taken out to the field and pumped into the tractor.”

Although it can be tricky logistically, Jake is seeing financial benefits from this system. “Its costing about £15 per hectare, which when compared to DAP at £40/ha is better. From an economic point, its halving the seed cost per ha.” The improved soil health is also providing biodiversity benefits, Jake has a local bird ringing group which has found huge numbers of skylarks on the farm.  He credits the increase to not disturbing the soil and not using insecticides, as well as the increased amount of food present for wildlife due to keeping the fields covered.

After looking at machinery, the group got on trailers and went to look at some of the crops on the farm. The first stop was a cover crop full of sunflowers. This mix was a 16 species mix, including clovers, sunflowers, linseed, millet, buckwheat, phacelia and stubble turnips. The mix has been selected as it provides multiple functions for soil health and biodiversity but also has great nutritional qualities for the sheep enterprise.

“Its important to allow our permanent pastures time to rest,” Jake explains. “This field had 450 ewes on it and they need to come out in good condition. The sheep did brilliantly on it, and we had the benefit of the manure on the field.”

The importance of living cover video

Jake is also using a range of other organic materials on the farm to help feed the soil and build organic matter which includes chicken litter and biosolids.

Cover crop costs

Jake always ensures that there is a good level of diversity within the cover crops chosen, which allows for resilience if the weather conditions are less than ideal. He selects his mixes based on %ge of different species rather than number of seeds / ha and admits that these covers aren’t the cheapest. The mix that was in the field being discussed has cost £70/ha which Jake admitted was a big cost, however he explained that there were multiple benefits that come from this expenditure. “We need to look at what we now don’t have to put into the following wheat crop since we have had the cover crop in. We can cut Nitrogen and not apply any phosphates. Its important to ensure that we have some C4 species within the mix to really supercharge the carbon.”

Jake was so impressed with the way that the sheep performed on the cover crops this year that he is considering finishing the lambs on them next year.  He is currently using 40 ha of herbal leys which are being rotationally grazed again providing that rest period for the permanent pasture which is predominantly parkland.

There are big strides being made on the elusive goal of reducing Nitrogen applications at Overbury. Historically more Nitrogen was applied on this farm, however rates are reducing and the overall goal is to use it as efficiently as possible.

The use of other inputs on the farm is dropping. Insecticides haven’t been used for 4/5 years on rape, and Jake has been experimenting with companion cropping with rape. The companion cropping has replaced the pre-em herbicide, but the timing of terminating the companion crop can be tricky to balance.

Following the cover crop the group moved up the hill to look at a trial that Jake has been running on some of his rape. The soil was alive, full of worms and in great structure. Jake is starting to see the difference in how the soil functions – the soil is sticking to the crop roots.

Opportunities to reduce inputs further video

The group then moved to look at a field of wheat which was drilled on the 28th September. The field had an application of biosolids and was drilled into a crop of peas which weren’t harvested.

“This soil has responded so well to the change in system,” Jake commented, “the heavy land has responded but in a slower manner, whereas this lighter land is doing brilliantly.”

Questions were asked around the yield implications of the change in management to a direct drill system, and whether Jake had experienced the infamous dip in yield in years 3 and 4.

“This year wasn’t anything to shout about, but for winter cropping I haven’t seen that dip in yields. The last 3 years have been very difficult dry springs and yields have suffered as a result, but with lower growing costs and reduced blackgrass pressure, due to direct drilling, the margins have remained the same..”

The final stop was a field of barley where a soil pit revealed a good number of worms despite the cold temperatures. 

Digging holes video

Jake explains:

“Ultimately we are trying to use all the tools that we have to improve soil organic matter, water infiltration and wider water management, soil structure and soil biology to achieve the long term goal of improving our resilience both for our crops, our business and our soil.”

Thank you to Jake and his team for an absolutely brilliant socially distanced walk. 

Soil Farmer of the Year 2021 – finalists announced

Posted on May 20, 2021 by - News, Soil Farmer of the Year

The Soil Farmer of the Year competition 2021 has selected seven farmers as finalists. 

The competition, now in its sixth year is organised by the Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) and Innovation for Agriculture (IfA) and is generously sponsored by Hutchinsons and Cotswold Seeds.  

The competition aims to find famers and growers who are engaged with, and passionate about managing their soils in a way which supports productive agriculture, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and builds soil health, organic matter and carbon.

A wide range of farmers applied to the competition, showcasing different farming enterprises, systems and management practices, and seven farmers have made it through the preliminary phase of judging to become finalists.  The judging process now involves visiting each finalist and hearing more about the soil management taking place.

Deborah Crossan Soil and Water manager at Innovation for Agriculture comments “This competition goes from strength to strength and its contribution to highlighting passionate soil management is immeasurable, the summer farm walks are one of my favourite calendar events.”  

Ed Brown, Head of Agroecology for Hutchinsons says “It’s great to be involved with some of the best soil managers in the country. The entrants show how a profitable and sustainable business can put soil health and improvement at the very heart of the enterprise, showcasing industry-leading practices and techniques.”

The seven finalists in this year’s competition are:

  • Casha Bowles Jones from Shropshire
  • Jack Martin from Staffordshire
  • Mark Oldroyd from Oxfordshire
  • Anthony Pearce from Buckinghamshire
  • Rob Raven from Suffolk
  • Tom Sewell from Kent
  • Sam Vincent from Dorset

All of these finalists will now be judged to decide the final positions which will be announced at Groundswell in June. The farm walks are due to take place on the top three farms in July.