Join us for the first Soil Farmer of the Year Revisited with the 2020 Livestock Soil Farmer of the Year Alex Brewster of Rotmell Farming
Rotmell Farming is based in Perthshire, running an upland beef and sheep system over approximmately 1000 hectares. Alex has been working on building the biological capacity within the soil through the use of rotational and mob grazing systems. Starting out with a transition to a rotational grazing system, this has now adapted and is a hybrid mob system with a focus on improving the diversity of plants within the pasture. Other goals are to improve both soil organic matter and pH through the use of animals and to build a deeper root depth and mass to allow the plants to access slightly warmer soils and moisture found deeper in the soil when temperatures drop in the winter.
The farm walk will begin at 2pm and provide the opportunity to hear the learnings of Alex and the team since being awarded the Livestock Soil Farmer of the Year in 2020.
The event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
Ben Richards has been awarded Third Place in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition. As a dairy farmer based in Cornwall, Ben has built his system around resilient soils to provide the forage and nutrition his herd needs rather than relying on imports.
The dairy platform focuses on using herbal leys to manage the challenges of mixed soils on the farm, with some very heavy clays and areas of lighter sands. Ben has also established an agroforestry system, designed to provide further feed for the cattle and also provide a natural drainage solution.
The farm walk will begin at 14:00 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Ben’s management strategy has benefitted his business, leading him to be awarded Third Place in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
This event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
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To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the Eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Ben Richards (3rd place, left), Ed Horton (runner up, centre), Tracy Russell & David Newman (winners, right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2024.
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Tracy & David’s, and Ed’s farm walks on our events page here.
The runner-up in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition is Ed Horton. Ed’s business encompasses a diverse mixed system across a range of soil types and geographies, where reducing overheads has been central to profitability.
Sustainability on the farm has been shaped by agroecological principles, blending conventional and innovative approaches to create resilience in harmony with nature. Ed has created a system focused on profit rather than yield, integrating the livestock systems into the arable and working with local buyers to create direct supply chains with specialist crops. With a move to more spring cropping to meet market demand, the grazing of arable crops has become a key component of this system. Livestock provides huge benefits for soil management, through increased cover cropping and also through reducing the requirement for inputs such as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides as winter material is grazed leaving crops healthier in the spring.
The farm walk will begin at 9:30 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Ed’s management strategy has benefitted his business, leading him to be awarded Second Place in this year’s SFOTY competition
This event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the Eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Ben Richards (3rd place, left), Ed Horton (runner up, centre), Tracy Russell & David Newman (winners, right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2024.
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Tracy & David’s, and Ben’s farm walks on our events page here.
Bucksum, based in Buckinghamshire is the business of Tracy Russell and David Newman where they produce over 40 varieties of salads, herbs, fruits and vegetables in their market garden. This year’s winners of the Soil Farmer of the Year competition, David and Tracy operate with huge attention to detail, focusing on rotation and maximising soil health and functionality to provide nutritious, high quality produce whilst enhancing the biodiversity of their landscape.
The business operates from 16 acres of rented land, with approximately 4 acres cropped each year. Through integrating herbal leys, homemade soil improvers and a four-year rotation David and Tracy have created a thriving food business with resilient soil at its heart, able to supply their farm shop and beyond.
The farm walk will begin at 15.30 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Bucksum’s management strategy has benefitted their business, leading them to be awarded First Place in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
This event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the Eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Ben Richards (3rd place, left), Ed Horton (runner up, centre), Tracy Russell & David Newman (winners, right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2024.
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Ed’s and Ben’s farm walks on our events page here.
Bucksum, based in Buckinghamshire is the business of Tracy Russell and David Newman where they produce over 40 varieties of salads, herbs, fruits and vegetables in their market garden. This year’s winners of the Soil Farmer of the Year competition, David and Tracy operate with huge attention to detail, focusing on rotation and maximising soil health and functionality to provide nutritious, high quality produce whilst enhancing the biodiversity of their landscape.
The business operates from 16 acres of rented land, with approximately 4 acres cropped each year. Through integrating herbal leys, homemade soil improvers and a four-year rotation David and Tracy have created a thriving food business with resilient soil at its heart, able to supply their farm shop and beyond.
The farm walk will begin at 15.30 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Bucksum’s management strategy has benefitted their business, leading them to be awarded First Place in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
This event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the Eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Ben Richards (3rd place, left), Ed Horton (runner up, centre), Tracy Russell & David Newman (winners, right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2024.
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Ed’s and Ben’s farm walks on our events page here.
Soil management is central to operations at R&L Anthony Ltd. Based near Bridgend in South Wales, the arable farming operation has grown to encompass a vast variety of soil types and conditions, with the associated challenges of staying profitable whilst minimising environmental impact. The rotation encompasses combinable crops alongside forage production, utilising cover crops and integrated management to maximise soil health and carbon capture. Richard hosts a vast selection of trials at the farm, including different varieties of cover crops and the national trial list for combinable cropping; cover and companion crops are central to the arable operation, used to improve drainage, scavenge nutrients and reduce fuel usage through improving soil structure. Through continuously refining the management system Richard has halved fungicide use, eliminated insecticides and hugely reduced the fertiliser requirement through managing the soil to keep the biology working.
The farm walk will begin at 13:00 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Richard’s management strategy has benefitted his business, leading him to be awarded Second Place in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
The event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Richard Anthony (2nd place, centre), alongside Bronagh O’Kane (3rd place, left) and Stuart Johnson (winner, right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2023.
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Bronagh and Stuart’s farm walks on our events page here.
Having come back to the farm in 2020, Bronagh has begun a journey to transform the soil. Historically the farm has supported continental cattle breeds on a high reliance on imported feed, Bronagh has transitioned to more traditional breeds managed on grasslands. Utilising a small pasture grazing system she has increased the grazing period by 4 weeks and soils are more resilient to the extremes of dry and wet weather. Bronagh has started producing her own vermicast and composting to improve soil biology, focusing on natural inputs and a softer approach with foliar fertilisers where needed to manage historically compact and imbalanced soils. The walk will provide the opportunity to discuss and demonstrate the practices undertaken at the farm and the ongoing challenges and successes that Bronagh sees in her system.
The farm walk will begin at 14:00 and will provide an opportunity to further hear how Bronagh’s management led her to be awarded third place at this years Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
The event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Bronagh O’Kane (3rd place, left) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2023, alongside Richard Anthony (2nd place, centre) and Stuart Johnson (winner, right).
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Stuart and Richard’s farm walks on our events page here.
Based in Northumberland, Stuart has been transforming his farm over the last 10 years to reduce inputs, improve soil health and livestock productivity. Moving to a strip-tillage system and mob grazing platform has provided financial success alongside a more resilient business. Stuart has now eliminated fertiliser on his grassland and fungicides in the arable crops, instead utilising an integrated system with the livestock and compost teas to grow what is needed on the farm. The farm is currently in a seven year rotation of a five year legume/herb mix followed by a two-year arable break with full grass grazing for the sheep and cattle meaning that there is no need to buy in additional supplementary feed over the summer months.
The farm walk will begin at 14:00 and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Stuarts’s management strategy has benefitted his livestock and business, leading him to be awarded the Soil Farmer of the Year Winner in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
The event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footwear. Light refreshments will be provided.
To book:
To book your free place on this walk please head to the eventbrite page here and reserve a spot!
Stuart Johnson (far right) at the announcement of the SFOTY competition winners at Groundswell Agriculture 2023, alongside Richard Anthony (2nd place, centre) and Bronagh O’Kane (3rd place, left).
Other SFOTY farm walks:
Keep an eye out for news of Bronagh and Richard’s farm walks on our events page here.
Billy Lewis hosts a farm walk demonstrating the system which led him being chosen as the 2022 Soil Farmer of the Year Winner
About this event
Based in Herefordshire, Billy’s focus on the farm has been to regenerate tired soils which have previously been in a high-intensity arable system through integrating livestock alongside increasing species diversity. The arable rotation on the farm is fully integrated with herbal leys and diverse swards to ensure livestock are able to graze and improve soil health and productivity. This management approach, in combination with a composting system, has allowed Billy to half the nitrogen used on farm and drastically reduce fossil fuel usage. Utilising a mob system for rotational grazing Billy has been able to finish lambs on a purely forage-based diet, with additional feed inputs now minimal across both the sheep and pedigree Hereford cattle enterprises.
The farm walk will begin at 14:00 (and last around 2-3hrs) and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Billy’s management strategy has benefitted his livestock and business, leading him to be awarded the Mixed Farm Winner in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
The event will take place outside and refreshments will be provided.
The Soil Farmer of the Year competition is run in partnership with Innovation for Agriculture and kindly sponsored by Hutchinsons and Cotswold Seeds.
David Miller hosts a farm walk demonstrating the system which led him being chosen as the 2022 Arable Soil Farmer of the Year
About this event:
Based in Hampshire, David is this year’s arable Soil Farmer of the Year. David designed an approach whereby he has drastically reduced fuel consumption, crop protection inputs and fertiliser across a diverse arable system. Through combining direct drilling with the use of strategic cover and companion cropping within the rotation, David has reduced his need for bagged fertilisers, with 25% less nitrogen used and no applied phosphate or potassium for 7 years. Instead David uses roots to harvest what is needed for the following crop. David focuses on creating a profitable arable enterprise through creating a more resilient system with the soil at its heart
The farm walk will begin at 14:00 (and last around 2-3hrs), and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how David’s management strategy has resulted in vast emissions savings and benefits to the bottom line, leading him to be awarded the Arable Winner in this year’s Soil Farmer of the Year competition.
The event will take place outside and refreshments will be provided.
The Soil Farmer of the Year competition is run in partnership with Innovation for Agriculture and kindly sponsored by Hutchinsons and Cotswold Seeds
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