Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming Many years of looking at soil proves to me that cultivations never improve soil structure. They may help to overcome an immediate problem – like compaction. But they are only ever a short-term fix; and not a very good one, either. Cultivations always leave some sort of …
Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming It seems everyone is doing ‘regen’ these days. There is a lot of confusion and miscommunication around what it means. I was at a meeting recently where I heard someone proclaim that their arable business was carbon neutral even though they were still ploughing, combi-drilling and using …
Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming What an extraordinary growing season we seem to have had. In a nutshell, very low rainfall, low temperatures until June and good levels of solar radiation (sunshine) resulting in generally good yields with good specific weight and moderate protein. Especially so as most crops senesced approximately 2 …
James Warne from Soil First Farming defends urea and shows it may well be an easy scapegoat for the rise in atmospheric ammonia levels It seems as though we are due to loose solid urea fertilisers very soon, or at least that is the conclusion I take from reading the current ‘Consultation on reducing ammonia …
The Future Of Solid Urea Fertilisers Is On Trial. Read More »
Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming “I don’t care what colour it is, what it looks like or it’s consistency, it’s lime, get it spread” were words quoted to me recently by an agronomist who clearly didn’t understand the basics of some simple chemistry. The above quote was part of a conversation about …
Written by James Warne, Soil First Farming Social media can be a useful source and tool for knowledge transfer, discussion around various topics etc. But far too often it can also be the source of misinformation or confirmation of prejudice, particularly where the discussion deviates from received wisdom. I am referring here to agriculturally based …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming In the years from 1979 to 2016 there was a 97% drop in sulphur dioxide emissions to air in the UK. That’s a reduction of 6.32 million tonnes over 37 years. While the UK has made an impressive shift to clean up our atmosphere this has resulted …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming In my article in the last edition of this humble magazine I discussed basic cover cropping strategy, in this article I willcover some of the frequent questions which have been posed to me since that article. I accept that to many this mayseem obvious but if you …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming A cover crop can be anything that is not intended to be harvested. It is simply there to provide soil cover, lightinterception, push roots in the soil and carbon sequestration. If you are following a true Conservation Agriculture (CA) system, cover cropping is an essential part of …
Cover Crop Strategy Getting It Right For Success. Read More »
By James Warne of Soil First Farming Drilling is the only operation you have to really influence the crop you harvest later, if the establishment is poor you areconstantly playing a game of catch-up. Get it right and suddenly the husbandry of the crop becomes ever so much easier. I appreciate that sounds obvious and …
