James Warne from Soil First Farming defends urea and shows it may well be an easy scapegoat for the rise inatmospheric ammonia levels When I have something on my mind I tend to reach for a cup of tea and a biscuit. Those who have seen me will be able to verify this happens often. …
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 …
Written by Ian Gould, Director of Oakbank Game and Conservation Ltd In an attempt to take myself out of my own comfort zone and into a new learning arena, I decided to venture across the “Pond” and immerse myself in US Agriculture for a week. Arriving in Indianapolis in January 2019 I was intent on …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming Ever measured the brix levels of your crops? Been told that if you achieve the magic figure of ~15% brix then you won’thave an issue with pest and disease? I have spent the last couple of years testing brix (during the spring) of most crops I visit …
By James Warne, Soil First Farming I recently attended the appropriately entitled ‘Calcium Conference’ which served to remind me of the importance to distinguish between calcium and pH balance within our soils, and also the importance of calcium to the dairy cow. How easily we confuse the use of calcium has with the role of …
