Back Issues

As I sit down to write my latest article, I’m reminded that 8 years ago today I was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship. I was selected as part of the #Nuffield13 year group to study “The long-term benefits of no-till farming”. I remember walking onto the stage at the Nuffield conference to be presented with my tie by two very high-profile farming personalities, one of whom said, “It won’t work in a wet year”!

Interestingly, that was in November 2012 at a hotel in Stratford, surrounded by very wet and soggy fields! 

Looking back over the past 8 years its incredible to think how much I have seen, heard and learnt in that time. We continue to make mistakes and frustratingly, we continue to make some of the same mistakes. These are usually cultivating lightly/shallow or subsoiling. We do these cultivations for very good reason, but I almost always regret doing so! 

This year has been no exception!

I have a quote on my workshop wall that says, “in the midst of difficulty lies opportunity”. Well this year has certainly been a challenge, but we have also had many opportunities to take on extra land both to rent and contract. These new pieces of land come in various shapes and sizes (normally small, rocky and with lots of corners!) and having been farmed in different ways by different people. Some of the new land is ex orchard so has needed to be levelled and subsoiled. Some bore the brunt of a horrific 2019 autumn and needed some care and attention, but other fields just needed the rocks picking up then straight in with the drill.

This autumn we have planted 900 acres of wheat in 55 fields between me and Dad using our 4.8m cross-slot and a 4m Horsch Sprinter. The option of a tine and hybriddisc drill has enabled us to drill wheat into a number of previous stubbles/crops. These include: wheat, barley, oilseed rape, lavender, pear & apple orchard, beans, grass, fallow, spring oats, grain maize and cover crops. To be fair most of the wheat ranges from “pretty good” to “ok”. The bits that are struggling are where we had to level some lavender beds and the seedbed was very fine, and a late grubbed apple orchard that was then cultivated and drilled in less than ideal conditions. Having said that, the purchase of a second-hand 4m Horsch sprinter in the spring allowed us to get some crops in where otherwise we would have struggled.

We took the opportunity to try out a number of different drill points on the Sprinter to assess their suitability on our ground. The drill planted 100ha of beans in November direct into spring barley stubbles. The drill was fitted with 1” Dutch points, 2 legs with Bourgault VOS 19mm points and 2 legs with Metcalfe 12mm points. The difference in performance and wear rates was staggering and the conclusion was that the drill will be fitted with 19mm VOS points from now on! For the first time in 2 years we can now say that we have everything planted that we had planned! The drills are washed, oiled and away and thoughts turn to winter jobs.

We are bringing in compost from a neighbouring soft fruit grower (strawberry & raspberry plants), grubbing another orchard and working on logistics for next harvest given that we are now farming for 14 separate landowners!! It’s odd to think that there are no meetings, shows or farm walks to look forward to this winter. There’s not much spare cash floating about after one of the worst harvests on record either so a “make-do and mend” approach will see us spend plenty of time in the workshop this winter. Thankfully, it has a kettle and a wood burner!

When I think back to the couple of years of my Nuffield Scholarship travels and all that entailed the main four findings still ring true. These were……

1) Embrace low disturbance no-till seeding

2) Retain residues on stubbles after harvest (or muck for straw)

3) Use diverse rotations including spring breaks and legumes 4) Grow cover crops between cash crops and keep a growing root in the soil

Looking back at these simple 4 principles I honestly think that they still ring true for us on our farm in South East England. It’s so easy to think that things must change and evolve but this year the main conclusion for me is “Less is more”!!

Our best emerging wheats are where we have drilled direct into stubbles with the cross-slot. Anything cultivated, scratched, subsoiled or ploughed looks a very distant second to the No-till crops. Yes, we do have 2 fields that are following the plough! They are ex pear orchards and were offered to us by a new landlord at 24hrs notice!! They had already been ploughed so we just levelled them with a Heva discroller and drilled with the Sprinter. The consistency in emergence of crops where the field has been in a no-till system for over 5 years is really impressive with even crops right up to the hedge. The number of undisturbed worm channels and root fissures within the soil profile help drainage, aeration, root development and really don’t want tampering with!

Without a busy winter of meetings ahead it’s easy to lose contact with other farmers and miss out on those chats and catch ups at shows we always look forward to. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been able to chat to a number of farmer friends and it’s always good to hear what everyone’s up to! Do give a friend a call over the winter just to see how they are doing and catch up on what’s going on.

I’m very fortunate to not only have completed a Nuffield Scholarship but also the Worshipful Company of Farmers ABM course and am currently on the Leadership Programme run by the Institute of Agricultural Management. The friends made on these courses have, in many cases, become friends for life and it’s great to catch up with them. I do love to hear which farmer is buying what drill and how many horsepower they think they will need to pull it! From a number of conversations, it seems as though production lines will be very busy building drills for the UK market and that all the ‘Cool-kids’ will have red 12m drills to play with next year! I look forward to watching with interest, whilst not forgetting that other favourite quote of mine “comparison is the thief of joy”!!!

Lastly can I wish you all a well-deserved rest over Christmas and the New Year. If 2020 has taught us anything it is to value those around us and get our priorities in order.

May 2021 be a normal year! Whatever that is?!

Well, I am sitting here thinking of how the last eight months have been since my debut article back in April and I do not think there is any way to sugar coat it, it’s just been bloody moderate (in fact probably less than moderate) with all that is going on in the world but the focus does lie at what is going on, on the farm and again faced with weather patterns that are not always conducive with farming above the snow line.

Let’s start with some positives: lock down, it did make me realise how lucky we are working in this industry. I cannot quite comprehend what it must have been like for those in large towns and cities as we all know there is a lot of advantages of being able to walk out your front door to your place of work. The schools closed which for our family life was fantastic coming as it did into a busy spring following the awful autumn of 2019. We spent more time with each other, with my son working with us and teaching my daughter to drill, and there was plenty of that ahead of us in the coming weeks. It was time spent together that is not always possible.

With 80% of the farm to spring crops the weather was good initially, conditions improving all the time and cereals emerging well. The prolonged dry did start to affect soil conditions especially when we started to drill our spring o-s-r after our failed winter rape. The surface had capped from the autumn’s drilling and was unable to create a good enough environment for the spring rape. I thought we still had plenty of moisture below the surface so I pulled the old Xpress out from the nettles and used that just to create that improved environment ahead of the drill. The rape emerged well and evenly on the whole but still no rain!

The cereals and beans did not seem to be taking any hurt but the rape just seemed to sit there not doing a great lot. I was thinking ‘had I done the right thing by moving more soil than some would advocate’ and it felt like weeks. But the first true leaf appeared followed by the second and third and it just took off to our great relief. The power that plants have to survive and grow is quite amazing. Then came the rain probably in time for those above the snow line and crops seemed to flourish.

Calving started in the last week of April. Dry of course but cold, not exactly short sleeved weather. Calving 135 cows in three groups: one mob grazed; one strip grazed; and the others had been out wintered and calved on an area of permanent pasture. Also 35 heifers which had been out wintered that we brought inside for calving, normally we would have to assist some of the heifers but all calved without any help. But the cows for some strange reason were not as simple as we had to assist five – all with large calves and none ended well but that’s farming!

But with a great effort from all the team the spring calving and sowing went really well on the whole.

Of course when it starts to rain it soon feels like it forgets to stop. Hay and haylage making did seem a little tedious, crops were not as heavy due to the dry in early spring but there were windows of opportunities and just by good luck definitely not good management, we managed to make some good hay but the weather continued to feel more autumnal than summer. Harvest had started for many around us, but with us not having any winter barley it did feel a little frustrating. It was time to go on holiday but there wasn’t much appetite for that due to Covid, and not sure people and planes were going to do much for me.

So, harvest did eventually start between the showers cutting some less than average winter rape. It did not fill us with much confidence for the rest of harvest, but I have been known to be wrong once or twice before. The last few days of August saw us have a start with some wheat and considering the previous autumn and spring I was remarkably surprised with its yield but the weather was not settled and in those first few of weeks of harvest we lost at least 10 days due to rain – not large quantities just enough to be rather annoying, The weather did seem to settle and harvest continued with completion on the 10th October [it has been later] and better than anticipated on the whole.

Now for those less positive things. It often feels that there just is not enough time in a day or do you put it down to poor forward planning? I possibly plan for the ideal and not the average but then some things in farming are just out of your control and I am sure you don’t need me to tell you what they are. Winter rape and linseed have established relatively well considering wheat harvest was stop start and delayed. We have a proportion of wheat that looks ok, but for the wheat after the spring rape and spring oats, and winter beans after the spring barley that we got drilled I think we are looking at a total failure. I am sitting here thinking of a way of sugar coating it and to look for some positives but I really am struggling.

The reality is that in a normal year, if there is such a thing, you should be able to drill in the last ten days of September confident of success, but with constant rain from June not in large quantities and then the 22nd September we had 36mm and that turned our fragile soils to conditions that were just ok, so continuing to drill wheat and beans still with confidence but the weekend of the 3rd October we had 74mm over 36 hours and then another 48mm over the next two weeks. Surprisingly I think it was the last 48mm over that longer period that caused the real damage with no respite to allow ground to drain. It is rather frustrating to say the least. You question the system and what could I have done differently if anything. We have a lot of questions but not many answers. All I do know is there is nothing I can do about it today and accept the fact that there is going to be another year with a larger area of spring crop than would normally been planned we just need to turn the page and move on.

All that has focused the mind a little. You do think what could you of done differently and I think even with our small window of opportunity there are certain things we can improve on. The main thing is the growing of cover crops. I think they are so important to Regen Ag and I feel we have let slip our focus on this for stabilizing our soil and retaining nutrients over winter. Today it could have opened up opportunities for us to alter the rotation and enable us to drill a winter crop if we had a good cover crop. I think conditions would have allowed us to do that today.

I am sure that I am not the only one that has failures and you do need to surround yourself with people that build confidence and support you in anything you do as it’s not easy if it’s not the normal.

To end on a positive, on the back of Covid, my involvement as Chairman of BASE-UK and the great Committee and our administrator Rebecca who work so hard organizing webinars for our members this is what gives you the confidence to continue down the road of CA, Regen AG.

I look forward to the end of Covid and hopefully being able to be out on farm in the New Year.

Fake news?

Harvest 2020 was never going to be great, the perfect storm of a wet autumn and winter followed by a spring drought was always going to end in disappointment. When it came to yields any usual excitement and anticipation was replaced by simple desire to clear ground of such uninspiring crops and start again in the hope of a better season next year, an endless instinct of optimism that seems bred into all farmers. As combines started rolling our fears were confirmed and average yields were the lowest I have ever been responsible for. We consoled ourselves that weather had placed the outcome beyond our control and at least the right management decisions had been made to reduce spend in attempt to maintain margin. Prices are good but almost theoretical when you have so much less to sell, solace only found in a decision made to carry over harvest 2019 milling wheat taken during the spring drought once it became clear that yields were surely going to be lower and storage space un-stretched at harvest.

As a business that farms mostly land belonging to others under contract farming agreements there is always a day of reckoning post-harvest when the results are announced. We work closely with our landowning clients to keep them well informed about crop prospects and management decisions throughout the growing season, they were under no illusion as we entered harvest that this year those results would not be great. They had been consulted when we decided to cut back on input spend and agreed it was a wise strategy given the circumstance of the season, aspirations had been firmly aligned with likely reality…………… that is until they read the wider farming press and listen to the “pub yield” chatter of other farmers. Little regard is given to how such miracles have been achieved, their different locations, soil types, input use, irrigation, and dare I say even honesty, instead they are simply held up as evidence of failure of their own farm or contractor to perform. 

It really isn’t helpful, in fact the lack of honesty or disclosure of all the facts is damaging not only to contractor / farmer relationships but also in the bigger picture of leading land agents, suppliers and even policy makers to conclude farmers can afford the ever inflating prices we are subjected to. In a year where I believe my management was better than it has ever been, and my team worked harder than ever to achieve their goals, it’s saddening that success is judged as failure because of a boastful few.

So, are farmers dishonest? Does agricultural media print fake news? I like to think not, it is more a case of selective reporting and agenda surely? In the case of a farmer maybe an genetic ability to “forget” after a few pints or a sloe gin too many about the 100ac of OSR that was ripped up and replaced with spring barley whilst boasting how they “averaged” 5t/ha of OSR this year ? or maybe recounting the cost of irrigating that 15t/ha wheat crop is best forgotten along with the myriad of snake oil products and top of the line fungicides his agronomist talked him into using to achieve that headline number seen momentarily as it flashed up on the uncalibrated yield monitor when the Lexion’s hydrostatic stick was jerked backwards? On occasion the reason for yield dishonesty can be a little more calculated however, in a competitive land rental and contract farming market would the land owner be better off if they farmed the estate for them and got them these better yield they boast of? Fake news, it seems, is not only reserved for American presidents with an agenda.

Sadly, I am a little more sceptical about just why these tales of success proliferate so much in farming media. Put simply, success sells, it attracts advertisers who flock to be associated with or highlighted in the aspirational success story, and they pay the bills. It runs much deeper than just “pub yield” stories however and over the last decade or so we have witnessed the death of any independence in farming media replaced by seemingly endless paid editorial, the value of which really is questionable to our industry. Rather ironically (as founder of www.thefarmingforum.co.uk) from me I blame the internet which has all but taken over as the primary source of information for most of us, squeezing those existing publishers harder to sell their souls and integrity. Maybe I should accept some personal blame here! It’s all harmless though, right ? No one really takes all this to seriously? Well it’s certainly does not feel that way when sat down with contact farming customers in year-end meetings that much is for sure.

It is not just yields that get exaggerated though and as regenerative agriculture gains in popularity it will inevitably attract its own fair share of fake news. As farmers move away from more conventional inputs, we can be sure that an array of “soil friendly” products and machinery will compete for the same cash. Products are increasingly discounted to “influencer” farmers in exchange for good reviews and recommendations, cheap and powerful marketing for those that know how to use it. Never has it been more important to have access to independent facts and value our integrity.

It now seems clear that DEFRA’s ELMs will accelerate uptake of conservation agriculture and this will be where the money is in the future. I have just listened to George Eustice’s speech that mostly seemed to announce that there would be a series of announcements to follow but did make reference and commitment to capital grants. I have never been a fan of grants, probably because I have never yet managed to meet any criteria to get one (I’m not bitter, honestly !). Mostly because they tend to penalise innovators, and encourage those that would not otherwise have adopted change to spend for no better reason than acquisition of something new and shiny at a discounted price. This fills me with fear in the context of conservation agriculture where those with experience understand that mechanisation changes are only really a small part of what is required in a successful system, I hope these proposed grants are smarter in their targeting used to invest in knowledge exchange and re-education and do not simply serve to further line the pockets of our suppliers.

As no-till farmers we must also be careful to not over exaggerate the benefits of it brings, we all know the cost savings and environmental advantages it can deliver, but we must remain conscious of conformation bias and look to back up what we do with good solid data wherever possible. We must be realistic about size of markets for some of the niches on the fringes. I love the idea of agroforestry and incorporating more tress into our farm and have looked at various ways to derive income from them, harvesting nuts and quince etc was suggested as a possible solution to me but seriously just how big is the UK market for quince? There are maybe niche opportunities out there, but the markets are small and would fail quickly if we all jump in at scale.

I hope that policy makers are not blinded by the impressive, extreme case examples of enviable success some have achieved on the fringes. Agroforestry, rewilding and clever value added direct marketing should not be seen as some kind of blueprint for ELMs; instead the creation of a scheme more achievable by the majority of us trying to produce commodities competitively for global markets alongside our management and regeneration of the countryside and environment will hopefully result. Over the years we have been farming under conservation agriculture principles, we have without doubt added benefit to wildlife, environment and climate, with cheap food the only output we sell though there has never been any direct reward or premium attached to the natural capital provided and I look forward to ELMs putting that right.

The relief of clearing the uninspiring crops of 2020 came with a hangover, later drilling and replacement of winter rape with spring linseed led to a later harvest which reduced opportunity for cover cropping and forced later drilling dates, but surely we would not get another wet autumn? 

Ironically and without planning to do so our first fields of wheat were established on 22nd of September, the same date as they were a year previously, and then equally as coincidently it started raining again. A couple of weeks passed without a wheel turning and thoughts of 2021 becoming a repeat of the nightmare that was 2020 were hard to ignore. Unlike some parts of the country, however, luck was with us and in midOctober the rain stopped and gave us the 10 days we needed to get wheat, barley and rye drilled into reasonable conditions, the sense of relief was strong, the thought of another year like the last just too horrible to imagine for all involved.

I know our memories can sometimes be short and the last 12 months serve an extreme example, but it really does feel like the windows of opportunity to establish, treat, and harvest crops are getting tighter. Without the extra capacity gained moving from a 6 to a 12 m drill has bought us we would once again find ourselves missing targets and compromising cropping because of weather. If climate change is real, we as farmers are very much on the front line and will quickly become its first victims if significant steps to put things right are not taken.

I’m conscious this is an unusually negative article for me, but the last 12 months have been tough. No farmer that cares, likes to grow a crop they are not proud of, throw in a global pandemic and looming economic armageddon and positivity is a hard attribute to maintain. Yet again however my fantastic, committed team have turned things round and today we are back on track, set up well with a good-looking set of autumn crops ready to perform next harvest. I may even start talking pictures of them and positing on social media again ……… what was it I was saying about selective reporting and farmer honesty?

Harvest now seems like a distant memory; thank goodness you say! We seemed to get away reasonably light here in S.E. Scotland compared to many others around the UK. I still run two systems on some crops, and I can compare the results rather than wonder what if?

It started with the poorest crop this year, winter barley. The direct drilled and plough/ combi drilled crops were equally poor, at best 2/3 of an average crop but easy to cut and dry. I have struggled to get my strip tilled winter barley to match my plough/combi yield and although close this year it was again below. It was obviously much cheaper to establish but I think the fact my winter barley is at the end of my rotation may be causing a delay in the improvements shown by the other crops.

My Mzuri sown Diablo spring barley matched my plough combi drilled yield this year and that was all above my 5-year average. The TGW of the barley was greater on the Mzuri sown ground, which was as I had hoped, the wider rows allowing light inception and a fuller grain. The Mzuri sown Canyon spring oats, for Quaker out yielded my plough/Combi drilled oats by over 1t/Ha and cost 1/4 of the establishment cost. The oats sown after the plough struggled in the dry spring (as I show on YouTube) and never caught up. The wheat was all sown with the Mzuri and like most in the area was very bold but mostly below average. The spring beans sown directly into overwintered stubble were the highlight at the end of my harvest, they yielded well above average and were a first-class sample. The beans went in well and the lack of soil disturbance retained the moisture, that gave them the great start shown on YouTube and Instagram as I love walking in them.

I continue to look for answers regarding the winter barley and there is a lot of advice out there. As well as reading this magazine, I follow lots people and businesses on Instagram and online. The Soil_doctor is one which provides lots of information which stimulates thought, although not always easy to apply in my situation. They recently had a periodic table of cover crops which was very cleverly laid out and worth a look. My version of cover cropping this year also incorporates my favourite form of muck spreading, it is on around half my spring oat stubble which will be over-wintered, spread with calcium lime and then drilled with Diablo spring barley. The stubble had a good cover of volunteer oats growing in it and a small flush of weeds which developed late due to the dry spring.

I called a neighbour whose sheep graze my TGRS, he provided another batch which have now had a month on the stubble tidying it up and adding some manure without the compaction. The benefit of the grazing and muck may be minimal, but the lack of traffic involved can only be a good thing for my soils.

According to a recent BBC news article England uses only 0.41% of its environmental monitoring budget monitoring soils! This seems mind blowing considering we know how important a healthy soil is and as farmers we have been testing soils for a considerable time now realising what we do has a big influence on them.

Scoring your soil using VESS scoring system is something SAC promote and while I am not necessarily using this system I do frequently walk, dig and examine the soil as this is a simple guide to its condition. Trust your eyes and nose, I read recently that we have in our DNA the ability to recognise healthy soil by its smell, this check is cost free. In September, having held off last year due to the wet conditions, I spread the ash from my biomass boiler on some of the less favourable heavy clay patches in some fields. While this is a very blunt instrument this has helped soil condition and achieve more tilth and a more even crop emergence.

I am using Solvita burst soil testing and while the results were relatively good to start with, I have noticed a great improvement in my soils in the relatively short time I have been direct drilling/strip tilling. The structure of the soil has visually improved in this time and I am now beginning to re-test some of the fields direct drilled from the start in 2015, they have been ploughed 1 or less times since then. I know that true direct drillers would maybe say my approach, still using a plough in rotation, is a bit like claiming your a vegan and having meat once a month but I can’t yet remove the plough completely from my rotation. The shame of it!!

Some of the soil damage is being caused by harvest machinery. I have written before about trying to look at cause rather than mechanical cure. This has been a costly exercise for me, my combine was overdue a change so putting my money when my mouth is I ticked the track and the power spreader options, two things I feel can play a big part in improving my soils. The tracks will reduce the compaction caused in the less than ideal conditions we, in Scotland, are often forced to cut in. This will allow me to raise the leading leg on my drill, and the spreader is a must as a good spread of chopped straw is essential for my system.

Establishment of winter crops this year has been good with challenges similar, but much less extreme, compared to last years. Early sown crops have fared the best with record high rainfall in October compromising some later crops and calling an end to some farmers autumn campaign. Where we are in SE Scotland once the weather and soils turn wet, they can often stay wet until spring. I drilled wheat for a neighbour in October this year. A 5-year grass ley, sprayed off, then wheat sown directly with the single coulter. This was the first time I had done this and despite the front leg running around 6 inches deep the single coulter left a narrow almost minimum disturbance finish, and the crop has emerged well. 

I have tried some companion cropping this year in my OSR. We do not have the severity of flea beetle problems experienced farther south but like a few farmers in this area I thought I would try some companion crops so I had experience of what may work up here. I have tried a block of Buckwheat and a block of Berseem clover in my OSR, each mixed with the slug pellets and spread out the pelleter on the drill at sowing. I was putting fertiliser down the leading leg on the drill, OSR seed at the coulter then pellets and companion crop down at the harrow rather than mixing the companion with the seed in case it settled in the hopper. The buckwheat has established well whereas the clover has not.

The suspicion is that the preem which was deemed ok for clover may have found its way to the seed and killed it off. My conclusion from the trial so far is, if your growing Buckwheat put in a sacrificial crop of OSR as buckwheat seems to grow well but the predator here is more often slugs which still prefer to eat OSR. It is good to know the buckwheat established well with this method and now the frost has killed it off maybe it will leave some fixed nitrogen, providing a benefit and an option for the future. Maybe something which slugs prefer to OSR would be a better companion!? I will have another go next year. I have mixed wheat varieties again this year in some fields, mixing seed in the drill, then treating the whole field as the lower input variety. I find this works well.

I know I am not as brave as many other contributors to this magazine, I do have very low establishment costs and I am beginning to reduce fungicides and insecticides on my farm, and as my soils improve I hope I can go further each year.

Déjà Vu?

Another fun drilling season….I am pleased to say we are drilled up bar about 50 hectares on some poorly drained blackgrassy land which was always on the list to do last. This will now be better off as spring barley. Last season was very difficult, we did not get enough drilled and were always waiting for the promised week of good weather which never materialised. However, the silver lining is that we learnt a huge amount on how to deal with a wet autumn, no tilling on clay. In the long run I think this is a blessing in disguise and which offer more value down the line compared to one harvest with not enough wheat in the ground.

We started drilling on 19th September, getting in about 300ha of winter barley and wheat before the weather broke, on the 23rd the same day as last year. This was all drilled with the sprinter on 2 inch dutch points after spring barley an spring oats. After the rain broke, we had 260ha of cover crop land to get in, as well as 130ha of cultivated land. The cover crop land, after OSR and first wheat consisted of linseed, buckwheat and sunflowers. We managed to chip away in small breaks in the weather for the next month. The cover crop kept the drill running clean and crops look reasonably well now.

There was a lot of slugs to deal with however I hope as we get deeper into this style of farming they will diminish with better soil structure and more beneficials. It was really a revelation being able to drill into nice soil whilst anyone who had cultivated were doing their best to maul crops in, probably causing more soil damage to add on to what was caused last year. The fields now walk beautifully (apart from the odd hammered tramline and headland corner). Water is percolating through the soil profile and the number of worms is staggering.

One thing that has become noticeable in the last few days is that any winter barley crops in the area established direct or with a shallow cultivator pass are generally looking green and well, whereas those established with deeper tillage and ploughing are beginning to show up yellow areas and multiple wheeling’s. More proof that aggressive tillage can often be counterproductive. Our area of cultivated land all ended up being broadcast and harrowed in. It is actually emerging well however the lack of structure in the soil is noticeable when walking, and there is more blackgrass pressure. Not ideal and hopefully the majority of our crops established with no till are proof that this cultivating was recreational.

The rape is generally looking okay, there is about 25ha we will right off and put spring oats in. It has been noticeable the OSR has been much harder to establish after spring barley, compared to early winter wheat and winter barley. Our low risk approach to OSR means the only cost lost on the poor couple of fields is a dose of slug pellets and a £5/ ha graminicide. As all OSR was sown with a companion crop I feel the 30kg/ha N applied at drilling will have been utilised by these, even if the rape itself did not get going.

Regenerative agriculture is reaching an interesting point in its development in the UK. It is becoming more mainstream. This is bringing to the fore some notable issues. What was once a farmer led movement is becoming increasingly saturated with various companies offering “regen” solutions. Unfortunately, these solutions often take the form of various products. I am not saying none of these products don’t ever have a use. However, as this type of farming becomes more mainstream, there is an increasing number of farmers wanting to do it with a large gap in their knowledge.

This leaves opportunity for companies to find a gap in the market to offer advice and products. The issue is if farmers have not gained the full understanding of the 5 basic principles of regen ag they are essentially sitting ducks for companies offering X service or product Y. As the money transfers from conventional to regenerative agriculture we have to be very alert to whom we trust. Many companies offering advice also sell all manner of products so due diligence is needed when choosing who to take advice from. The other worrying aspect of all this is what do these so called “biological/ biostimulant” products do?

They are unregulated and high margin. At least with pesticides (although we don’t want to use them) we know what they can achieve and we also know the detrimental affect the have on the biology we are trying to nurture. I guess as farmers we are always trying to fiddle and improve things however, I am not convinced spending loads of money on gear we don’t really understand is the way to go, despite what the salesmen say. We are however trying a bio-stim, it is cheap and has had good results in numerous independent trials. Far beyond anything else I have seen (in fact many of them seem to have a detrimental affect on yield and do not produce positive MOIC).

As said earlier, some of these things may well have a place. But let us remember the key points for regenerative agriculture. The foundations of the system and most importantly soil. I would strongly urge anyone to understand the basics and get comfortable with them first, that is where the real gains are made. I fear if you simply “outsource” your decision making to vested interests it could end up with disappointment, a bamboozlement of big words and simply replacing a chemical bill with biologicals and high markup trace elements (especially some of the more obscure examples I’ve seen recommended for baffling reasons). The regen movement is supposed to be an alternative to the status quo of high inputs and expensive costs, keep in mind any of these companies offering advice on regenerative farming and selling various products on the back of that is “serviced agronomy mark 2”.

The best investment you can make into making a switch to regenerative farming is in yourself. Read as many books on the subjects as possible, trawl the forums, watch twitter, listen to podcasts, speak to the farmers doing it, download webinars. Find truly independent advisors or at least be clued up when using ones that may have an ulterior angle and get advice from more than one. Use your own mind and trust yourself. If you do not put the effort in you will simply carry on filling up other people’s coffers. Always be wary that the majority of people in this industries job is to make money from you. Get the basics right and the rest will follow.