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How To Start Drilling For £8K
Clive Bailye’s seed drill of choice is his 6m John Deere 750A , which has been used exclusively for 3-4 seasons. Last year, with an increased acreage, the founder and publisher of this Direct Driller magazine thought a second seed drill was necessary. Having just the one machine was a risk and in a difficult season would mean drilling was delayed. He looked around and found a good condition Horsch CO6 tine drill advertised in Germany.
Words and pictures by Mike Donovan
After delivery he rebuilt the coulters to a narrow profile so as to reduce soil disturbance. He says the tine drill is very useful driling after straw crops such as osr and also through the straw on second crop cereals.
Buying the drill from a German farmer was not particularly complicated, and provided him with a higher spec machine than Horsh sell in the UK. The seed dart tyres are much wider, and the machine is fitted with blockage monitors as well as full width front packers and also a liquid fert application system.
A sheaf of photos were taken, and Clive then asked for some of specific parts to show wear. The deal was done at under £5,000 which Clive says is the market value of these machines which are too large for small farmers to buy. Original owners like to buy new and sell when the machine is still in good condition.
Narrow tines with wear tiles
@Clive knew he wanted to make changes, substituting the Horsch tines and coulters for something far narrower, and has ended up getting his own design of tine made, which has a wear tile made from Ferobide, far harder than tungsten. The drill is on the farm primarily for osr and 2nd crop cereals drilled into chopped straw and the 25cm spacing is okay for these crops.
Comments on Clive’s on-line forum, TFF, said the drill many not be so good with beans, as the slot is a mere 12mm wide. And in barley the spacing may well be too wide as it needs to be thick. Clive points out that the seed pipe can actually be a bit wider than 12mm as it is in the shadow of the point. It would be good to have the option of using it for beans.
Above left: The cheap CO6 is being calibrated ready for its first outing
Above right: The adapted Horsch is being filled by the home built drill logistics trailer with seed and liquid starter fert.
Getting around the German instructions
The Horsch came, of course, with a control box and instructions in German. More on-line discussion revealed that English instructions were available on the Horsch website, and another explained that Horsch was sourcing some of these parts from Agton in Canada anyway. Zealman from New Zealand explained that the button marked with callipers should be held down for around 5 seconds. The menu is where you adjust the tramline sequence, valve layout and row numbers.
Ball hitch is a continental standard and provides a positive connection between tractor and drill
The Stocks Wizard has a rotor modified for Avadex which otherwise leaks everywhere
A Stocks Wizard is on the back of the drill and used for Avadex. Here again the knowledge of actual farmers is helpful. Alistair Nelson warned that the rotor and the surrounding shroud need to be changed, and he got good advice “from Rick at Stocks”. Clive has the same setup on the 750A and says that the Avadex leaks everywhere unless the modification is made. The drill was acquired and modified in 2016 and the results have been excellent.
The machine went through the residue without many problems and having the second drill has meant more timely planting. Clive has shown that moving into No-Till is not the expensive exercise so many farmers think it might be. The total cost, after modifications which included replacing all tines and coulters, was under £8,000.
Author Mike Donovan writes: we have featured a number of home made direct drills in @Practical Farm Ideas, and are always interested in seeing more. Please contact mike [email protected] or 07778877514.
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Farmer Focus – Tom Martin
Jan 2026
Late winter is a natural pause point on our farm which grows predominantly combinable crops. Most of the decisions that mattered were made months ago, the crops are either in or they aren’t, and the consequences are starting to show themselves. It’s also when the background pressures feel loudest, because the work rate drops just enough to notice them.
The last three months on farm
The past quarter has been largely shaped by how well autumn behaved. After the challenges of the 2024–25 growing season, September and October 2025 were, frankly, a gift here in East Anglia: good soil conditions, timely drilling and very little compromise. We’re farming heavy clay, so we didn’t delay too long, and we still managed to use three drills (ours and two from a neighbour) to establish our last field of beans, but it was a reminder that when autumn does what it’s supposed to do, a lot of stress simply evaporates.
Crops went in cleanly and evenly. Establishment has been strong, roots are down where they should be, and fields look settled going into winter. Blackgrass is there in some places, of course, but largely absent. Covers are doing their job: protecting soil, holding structure and providing something useful to look at rather than bare ground, and the brassicas within the cover crop mix have been outstanding. This year I’ve included 0.5kg/ha of oil radish, stubble turnip, hybrid kale and OSR. Livestock have been able to graze without damage, and the abundance of forage means we’ve been able to move them on before a chance of overgrazing.
We also benefitted – I feel – from finally putting our stubble rake into service in perfect conditions. Our flint-free, deep clay soils meant that we could take advantage of deep, deep cracks and move a little residue into them, hopefully driving silty organic matter to depths that typically are exclusively heavy clay with the expectation that this season’s roots can follow.
That stubble rake flashback to last summer is perhaps a small highlight of an extremely challenging year. The 2024–25 season was difficult, not because things didn’t germinate but because the dry weather either stalled growth or sent crops bolting to an early death, even on our no-till heavy soils where we typically expect a week’s extra greenery on light land nearby. Buckwheat is a neat illustration of that pattern. It emerged, then sat there, stunted and unimpressive, until a bit of rain finally arrived in late August. By then, the clock had won. We harvested before it was properly fit (I’ll tell the buckwheat story another time, but in this climate it’s never 100% ready), and germination suffered as a result, which fed straight through into price. It wasn’t the worst crop, just a very clear example of how weather now compresses risk into short, unforgiving windows.
The wider load farmers are carrying
Running alongside the agronomy is a set of pressures that have nothing to do with soil or rainfall.
Even with a Christmas present from the Labour government, inheritance tax hangs over farm businesses in a way that’s hard to overstate. Even before anything changes in April, and before the Christmas climb-down, the uncertainty alone shaped decisions, often defensively. We’ve spent time with accountants – costing money our accounts tell me we don’t have –trying to mitigate a policy that at best will be the subject of a U-turn or a reversal from the next government and at worst would still tear our business apart in the sad event of an untimely death, or two. It happens.
Layer onto that the usual churn of schemes, inspections and shifting priorities, and it starts to feel like farming is expected to carry more and more complexity without any corresponding simplification elsewhere. World grain markets remain depressed, which limits margin for error, but even without getting into prices, the sense is that resilience is being asked for faster than it can realistically be built.
There’s also a nagging feeling that political focus is drifting. When attention is given to issues like trail hunting or shotgun licensing while bigger questions around food production, land use and rural economics remain unresolved, it’s hard not to feel that the centre of gravity is off. It creates the impression of a system busy with detail while missing the direction of travel. Pick your favourite analogy here – Starmer’s fiddling whilst Reeves is rearranging deck chairs…
What still works
Against that backdrop, one of the most consistently positive things I do is run farm walks.
I charge £70 per person for a series of eight walks, spaced roughly six weeks apart, running from mid-autumn through to early July. We meet at 8am on a Saturday morning for a chat and a coffee before we head off on a circular walk, often directed by the topics we discuss over coffee. We pick up on topical issues, seasonal changes, national and local challenges, and we all learn, me too. The structure matters. People don’t just see a snapshot, they see the whole year unfolding. Fields change, decisions play out, mistakes become visible and successes make sense in context.
They see covers growing, being grazed and disappearing. They see why something is left alone. They see soil behaving differently under their feet as the season moves on. At harvest, they get an invite onto the combine, which never fails to reconnect people with the reality of food production.
When I talk about cover cropping and grazing in that setting, it does sometimes feel like alchemy – not because it’s mystical, but because people are surprised that farming can be deliberate, adaptive and quietly complex rather than purely extractive.
Holding perspective
So yes, there are plenty of reasons to feel uneasy heading into the new year. Costs, policy, weather and economics are all pulling in different directions, and none of them feel especially stable.
But there’s another truth running alongside that. Farmers are held in high regard, often more than we realise. When people are invited in and shown what’s actually happening on the land, the response is overwhelmingly positive – curious, respectful and supportive.
That doesn’t solve inheritance tax or fix the weather. But it does remind me that what we’re doing still matters, and that people want us to succeed. Clearly it would be great to have both government and people onside, but I remind myself that governments don’t
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Quorum Sensing: The Soil Network Hiding in Plain Sight
The Silent System Beneath Your Boots
Written by Hugh Goldsworthy, Farm Landscape Contractor and Independent Soil Researcher
If you have never heard of quorum sensing, do not worry, you are not alone. Ask a room full of farmers or soil scientists about it and many/if not most, will not have heard of it either. But that needs to change, because quorum sensing may be one of the most influential, underappreciated forces in every farming system.Quorum sensing (QS) is how microbes communicate. It is the real-time data exchange system used by bacteria and fungi to make decisions. First discovered as a chemical ‘voting system’ science has since proven that electrical QS also exists. That means microbes are not only talking through molecules, but also through bioelectrical signals -pulses, patterns, waves flowing through all soils, wherever you are, right now.
How Quorum Sensing Works
QS starts when individual microbes release signal molecules into their environment. The more microbes there are, the more signals build up. Once a critical threshold is reached, a quorum, the whole group flips into action. This could mean forming a biofilm, launching spore production, initiating symbiosis with a plant root or triggering dormancy.Electrical quorum sensing goes further. It is faster, more responsive, and able to move information across longer distances using potassium ions and conductive filaments called bacterial nanowires. In essence, QS is the microbial version of the WWW and most soils are buzzing with data exchanges. It is widely thought around 80% of all bacteria and fungi can communicate effectively using a universal language across all differing types.
A Soil Profile as Unique as DNA
Every field contains a unique microbial ecosystem shaped by local climate, crops, soil type, and history. You cannot easily import that complexity from somewhere else. Just as you would not send Highland cattle or penguins to the desert to live, adding microbes from a distant environment may do more harm than good. While a soil sample may be tested to look at the soil biome it does not account for all bacteria within a sample, as many bacteria can be hibernating/ or in long term dormancy for years or decades and can be virtually undetectable if they hide intracellularly, within biofilms, or as VBNC cells.Whilst they could be beneficial /or not, in the soil, they have chosen to wait until an opportune moment comes for them to emerge that is driven by QS
Instead of importing biology, what if we listened to what is already there? In my early experiments, I built soil batteries using anodes and cathodes embedded in soil from a field of ours. Not only did these setups light up LEDs, but they also powered an entire outdoor Christmas tree set of lights using a few Kgs of soil. I was not adding bacteria, I was feeding the existing community. And that is when I realised: the soil was not just producing energy; it was producing information. Every year since, I power up the lights on a Christmas tree outside the farm office as a reminder of where things started purely using soil as the energy source.
Recording the Language of the Soil
Instead of stopping at voltage, I treated the electrical output like a message. Over years, I’ve developed systems to record, digitise, and analyse this microbial communication in real time. Using microcontrollers, data interfaces, and software, I have broken the output into strands of data so I can interpret data as well as being able to directly engage with it also. Instructing differing bacteria to behave in certain ways or denying electrical communication completely is no longer something of fiction, which is something I have spent a fair bit of time looking at, but there are lifetimes of learning to do on this still, at the end of the day listening rather than meddling is a far safer option.These strands include:
· Water availability
· Nutrient availability/ demand
· Temperature response
· Microbial population dynamics
· Panic signatures (e.g. spore or dormancy triggers)
The patterns are consistent. After water, hydration signals spike. When synthetic fertilisers are applied, signal complexity often collapses (after an initial frenzy). And when biofilm formation is triggered, signals harmonise in a way that is both measurable and repeatable. It is not just a reaction, it’s a strategy.
Carbon, Organic Matter, and the QS Connection
There is a lot of talk these days about carbon sequestration, organic matter restoration, and regenerative farming. But too often, the microbial coordination required to make those systems work, quorum sensing, is completely left out of the conversation.Here is the reality: bacteria and fungi are the frontline engineers of carbon cycling. They process plant residues, stabilise humus, and form protective biofilms that physically hold carbon in place. But none of this happens at random. It all depends on QS.
Without proper QS signalling, microbes stay disorganised. They do not form structure. They do not aggregate soil. And they can even start to cannibalise stable organic matter, releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere.
When quorum sensing is intact, we see microbial populations build carbon scaffolding – extracellular matrices, glues, and aggregates that not only store carbon, but regulate nitrogen, phosphorus, and water retention. But when QS is disrupted, often by tillage, synthetic nitrogen overload, or overstimulation without rest – this architecture breaks down.
This has direct implications for regenerative agriculture. Practices like minimal and zero tillage, reduced fertiliser input, and optimised nitrogen timing all benefit from, and can be guided by, healthy QS signalling. Rather than guessing at nutrient cycles, we could be measuring real-time microbial coordination to know when soil is building carbon and when it is leaking it.
This flips the narrative: carbon sequestration is not just about reducing emissions or planting cover crops. It is about enabling microbial societies to function as carbon architects. And that function starts and ends with quorum sensing.
SAR (Systemic Acquired Resistance), Biofilms, and the Power of Symbiosis
Plants do not just benefit from soil microbes, they talk back. They release root exudates to feed specific bacteria. They respond to quorum signals with immune readiness and under pressure, like drought or pest threat, plants and microbes jointly decide how to respond.One of the most fascinating discoveries has been biofilms, coordinated microbial mats that can either help hold water or shut down soil pore space in what is called bioclogging. These are not failures. They are strategic moves by microbial societies, and QS is what drives them.
This leads to the detection of SAR (Systemic Acquired Resistance). Before a visible drought symptom appears in a plant, QS activity spikes, coordinating water retention and plant immune priming. This proves that QS is not only a reflection of environmental change, but also a predictor of it. In essence, it is early warning data built into biology.
Where This Leads: Beyond Sensors
Traditional soil sensors can measure pH, moisture, and temperature. That is helpful. But they do not tell you what microbes are thinking. QS does. We are on the edge of reading microbial networks in real time. Not just measuring effects but understanding cause and intent.Imagine being able to:
· See when soil life is ready/optimal for seeding or needs recovery.
· Detect disease stress before plant symptoms appear.
· Guage which nutrients are/are not available
· Optimise irrigation timing based on QS hydration chatter.
· Read SAR activation before a pest outbreak.
This is the microbial layer we have been missing, one that could change everything from how we plant to how we defend crops with less chemical input.
The Microbial Internet: What Makes QS Revolutionary
Quorum Sensing is often described as microbial communication, but that doesn’t go far enough. What we’re really looking at is a living, responsive, decentralised network. Like the human brain or a digital internet, QS networks allow distributed communities to coordinate without central control.When enough bacteria or fungi reach a quorum, they act like a single organism. They form colonies, alter their chemistry, and even sacrifice individual cells for the benefit of the group. This behaviour mirrors systems theory in nature and technology, from neural networks to social insects to traffic routing.
Why is this revolutionary for agriculture? Because it proves that biology already contains the logic we try to simulate with artificial intelligence. Instead of forcing control over soil systems, we could design responsive strategies that plug into this network.
Quorum Sensing and Human Health
Quorum sensing is not just happening in soil; it is happening inside us too. In the human gut, trillions of bacteria use QS to regulate digestion, immunity, and even brain chemistry. Certain microbial peptides produced in the gut can cross into the bloodstream and influence the brain via the vagus nerve, helping to regulate mood, stress, and inflammation.In the mouth, bacteria use QS to coordinate the formation of biofilms, better known to most of us as dental plaque, allowing microbial colonies to protect themselves, resist antibiotics, and cause gum disease if unchecked. Just like in soil, when this communication is balanced, it supports resilience. When it breaks down, the whole system, whether gut, mouth, or brain, can spiral into disorder.
Why Isn’t This Widely Known?
I have spoken to soil scientists across multiple countries. Many of them tell me the same thing: up to 80% of published academic soil/farm research is not fit for field use. And yet, here we have a well-documented, dynamic, real-time system that has been operating beneath our boots for millennia, and it is almost completely ignored.Instead, the focus is often on manipulating biology by adding microbes, spraying stimulants, or applying chemistry to force change. But the biology is already there. It’s networked. It’s intelligent. It just needs to be heard.
Quorum sensing is not a theory. It is proven. It is recordable. And it is ready to be part of the next generation of practical farming.
Final Thoughts: Next Time You Walk Your Field…
Take a moment to consider what is happening below the surface. Every root, every pore, every microbial cluster is exchanging information. QS is that exchange. And with the right tools, we can read it.This is not about fighting the soil. It is about understanding it – not just physically, biologically and chemically, but informationally. We have built an Agri tech world on sensors and screens. Maybe the most powerful sensor is already beneath our feet, waiting to be decoded completely.
And to cap it off, the laptop you may read this on will most likely contain around 20 miles of circuits within it, a handful of soil contains around 20 miles (at least) of mycelium that supports Quorum sensing data transfer and just further food for thought!
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Celebration with a cause: Staffordshire FCN marks 30 years
Staffordshire FCN’s 30th anniversary Farmers’ Ball brought the agricultural community together for an unforgettable night, raising vital funds and highlighting the growing importance of support for farmers under pressure.
Staffordshire FCN held a Farmers’ Ball on 1 November to mark their 30-year anniversary. It was attended by over 400 people who celebrated throughout the night, while raising some funds for FCN. This involved a raffle and a good old auction where one tray of eggs went for over £100. The total raised for the evening was well over £25,000, which is just amazing. The celebrations went on into the early hours and it was a memorable night for all who attended. A huge thanks must go to the whole Staffordshire FCN team for organising, with a special shout-out for Julia Taylor and Meg Elliot for all their hard work. Hopefully this can become a yearly event, as never has there been a more important time in farming to bring the whole agricultural community and its ancillary industries together. Thanks must also go to all the sponsors who helped fund the event, and without whom the ball would not take place.
I feel farming is under such pressure now and support from charities like FCN has never been more important. Farming can be a very isolating occupation, and as we move more into the digital and technological age, it can become even more isolating. With so many things being managed online, there are less reasons to go out to market or visit suppliers. Human beings are social creatures, and with the storm that agriculture is currently going through, in my opinion, having a reason to go out and meet people is vital.
This is where the work of FCN and other charities is imperative. FCN has a confidential helpline (03000 111 999), which is open 365 days a year from 7am to 11pm and has handled over 2,000 calls over the last 12 months. I feel that sometimes just being able to talk to someone with a sympathetic ear about your problems can lessen the burden. Nobody is immune from stress and depression, as I have experienced myself, but having the right support around you can help dramatically in your road to recovery. FCN is there to help with your burden, be it personal or business related.
FCN also runs a one-stop portal called FarmWell which contains lots of information on helping your business, from succession planning to farm health and safety. Over 30,000 unique visitors used the website last year. Whatever the issue, FCN is here to help, so please always keep the number and the web address to hand (www.fcn.org.uk) as you never know when you or someone you care about needs to talk.
On a lighter note, Steve Jackson, Staffordshire’s FCN chairman, had the great pleasure of meeting the King. He is patron of the charity and follows its work with much enthusiasm and offers his full support, realising the good work FCN volunteers do for the community. Please, if you know anybody who you believe to be struggling, or have any questions, however insignificant they may seem, phone the helpline number and let’s keep people supported. You do not have to be alone; FCN support is only a phone call away.
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Rethinking Soil: What Two Nuffield Scholars Learnt About Change, Carbon and Farming’s Future
Across climates, continents and farming systems, one thing united these Nuffield Presenting Scholars in Aberdeen: soil is no longer just a technical consideration, but a social, economic and cultural one too.
From understanding why farmers change their practices, to investigating the future of peatland management, these two scholars offer complementary insights into how soil will shape the next era of farming.
Tom Scrope: Why Farmers Change
Tom went into his Nuffield Farming travels convinced that data and software would be the answer. After travelling 6,616 miles across Europe, Australia and South America learning from farmers, advisors, researchers and policymakers he realised that whilst software and data are inherently useful they were not the driving force behind the reason for change.
His findings highlight a three-step framework: motivation, advice, and funding.
Motivate: The spark that drives action
These six motivators kept coming up:
- external pressures (drought, price shocks)
- personal crises or transitions
- charismatic educators
- strong peer communities
- benchmarking
- immersive courses like “Grazing for Profit”
Advise: practical, trusted guidance
Tom found that well-run farmer groups were the closest thing to a silver bullet for soil practice change. Their success depended heavily on skilled facilitators, peer accountability, and good networks enabling swift knowledge spread.
Fund: supporting risk in transition
Soil-friendly farming often pays long-term but carries short-term risk. Tom highlighted England’s SFI as a world-leading model, and water companies as major private-sector drivers, while noting that carbon markets remain immature.
He uses these insights through his work at Soil Benchmark, a digital platform which helps farmers and agronomists create data-driven soil and nutrient management plans, supporting consultants, farmers, and growers in using soil data and benchmarking tools to inform decisions.
Harry Winslet: For Peat’s Sake! Do we need a new approach to peatland agriculture?
Harry originally comes from London, far removed from the Cambridgeshire soils he would later come to know when working at G’s, Europe’s largest fresh produce supplier. Through his undergraduate and master’s degrees, Harry became increasingly interested in how a changing climate would reshape the way we live, and more urgently, how we would continue to feed ourselves.
His Nuffield travel took him across the UK, Europe, Canada, Brazil and Southeast Asia to explore whether peatland farming could be done differently.
In their natural state, peatlands are stable carbon stores. “Peatlands in and of themselves are not an environmental crisis,” Harry says. “That only occurs when we drain them for agriculture.” Drainage introduces oxygen, triggering oxidation and releasing carbon dioxide at scale. In temperate regions, drained peat emits around 30-35 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year, compared to roughly one tonne from mineral soils. In the UK, cultivated peat accounts for nearly 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
But peat remains central to food production, with around 40% of the UK’s fresh produce grown on drained peatland. “They’re flat, they’re fertile, they have easy access to irrigation” Harry notes. Walking away from peat entirely would mean moving a third of the UK’s vegetable production elsewhere, bringing its own carbon and food security implications.
In Canada, he saw projects reintroducing carbon through willow coppice. In Indonesia, smallholder farmers were practising paludiculture and agroforestry. Although these systems are under-researched, Harry found that maintaining high water tables, permanent ground cover and minimal disturbance was consistently associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Harry’s conclusion is not that peatland farming is harmless, nor that all peat should remain in production. But that a mosaic of solutions will be needed, one thing he made clear is that farmers can’t be left to do this alone. Support, incentives and long-term policy will be essential if peat is to be managed more responsibly.
Now retraining in law, Harry hopes to advocate for farmers working in fragile landscapes, ensuring peat is no longer the awkward exception in conversations about soil, carbon and regenerative agriculture.
Looking ahead, Nuffield Farming is investing in the next generation of soil enthusiasts.
Applications for Nuffield’s Next Gen Scholarships are now open, offering funding and travel opportunities for young people aged 18-24 looking to explore the future of food and farming. A new Regenerative Agriculture study tour has recently been launched for 2026, specifically aimed at those who want to develop practical, systems-based thinking early in their careers.
For those eligible who are interested in soils, carbon and the long-term resilience of agriculture, it is an opportunity well worth exploring.
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Farmer Focus: Frederik Larsen
Christmas time is approaching and yet another year has passed. My last piece was in June, and it was warm, it was dry, then wet, and hopes were high for the approaching harvest time. Harvest 2025 was special to me because it was the first harvest in many years that I did not drive the combine from start to finish. Luckily, my brother volunteered and he’s actually doing a much better combine-driving job than me, having the good attention and patience to drive according to the loss monitor. Apparently, that makes a huge difference with volunteers, post-harvest. Who would have guessed.
Let’s dig into the evaluations, learnings, trials and future perspectives from this year.
Harvest 2025:
Yields were surprisingly good (slightly above our average in all crops), being saved by a good rainfall event in early May. Winter wheats yielded 9 ton/ha. It was clear that good pre-crops (beans) were the highest yielding. Pre-crop OSR was also above but the yield potential was reduced because of horrendous slug grazing back in the autumn of 2024. Then, spring barley as pre-crop turned out to be a very poor pre-crop yet again. My agronomist herbicide injury in that particular field did not help either.
Spring faba beans were alright, averaging 5 ton/ha in better soils and 4 ton/ha in sandier soils. Winter OSR did really well. No-till OSR with new undersowed livingmulch mixture did 3.8 ton/ha on a sandy soil type. Subsoiler drilled (depth 28cm) on clay soil did 4.8 ton/ha and was a really nice crop all season, except for an odd headland where the agronomist (me) burned the crop with either residual ALS-chemistry from a wheat spray or a too high dose of foliar potassium together with the two fungicide applications in the OSR. This year I have learned to be careful, especially with foliar potassium in OSR and I have rediscovered that old generic cheap fungicides are just as good in OSR than the new expensive premium fungicides.
Hybrid winter wheat drilled on 7 September at 125 pl/m2. Variety: Saaten-Union SU Hybingo. It was initially sparse but has tillered very well and compensated for the low plant population. Winter milling oats were this year’s big winner yet again. For the second year in a row, we managed to get 9.5 ton/ha of oats off the field. Unfortunately, 2025 has been a national high yield year for all crops, which has reduced oat prices as well. If we factor in the lower fertiliser requirement and cheap fungicide programme required for oats, compared to winter wheat at slightly lower yield but higher price, then winter milling oats and winter feed wheat turns out at similar gross margin on our farm. Because of this and the much-improved pre-crop value of oats compared to barley, we have changed our crop rotation for 2026 and put in only winter and spring oats and no spring barley.
Biannual cereal crop experiment 2025:
BYDV-tolerant winter wheat. RAGT Goldfinch. Looks promising. One particular fun experiment I did for 2025 was the biannual winter cereal trial. I drilled winter hybrid barley and winter hybrid wheat on 1 August 2024. Then, combined the barley on 10 July 2025 and the wheat in the early days of August 2025. We managed to keep these crops for a full year in the field. I’m exploring multiple potential benefits from an ultra-early winter cereal drilling day: 1) Less grass weeds because we are ahead of the grass weed autumn germination window (similar to our grass seed growing guides), 2) ultra-low plant population with huge tiller numbers leads to more efficient resource use/partitioning, 3) large plants with many tillers for improved weed competition, 4) if we were mechanical weeding we would have good and dry conditions in September for mechanical weed control, 5) autumn cut/graze opportunity, 6) explosive spring growth and earlier harvest which allows better cover crop and/or livingmulch regrowth.
Anyway. Importantly, the hybrid winter barley in the trial was one of these brand-new Syngenta varieties (SY Zoomba) which is BYDV resistant. And there was absolutely no BYDV infection in the barley. The yield was a satisfying 10 ton/ha. In the tramline next door was the winter hybrid wheat. It was not BYDV tolerant/resistant and it was completely destroyed by BYDV infection. I did not even care to properly measure the yield, but it was at least half the yield compared to our traditional wheats. For 2026 we are redoing the biannual cereal experiment but only with BYDV-resistant winter hybrid barley. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to source BYDV tolerant winter wheat in time for the early August drilling day.
Livingmulch farming system in 2025:
My main trial field of the livingmulch farming system was 25ha with the winter milling oats. This field has now carried a WOSR at 3.8 ton/ha, winter wheat at 9 ton/ha and now a winter milling oat crop of 9.5 ton/ha. After each crop we have managed to take a lucerne forage cut 6-7 weeks after the combine. (The very same lucerne plants which were undersown together with the WOSR back in August 2022). First year was 3,000 kgDM/ha, then 2,000 kgDM/ha and this year we got 1,700 kgDM/ha. As expected, the lucerne stand seems to become thinner throughout the years, which is also why for my new livingmulch field we have started to add a little bit of red/white clover to the mix. I’m actually impressed at how successful and easy-to-manage this particular field has been. Every spring I’m anxious that the lucerne won’t survive our chemical mowing (herbicide) strategy but then two weeks prior to cereal harvest, it grows slightly above the cereal crop and lets us know it’s ready to make harvest difficult should it turn out to be a wet harvest season. The main drawback for the livingmulch system is that I can’t control thistles (hence you need a clean field to start with) and that the seed cost is expensive up front. I need at least two good autumn growth seasons for my lucerne-based livingmulch to break even compared to drilling summer cover crops. Now I have got three autumn seasons out of this one planting and time will tell if we spray the lucerne off in the summer of 2026 ahead of winter OSR. Currently I’m undecided.
What benefits do I want to gain from my livingmulch system?
1) Keep fields green and capture as much sunlight as possible, 2) easier and more reliable green manure/cover cropping compared to traditional summer cover crops, 3) increase crop competition against grass weeds allowing more winter cereal crops in my rotation, 4) fixate nitrogen and capture nutrients from depth, 5) deep soil percolation from the massive lucerne roots increasing water infiltration and summer water usage which prepares the field ahead of a wet winter season, 6) sell crop residues because the livingmulch provides sufficient soil armour and soil feed.
Important management tips for the livingmulch system:
I think the lucerne-based livingmulch system is ideal to deliver on the above objectives. However, there are a few key basics which need to be understood before you endeavour into livingmulch farming systems. Firstly, we need to talk about crop competition and niche differentiation. Lucerne is a tap root and will leave empty topsoil available for our companion winter cereal to thrive in. This is the reason, I think, that lucerne is a great livingmulch companion compared to the dense and shallow-rooted white clover, which will provide severe root competition against fibrous winter cereal crop roots. Secondly, we need to manage the above ground biomass of the livingmulch in the key yield forming period of our main cash crop (winter cereal). That means either row mowing or chemical mowing using selective herbicides to temporarily stunt the lucerne growth, allowing the cash-crop cereal to canopy and make its yield potential (critical yield forming period for wheat is two weeks prior and two weeks after flowering), assuming you have achieved sufficient amount of big tillers. If you don’t get this right the lucerne can and will outcompete your winter cereal with severe yield consequences. If done right, it’s my experience that the yield penalty is somewhere between 0-500 kg/ha. Thirdly, post cash-crop harvest, it’s important to mow the field to the appropriate height for fresh optimum livingmulch regrowth (similar to how you initiate regrowth in a grass seed production field) because you need to remove the sick legume leaves (from chemical mowing), remove old lignified legume stems for proper regrowth initiation and you need a short cereal stubble for good sunlight reach onto the legume crown shoots.
Can we merge the biannual cereal experiment with the livingmulch system?
September drilled oats after summer catch crop. Notice the leaves and tillering compared to later drilled oats. One fun and exciting trial I have established for harvest 2026 is a merger between the biannual winter cereal trial and the livingmulch system. The logic is straightforward: if we must go with the mower right after cash-crop harvest in early August to initiate livingmulch regrowth, why not just drill next season’s winter cereal at the same time. Then we will, technically speaking, establish our biannual winter cereal as an undersown crop in the bottom of the livingmulch for the next 6-7 weeks until we graze or take a forage cut on the livingmulch in mid/late September. Seven weeks is not critical for a cereal/grass to stay in the dark below the canopy, as long as they have got at least two leaves prior to canopy closure. (We know this from undersowing grass seed crops in spring cereals.)
By undersowing the winter cereal in the livingmulch green manure phase (post cash-crop harvest until forage cut seven weeks later) I hope to gain additional benefits compared to the ones mentioned above: 1) Glyphosate-free no-till made possible by the intense plant competition from the livingmulch species, 2) more forage production for cut/graze because the winter cereal will add a little bit of green leaves, 3) no rush to get the winter cereal seeded in late September because it’s already there, 4) no winter cereal seeding deadline so might be able to get a second forage cut or light graze from the livingmulch phase before winter.
Currently in autumn 2025, the trial has been going to plan. We managed to seed the Syngenta BYDV-resistant hybrid barley (SY Zoomba) on 8 August after WOSR harvest, which itself was undersown with a new livingmulch of lucerne and red/white clover. Then on 20 September we took a forage cut on the livingmulch, liberating the much-shaded barley plants. We were also set back by some slug grazing, which was solved using a good dose of slug bait. Then in early October, we applied some soil residual herbicides to prevent overwinter germination of grass weeds. Here in the middle of December it looks like the barley plants have slowly recovered from the forage cut while the legumes are shutting down for winter. I’m very excited to follow this trial through next year.
October drilled oats after catch crop. Drilled three weeks later than September drilled oats. Notice the singular tiller/leaf. And the decomposing cover crop residues still visible. Status of crops for harvest 2026
Crops for harvest 2026 look brilliant at the moment – the best it has looked for many years. No major slug grazing and good drilling conditions in September and October 2025 makes the crops look promising here before the calendar turns to 2026.
Again this year we have decided to seed bed place NPK fertiliser with our drill. Applying all P/K at the time of drilling should maximise use efficiency and gain agronomic benefits (increased tillering and overwintering, etc) while allowing for cheap spring fertiliser (AMS, Urea, N32, N34). We have sufficient soil fertility also aided by our long-term no-till system, so we apply 50% of expected crop removal of P/K.
Biannual winter hybrid barley drilled on 8 August into a new young legume livingmulch right after winter OSR harvest. The barley rows are visible and have survived both the darkness in the bottom of the legumes and the forage mower. 
Close-up picture of the biannual winter hybrid barley and the livingmulch. Good tillering so far but much more required. The barley population is 80 pl/m2. This autumn we have two main drilling date windows for our winter wheat. The first window is around 7 September and the second is around last week of September. The early drilling date of 7 September is because of some Danish nitrogen leaching legislation where we can grow early drilled winter wheat instead of mandatory nitrate catch crops. There’s plenty of risk and challenges to growing early planted wheat: mainly grass weed issues but also aphid vectored BYDV. Therefore, I have made a small on-farm trial this autumn where we grow two new BYDV-tolerant winter wheat varieties (RGT Grouse and RGT Goldfinch from the UK) and a new hybrid winter wheat (SU Hybingo) and compare them to our standard line wheat (this particular field is KWS Scope). I won’t get into detail, but I really hate how difficult Brexit has made trading with the UK. One full month of back-and-forth paperwork with the authorities just to import UK trial seed material into EU/DK. But it’s really a great effort from the brilliant RAGT team. The hybrid winter wheat is super-expensive seed material and must be drilled at half the population (125 pl/m2) to normal line wheat (250 pl/m2) in this trial just to come close to a realistic chance of similar gross margin. We do not spray insecticides to winter cereals in general so it will be fun to follow this field through and see how the yields compare at harvest time.
Another interesting comparison we replicate for the 2026 season is one field of winter OSR no-till established compared to another field He-Va Subsoiler drilled (losing to a depth of 28cm). First year we saw no difference on comparable soil types. Second year there was a difference but not similar soil types. This year (2026), soil types are similar but the subsoiler drilled field was in need of remediating some compaction and water-lodging issues which we have good experience repairing with the subsoiler established winter OSR.
Winter oat crops are drilled with three weeks’ difference. The first field in the last week of September after a summer catch crop, then another field was drilled last week of October after a normal autumn cover crop. It’s nice to get good easy weather conditions to do some proper no-till planting green which we succeeded in doing with the oats this autumn.
First year no-till winter wheat after winter OSR which was undersown with legume livingmulch mixture taken for a forage cut seven weeks after OSR harvest. Wheat drilled 25 September 2025. On the machinery front we don’t have much investment planned. I have bought a Griffith Elder Grain Brain continuous flow auger scale for our combine so we can improve how we measure plot yields for our on-farm trials and get a proper reliable yield measurement for each field. I’m looking forward to get going with that system next harvest.
On the livingmulch front we currently have an old fourth crop year field, then a second crop year field and a new first crop year field of winter OSR undersown with a mixture of lucerne and red/white clover. That is plenty to manage and learn from as well.
When you read this, Christmas will have already passed, and we’ll be in the new year. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and hopefully successful new year. I can’t wait to see what 2026 will bring and what we will learn and discuss one year from now.
Close-up picture of the legume seedlings below the OSR canopy. Livingmulch mixture consists of 80% lucerne, 15% red clover and 5% white clover with seed rate of 22 kg/ha. 
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Turning Pressure into Progress: Managing Cost of Production for a More Resilient Farm Business
Written by Jack Hind from Indigro
In today’s arable farming environment, everyone is feeling the financial squeeze. Reduced yields, lower commodity prices, higher input costs, no BPS and uncertainty over government support all have an impact on one thing – margin. When the pie is getting smaller, but pressure continues to rise, how can we improve returns while managing costs more effectively?
To understand where savings can be made, calculating the cost of production is a vital first step. Let’s explore how this is broken down and where the main issues reside.
Variable Costs – A Usual Suspect
Variable costs refer to the input costs that alter with cropping decisions and output levels, including fertiliser, seed, crop protection products and fuel for field operations. When looking at cost of production per tonne, they remain relatively consistent irrespective of acreage, with the main fluctuation coming in price. DEFRA’s Agricultural Price Index highlights how this figure has increased.
Comparing the 2020 baseline with the latest available data (September 2025), variable costs have increased by 30.62% overall. This includes seed (up 5.15%), fertilisers (up 74.88%), crop protection products (up 6.35%), and fuel (up 36.08%). Most prices peaked in 2022 and have since fallen back, however overall inflation remains on the rise. Between September 2024 and September 2025, costs increased by a further 4.00%, driven largely by fertilisers, which are up 17.89% year-on-year.
With input prices continuing to climb, it is understandable why growers are looking at cutting back. Whist this is something worth reviewing, the financial gain from doing so tends to be less impactful than expected due to yield decreases. Independent advice can certainly help refine input strategies and reduce spending through competitive purchasing, but even these incremental gains only go so far. So where does the actual problem lie?
Jack Hind from Indigro ©OP Fixed Costs – The Real Margin Killer
Fixed costs are the ongoing business expenses that are largely independent of crop production. Some examples include machinery, labour, rent, and utilities – outgoings that must be paid regardless of cropped area.
Over the past five years, several elements of fixed-cost inflation have outpaced variable inputs. Machinery and equipment costs have risen by 34.9% since 2020, with a further 1.3% increase in the past year. Electricity has seen the sharpest rise, up 52.4% since 2020 and 8.0% year-on-year. Labour costs have also increased significantly. Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows average agricultural wages climbing by around 32% between 2020 and September 2025, with the minimum wage rising another 6.1% in next April having a further impact.
Rent on the other hand has behaved differently. DEFRA’s Farm Rents statistics show average rents increasing only marginally, from £213/ha in 2020/21 to £217/ha in 2023/24 – a rise of just 1.9%. In real terms, rent is actually cheaper today than four years ago, with 2020/21 equating to roughly £240/ha when adjusted for inflation. Admittedly, local variation does exist, and some regions have seen much higher increases.
Compared with variable costs, fixed costs have therefore seen a greater overall rise since 2020. As they apply to a much larger cost basis (I don’t understand what this means), these changes have a stronger impact on farm profitability. It is now more important than ever to assess whether each overhead is financially sustainable and, if not, what can be done to change this. Understandably, many of these costs are tied up in longer-term agreements, but it is still worth considering their viability before renewal or expansion.
By asking these questions, not as criticisms, but as part of a healthier business review, growers can start to build a clearer picture of where fixed costs sit today and how there may be room to adjust, refine and rethink.
Once you understand your costs, working out your cost of production per tonne is then possible. This allows you to calculate your margin. But there’s still one final piece of the puzzle that can make or break profitability – the price the market is willing to pay.
Commodity Prices – Holding Profits Back
While input costs have risen sharply, output prices have not kept pace. Between 2020 and September 2025, cereal grain sale prices increased by 4.12% overall. Barley and oats have risen by 9.37% and 4.73% respectively, with wheat showing the weakest movement, up just 1.75% for feed and breadmaking actually 1.24% lower than 2020. Since September, prices have continued to decline, with May 2026 wheat futures trading at around £171.60/t at the end of November.
Other commodities have performed very differently. Potatoes are up 83.23%, sugar beet 65.45%, and oilseed rape 19.25%, illustrating how little support cereals have provided to margins when production costs have escalated.
To put this into perspective, based on the AHDB Farmbench tool, the forecasted cost of production for winter wheat is £1659/ha. With a sale price of £171.20/t (May-26 futures, 4th December), a crop must achieve 9.69t/ha just to break even. This is over 1.5 tonnes higher than the UK’s 25-year average. With poor weather conditions in recent years resulting in lacklustre yields (7t/ha in 2020 and 7.3t/ha in 2024), it is no wonder that finances are under pressure.
In simple terms, the margin for error has all but disappeared, with any dip in performance or price pushing a crop into loss. This reinforces the need to reassess cost structures and identify where meaningful improvements can be made.
What Needs to Happen Now?
It is clear that with rising costs and declining prices, interrogating the cost of production and working out ways to make savings is necessary.
For variable costs, reducing inputs while maintaining yield is a fine line. However, through independent advice and transparent buying, growers can be confident they are receiving the best value possible.
In practice, fixed costs represent a far larger proportion of total spend, and even small reductions can make a significant difference. More so than ever, it is essential to scrutinise the underlying structure of overheads and challenge whether each element still reflects the needs and scale of the business today.
For example, with commodity prices falling but rents edging upwards (albeit modestly), is the land cost and productivity aligned with the returns you can expect? For contract farming agreements, is the first charge still reflective of actual costs, or has it begun to erode the divisible surplus?
When looking at machinery, is the size and horsepower of kit proportionate to the acres being worked, or could a smaller/shared setup reduce running costs? In terms of labour, is the current staffing level appropriate for the area farmed, or are there opportunities to realign workloads and improve efficiency?
Managing fixed costs is both more impactful and complex, but by starting to make incremental changes where appropriate, businesses can strengthen margins and build a more resilient farming enterprise.
Tools and Support
Indigro is developing a platform to simplify how cost of production is calculated. Having successfully benchmarked the carbon footprint of our clients’ farms over the past five years, we now feel it is time to apply the same approach to variable and fixed costs. This service will allow farmers to compare their costs with others and identify opportunities to improve financial stability.
Along with providing independent agronomic advice, we consult on SFI and Stewardship agreements and can tailor options most appropriate to your business. With less than 50% of eligible farms enrolled (in what? SFI? Any stewardship scheme?), it is vital to prepare early and have a strategy in place before the scheme is set to reopen in 2026. SFI payments can make a major difference to your margin and so it is worth exploring what’s available.
If you are interested in independent agronomy, benchmarking your cost of production, or need help with SFI planning, please email [email protected] or visit www.indigro.co.uk. We will also be attending Groundswell and Cereals where you can meet the team and learn more about our services.
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Groundbreaking Field Drainage project gets underway at the Allerton Project
Written by Joe Stanley, Head of Sustainable Farming
A year ago I wrote in these pages about the relatively neglected state of interest in land drainage in recent decades and the increasingly degraded nature of much of our field drainage network. My hope at the time was to initiate a research project at the Allerton Project to highlight the benefits of field drainage and get the issue back on the political and supply chain agenda.
Happily, I can report that in the autumn of 2025 this ambition became a reality as our research and demonstration farm at Loddington in Leicestershire saw the first new-scheme install since at least the 1980s as the DRAIN-WISE (Drainage for Water, Income, Soil and Environment) project got underway.
DRAIN-WISE brings together a consortium of partners from across the industry led by the Allerton Project, all with an interest in generating modern, UK-specific data on the impact of a modern field drainage system for both production metrics but, perhaps more importantly, for the environmental impact of land drainage too.
And this, I believe, is key: although government pledges to release its ’25 Year Farming Roadmap’ in 2026 with its vision as to how to make British farming more profitable into the middle of the century, most farmers might look askance at such pledges from a government which has at a stroke undermined business confidence and investment with a range of measures directed against farm businesses, not least its move on IHT and BPR. Indeed, successive governments have done little to engender any confidence that they genuinely understand nor care about the economics of modern farming. What’s more, the UK has no legally binding target on domestic food production, which means that policies that might promote production are always going to come a distant second to those which address our numerous legally-binding environmental targets.
As such, this is the data which we are hoping to focus on with DRAIN-WISE. Afterall, the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) 2025 sets out a target of nitrogen, phosphate and sediment loss from farmland to be reduced by 12% by 2030 from a 2018 baseline – with a statutory target of 40% by 2038. There’s also an aim to see at least 40% of England’s agricultural soils under ‘sustainable management’ by 2028 and 60% by 2030, with a target of a 39% reduction in agricultural carbon emissions by 2040 from a 2022 baseline. There are also ambitious targets for reductions in the use of pesticides and increased IPM. All of these goals – not to mention wider goals associated with biodiversity recovery – are likely to be key outcomes of well-drained vs under-drained soils.
This is important; according to government figures, agriculture is responsible for the loss of some 2.9m tonnes of topsoil across England and Wales and some 75% of sediment loss into surface water, along with 75% of pesticides, 25% of phosphate and is the source of some 69% of nitrous oxide (N₂O) – 80% of which emanates from soil.
A lost crop of winter wheat in the project field – winter 2023-4
We have selected an 8ha arable field of clay loam texture which naturally lends itself to two discrete 4ha blocks of drainage. In recent years we have experienced multiple crop failures on this field due to extreme wet weather, and it lay very under-drained.
In August, Farm Services Ltd (managed by Nuffield Scholar Rob Burtonshaw) installed a ‘gold standard’ drainage scheme future-proofed against extreme rainfall volumes on its western half, utilising 80mm laterals at 17m spacings feeding into 100-160mm mains, backfilled with 10/20mm gravel up to 300mm from the surface, before discharging into a field ditch. The eastern half of the field – for which no extant drainage records later than the 1950s exist – was left undrained.
This new trial was overlain with an existing long-term field trial undertaken with Syngenta (see issue ***) largely focussed on different tillage regimes. As such, across each half of our field we also have both ‘conventional’ (ploughed) and ‘light-till’ (direct drilled) treatments, with historic data back to 2017 on factors such as soil structure, carbon, biology, weed burden and yield. Working with Syngenta on this will enable us to therefore get more ‘bang for our buck’ from the outset with DRAIN-WISE.
The DRAIN-WISE install; August 2025 following a crop of spring barley
Over the next three years we are going to measure a wide range of datapoints; yield, obviously, but also soil health metrics via such methods as VESS (Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure) and soil biology assessments via earthworm counts, identification of soil meso-invertebrates and microresp tests to calculate the functional diversity and biomass of soil micro-fauna. We’ll also be taking soil carbon and bulk density measurements to see if any changes can be detected over time.
A key factor to determine will be whether drained land – across both cultivation treatments and a wide rotation – suffers from less waterlogging and runoff with associated sediment, pesticide and phosphate loss, as well as how nitrates move through the soil profile. A range of techniques will be used to assess this, including digital soil water and nitrate sensors from Paul-Tech, which will give us real-time data at a range of depths.
Our final main thrust of investigation will centre around nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions, a real challenge on our heavier soils when they become waterlogged and especially when compacted. As wet autumn planting seasons become increasingly common (as recently exemplified in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024) this is a problem which will likely increase rather than decrease – especially if field drainage systems continue to deteriorate.
What we hope to build via this project is the start of an evidence base which will force government and the supply chain to enter the conversation about the importance of field drainage for delivering on many of the priorities for our farmed landscapes. Sadly at present, there seem more misconceptions than facts in the civil service on this issue while politicians and much of the supply chain seem entirely without knowledge of this vital subject. Once that conversation has started, then we can ask the question: ‘and at some £3,000/ha, how do we pay for this vital, silent service?’ in a race-to-the-bottom food economy. The issue is particularly acute for smaller and tenanted farms.
The scheme was installed with a drainage plough in good conditions. There was minimal surface disturbance
To be sure, we may also discover some uncomfortable truths. Perhaps it is the case that field drainage speeds the movement of nitrates through the soil and directly into surface waters, as some fear. If that is the case, it’s important that we know: then we can build such knowledge into our evidence base and work to mitigate the fact through better system design and nitrogen use efficiency measures. But at present, we’re largely working in the dark and with such a low profile that this subject is going nowhere.
This first season we are debugging our data collection techniques through a first winter of cover crop (except on the bare ploughed area) before spring oats. Then we hope to enter winter wheat followed by winter rape to test the two most high input crops in our rotation. But over the coming years, the field itself will be a great talking point for our 2,000 visitors per year, many from Whitehall and the supply chain, so hopefully it will be an opportunity to have some good conversations.
The DRAIN-WISE Project partners:
- Allerton Project
- Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB)
- Anglian Water
- Farm Services Ltd
- GW Axup & Co Ltd
- Mastenbroek Ltd
- National Association of Agricultural Contractors (NAAC)
- Syngenta
- With additonal funding from the Cambidge Trust
We are looking for additional expertise and support in this nationally important project. If you would like to discuss, please contact the Allerton Project.
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With history repeating itself now is the time to ‘Think Change’
With lacklustre world commodity prices squeezing profitability the situation in farming today parallels that in 2002 when Jeff Claydon was forced to reduce production costs or see his family’s arable enterprise in Suffolk go out of business. The crop establishment system he invented then has ensured that the Claydon farm has made a profit every year since, even before taking account of government payments.
November 2025
Farming is a commercial business for my family, so we continually review what we do and how we do it. Our objective is to operate as efficiently as possible to maximise profitability.
Twenty-three years ago the feed wheat price fell below £60/t; it was impossible to make money growing combinable crops as we had done for decades. To remain financially viable we had to change how we farmed and reduce our production costs, without compromising yields. We did that by moving away from conventional plough and min-till-based establishment to a unique form of direct seeding.
The direct drill which I designed dramatically reduced the machinery, time, fuel and labour required to establish our crops, and therefore our costs. Over the years we developed a holistic approach to crop establishment which transformed our farm’s economic and ecological sustainability. Simple, practical, fast and ultra-efficient, Claydon Opti-Till® has also brought tremendous improvements in timeliness, soil structure, soil biota and our quality of life.
The Opti-Till® System has transformed the economic and ecological sustainability of the Claydon family’s farm in Suffolk. This simple, fast, low-cost approach has also brought tremendous improvements in timeliness, soil structure, soil biota and quality of life. Used behind a Fendt 724 Vario the Straw Harrow is a fast, efficient, low-cost way to distribute chopped straw evenly across the field and take out weeds / volunteers. This autumn it was used up until the first week of September, then glyphosate applied to take out any remaining volunteers before direct drilling wheat with a 6m Claydon Evolution. Those early days highlighted the importance of considering the next crop at the point of harvest. This way of thinking formed the foundation of a stubble management programme based around the Straw Harrow which allowed us to effectively control volunteers and weeds, as well as slugs which were more of an issue when we grew oilseed rape.
Subsequently we developed the TerraStar®, a light rotary harrow which is still used occasionally to level uneven ground on new contract fields or to create a little more tilth than the Straw Harrow in adverse conditions. This versatile implement can also be used to incorporate
/mix large amounts of straw, manures and compost.Throughout the 23 years that the Claydon farm has been direct seeded our crops have consistently yielded on a par or more than those established using conventional cultivation methods, while weather risks have been largely eliminated because no cultivated land is left exposed to the elements.
Fuel use is now incredibly low, just 40 to 50 l/ha last season including all stubble management operations, drilling, spraying, fertiliser application, inter-row hoeing with our 6m Claydon TerraBlade, harvesting and corn carting. Tractor hours have fallen by 80%, and in three years our main drilling tractor, a 2022 Fendt 942, has only just passed 1200 hours even though in 2025 it drilled the farm with our 6m Claydon Evolution two and a half times (catch, companion, main crop). Wear and tear, servicing costs and depreciation are all significantly lower.
The benefits of this approach have been reflected in our bottom line; excluding support payments, the Claydon farm has made a profit every year. Given that governments of all political persuasions have a habit of changing their minds like the wind we feel that is a good position to be in and every year I have fun with my accountant in wagering that we will make a profit just from growing crops. Profits are largely reinvested in the farm, whether to keep machinery up to date or in longer-term projects such as field drainage. Doing so puts us on a sound footing for the future.
Sadly, the previous Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) payments are no longer, but for the fortunate few, SFI has offset the lost income. A key factor is that direct seeding is helping us to take advantage of SFI payments which currently match those of the IACS.
SFI has made farming very interesting and ensures that the business remains profitable. We have found that direct seeding a catch cover crop within hours of combining the previous crop has helped to conserve moisture. In a dry year such as 2025 this approach greatly assisted the cover crop to establish as well as encouraging volunteers and grassweeds to grow so that they can be taken out later.
Following spring oats this approach proved so successful that by mid-September the tail oats were dominating the cover crop, so it was sprayed off on 10 September, a little earlier than planned. Once the residues had died back we used our Straw Harrow to kill a flush of grassweeds and followed in with the drill, direct seeding winter wheat from 22 September until 2 October. Our agronomists were not amused that it went in so early!
Winter cover crops, in this case following wheat, were looking excellent in mid-November. Conditions were much better than in the previous two years when drilling into wet Hanslope series clay, while the wet, windy weather which followed compromised blackgrass control as we couldn’t get chemicals on at the optimum time. In complete contrast, this autumn we were able to roll everything behind the drill, then apply Avadex and pre-emergence sprays within two or three days.
Our initial concern that establishing cover crops under SFI would be challenging due to time constraints proved ill-founded. Direct seeding directly behind the combine while there is still moisture in the soil has paid off, the only downside being that it happened so quickly that we did not have time to bale anything and the oat straw would have fetched a good price.
Recently, I talked to a farmer who had been direct seeding using a disc-type drill, moving almost no soil, and after noticing some stratification of the soil layers reverted to ploughing to mix the layers. Soil stratification will never be an issue with Opti-Till® because the standard leading tine system on all Claydon direct drills avoids this and consequently eliminates any need for low-disturbance subsoiling to remedy the problem. The leading tine doesn’t have to be run deep every year, just on a sensible basis according to conditions and what you see from looking at the soil. For some crops you will run it a little bit deeper, for others slightly shallower and for best results we recommend drilling at a slight angle to the previous crop.
Investing in more efficient, more effective ways of working could help to ensure that you have a sustainable business going forward, emphasises Jeff Claydon, seen here in field of Elsoms Bamford winter wheat. In the background, at the entrance to the Claydon factory, is the original drill which Jeff invented in 2002, and which subsequently transformed the fortunes of his family’s arable farm in Suffolk. TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Timing is everything in farming and keeping it simple is the key. Operating full RTK guidance we don’t need to put tramlines in with the drill and can come back in the spring with the TerraBlade inter-row hoe to take out any weeds growing between the band-seeded rows. Reducing weed competition in this way has significantly increased yields and any slight concerns we had about going through the spring oats at an early growth stage proved unfounded.
All our winter wheat for 2026 harvest was planted early, in excellent conditions. Fields destined for spring oats were sprayed off in September, a few days earlier than planned, to take out the catch cover crop/grassweeds/volunteers then the over-wintered cover crop was direct seeded into the residues. It is now growing strongly and will be taken out prior to drilling the spring oats, along with any grassweeds that have emerged since we sprayed off the catch cover crop. That’s where the real value of this approach lies and it works a treat.
I am seriously impressed with the way the farm looks this season now that we have fully integrated cover crops into our regime, even though it has been a learning curve for me and the team. Having gone down the SFI route we are seeing considerable advantages in terms of improved weed control from using just one spray of glyphosate to take out the cover crop and the weed rake (Straw Harrow) to remove most of the remaining blackgrass pre-drilling.
Before sitting down to write this article on 20 November I drove around the farm and saw that all our cover crops are in excellent condition. Our wheat is also in great shape going into the winter months, being strong, competitive and very clean considering it was drilled earlier than normal. Elsoms Bamford impressed last season, and we sold it for a small premium, so we are growing it again. Some might say that’s a bit risky, because if that variety fails you’ve no fallback position, but having just one variety of soft milling wheat makes it easy to manage the grain store.
After 23 years of using Opti-Till® to establish crops the Claydon farm’s heavy Hanslope Series clay soils are in excellent condition and very well structured. The farm’s 6m Claydon Evolution drill, placing four products separately at the same time – fertiliser, seed, companion crop and slug pellets – operates at 11-12kmh, so the level of soil loosening by the leading tine is high and the output is greater than a wider direct drill travelling slower. TIME TO TAKE STOCK
Record harvests across the world during 2025 have led to lacklustre commodity prices and as long as ample supplies remain available I see no reason why they will increase significantly.
Against that backdrop I am pleased that we farm the way we farm, as Opti-Till® reduces risk and provides a simple, fast, low-cost method of establishing any crop that can be air sown. My goal is to remain profitable, even before government funding, and the bottom line is that, before subsidies, which are becoming more of an unknown quantity, we have achieved that every year for 23 years. The solution that worked for us back in 2002, by greatly reducing establishment costs and producing consistently high yields, still works for us today and gets better year-on-year.
If we are to continue farming it is important not to fall into the trap of using machinery until it wears, because patching up old kit to keep it running will cost money, both directly and through inefficiency. Currently you have five years to average profits, so before getting into a situation where you have five years of loss, make the changes which will help you farm efficiently and profitably.
No one will argue that times are tough; the question is what can you do about it? Rather than burying heads in the sand and hoping that everything will come good in the end (spoiler: it won’t), those who are determined to stay in farming will review what they are doing and implement changes to maximise profitability.
With harvest and autumn work out of the way now is a good time to evaluate the considerable benefits that are described in the Claydon THINK campaign; we developed this to demonstrate how Opti-Till® reduces the time and cost of establishment by almost 50%. It also demonstrates how our customers improve yields and benefit soil health to deliver healthier, more sustainable, more profitable crops. Details can be found on the Claydon website: claydondrill.com/think-change/
Visit https://claydondrill.com/our-customers/ to hear from farmers across the UK and further afield who are achieving great results with Opti-Till® on a range of crops on varying soils in all climates. You can also keep up with the latest posts, photographs, and videos from Claydon and its customers through the Claydon Facebook page www.facebook.com/Claydondrill
The companion crop of beans can clearly be seen growing in this crop of Elsoms Bamford winter wheat. 
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Farmer Focus: Tim Parton
Jan 2026
The start of a new year, full of hope and expectation! I always try to stay upbeat and hopeful as that is far better than just moping around the yard, moaning! Yes, we have a lot against us at present but looking at the black side does not do our mental health any good. I tend to think that there is always a solution to any problem. It may not always be the solution that you would really like, but nevertheless it is a solution and when things are piling up on top of us, it is so important to regroup, take a breath and work out how we are going to overcome the difficulties that lie ahead of us.
Crops are looking very well at the time of writing and went to bed with a nutrition-balanced foliar spray to give them the ability to get through the winter months, be that from low temperatures or pest / disease attack. As you all know, it is my firm belief that everything can be overcome by ensuring the correct biology and nutrition is available to the plant. Companion cropping further adds to that mix, interacting with more biology and hopefully making more nutrition available to the cash crop, which is obviously the most important crop for the business. Profit must always be our number one concern in the troubled times we find ourselves in, as without profit we are finished as a business.
Cover crops have looked well all the way through the season, even though they were a little slow to get going due to the lack of water and they haven’t reached the height that I would normally expect them to. That said, they are still doing that wonderful job nature intended them to do, putting carbon back into our soils and pulling out nutrition from the soil to make available for the following cash crop. To me, this is the wonder of nature in action, as it has been done for millions of years before human beings started to think that we know better. Applying lots of synthetic products throws everything out of balance, leading to the need of more synthetic products to treat the symptoms the initial products have caused! What a wonderful way to make money! The harvested and produced ‘food’ is then supposed to nourish us (or animals destined to nourish us), but is more likely than not, lacking in nutrients and phytochemicals. This then leads our bodies to get sick from lack of nourishment and we go along to the doctor to get treated for illness – again treating the symptom, not the cause! Thus, making certain companies an awful lot of money. (The pharmaceutical industry is now worth $1.5 trillion worldwide.) Is it me or should we be asking the question what is going wrong? Am I just a sceptic? As soil degradation has got worse, human health has declined, along with livestock.
Getting biology back into our soils is the only way to address these perpetual problems, along with carbon. When biology starts to work, things begin to fit into place and nutrients become available. I have seen a soil pH change by itself just with biology! But is it really any wonder? How do we really think our soils got so productive and active without mankind’s intervention! Do we really think we know better than mother nature? We have so much to learn and biology has so much to offer if we are prepared to put the time in. When biology starts to work and the porosity of the soil starts to change, that aggregation begins to get more depth and compaction becomes a thing of the past. That is when the power and magic of biology become visible and our food becomes nutrient-rich and packed with phytochemicals that are then going to enrich our bodies and immune systems to help us to stay healthy.
Getting that biology back into our soils can take time and, as I have always maintained, you must earn the right to farm in the way that I do. It’s not just going to happen overnight, but if you are prepared to put the work in, happen it will. It may well reappear and function on its own, but for me, as I can get impatient sometimes, I like to reintroduce as much as I can on a regular basis. This is done from buying in microbes, where you know exactly what you are introducing and why! Alternatively, it can be from farm-made compost, which is going to give a very wide variety of microbes if it has been made well. Good compost making is not rocket science and there are plenty of books on the subject if you are prepared to put the work in. Extracting the compost is the best way of getting all those lovely microbes off the carbon and into the liquid applicator on the drill made by Trevor Tappin (who has recently excelled himself yet again by helping me get more mobile around farms with my own beach buggy and trailer. I can’t thank him enough – see picture below – independence is everything when you have lost it). Extracting compost is always the safest way in my experience as not all biology will multiply when in the brewer and I want to get as much variation as I can back into the soil biome. Compost teas are great when your own knowledge of compost has improved and you are confident what is in your compost, but until then, extraction is always the safest bet. As your soil becomes more aerobic and this new community starts to work, improvements in soil commence, in my opinion.
I hope the year ahead is kind to us, as growers, as we could do with a normal growing year for a change. But with the moon in its current orbit, I suspect not! Nevertheless, the main thing is to keep spirits high and know that we shall get through this storm cloud hanging over us one way or another.
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New winter wheat variety aims to continue market resurgence in UK Soft wheat production
Written by Kurtis Scarboro from Elsom Seeds
As a Crop Manager working for the UK’s largest Independent seed breeder – Elsoms Seeds, I’m delighted that, following the success of Elsoms Group 3 wheat Bamford, we are now able to announce another exciting new Soft wheat, Sparkler, to the 2026/27 Recommended List (RL).
Prior to the arrival of Bamford in 2023, there hadn’t really been any Soft wheat varieties agronomically able to compete with the highest yielding Hard wheats since the halcyon days of the early 2,000’s when outstanding wheat varieties such as Claire, Consort, Riband and Robigus ensured that nearly 50% of the UK wheat area was made up of Soft wheat. Since that time though, the area of Hard wheat grown in the UK has surged way ahead of the Soft wheat area creating an imbalance.
Whilst that imbalance still exists, the recent success of Bamford (now officially the UK’s leading winter wheat variety in terms of its market share) added to the arrival of Sparkler should help to restore some much needed balance, as well as helping to create more opportunities for growers to achieve premiums.
According to many grain traders and Millers, there is now very good milling demand for Bamford. And, following their analysis of the crop25 harvest results, the quality of Soft wheat across all the key metrics – including protein levels, bushel weights and Hagberg was equal to Hard wheat last season.
With a treated yield of 106%, Sparkler has joined the RL as the highest yielding UK Soft variety, offering growers and Agronomists a powerful genetic background combining the individual strengths of both Graham and LG Skyscraper. Graham was always noted for its strong performance in the West, whilst Skyscraper dominated the North of England and Scotland for many years, so expectations are high that Sparkler will continue that impressive lineage in, not only, those key regions but throughout the rest of the UK.
From a disease-resistance perspective, Sparkler is particularly noteworthy. It has a Septoria resistance score of 7.2, the second highest on the RL, and a yellow rust score of 7. Both are impressive ratings, especially in a year that saw many varieties downgraded due to high disease pressure – particularly around yellow rust.
On marketability, offering growers realistic opportunities to achieve a premium, the key advantages of this new variety lie in both its suitability for UK distilling and its recent approval for UKS export.
Nick Pitts, Supply Chain Sustainability Manager at the Scottish Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) In tests conducted by Nick Pitts, Supply Chain Sustainability Manager at the Scottish Whisky Research Institute (SWRI), Sparkler has been rated as ‘High’ for its distilling quality, consistently delivering high alcohol yields. This is a significant improvement over the mean of the control varieties. Beyond its distilling potential, Sparkler also possesses a strong set of agronomic traits. It has shown exceptional early vigour, a good specific weight of 76.7kg/hl, and a high tillering capacity, which results in a good amount of straw. All desirable characteristics for growers.
The SWRI’s role is to support the AHDB’s RL trials by evaluating soft wheat varieties for their distilling quality. They are the sole provider of this data, and their assessments focus on Alcohol Yield and Residue Viscosity. Varieties with high alcohol yield and low viscosity over multiple years are rated ‘High’, while those with acceptable quality are rated ‘Medium’. Distillers prefer soft wheats of at least ‘Medium’ quality.
The addition of a new ‘High’ rated distilling variety to the RL is a welcome development. Sparkler has consistently delivered high alcohol yields during testing, offering both farmers and distillers a strong new option for grain distilling.
It’s always valuable to see how new varieties perform on-farm, and I was interested to hear from Lincolnshire-based arable farmer Vic Barker, who farms 222ha on soils ranging from heavy loam to light silt loam. He had an early opportunity to evaluate the new Group 4 and was impressed with its performance during a very challenging season noted for prolonged dry conditions.
Vic explained that he drilled 6ha of Sparkler at a seed rate of 175kg/ha in early December 2024, following crops of cabbages and parsnips. The crop established well, showed tremendous early vigour, and wintered well, before kicking on again in early spring following its first split of N applied at a rate of 80kg/ha on March 3rd.
Sparkler crop – July 2025 He went on to add, “Given this variety is completely new to us, we adopted a belt and braces approach in our fungicides strategy with both our T1 and T2 sprays built around a strong tank mix that included both Revystar (mefentrifluconazole + fluxapyroxad) and Stabilan (chlormequat chloride) – a PGR we use as additional insurance to prevent lodging and strengthen plant stems. The variety was straightforward to manage, fitting nicely into our normal spray pattern and all went smoothly through spring and early summer with the lack of rainfall our only serious concern.
Harvesting in the second week of August, it was his highest yielding winter wheat from five varieties grown in 2025, recording an average yield of 9.76t/ha – a great result given the near drought conditions. In terms of his initial observations, he felt Sparkler’s ability to get away quickly could potentially make it a good variety for late drilling. It tillered well, producing a lot of straw and coped better with the dry conditions than some of his other varieties.
For his 2026 Sparkler crop, Vic has gone with an earlier drilling date and increased his drilled area to 10ha.
He concluded, “Assuming different weather challenges next year I’m sure we’ll know a lot more about this variety by next harvest. It’s early days, but I certainly like what I’ve seen so far and its inclusion on the new RL looks fully justified.”
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Farmer Focus: Heather Oldfield
Jan 2025
Holding the line in a year that kept moving the goalposts
There’s a moment every autumn, somewhere between the last grain lorry rumbling out of the yard on its way to central storage and the first drill making its opening pass, when I catch myself believing the new season might just play ball. It’s fleeting, lasting about as long as it takes me to finish a cup of tea, but it’s enough to set me up for the next round of decisions, compromises and cautious optimism that come with British arable farming.
This year, we held our nerve and drilled winter wheat in mid‑October, after letting a decent chit of blackgrass appear. I’ll admit I walked those fields in the evenings, doing my usual mental arithmetic on soil temperature, rainfall and how many days of weather luck we might have left. Blackgrass still sets the rhythm, and 2025 was no different. On our stubborn heavy clays, you either get conditions perfect or pay for it all winter. Too soon and you’re inviting weeds, too late and you’re risking a mud‑wrestling match that will haunt you until spring.
Thankfully, the Horsch Avatar did its job: consistent depth, tidy placement, minimal disturbance. Wheat establishment is even, strong and, I’ll whisper it rather than say it, the best start we’ve had in years.
Like many others, we’ve leaned further into spring cropping. Spring barley still ticks several boxes: weed control, a bit of a premium when the market behaves and straw for the growing beef. With grain markets dragging, we’re feeding home‑grown barley for the first time, and so far, it’s proving its worth. In a moment of bravery, we’re trying spring beans in 2026 too. Grass continues to be the unsung hero here, offering reliability for forage, soil rest and weed management.
One thing I genuinely welcome from Minette Batters’ Farming Profitability Review is its push for clearer long-term direction, stronger supply chain fairness and better data-driven decision-making: all actions that feel grounded in the real world of farming rather than theory. The review’s emphasis on boosting resilience, improving business confidence and recognising farming’s wider economic value gives me hope that the sector is finally being heard at policy level.
And while there’s no silver bullet, the call for coordinated action and for government to put farming at the centre of food, environmental and trade policy feels like exactly the kind of reset we need.
It’s also encouraging to see the focus on practical innovation, home-grown solutions and reducing reliance on imports. That ties directly into our own decision to bring spring beans into the 2026 rotation: a small but meaningful step towards producing more of our own protein on farm. Not only does it strengthen our agronomy and support soil health, but it also aligns with the review’s message that boosting domestic production where possible is key to building a profitable, resilient future.
Weather wise, this season has been kinder than the last few. Friends across the country are muttering about wanting more rain, but after the bog‑like conditions of 2023–24, I’m grateful for where we are. Crops have potential, fields are carrying well and optimism, that scarce resource, is reappearing.
The mild winter, however, has brought rising disease pressure earlier than usual. Timings will be everything. Nitrogen scheduling, fungicides, crop management: all of it sits in the annual balancing act between agronomic need and budget frustration.
Then we come to the Sustainable Farming Incentive. If I’m honest, the SFI has been the other dominating storyline of last year, though not in the confidence-boosting way one might hope. The government’s snap closure of options in spring 2025 knocked many of us off-balance mid rotation and mid budget.
Trying to plan multiyear environmental outcomes while the rulebook keeps getting rewritten feels like farming on shifting sands. One minute a scheme makes sense, the next, you’re redrawing maps, reassigning margins and recalculating income.
Wider government policy hasn’t offered much stability either. Machinery investments, choosing varieties, hiring staff; these aren’t short-term decisions. You need a predictable policy horizon.
Becoming a mum has changed how I look at all this. I think more about the future landscape my children might walk into, and whether they’ll have a farming industry that values both food production and environmental care.
Looking ahead to 2026, I’m cautiously hopeful but fully aware we need stability, fairness and better prices. Volatility helps no one.
Meanwhile, real life keeps happening here. The children have already declared that we “definitely need more cade lambs” this spring. They may be fluffy hooligans, wildly inefficient users of milk powder and prone to escaping at the worst possible moments, but the children love them. And honestly, they teach good lessons: responsibility, timing, gentleness and the joy of seeing something thrive because you turn up every day.
2025 demanded nerve, patience and the stubborn refusal to take shortcuts even when tempted. It hasn’t been easy, but farming rarely is. What it continues to offer, even in the most uncertain seasons and shifting policies, is purpose, community and a sense that what we do still matters.
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Agronomist in Focus – Ben Foster
How variable rate nitrogen applications can help offset upcoming fertiliser taxation
Ben Foster The new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) tax, which is expected to add £50-£75 per tonne to nitrogen prices, is less than a year away. But it is likely to be felt this year, since the EU implemented its CBAM tax, which accounts for most of the UK’s nitrogen fertiliser imports.
“We could see £40/t added to fertiliser prices this spring because of CBAM’s implementation in the EU, which isn’t ideal considering the current grain prices and that nitrogen is already at a high price,” says Ben Foster, product manager for RHIZA.
He believes adopting variable rate nitrogen can readily generate the savings needed to offset any rise, and data from last year back this up. “Variable rate nitrogen has been available for a long time. Some farmers have tried it and decided it wasn’t for them, while others have the machinery capable of applying variable rate but have never tried it.
“There are now new tools available to farmers that make variable rate nitrogen cheaper, easier and more accurate. I’d encourage all farmers with the capability of variable rate spreading to look at the technology this season, at least in a trial area, to examine its results on their bottom line,” urges Ben.
Examining data from combine yield mapping is a great starting point for justifying the need to customise nitrogen rates across a field, according to Ben. An increasing number of farmers now have access to yield maps, especially as older combines with this capability become available on the second-hand market.
“I’d recommend looking at the variation in satellite imagery from a platform like Contour in March or April, and overlaying it with historical yield maps. In my experience, the variation in spring satellite images will likely correlate very closely with yield data from the summer. This should give farmers the confidence to tweak late spring nitrogen applications to match field potential,” says Ben.
Peter Cartwright, farms manager at Revesby Estate in Lincolnshire, made the move to variable rate nitrogen on his wheat crops last year after seeing its benefits during an Agrii digital technology farm trial. They had used variable rate nitrogen some years before, but gave it up because they lacked confidence in how to adjust the rates.
“In oilseed rape, it’s straightforward because it’s linked to the green area index,” says Peter. “With wheat, we didn’t know whether to push a backwards crop or hold back on it. We are still asking similar questions, but we have a better grasp of it with the information available to us.
“We have signed up for the variable rate SFI action and we are using it across the whole estate now.”
The new CBAM tax, on top of high prices relative to grain values, has flipped the nitrogen equation, thinks Peter. Not long ago, the benefits of adding more nitrogen to maximise yields outweighed the risks of potentially spending too much. The financial cost for applying too much is far higher now, he adds.
Last season, they did not see a reduction in nitrogen use overall, but Peter says they used it more appropriately, pushing the more promising field areas and holding back on others. Looking ahead to this spring, with grain prices lower than a year before and nitrogen higher, he is looking for savings. “The economic viability of that last 10% of yield has changed,” explains Peter.
The functionality for farmers to make this choice is available in Contour, says Ben. When choosing variable rate plans, farmers can choose between optimum yield and canopy levelling. Selecting optimum yield means the tool will favour better areas of the field with more nitrogen to maximise the yield potential there. Conversely, canopy levelling will increase nitrogen levels in areas with lower vegetative indices.
“There is no definitive answer to this,” says Ben. “It is dependent on the season and the farmer’s knowledge of the field. We are trying to build our understanding of this through the digital technology trials at Revesby Estate. Last season, they showed promising results from withholding nitrogen on the sandier areas of the trial field due to the dry weather.
With the increasing number of long, dry spells in recent springs, understanding variation in soil texture and underlying geology can be just as important for nitrogen applications, believes Ben. Soils with higher clay content or over chalk often show much better drought tolerance and therefore better yields, which supports higher nitrogen applications in drier seasons.
If farmers want to try variable-rate nitrogen this season, Ben says the Contour tool charges only for the areas where it is used.
“If you want to use it, we will unlock the tool for your whole farm. RHIZA recognises not every field will require variable rate nitrogen and as such offers a pay-as-you-go approach to planning, meaning whilst the tool is accessible across the whole farm, you’ll only be charged for the hectares that the system produces a plan for,” he concludes.
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Generating lower-input variety data
Jason Pole, AHDB Technical Content Manager, explains how innovative trials aim to pinpoint elusive crop characteristics to help farmers reduce input use.
Every year, efforts are renewed in the quest to grow profitable crops. The fundamental ways to achieve this are well-understood but there is always scope for improvement, which includes turning towards genetics even more for a helping hand.
The Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL) already presents data for many key traits associated with input use, including disease resistance. According to results from successive five-yearly reviews of the variety-trialling project, there is a consistent appetite for more agronomic data. Over the years, common themes have emerged, including a demand for more crop physiology data to identify varieties that perform better under lower-input scenarios.
Jason Pole with cattle Cereals & Oilseed Region Valued vigour
Although responses to our RL reviews are broad, there are keywords that crop up repeatedly, including vigour. Good crop vigour is clearly valued, but the question of what it is and how it is assessed is complex and has defied clear definition, which is why it has not been included on the RL to date.
Certainly, it is not through a lack of trying. For instance, we have run trials and worked with breeders to develop ways to measure vigour in oilseed rape. We even detected statistically significant differences between varieties in individual trials. However, when trial results were combined, the differences in vigour were lost. Frustratingly, varieties with high levels of vigour in one trial can show low levels of vigour in another. Although we do not know the specific reasons for the inconsistency, it is highly likely to be due to numerous (often interacting) environmental variables, such as temperature, soil moisture, nutrient availability and daylength, that outweigh genetic differences in vigour.
Winter oilseed rape RL trial (C) AHDB To produce reliable vigour data, we need to know much more about these factors, so we can account for them in variety evaluation. At present, we are focused on assessing potential vigour traits in winter wheat. So far, the results in the small subset of RL winter wheat trials have been more encouraging than those for oilseed rape. The first-year trials (2024/25 season) detected differences between varieties at RL trial sites in England, Scotland and Wales. The differences were small but, importantly, consistent. Measurements will continue for the 2025/26 season. If robust and reliable information on crop vigour can be generated, then the RL Board will consider the potential to measure vigour traits routinely and include them on the RL.
Of course, not all variety research has to be done within the confines of the RL trial system. In autumn 2025, two further projects (at non-RL trial sites) got underway to investigate potentially useful variation.
Withholding weeds
The first project studies how cereal varieties compete with weeds in lower-input situations. It is a topic that has been visited many times by researchers, which includes investigations of key traits associated with early growth habit, tillering and height.
Despite these efforts, there is still relatively little practical information that can be trusted and used by farmers, especially as many aspects of competition remain poorly understood. Additionally, management choices influence a crop’s ability to compete with weeds (e.g. seed rates, row spacing and seedbed quality), which add further complexity to the variety-assessment process.
A PhD study showed black-grass root development in hydroponic systems (C) University of Leeds However, the topic merits attention. There are significant differences between cereal crops, giving hope that this could be extended to the variety level. For example, research suggests that up to 25% control of black-grass can be achieved by using competitive crops – with some crop species more competitive than others (e.g. barley is more competitive than wheat). A recently completed AHDB-funded PhD studentship (at the University of Leeds) also revealed how the strong rooting habits of some winter wheat varieties improve competition against black-grass during the autumn.
In 2017, the Organic Research Centre developed an on-farm research network that established field-scale winter wheat variety trials. It provided a proof of concept for variety evaluation in a wide range of farming systems, including organic, reduced-tillage and lower-input systems. It also identified the three main traits responsible for weed competitiveness:
1. Early crop vigour
2. Early crop ground cover
3. Good crop canopy cover at flowering
The speed of growth, rate of development and overall biomass production (ground cover and height) all influence the battle with weeds. The new AHDB project will build upon the initial lessons, run additional trials and develop recommendations for measurable crop physiology traits associated with weed competition. The research will continue until the end of 2027.
Weed suppression in a winter wheat trial (C) Cope Seeds Building blends
The second new initiative examines whether growing a mixture of varieties can deliver more sustainable wheat crops. In addition to potentially delivering stronger yield and quality, cereal blends could produce other benefits, such as better yield stability and reduced disease severity (which could help reduce fungicide spray intensity, contribute to fungicide-resistance-risk management and prolong the durability of disease resistance genes).
The AHDB variety blend tool for winter wheat and farmer/miller experience are being used to identify the hard milling varieties (UKFM Groups 1 and 2) to include in the project’s variety blend trials, which will also feature single variety stands for comparative purposes.
Although the blend tool can suggest combinations of varieties, it uses agronomic data from RL trials, where varieties are grown as straights. This means the tool cannot account for the complementarity of traits. In other words, it does not indicate whether a mix will be greater or less than the sum of its parts.
The new variety blend trials will specifically assess how varieties complement each other in mixes, including how they work together to exploit resources more effectively. The trials will be drilled each autumn (2025, 2026 and 2027) at two experimental sites:
- Harper Adams University in Shropshire (generally has a high septoria tritici pressure)
- Agrii Throws Farm in Essex (generally has a high yellow rust pressure)
The trials will include the following treatments:
- No or low fungicide treatment to test disease resistance of blends compared to their component varieties
- A high-fungicide intensity treatment (RL standard fungicide programme) to suppress all diseases to test the additional benefits of blends
The researchers will take various measurements, including disease levels, growth data and yield. The project will also assess grain quality data (via milling and baking tests provided by Whitworth Bros), analyse mycotoxin concentrations and record the presence of ergot.
Led by Harper Adams University and Cope Seeds (UK) Limited, the work will deliver evidence on the performance of variety blends and prime conversations among farmers and millers. Ultimately, it will increase understanding of the performance of blends in UK conditions.
Winter wheat RL trial (C) AHDB Further information
You can follow the progress of these and other crop genetics research projects on the AHDB website: ahdb.org.uk/variety-research
The page also features details about two scoping studies on varietal responses under reduced-nitrogen and reduced-fungicide scenarios (which were also commissioned in response to the most recent RL review).
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Groundswell Sessions
Another two examples of ‘What you might have missed at Groundswell’ from Mike Abram’s Groundswell Sessions series on his Regenerative Farmer Substack newsletter.
The Groundswell Sessions: Ozempic v Organic
This kind of session is why I’m doing this Substack series. It’s not one I would likely attend, but is extremely interesting and is what makes Groundswell so different.
Location: Groundswell Festival
Seminar: Ozempic vs Organic – Groundswell 2025
Published: 11-Nov-2025
Length: 1:05:13
Summary
This seminar critically evaluated the growing reliance on prescription weight loss medications, such as GLP-1 analogues (e.g., Ozempic), contrasting them with the long-term health and weight management solutions offered by a diet focused on nutrient density and whole foods. The panel featured Dr. David Unwin, an NHS GP, and Dr. Lucy Williamson, a vet and nutritionist, who highlighted that many people are simultaneously “overfed and undernourished” due to poor diet quality. A key concern raised was that weight loss achieved through these powerful drugs is not permanent, often reversing once the two-year legal usage limit is reached. Furthermore, suppressing appetite while eating a nutrient-poor diet risks dangerous deficiencies in vital nutrients like iron, calcium, and protein, potentially leading to muscle loss and compromised bone health.
The speakers championed a low-carb, nutrient-dense dietary approach, noting that it achieved similar weight loss results (an average of 19 kilos in one study) as the drugs, but sustainably and without risk. This diet naturally stimulates the body to produce its own GLP-1 fullness hormone. For farmers, the essential takeaway is the profound connection between soil health and human health: regenerative and nature-positive farming methods are crucial to reversing the historical decline in food nutrient content, where key nutrients like iron and zinc in staple crops have dropped by 30% since the 1960s.
Farmers were encouraged to apply the nutritional intelligence they use for livestock (recognising that carbohydrates are fattening) to feeding their own families. The panelists provided emerging evidence showcasing the superiority of food farmed with nature, noting that organic dairy and meat can be significantly higher in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants. This superior quality work, they argue, must be properly valued and rewarded by citizens—not just consumers—who understand the story and quality behind their food.
Key takeaways
• Opt for Nutrient-Dense Diets: Adopt a low-carb, whole-food diet first, as it can match the weight loss results of GLP-1 drugs while naturally stimulating your body’s GLP-1 hormone.
• Increase Soil Health Focus: Continue or adopt nature-positive farming practices, as organic methods consistently increase the levels of beneficial nutrients like iron and bioactives in crops and livestock products.
• Value Animal Products: Recognise that high-quality, animal-sourced foods (meat, dairy) and dark leafy greens are the optimal sources for overcoming widespread deficiencies in critical micronutrients like iron, zinc, and B12.
• Apply Farming Logic to Family: Use the same nutritional knowledge applied to livestock management—understanding that refined carbohydrates are fattening—to make informed, healthy choices for your own family.
• Support Policy Change: Advocate for food policies that restrict junk food advertising to children and subsidise whole, unprocessed foods to improve societal health environments.
Key quote
“My patients eat about a third less food than the general public. They need less food because they’re getting nutrient density.” — Dr. David Unwin, NHS GP
Digging deeper
The Dangers of GLP-1 Dependence
The discussion highlighted that GLP-1 analogues, derived historically from the long-acting venom of the Gila monster lizard, are powerful drugs that mimic the body’s natural fullness hormone. While effective for temporary weight loss, they are only legally licensed for two years, after which weight rapidly returns. A major ethical concern is the casual way people are accessing these injections via online pharmacies without medical supervision, meaning they lack informed consent regarding potential serious side effects, which have been associated with 82 deaths reported in the British Medical Journal. When people use these appetite suppressants while eating a poor diet, they face intensified nutritional deficiency, risking muscle loss (as the body melts its own muscles for protein) and depleted calcium stores, which can weaken bones.
“You’re not losing weight permanently. It’s only while you’re on the medication.” — Dr. David Unwin, NHS GP
Nutrient Density Crisis and the Regenerative Doctor
The seminar established that the low nutrient density of modern food makes it “just about impossible” for older people to meet requirements for certain minerals like magnesium due to current growing methods. This is demonstrated by studies showing a 30% drop in iron and zinc levels in rice and wheat since the 1960s. Dr. Unwin advocates for a “regenerative doctor” approach, working with human physiology by prescribing a low-carb, nutrient-dense diet. This lifestyle change led to significant results for patients, including one case where a patient lost 32 years of weight in one year after learning what spiked her blood sugar, despite five years of failed GLP-1 injections. In a formal study, the low-carb diet group lost an average of 19 kilos over a year, matching the performance of GLP-1 drugs.
“My patients eat about a third less food than the general public. They need less food because they’re getting nutrient density.” — Dr. David Unwin, NHS GP
The “Golden Thread” Connecting Soil and Health
Dr. Lucy Williamson emphasised that microbes form the “golden thread” linking the health of the soil, grazing animals, and humans. A diverse, healthy gut microbiome is crucial for weight control, as it produces the “building blocks” for the natural GLP-1 hormone. Research on food quality confirms that ultra-processed food, even when fortified with nutrients, upsets human biology and leads to greater weight gain compared to whole, wholesome food. Certified organic beef and lamb, compared to non-organic or grain-fed varieties, can be up to 300 times higher in vital anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. Furthermore, the science on dairy is changing: whole dairy fats are now understood to be protective against heart health issues and Type 2 diabetes. The speakers stressed that the public should shift from being passive “consumers” to active “citizens” who value the quality and origin of the food they buy.
Original link here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aswLic–B-I
The Groundswell Sessions: Farmers helping farmers in Australia
A very interesting session focusing on what Australian and UK farmers could learn from each other.
Location: Groundswell Festival
Seminar: Farmers helping Farmers in the Land “Down Under”
Published: 11-Nov-2025
Length: 1:05:17Summary
This seminar presented a case study in farmer-led systemic change, chronicling the experiences of Vic No Till, an Australian regenerative farming organisation, following an eight-day study tour of UK farms. Michael Gooden (President of Vic No Till) and soil health consultant Joel Williams led the discussion, emphasising that successful system change must start “from the bottom up” via peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, addressing similarities between UK and Australian agriculture, such as climate adaptation challenges and the ongoing cost-price squeeze.
A core finding for farmers was the necessity of a fundamental mindset shift, referred to as “the paddock between our ears,” which must precede investment in new technologies like disc drills. The delegation praised UK farmers for their high degree of on-farm experimentation and non-dogmatic adherence to principles; they observed long-term no-till practitioners strategically using shallow tillage to manage specific issues like compaction or potential future weed pressures, treating tillage as a tool.
The Australian team identified significant opportunities for UK farmers, particularly in increasing genuine livestock integration into arable rotations. While impressed by the widespread adoption of perennial fertility lays and crop variety blends (areas where the UK is seen as leading), the visitors stressed that maximising the economic and soil health benefits of these lays requires effective grazing management, citing evidence that the largest ‘kick-up’ in carbon sequestration often occurs only when animals are introduced.
Key takeaways
• Focus internal resources on the mindset shift (”the paddock between our ears”) before making major machinery investments.
• Integrate livestock into arable rotations to generate early cash flow and recover input costs, thereby mitigating crop risk.
• Utilise flexible, low-cost temporary electric fencing to implement holistic grazing management principles, ensuring adequate rest periods for plants.
• Establish peer-to-peer networks focused on building trust, encouraging open discussion of failures, and sharing economic benchmarks (e.g., machinery overhead costs).
• Maintain a flexible, context-specific approach; strategic use of occasional shallow tillage to address soil issues should not be rejected dogmatically.
Key quote
“If you don’t get that right within this space, then no matter what type of seed drill you’ve got or no matter how fancy your pasture mix is, you won’t really get too far ahead.” — Michael Gooden, President of Vic No Till
Digging deeper
The Power of Peer-to-Peer Learning and Mindset Change
Vic No Till was founded around 2002 following the implementation of early direct drilling technology in Australia. Its mission is “farmers helping farmers” to create collaborative spaces for learning and growth. The organisation views the single most important factor for success as the farmer’s attitude—the “paddock between our ears”—and therefore organises practical, hands-on field days and events designed to facilitate effective communication. These events encourage farmers to discuss opinions and feelings, which ultimately builds trust and bonding necessary for making difficult changes.
Vic No Till’s focus on building a strong supportive network directly combats the fear often introduced by traditional external advisors, such as agronomists, who might discourage farmers from reducing inputs by suggesting they “will go broke if you do that”. The organisation also works to keep long-term members engaged by expanding conversations into human health, nutrient density, and the economics of healthy eating.
UK Practices: Flexibility and On-Farm Experimentation
The international delegation was highly impressed by the openness and willingness of UK farmers to share both their successes and failures, fostering a “two-way street of knowledge exchange”.
A key observation was the prevalence of on-farm experimentation. Farmers showed the delegation numerous trials, allowing them to compare treatments (”left versus right”) and hone their observational skills. This practice fosters a vital understanding of how systems work in specific soil contexts. This flexibility was evident in the approach to tillage:
“Tillage is a tool and we need to be looking at using it strategically.” — Michael Gooden, President of Vic No Till
The Australians noted that even long-term no-till farmers were experimenting with shallow ploughing to proactively deal with compaction, weed issues, or to mitigate the future risk of glyphosate removal. This adaptability demonstrated that UK farmers were not being dogmatic about continuous no-till.
Livestock Integration: The ‘Easy Wins’ for UK Arable
Michael Gooden noted his surprise at the low level of genuine livestock integration within UK cropping systems, stating that animals were often kept on separate parts of the farm. The Australian experience, supported by examples like Gabe Brown’s transition, shows that the largest increase in carbon sequestration often follows the introduction of livestock alongside other regenerative practices.
Extra benefits from herbal leys?
The UK is seen as a leader in incorporating herbal leys into arable rotations, which significantly improves soil structure, root depth, and prevents compaction. However, the economic and biological benefits of these leys are maximised by introducing grazing. Grazing provides:
• Enterprise diversity and reduced crop risk (input costs recovered via grazing income).
• Improved cash flow (selling animals sooner than grain harvest).
• A mechanism for inoculation and enhanced nutrient cycling. To manage this on large arable fields, the delegation recommended the use of temporary electric fencing (such as Kiwi Tech or adapted setups), which is low cost, highly flexible, and allows farmers to implement good grazing management (adequate rest periods) without hindering cropping operations.
Global Markets, Biodiversity, and Carbon
The UK was praised for its robust direct-to-market grain systems (like Wildfarmed), which provide viable scale, milling capacity, and premium prices for regenerative produce—a structure not yet common in Australia.
Regarding environmental schemes, the visitors were impressed by the UK’s SFI programme’s focus on increasing biodiversity, noting the widespread adoption of wildflower strips and thick grass margins. While acknowledging that subsidies incentivised this high level of ecological integration, there was curiosity as to whether the associated rules and regulations might be stifling innovation. They hoped that support would continue post-funding, recognising that these practices also deliver economic benefits, such as reducing nitrates in waterways.
In comparison, Australia operates a regulated soil carbon market, which is considered a high-standard methodology, although farmer uptake has been surprisingly low. The visitors expressed concern about the accuracy and long-term verification of carbon credits in unregulated markets.
Original link
Watch the session on YouTube.
Disclaimer: These summaries are produced using AI tools. They may not be 100 percent accurate and should not be taken as fact. Feedback welcome.
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Yorkshire – The quiet farming revolution.
Written by Mark Hatton
For the last 19 years, I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to call Yorkshire home.
Across the broad sweep of the Yorkshire Wolds, the upland fringes of the Pennines and the deep, fertile soils of the Vale of York, farming has always been shaped by both landscape and necessity. Today, however, Yorkshire agriculture finds itself in the midst of a quieter but far more profound transformation. Driven by economic pressure, environmental responsibility and a renewed understanding of soil and biology, farmers across the county are embracing regenerative practices that challenge long-held assumptions about how land should be worked and how food should be produced. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapid uptake of direct drilling and low-disturbance systems in arable rotations, alongside the reimagining of livestock management through grazing strategies that restore, rather than deplete, the land.
In Yorkshire’s arable heartlands, regenerative thinking has moved well beyond being a niche interest. Direct drilling, once viewed with suspicion, is now widely recognised as a practical tool for rebuilding soil structure, retaining moisture and reducing both labour and input costs. From heavy clay to lighter chalk and sand, growers are discovering that by disturbing less and keeping the soil covered, they are encouraging fungal networks, improving infiltration and unlocking nutrients that had been tied up by years of intensive cultivation. Multi-species cover crops, once trialled on small areas, are now being woven into whole rotations, providing living roots in the ground for longer, capturing carbon and feeding soil biology between cash crops. The result is not just healthier soils, but crops that show greater resilience to drought, waterlogging and disease.
Yet regenerative agriculture in Yorkshire is not confined to arable fields. Across the county’s mixed and livestock farms, a parallel revolution is under way. Grazing management is being transformed through the use of rotational and mob-grazing systems that mimic natural grazing patterns. By allowing grass and herbal leys adequate rest periods, farmers are building deeper root systems, improving soil organic matter and increasing forage production without relying on ever-higher fertiliser applications. Cattle and sheep are becoming tools for soil regeneration, trampling organic matter back into the sward and cycling nutrients through dung and urine. For many producers, the benefits are tangible: healthier animals, reduced feed bills and grass that keeps growing when conventional systems would be running short.
What unites these approaches, whether on arable or livestock farms, is a shift in mindset. Regenerative farming asks producers to work with natural processes rather than against them. It prioritises soil as a living ecosystem, values diversity above uniformity and measures success not only in yield, but in resilience and long-term viability. In a region as large and varied as Yorkshire, this flexibility is crucial. There is no single regenerative blueprint, but there is a growing willingness among farmers to experiment, observe and adapt.
That spirit of innovation is not limited to what happens in the field. Yorkshire is also home to some of the UK’s most progressive agricultural machinery manufacturers, many of whom are playing a key role in the shift towards lower-disturbance and regenerative systems. Companies such as Agriweld, Grange Machinery, Ryetec and Sumo are all based in the region, designing and building equipment that reflects the real-world needs of modern farmers. From strip-till and direct drills to low-disturbance cultivation tools and precision application technology, Yorkshire-built machinery is helping farmers reduce passes, protect soil structure and cut fuel and labour costs. The close relationship between these manufacturers and local farming businesses creates a powerful feedback loop, where practical experience on Yorkshire farms directly influences the next generation of equipment.
At the heart of this momentum sits the Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS), an institution that has long been a cornerstone of the county’s farming community. Best known for delivering the Great Yorkshire Show, the Society’s influence reaches far beyond a few days in Harrogate each summer. Through its year-round programme of events, education and industry engagement, it plays a vital role in connecting farmers with new ideas, technologies and one another. In an era when agriculture faces unprecedented change – from post-Brexit policy shifts to the pressures of climate and public scrutiny – the Society provides a stable platform for discussion, debate and progress.
A central part of that mission is its Future Farmers programme, which is nurturing the next generation of Yorkshire agricultural leaders. YAS Future Farmers brings together young people from across the region, providing them with networking opportunities, business insight, technical knowledge and exposure to innovative farming systems. Many of those involved are already actively engaged in regenerative practices on their own farms or in their professional roles, whether that means trialling cover crops, adopting new grazing strategies or analysing data to improve efficiency and reduce inputs. By giving these future decision-makers a voice and a network, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society is ensuring that progressive, regenerative thinking becomes embedded in the county’s agricultural DNA.
All of these strands – regenerative practice, engineering innovation, institutional support and generational renewal – will come together at the forthcoming Yorkshire Agricultural Conference on 28 January. Set against a backdrop of shifting policy and tightening margins, the Conference promises to be a focal point for discussion about how Yorkshire farming can remain both competitive and sustainable. With sessions expected to cover soil health, grazing systems, technology and the economics of low-input farming, it will provide a timely opportunity for farmers to take stock, compare experiences and chart a course for the years ahead.
For a county that has always punched above its weight in British agriculture, Yorkshire’s current embrace of regenerative farming feels less like a radical departure and more like a natural evolution. Rooted in a deep respect for land and livestock, but informed by modern science, farmer-led innovation and home-grown engineering, it is shaping a future in which productivity and stewardship go hand in hand. As our Farmer Focus contributors will attest to, Yorkshire is not just adapting to change, it is helping to lead it.
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The Yorkshire Agricultural Society
The Yorkshire Agricultural Society (YAS) is best known for organising the Great Yorkshire Show each July but perhaps is lesser known for the work it does throughout the rest of the year.
The new Yorkshire Farming Conference, taking place on Wednesday 28 January at the Great Yorkshire Showground, will help to change that. YAS is organising this major event for the first time, in collaboration with its Farming Networks, as part of its annual circa £500,000 investment to deliver support and promote agriculture and rural industries across Yorkshire and the North of England.
Aimed at everyone working in agriculture, the Conference features a full programme of inspiring talks and workshops, covering everything from farming smarter, policy implications and strengthening supply chains, to the world of livestock showing and wellbeing support. A packed trade show will also mean farmers can scope out new machinery and technology, speak to rural advisory and professional service providers about a range of issues, and find out more about support available to them.
Allister Nixon, CEO of YAS, said: “Tickets are on sale now for the Conference, which will spotlight big topics with leading lights from across farming. It is an event for everyone in the industry, backed by a trade show and with a full day to make connections with others in farming, hear and take part in topical talks and find out more about what YAS offers.”
Allister Nixon, Chief Executive Officer of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society A registered charity, founded in 1837, YAS was established to promote agriculture in Yorkshire, and its first objective was to run a major agricultural event. The Great Yorkshire Show was born as a touring show at sites across Yorkshire, with the first show held in Fulford, York, in 1838. This remained the case until 1951, when the show took place for the first time at its new permanent home, the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.
This investment to purchase the Showground and the subsequent establishment of its Showground businesses (Fodder, The Great Yorkshire Events Centre, Pavilions of Harrogate and Harrogate Caravan Park), whose profits are invested back into the charity, helps YAS to flourish. What’s more, an independent analysis in 2019 found that businesses and events held at the Great Yorkshire Showground contributed £73.7 million to the economy.
With these firm foundations, YAS’s work has grown considerably over recent decades. YAS supports and promotes the farming industry through events, training, grants, bursaries, scholarships, education, scientific research, practical support and stakeholder engagement. It does much of this work through its Farming Networks.
Future Farmers of Yorkshire is the group for forward-thinking farmers, vets and industry supporters, which offers events and activities to promote professional development and provide networking opportunities.
The Farmer Scientist Network brings together scientists and farmers to explore how science and technology can both solve practical problems on farms and underpin innovation in agriculture for future generations.
The Yorkshire Food, Farming and Rural Network is made up of local stakeholder groups, representing different areas of the region, to identify and feed back issues and concerns to government.
The Yorkshire Rural Support Network connects farming organisations, charities and voluntary agencies that work with and support Yorkshire’s farming community by promoting and providing sources of help – practical, financial, medical and emotional – to those who live in farming and rural communities.
The Women in Farming Network brings women from farming and related industries together in the spirit of celebration, support and collaboration.
YAS also offers the Goodall Agri-Development Pathway, a fully-funded training programme to develop farming’s next generation, open to those aged 23-40 who work in farming and allied industries in the North of England.
Since 1980, YAS has supported professional development in farming by sponsoring Nuffield Farming Scholarships, which enable farmers to travel internationally, report back on an industry issue and inform progressive change.
Its education programme includes Countryside Days, offering hands-on activities all about farming, food and the countryside to thousands of schoolchildren, free of charge, at the Great Yorkshire Showground over two days in June.
YAS small grants are available to individuals and organisations to: support and promote agriculture, rural and allied industries throughout the North; advance and encourage agricultural research and greater understanding and empathy with farming and the countryside; and, to advance and encourage the protection and sustainability of the environment.
The Tye Trophy, awarded by YAS at the Great Yorkshire Show, recognises conservation and environmental improvements in commercially successful farms and is judged across the North.
Tickets for the Yorkshire Farming Conference, priced £25 + VAT, are available to purchase in advance only, online at yorkshirefarmingconference.co.uk. A discount is available for group bookings of 10 or more. Tickets can also be purchased in-person, subject to availability, from Russells farm machinery outlets in Boroughbridge, Eggborough, Malton and Northallerton. BASIS and NroSo (CPD) points can be claimed at the event.
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Farmer Focus: Phil Rowbottom
Phil Rowbottom, Woolley, West Yorkshire
A Five-Year Journey into Direct Drilling
It’s been five years now. Five years since we parked up the plough and put our faith in direct drilling. It’s a big leap of faith, I can tell you. You go from a nice, clean, ploughed field to drilling into what looks like a right mess of stubble and trash. It’s not an easy transition to make, mentally. You’ve got to trust the system, trust the drill, and then, to a certain extent, walk away until March.
Of course, you’re not really walking away. There’s still spraying to be done, and you’re constantly watching and wondering. But that initial shock of seeing your wheat coming up through all that stubble…it takes some getting used to. But it does.
We’re now heading into our fifth harvest from direct-drilled crops, and I can honestly say, I don’t think we’ll ever go back. There would have to be a very strong reason to bring the plough out of the nettles, and I can’t for the life of me think what that would be.
When you get a spade in the ground, you can see the difference. The soil is different; it’s got a bit of a sponginess to it, a bit of life. It’s friable, it breaks up, and you can see the wormholes and the root channels. We’ve had no metal through this land for over five years, and the soil is thanking us for it. I know some of the neighbours still lean on the gate and scratch their heads, wondering what on earth we’re up to, but I’m convinced we’re on the right track.
Phil Rowbottom, Woolley, West Yorkshire We’re using cover crops to do the cultivation for us now. This year, we’ve got a mix of black oats, radish, vetch and a bit of ryegrass in our overwinter cover. We’ve upped the seed rate and the mix to get a good, thick cover, and it’s doing a fantastic job. The radish, in particular, is brilliant. I dug up a taproot the other day that was as long as my arm. It’s blasting through any old plough pans and creating drainage channels deep into the subsoil. It’s amazing what a plant can do.
We’ve also got some sainfoin that’s been in the ground for three years now. It’s had all sorts thrown at it – Roundup, weedkillers, you name it – but it just won’t die. I’m not bothered, to be honest; it’s a fantastic plant. It’s got a massive, woody taproot that goes down for feet and it’s doing a brilliant job of improving the soil structure. It’s also great for the bees.
Speaking of bees, our beekeeper has had a fantastic year. He’s got nearly 100 hives on the farm, and he made 12 tonnes of honey this summer. It’s great to see. We’ve got more and more food available for them now, with the buckwheat, vetch and other things we’re growing in our cover crops. It’s a nice little by-product of the system.
One thing we’re not growing this year is oilseed rape. There’s hardly any rape grown in the area now. Ten years ago, we were putting 5,000 tonnes of it into the store. This year, it was 300 tonnes. The flea beetle and the loss of neonicotinoids have just made it an impossible crop to grow. It’s a shame, but we’ve had to adapt.
We’re using the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) to help us with the transition. We’re in a scheme that pays us for using cover crops and for having a certain amount of our land in bird-friendly habitats. It’s helping to bridge the gap and it’s encouraging us to do the right thing. We’re seeing more skylarks on the farm now than I’ve seen in years, which is fantastic. It’s a sign that we’re doing something right.
But it’s not all plain sailing. The government and the policymakers don’t make it easy for us. They come up with these grand schemes and ideas, but they don’t seem to understand the reality of farming. They don’t seem to get that we’re running businesses, and we need to make a profit to survive. They’re quick to ban chemicals and impose new rules, but they’re not so quick to provide us with viable alternatives.
The government has also announced an uplift on the inheritance tax threshold, but it doesn’t address all our concerns. For many family farms, especially those with significant land holdings, it still means facing substantial tax bills when we pass the business on to the next generation. We’ve spent generations building these businesses, investing in the land, improving the soil, and now there’s still uncertainty about whether our children will be able to afford to keep the farm in the family. It’s not just about the tax itself – it’s about the principle. Farming is a long-term business, and these sudden policy shifts create real anxiety for families planning their futures.
The whole glyphosate debate is a prime example. How many times does it have to be tested and declared safe? And yet, the pressure to ban it is relentless. If we lose glyphosate, it will be a disaster for no-till farming. We need it to control our cover crops and to manage our weeds. There’s talk of mechanical weeding, and I’m looking into it, but it’s not a simple solution. It would mean changing our row widths, and I’m not sure if it would be as effective.
It’s a constant battle. But we’re farmers, and we’re used to that. We’re a resilient bunch; we have to be. We’re always looking for new ideas, new techniques, new ways of doing things. That’s what makes it interesting. That’s what keeps us going.
And it’s not just about farming. It’s about the lifestyle. The move to direct drilling has given me more time. I’m not spending all autumn sitting on a tractor seat, ploughing and cultivating. I’ve got more time to spend on other aspects of the overall business, more time with the family, more time to enjoy life. And you can’t put a price on that.
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Farmer Focus: Angus Gowthorpe
A Farmer’s Reflections: Resilience in the Field and Pride in the Herd
Angus Gowthorpe, Approach Farm, Riccall, York
As we settle into 2026, it’s a natural time to reflect on the year that has just passed here at Approach Farm. 2025 tested our resilience, particularly on the arable side, but it also brought immense pride through the continued success of our livestock enterprise. The story of last year is one of contrasts – of challenges posed by Mother Nature, and the rewards of careful breeding and management. It’s also a year that has been overshadowed by concerns about inheritance tax and the future viability of family farms like ours. As I write this in early January, with the winter crops established and the new year stretching ahead, it’s worth taking stock of what we learned, what we achieved, and what the future might hold.
Angus Gowthorpe, Approach Farm, Riccall, York The arable enterprise: A tale of two seasons
Our arable operation, spanning around 330 acres, is a rotation of wheat, barley, beans and oilseed rape. When people ask about last year’s harvest, it’s a nuanced story. The actual combining process was relatively straightforward: the weather held, and the machinery ran well. The real damage was done much earlier in the season. The prolonged period of high temperatures and dry weather in the run-up to harvest hit the crops hard, significantly reducing potential yields. It’s a stark reminder that so much of our success is determined by factors entirely out of our control. You can do everything right, but you can’t make it rain. The heat stress affected grain fill, particularly in the wheat, and we saw yields that were well below what we had anticipated when the crops were looking promising in the spring.
Despite the disappointing yields, we press on with renewed determination. Autumn planting is a time for restored optimism and an opportunity to implement improvements to our farming system. This year, we’ve been putting our Horizon drill through its paces, and it has been a game-changer for us. The move to direct drilling has been a learning curve, but we are convinced it’s the right direction for the health of our soils and the long-term sustainability of the farm. The Horizon drill has performed exceptionally well, allowing us to establish the winter crops in good time, even with the variable conditions we experienced. The precision of the machine, combined with its ability to handle residues effectively, has given us confidence that we’re on the right track.
We’re hopeful that this investment in soil health will pay dividends in the years to come, building more resilience into our system to better withstand the kind of weather extremes we saw last summer. Direct drilling reduces soil disturbance, which helps to preserve soil structure and organic matter. Over time, this should improve water retention and nutrient cycling, making the crops more resilient to both drought and excess moisture. It’s a long-term strategy, and we’re playing the long game. The commodity prices remain challenging, but we’re exploring every avenue to add value to our production, whether through The Green Farm Collective marketing scheme or other new markets for our grain.
Grassland and livestock: The Approach Farm herd
While the arable enterprise pays the bills, our true passion lies with our livestock. The farm is home to the Approach Farm herd of pedigree Salers cattle, a breed we have been dedicated to since 2010. We were initially drawn to the Salers for their hardiness, maternal qualities and docile nature, and they have proven to be the perfect fit for our system. They are a breed that thrives in our environment, requiring minimal inputs while producing cattle of exceptional quality.
We run a herd of around 45 championship-winning breeding females, and our focus is squarely on producing top-quality genetics. The show ring is an important part of our calendar, providing a valuable benchmark for our breeding programme and an opportunity to showcase what we believe to be some of the finest Salers cattle in the country. Over the years, the Approach Farm herd has enjoyed considerable success at major shows, including the Great Yorkshire and Lincolnshire shows. These accolades are a testament to our rigorous breeding philosophy, which combines carefully selected AI sires with top-quality stock bulls, to produce cattle that are not only show-winners but also commercially relevant, with excellent conformation, growth rates and performance traits.
Our breeding programme is underpinned by a commitment to genetic improvement, selecting sires that complement our herd and move us toward our breeding objectives. We’re looking for cattle that are correct to the breed standard, with excellent maternal traits, good growth potential and the ability to convert forage efficiently. The grassland enterprise is crucial to our system: we dedicate approximately 85 acres to forage production, ensuring our herd has access to high-quality feed year-round. This integrated approach – combining grassland management with careful breeding – is key to our success.
Seeing our cattle perform well in the show ring is a source of immense pride, but the real satisfaction comes from seeing them thrive in their new homes, whether that’s in other pedigree herds or in commercial suckler operations. We know that we are contributing to the improvement of this fantastic breed and providing customers with cattle that will perform for them. The herd is more than just a business; it’s a family passion that involves everyone on the farm. From the daily chores to the excitement of the show ring, the cattle are the heart and soul of Approach Farm.
Looking forward
Farming is a life of constant challenges, from unpredictable weather and volatile markets to the ever-present burden of regulation and the ongoing threat of disease. Yet it is also a life of immense rewards. The satisfaction of a well-established crop, the pride in a championship-winning cow and the privilege of being custodians of this small part of the British countryside are what keep us going. As we look to the year ahead, we do so with a sense of realism about the challenges, but also with an unwavering optimism for the future of our farm and our industry. We’re committed to continuous improvement, to sustainable farming practices and to producing the best livestock and crops we possibly can: that’s what Approach Farm is all about.
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Farmer Focus: James Pick
Farmer Focus: Resilience, Roots and Regeneration in North Yorkshire
By James Pick, H. Sutton and Son
Standing on the clifftops a few miles south of Filey, looking out over the North Sea, you quickly realise that farming here is as much about managing the elements as it is about managing the soil.
I’m James Pick from H. Sutton and Son, a three-generation family farm. Like many of you reading Direct Driller, our journey over the last few years has been one of constant evolution, trial, error and a fair bit of soul-searching about what it means to farm “conventionally” in a changing world.
Our operation is built on a foundation of diversity. We manage approximately 240 hectares of arable land alongside a significant potato enterprise – ranging from 155 to 180 hectares – and a finishing unit for about 60 Aberdeen Angus cattle. Our soils are a real mixed bag: predominantly silty clay loams but with pockets of everything from sandy loam to high organic matter peat. It’s glacial deposit land, which means we’re often dealing with everything from golf-ball-sized stones to rocks that require a pallet tine to shift. This variability is one of our biggest hurdles – what works on the clifftops might be a disaster just a few miles inland.
The potato conundrum
Potatoes have transformed this business over the last 20 years, but they also present our biggest challenge when it comes to soil health. For a long time, we were a major supplier for McCain – sending some of the first spuds into their factory back in 1969 – and we have recently started supplying PepsiCo and Aldi.
We wanted to push further into the environmental and regenerative space with the potato enterprise, but let’s be honest: potatoes and no-till aren’t natural bedfellows. We’ve been part of the Potato-LITE (Low-Intensity Tillage Enhancement) project, testing everything from conventional setups to direct planters. While we’ve found that a full direct-planting system isn’t yet viable on the bulk of our stony land, due to quality and storage concerns, it has fundamentally changed our mindset. We’re constantly looking for that middle ground where we can maintain the quality required for long-term storage while minimising the mechanical impact on our soil structure.
Moving away from the plough
We haven’t pulled a plough through our soil in probably three years. It’s still there, sat at the back of the shed like a museum piece, but I don’t see us going back. We used to work land at 14 inches. Now, the thought of the fuel consumption and the structural damage that causes makes me wince. The transition wasn’t just about saving diesel. It was about recognising that our soils were becoming increasingly fragile.
Instead, we’ve leaned heavily into cover crops. For the last five years, every single acre destined for a spring crop has been put into an overwinter cover. It’s not just about “doing the right thing” for the environment; it’s about resilience. This year was a perfect example. While the yields weren’t record-breaking, they were steady and better than expected. Why? Because our well-managed land – the stuff that’s had regular manure and cover crops – now has the water-holding capacity to cope with the dry spells. We spread 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes of manure a year, and the difference in organic matter is where the real dividends are paid. When the sun is beating down and the potatoes are threatening to “shut down” at 25°C, that extra moisture in the soil profile is the difference between a crop that survives and one that thrives.
Tech, tines and timing
On the cereal side, we’ve been running a four-metre Horsch Sprinter for about five years. I’m a bit of a machinery geek at heart, and finding the right setup for our high-mag soils that like to cap has been a process. We’ve settled on three-inch Dutch openers as a happy medium. We tend to err on the side of caution with higher seed rates: it’s our insurance policy against a heavy inch of rain right after drilling that can seal the surface.
The tech has been a game-changer, but it’s a double-edged sword. With GPS and modern LED lighting, there’s no longer the excuse of “I can’t see, I’m going home.” I’ve found myself drilling until midnight more often than my girlfriend would probably like! But that accuracy – knowing your AB lines are consistent across every tractor and every pass – is vital for minimising compaction, which is the silent killer on these silty loams. We’re also looking at the next evolution of our spraying setup, moving from a 28-metre to a 36-metre boom to further reduce our footprint and improve efficiency during those narrow weather windows.
The Nuffield influence and global perspectives
A lot of my drive for change came from my time as a Nuffield Scholar. Traveling through Canada, the US, Australia and Europe opened my eyes to what’s possible when you stop looking at the farm as a factory and start looking at it as an ecosystem. I remember drinking beer with a soil scientist in Wisconsin – proper dairy country – and talking for hours about soil biology. He was absolutely nuts, but his insights into how biology drives chemistry were revolutionary for me.
Those conversations are the reason I can’t just farm by the book anymore. If I didn’t have a say in moving this farm toward a more ecological and sustainable future, I wouldn’t have lasted three years back home. I’m incredibly lucky that my parents and granddad have been supportive of this shift. In many family farms, the first time the son makes a real decision is when the father passes away. Here, we’ve had those difficult conversations about inheritance and the future of the business early on, which has allowed us to move forward as a cohesive unit.
Looking ahead to 2026
As we look toward the 2026 season, the challenges aren’t going away. We’re still experimenting – I’m currently trying to source a maize header to try some grain maize on our lighter, sandy land. It’s a risk, and we might be messing about in the mud in November, but that’s the nature of the beast. We’re also looking at how we can better integrate our livestock into the arable rotation, perhaps through more diverse legume fallows or grazing cover crops.
The biggest joy for me is still watching things grow. There’s nothing quite like the race of a wheat crop through its growth stages in the spring or seeing the transformation of a potato canopy from one week to the next. We’ll keep attacking the challenges with positivity, driving the family farm forward in a way that’s both ecologically sound and financially viable. We’re not just growing crops; we’re building a legacy. After all, we’re only as good as the land we leave for the next generation.
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Carbon, simple or complex?
Written by George Hepburn and Olivia Bye from Aiva Fertilisers
A simple topic made to be complex, carbon underlies the health and value of our soil ecosystems. Building reservoirs of carbon, and the variety of options available is where things become shrouded.
The sliding scale of carbon begins at its simplest form, molasses. Components of sugar are organic carbon atoms, a simple source of energy for biological processes. The levels of fructose, sucrose, and glucose vary between sources, ultimately determining their digestibility and longevity in the soil for biology. Levels of fructose and glucose are important for metabolism and the production of energy, while the counterpart, sucrose, is considered more stable and is responsible for energy transport and storage.
Molasses, being a simple source of energy for biology, encourages a rapid growth of bacteria, leading to a primary peak and subsequent troughs in the population. For the modern farmer, creating a bloom of bacteria is not the end goal, as creating a balanced ratio of bacteria to fungi is more desired under the overarching goal of building reserves of soil carbon, for whole farm resilience. Molasses will get you a quick reaction that reaches the halfway line, but to get to your goal, stacking a simple and more complex sugar will help achieve a more sustainable level of growth under a healthier soil environment.
More complex carbons can be farmyard manure, fish hydrolysate along with amino, humic & fulvic acids. These create the foundation of any good soil community by feeding a range of biology, with a longer soil persistency, creating a wider soil food web which will reward a farmer with richer soil health benefits. Proteins common in legume residues or fish hydrolysates, and in turn amino acids, can help supply nitrogen to the plant in a more organic form. Sea2Soil displays impressive levels of fish proteins, amino acids, and trace elements. This technology allows farmers to skip a step in the amino acid to protein pathway, ensuring the plant does not exhaust itself in the process, leaving more energy for yield building. A key example as to why your choice of carbon is important for a farms unique end goal.
Using compost or brewing a compost tea can multiply the microbial populations native to your soil. Brewing with multiple food additives supplies the energy needed for rapid reproduction and produces a probiotic tea to stimulate the soil. The quality of compost and its final inoculant depend on the variety of food and the maturity of the compost components.
On the further end of the scale are the components of soil humus: humic, fulvic, and ulmic acids. While they are not a direct, nor rapid, food source for soil biology in the same capacity as a simple sugar, the carbon structures and processes they influence are long-term life sources and habitat fabrication for all matter of micro and macro soil biology. For cation exchange capacity, soil aggregation and pH buffering humic acids are to thank while efficient nutrient availability and uptake are attributed to fulvic acids. Introducing humic and fulvic acids as a complex source can aid in building longer-term mechanisms needed for the soil food web to cycle minerals, nutrients, and water itself which is often compromised in modern agriculture with regular synthetic fertiliser and pesticide applications.
Source Complexity Longevity Benefits Humic acid Complex Long Soil health, nutrient availability Fulvic acid Complex Intermediate Nutrient availability & uptake. Increases photosynthesis Compost Intermediate intermediate Inoculation, soil health Molasses Simple Very low Quick start Hydrolysates Intermediate Low Nutrient availability Understanding the varying components of carbon sources, we can now differentiate between using different sources as a targeted application, at the right time, to achieve a farm-focused goal. Frequent use of the same simple carbon sources can be detrimental as well as counterintuitive to crop health. When a simple sugar source is the dominant feed for biology, to buffer their feed sources, biology will search and utilise any free nitrogen in the soil. Outweighing the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio in the soil temporarily immobilises nitrogen for the crop. The respiration spike adjacent to the increase in simple sugars can consume oxygen at an unsustainable rate, which can be damaging to soil biology and ultimately plant root networks.
The product pyramid for each level of complexity of carbon sources would begin with simple molasses products, then molasses bases + additions and up through into more fermented products. It is at this point that the products move away from being simple molasses and into being complex carbon sources however care needs to be taken to verify the claims of what some of these products contain, and in what ratios. Humic/fulvic content, aminograms and trace element breakdowns should be available to view and whilst there will be variation in organic products, this shouldn’t allow for claims of content that can’t be challenged.
Incorporating a single or sporadic sugar/carbon source does not suffice to build soil resilience. The main argument is that integrating a variety of carbon sources, each with a specific role, within a carefully managed system enables carbon to function optimally and supports the reduction of other inputs, ultimately resulting in a more resilient soil environment.
You may not be able to see the benefit of these additions in terms of immediate crop affects, but the investment in the soil will pay back the farm in resilience heading into the 2026 season and beyond.
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How healthy soil protects water and profits
Building soil health is one of the best ways to improve the resilience, profitability and sustainability of farming systems.
The Soil & Water Health Day, organised in collaboration by Hutchinsons, the Ribble Rivers Trust and Mersey Rivers Trust, explored the practical steps farmers can take to improve soil health and protect watercourses, featuring in-field demonstrations and expert presentations.
Among the speakers was Hutchinsons head of soils, Jade Prince, who highlighted analysis of one field at the host farm, F A Ollerton & Sons near Wigan, which showed the value of just five key nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and sulphur) in the top 15cm of soil alone, was worth the equivalent of £13,000/ha.
“That field, which was a silty loam over clay subsoil, wasn’t particularly unusual or high in nutrients, so it illustrates just some of the value that’s in our soils. Protecting that by ensuring nutrients are retained, not lost to the environment, is a win-win situation for farmers and water quality.”
Cover crop benefits
Maintaining living roots in the soil throughout the year was one of the best ways to protect soils and avoid leaching of key nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, over the wettest winter months, Ms Prince continued.
That could be done with either a commercial crop, or an overwinter multi-species cover, funding for which was available through some water companies, as well as existing Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements.
Matt Powell, Hutchinsons northern environmental services specialist encouraged any farmers growing cover crops to complete a biomass evaluation to better understand exactly what nutrients had been captured within it, and help plan nutrition programmes for the following crop.
Assessment of one multi-species cover crop showed it contained around £80/ha worth of nutrients alone, before accounting for the value of any other benefits to soil structure, organic matter, and reduced leaching losses. Estimating what proportion of those captured nutrients would be available to the following crop depended on individual situations and termination method, whether that be with glyphosate or grazing, he noted.
“For example, if cover is put through an animal, we can estimate about 30% of nitrogen is likely to be removed within the animal, and around 30% of the nitrogen returned through faeces or urine is typically lost through volatilisation. From this, we can predict how much nitrogen might actually be available to the following crop after grazing, compared with terminating using glyphosate.”
Interestingly, although total nutrient return from glyphosate termination was generally higher over three years, those crop residues would take time to break down and release nutrients, whereas for year one, nutrients were more plant-available when material had first passed through an animal, he noted.
“The key is to think carefully about what you’re doing and your main objectives, then decide what management practices can best achieve those.”
Other tips to help improve soil health and protect water include:
- Dig holes to assess soils and identify any potential compaction or other structural issues that may limit infiltration, drainage, and water holding capacity, potentially increasing runoff risk – a simple slake test can be used to assess aggregate stability
- Consider a more detailed analysis of soil chemistry, physics and biology, such as a Healthy Soils Gold test, to make more informed management decisions – all three are interlinked and should not be considered in isolation
- Review cultivations and only do what is required – moving less soil helps build organic matter, natural structuring, and aggregate stability. It also helps reduce machinery overhead costs
- If soils are hard to work, consider potential causes e.g. poor drainage, or a high calcium:magnesium ratio (high magnesium content can make soils dense and sticky). Applying gypsum can help improve workability and water infiltration in high mag soils
- Avoid leaving ground bare by growing catch and cover crops where possible to reduce the risk of nutrient leaching and soil erosion. Think carefully about what you want a cover crop to do and how best to achieve that
- Explore potential funding options for adopting measures that improve soils and protect water (e.g. from water companies, SFI).
Work together
Farm advisors from the Ribble Rivers Trust and Mersey Rivers Trust encouraged farmers to work together to help tackle the farming-related challenges around water quality, by forming cluster groups that could work with experts and share best practice.
Covering an area of 752 square miles, the Ribble and Douglas catchment contains more than 3,479 miles (5,600 km) of watercourses and a diverse range of habitats, so a collaborative approach was essential, speakers said.
Heather Whalley and Beth Wood from the Ribble Rivers Trust explained how the Trust works with farmers to not only benefit the environment, but fundamentally help farm businesses. With a diverse range of farm businesses across the Ribble and Douglas catchments, facing many challenges, Trust farm advisors offer free and confidential advice about farmyard infrastructure, soil and nutrient management, watercourse fencing, hedgerow restoration, riparian woodlands, and more. As well as identifying opportunities, RRT farm advisors would also look for funding to deliver these interventions, they said.
“I can’t wait to work with Douglas farmers, and I am keen to visit as many farms as possible to work with them and help secure funding for their business,” said RRT farm advisor, Beth Wood. “So please get in touch for a farm report and also join our Douglas Farm group.”
The Mersey Rivers Trust’s Paul Moseley and Ryan Teare presented on two ongoing projects; Water Net Gain, and the Lowland Agricultural Peat Pilot, being delivered across the Alt and Crossens catchments.
The Water Net Gain project is investigating how on-land water storage can enhance both agricultural resilience and river health. As part of this proposed scheme, currently at the farm-survey stage, farmers and landowners may receive payments for installing new ponds, refurbishing existing infrastructure, and managing these features on their land.
The Lowland Agricultural Peat Pilot focuses on making unproductive peat viable again by exploring “wetter farming” options across the Alt–Crossens peat deposits. This involves monitoring peat conditions and conducting paludiculture (farming on wet peatlands) trials to assess sustainable, profitable land-use alternatives.
