Cover crop establishment has been a serious challenge for many this season, with the extreme dry soils after the long hot summer. However, years of soil improvement and a minimal soil movement strategy have achieved good results at low cost for Northamptonshire grower, David Beesley, even on his light, free-draining ironstone soils. “It’s been very …
Exchange Market pays arable farmers to help de-risk practical changes that reduce emissions, for example reducing fertiliser. With 12-month contracts, flexibility over actions and no requirement to sell carbon, it’s designed to fit real-world arable systems. For many arable farmers, the desire to reduce fertiliser is already there. Inputs remain a major cost, margins are …
Reducing fertiliser without taking all the risk Read More »
A new benchmarking report comparing 78 regenerative farms across Europe provides evidence of how regenerative farming can outperform the average conventional system Written by Mike Abram Pioneering regenerative farms across Europe are delivering 20% higher gross margins than the average conventional farm, while using 61% less synthetic nitrogen and 75% less pesticide. Yields were only …
Report suggests regenerative farming pioneers are outperforming conventional approaches Read More »
Joe Stanley, Allerton Project and Graham Redman, The Andersons Centre Joe Stanley Since 2017, the Allerton Project has been conducting a nationally significant long-term rotational field trial in partnership with Syngenta across five fields of our heavy-land site. The initial five-year phase of the trial, as outlined in the June 2023 issue of Direct Driller, …
Revisiting the Syngenta Conservation Agriculture Project. Read More »
June 2025 It doesn’t seem possible, but it is 10 months since my last article. I was at that point concerned whether our late summer drilled Pollen and Nectar mixes would be good enough for the year ahead, and indeed while some were good, a few areas unfortunately looked poor. In late October I drilled …
Written by Joe Stanley from the Allerton Project ‘I know it isn’t the sexiest subject, but…’ is invariably where any mention of agricultural field drainage begins, invariably accompanied by an apologetic shrug of the shoulders and a gaze cast toward the ground. Personally, I take the opposite view. I have always been fascinated by field …
How I Manage Cover Crop Desiccation on Wet Soils This year’s excessively wet soils are actually more likely to be dried by the presence of cover crops than kept wetter. However, it’s crucial that sun and wind are allowed to reach the soil surface to ensure adequate drying before drilling. Many cover crops may have …
Mar 2025 Reflections on learnings and change. We are moving on to pastures new, after nearly 15 years at Balbirnie Home Farms in Fife, I have taken up a post managing an arable farming business a bit further north that has yet to begin the adventure that is regen ag. This is a great time …
A network of cover crop champions is providing a practical view on the impact of cover crop approaches. Technical Content Manager Jason Pole provides an update on the AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds’ initiative. During summer 2024, we asked farmers growing cover crops ahead of various cash crops for harvest 2025 if they would be willing …
10 years ago now in the early days of TFF we ran a trial here on my farm for some of the direct drills that were available at that time. The thread that blogged that can be founds here ……….. the result was interesting ! Read the original thread here Since then the direct drill …
