David Miller — Wheatsheaf Farming Company, Hampshire

Farm manager with 44+ years’ experience who transitioned from conventional to conservation agriculture, documenting the journey from high-input wheat production to no-till with cover crops and companion cropping.

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Profile
Company Wheatsheaf Farming Company (WFC)
Location Hampshire
Area ~700 ha (Grade 3 land, farmed for 3 landowners)
Drill Cross-Slot
Tractor Cat Challenger
System Conservation Agriculture — no-till, cover crops, companion cropping
Cover crop cost ~£20/ha average
Diesel 58 l/ha (2018) — down 30% from 85 l/ha pre-transition
CO₂ reduction 60% (from cutting cultivation, diesel, and N fertiliser)

Rotation

Nearly 50% spring cropping:

  • Winter wheat (milling and feed), winter barley (feed), winter OSR (with companion crop), winter beans
  • Spring barley (seed crops), spring linseed (yellow, human consumption)
  • Also trialling spelt wheat; growing lupins and buckwheat for own cover crop seed

Cover Crop Principles

Two firm rules:

  1. No cereals in pre-spring-barley mix
  2. No brassicas in any mix — oil radish and tillage radish caused massive slug problems in early wet years; also no mycorrhizal association

Species used: lupins, vetch, beans, phacelia, buckwheat, berseem clover, linseed, camelina. All bought as straights and mixed on farm.

Companion cropping for OSR: crimson + berseem clover mix (~£15/ha); one field with inter-row beans.

Key Observations

  • Potash: stopped variable-rate bagged potash 5 years ago; soil analysis shows no great deficiencies and some increases, especially where more cover crops grown
  • Phosphate: applying DAP at yearly decreasing rate under EA derogation (currently 50 kg product/ha)
  • N mineralisation: ~30 kg N released by cultivation; in early no-till transition, this deficit shows as backward, sickly emerging crops. As soils improve, even DAP becomes detrimental to soil organisms — “a commercial balance between growing a viable crop and improving the soil”
  • Establishment: stubble rake after combine (cultural slug control); drill with Cross-Slot applying fertiliser beside seed + ferric phosphate slug pellets; roll post-drilling for flints

Philosophy

“This is a personal account based on my journey through over 44 years in arable farming… The whole experience has now increased my thirst for knowledge about soil health.”

Influenced by: Gabe Brown, Jon Stika, David Montgomery, Edward Faulkner (Plowman’s Folly), Gary Zimmer, Dr Christine Jones, Joel Williams.

[Source: dd-issue-05, 2026-04-11]

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