January 2023 After a very easy and early harvest, followed by a few stressful weeks of unbelievably dry conditions when most drilling and land work was impossible, we finally had the autumn we had all been waiting for. For us the rain fell little and often from mid-September until the beginning of November, when the …
Home-made compost, massively reduced tillage and determined cover cropping have been central to the single-minded drive to improve the arable sustainability of the Green Horizons Network farm at Salford Lodge, Pitchill just outside Evesham over the past decade. A combination of challenging silty clay land contract-farmed with heavy kit for many years and lighter sandy …
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Direct Driller Christmas 2022 Well here we are again! It’s the end of November and as I sit down on a wet Sunday afternoon to write this article at 3.35pm its getting dark outside! Yesterday we heard of the very sad loss of Scottish rugby great Doddy Weir to MND after a brave and long …
January 2023 Well, the last few weeks have been exciting! A few weeks back I finished a 7yr stint managing a large veg and cereal operation in West Suffolk and am now taking a bit of time off to explore what direction I want to take myself and my little family next. Taking a bit …
Written By Sarah Hill and originally published by No-Till Farmer in the USA The combination of a 3-way crop rotation, covers and grazing is resulting in big savings by reducing the number of tillage passes, increasing yields and improving soil health. Pictured Above: SHORT GROWING SEASON. No-tiller Kurt Stiefvater has a very short fall season to get cover …
I ended my previous article noting the challenges ahead, but with some optimism for the season, and the forthcoming harvest. However, I had underestimated how exciting it was to get, and how much volatility we would come to enjoy! Our crops continued to look well through the spring and early summer. The spring beans established …
Written by Tony Gent It doesn’t work if just removing some elements of what you are doing now and leave others in is “OK I’m doing less”. A couple of articles caught my interest in the July additional of this magazine, first What’s Your Colour written by James Warne and Farmer Focus by Andrew Ward. …
Written by Thomas Gent It’s no secret that employing regenerative farming techniques – minimal soil disturbance, the use of cover crops and organic manures, applying carbon-rich fertilisers – both reduce the amount of farm-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and add to the amount of carbon stored in the soil. These GHG reductions and carbon storage …
Always start with why…? Four years ago, John Cherry and I were having an enlightened conversation while seated around his kitchen table discussing the future of agronomy. This was several years after John and his brother Paul along with Paul’s son Alex, had founded the Groundswell Conference in Hertfordshire. Attending Groundswell, meeting Frederic Thomas, being …
Farmers and growers flocked to the sixth annual Groundswell, the UK’s largest regenerative agricultural show in lateJune this year. It was another sell-out event with 5,500 attendees who travelled to North Hertfordshire for two days ofinformation exchange, inspiration and a bit of liquid refreshment during the worst drought since 1976. Written by Alex Cherry With …
