It is clear that the term ‘Regen ag’ is now becoming as confused and meaningless as ‘min-till’. The question of ‘what is Regen’ now happens with regular occurrence. Worryingly there now seems to be, in the UK at least, organisations who are keen to control the narrative and take ownership of the term regen for …
Dec 2023 – As we are all aware, this autumn has been especially wet. Although we are not a big farm and most probably, we have a drill capable of sowing twice our area, I would like to report that the principles of direct drilling and regenerative farming do work. We are all sown up …
Knight Frank’s Mark Topliff writes why the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is now worth considering and consultant Andrew Martin provides an example of how arable land can make the most of the scheme. When the SFI was launched in 2022, it was generally met with a lukewarm reception by farmers and environmental organisations. English Basic …
Is it time to make the most of the Sustainable Farming Incentive? Read More »
Understanding more about organic matter and soil carbon can help growers improve soil health, get more from crop nutrition inputs and build greater overall resilience into their crop production, believes Agrii agronomist Will Francis. “So many aspects of profitable crop production are affected by the condition of your soil that it’s worth spending a bit …
Written by Chris Fellows It’s an odd thing to define what a “regenerative farmer” actually is. I generally think, it has more to do with the mindset of change than anything else. Then it becomes a journey and at some point you may meet the criteria of an official definition, if we actually ever get …
October 2023 Sustainable Farm Incentive, my experience and future plan We joined SFI pilot at the first possible opportunity, our previous entry level scheme consisting of little more that 3m margins, that never really added an awful lot to local biodiversity, had expired 2 years earlier. Countryside stewardship was the natural replacement, it was competitive, …
Written by Ian Gould and Ethan Powell from Oakbank Game and Conservation As we inch ever closer to knowing more detail regarding the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and the new government portal for applications (possibly in September), many farmers are trying to make sense of what we do know. So far there has been little …
April 2023 As this magazine is entitled Direct Driller I’ll start off with a couple of drill comments. The CO4 has had a set of replacement Dutch 2” tips fitted as the first set had worn very thin in places and changing the odd failed one resulted in uneven depth across the drill. I’d deliberated …
April 2023 Since my last article we have taken delivery of the new Horizon disc drill and used it for Autumn and Spring drilling of cereals and Beans. Initial results have been good and I have been pleased at the lack of blackgrass germination behind the drill ( One of the main reasons for the …
April 2023 Winter seems to have finally turned to spring in West Yorkshire, if not a little confused about its timeline! Having had very little in the way of snow all winter, 5 inches arrived on the 10th of March, just over a week after applying 85kg per ha of nitrogen to the wheats and …
