Will Oliver of Swepstone Fields Farm, Leicestershire is Farmers Weekly’s Arable Farmer of the Year.

Investing £3.6m in a 200,000-bird broiler business seems a radical way to increase soil organic matter on arable land, but that is what Will Oliver did after returning home from university.

It was the start of his impressive organic manures journey, culminating in a cropping system that extracts the maximum value from them.

Soils are healthier, crop yields have risen and the farm’s reliance on artificial fertiliser has been slashed.

This, combined with Will’s ruthless focus on cost of production rather than yields, means the family arable business is delivering impressive margins.

The challenge

The family farm used to have a mix of arable, dairy, beef and sheep. Over the years, it transformed into a specialist arable business, with beef being the last to go in the early 2000s.

So, after returning from Harper Adams, Will wanted to take the family farm to the next level and relished the challenge of doing his own agronomy.

The family business was also facing other challenges.

Oilseed rape was no longer the big earner due to cabbage stem flea beetle damage and high erucic acid levels, and there was also a worsening blackgrass problem.

Ultimately, the family farm needed to become more resilient to withstand new challenges, such as the rising input costs seen in recent months.

To solve the manure problem, the family invested in a 200,000-bird broiler unit, with the litter and digestate applied in spring on wheat and sewage sludge before maize.

Other soil measures include cover cropping and less-intensive cultivations.

Second wheat and oilseed rape has been dropped from the rotation and grain maize has joined winter wheat, winter beans and land rented out for potatoes.

Introducing maize has also enabled Will to make the most of organic manures, and soils benefit from the crop residue.

Finally, doing his own agronomy and his extensive use of precision tools is helping him to slash inputs and drive up crop efficiency.

He is also taking a zero-tolerance approach to blackgrass, spraying out bad areas and using spring cropping (maize and potatoes) and delayed wheat drilling.

The results

Will is seeing real benefits from his manure journey, with soil health improving. Organic matter has increased from 3.2% to 4.8% over the past four years.

He strives to get the most from organic manures and the broiler unit is now providing the arable farm with £113,760 worth of nutrients (​NPK using RB209 nutrient availability).

Precision tools, such as mapping and a hand-held sensor, are also helping Will hone fertiliser inputs.

In total, he managed to save more than £100,000 in fertiliser last year. Poultry litter is not only saving money, but he has also seen a 0.9t/ha lift in wheat yield.

His focus on costs rather than yield is paying off, with impressive costs of production and gross margins.

For example, wheat varieties range from the cheapest, Skyfall at £33.29/t, to £48.77/t for Belepi.

Will has seen success with grain maize, a profitable break crop with returns equivalent to milling wheat.

Maize also has a good rotational fit, providing blackgrass benefits and using organic manures plus good crop residue.

He has diversified the business and champions farming with the environment, with his farm sequestering 31,000t of carbon/year.

But it is his manure journey that stands out, taking organic nutrient inputs to the next level. This is evident with the big heap of fertiliser unused this season. 

The other finalists were:

• Philip Metcalfe, Foxberry Farm, North Yorkshire
• Graham Potter, The Grange, North Yorkshire