A switch to nature-friendly farming is boosting profitability on one east Kent farm, with inputs slashed, soils improved and price premiums gained as grain yields are held at high levels.

Environmental support schemes are used to ensure a guaranteed income from unproductive arable land as Emma and James Loder-Symonds look to create a more resilient arable farming model for the future.

See also: Grower’s soils improve and inputs reduce with regen approach

Five years ago, winter wheat yields had plateaued, the farm’s soils had suffered from years of high input, high output farming and the whole system was reliant on ever-increasing costly inputs.

This lead them to the decision to change to regenerative farming.

“We had to make the business more resilient. Profits were inconsistent, we were not in control, and we realised we would not be here in 20 years unless we changed,” says James.

Cutting costs

Arable input costs are now down by 30%, led by a 50% fall in fertiliser use and a 35% dip in diesel use over the past five years.

This has seen the farm’s variable costs for winter wheat cut by one-third to £400/ha, and much of this wheat now leaves the farm at a premium.

A range of environmental schemes and rent from livestock graziers are now set to raise more money than the old Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), with very few extra costs, and the majority of this income is divorced from the whims of world commodity markets.

Emma and James Lodder-Symonds © MAG/Colin Miller

Today, nature and diversity across the land has rebounded, the farm is carbon negative, soils and crops have improved, and with no insecticide spraying for four years there are more insects and more birds.

One beekeeper who uses the farm now harvests three times as much honey compared with neighbouring farms.

“In 2018, returns were stagnant for the farm; now they are much more dynamic,” James adds.

The husband-and-wife team farm 1,260ha at Nonington Farms, between Canterbury and Dover, with 160ha of land owned and the rest in five share-farming agreements across land ranging from heavy brickearth clay to light, chalky downland.

The results of trials on the home farm in the village of Nonington are rolled out across the other farms, and Countryside Stewardship (CS) schemes have been useful to derisk the business by taking out unproductive land and giving a five-year guaranteed income stream.

Farming operation 

All six farms are in five-year higher tier CS schemes until 2025, taking 20% of land out of production.

This followed on from a 10-year scheme which took nearly 9% of land out of arable cropping. Nonington has been a Linking Environment and Farming (Leaf) demonstration farm since 2012.

Especially useful have been rotational schemes such as a two-year sown legume fallow (AB15) paying £593/ha/year and a legume and herb-rich sward (GS4) paying £382/ha/year, as these help to build fertility in the soil.

AB15 is aimed at encouraging bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies and farmland birds such as yellowhammers, while GS4 provides grazing for sheep and cattle and also food for invertebrates, and improves soil structure and water infiltration, without the use of nitrogen fertiliser.

In addition, flower-rich margins and plots (AB8), paying £673/ha/year, also help invertebrates thrive like under AB15, and when limited grazing is allowed in late summer, this has opened up the swards to produce even more diverse habitats.

“Countryside Stewardship is definitely having an effect on attracting insects and birds, and making the farm more attractive to visitors,” he says.

Fertiliser focus  

Five years ago, the first inputs that came under scrutiny were phosphate and potash fertiliser, and since most of the farm had good indices of 2 and over, routine applications were abandoned, saving some £70-£100/ha each year.

Next to come under the spotlight was nitrogen fertiliser. As the business grows 600ha of winter wheat – half of which is Group 1 milling varieties that need nitrogen to give good proteins – the process had to be gradual.

Variable-rate nitrogen was introduced and the increased nitrogen testing of soils followed by foliar tissue testing, which has led to every field on the farm being routinely tested every year.

In a farm trial with winter barley, nitrogen rates from the AHDB’s Nutrient Management Guide (RB209) recommended 188kg/ha, but soil and tissue testing indicated 152kg/ha, saving 36kg/ha (equalling £36/ha).

In addition, the lower-nitrogen plot actually gave a near 0.5t/ha yield increase to 9.53t/ha compared with 9.05t/ha, which James puts down to delaying the final application and applying it just when needed according to what the tissue tests were telling him.

Milling wheat challenge

Milling wheat posed a bigger challenge as the farm grows 300ha of Crusoe and Skyfall, and they were only seeing average proteins a touch under the traditional breadmaking standard of 13% when using 300kg/ha of nitrogen.

Under the new regime the nitrogen is cut to 160kg/ha – including 30kg/ha from sewage sludge – and proteins slipped to just above 12%.

However, Allied Milling and Baking offers growers a sustainable premium for wheat targeted at 12.5% protein as part of a small pilot.

Frontier Agriculture sources Allied’s milling wheat and the premium is paid after all inputs for the wheat are recorded.

Nonington managed to hit 12-12.5% and earned a premium over the standard milling price, worth about £100/ha.

In addition, yields are holding up in the lower-nitrogen regime and are little different to what they were five years ago at just over 11t/ha.

One reason is that taking out unproductive land raises the average for the remaining area.

The other 300ha is in Group 2 varieties such as Extase, Mayflower and Palladium, which earn a slight premium over feed, but not a sustainability premium.

The wheat has benefited from an improvement in soil health due to direct drilling, cover crops and bringing livestock back on the land, while the farm can drill in a tighter window after the recent purchase of a Horsch Avatar 12m disc direct drill, capable of covering 100ha/day.

In addition, the farm doesn’t grow second wheats, which tend to be hungry for nitrogen, in a six-year rotation of wheat-winter beans-wheat-oilseed rape-wheat and then spring oats or spring barley.

At the first sign of grassweed problems, land is quickly moved into spring cropping, a herbal ley or an annual cover crop.

Cover crops are grown ahead of spring cereals, and catch crops between winter wheat and winter beans.

Funds set to beat BPS subsidy 

Since 2020, a further source of funds has been Southern Water, which is eager to protect drinking water from the chalklands, and most of James and Emma’s six farms are in key catchment areas.

It is paying £400/ha/year for herbal leys and £135/ha/year for overwintered cover crops, while if both overwintered and spring cover crops are used the payment is £415/ha/year.

In addition, the company pays £1,000/farm for nitrogen testing of soils and variable-rate applications.

Income is also generated from sheep and cattle graziers on the herbal leys, AB8 wildflower strips (when permitted) and cover crops.

Furthermore, there is the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2023 to look at, and the no-insecticide policy would be worth £45/ha/year.

Companion crops used in oilseed rape and crops of wheat and beans – where the beans can provide 40kg/ha of nitrogen – pay £55/ha/year.

These sources of income – CS, SFI and Southern Water schemes, plus the income from the five graziers – is set to bring in more than the old BPS of £233.30/ha in 2020, the last year before it was reduced.

In addition, Emma points out that the wide diversity of activities on the farm attracts more visitors and has a positive effect on all the staff.

“The impact on mental health for you and the staff is considerable, as we aim to share the farm and make it central to the local community,” she says.

This includes the graziers, the creation of a small milling operation to sell flour, encouraging young entrepreneur Jack Scott to grow vegetables on the farm, as well as a multitude of visitors, from schoolchildren to politicians.

James and Emma Loder-Symonds are the 2023 Farmers Weekly Environmental Champions of the Year, and were also finalists in the Arable Farmer of the Year category.