Garth Weston is increasing his winter wheat yields and fattening more lambs on temporary grass leys after integrating sheep grazing into his arable rotation on his low-lying, heavy-clay Oxfordshire farm.

His first field of wheat to come out of a four-year grass ley yielded 10t/ha – well above the farm’s average – with virtually no sign of any troublesome blackgrass, and he has been fattening 90% of his lambs on revitalised grassland.

“Livestock are not new to the farm, but we wanted to integrate them fully with the arable side to improve blackgrass control and help finish most of the lambs fat,” he says.

See also: Dairy herd introduction leads to better crop profit margins

Thame Monitor Farm – Sydenham Grange Farm

© MAG/David Jones

Farm owner Garth Weston has joined the AHDB Monitor Farm programme for a three-year term, 2022-25.

His ambition is to integrate his livestock into his arable rotation and manage the low-lying, heavy land to improve soil health and minimise inputs.

The farm grows winter wheat, spring and winter barley, spring oats and spring beans alongside grass leys, permanent pasture and woodland.

He runs 1,100 ewes and 380 ewe lambs, largely Cheviots, Lleyns, Cheviot Mules and North Country Mules.

He is keen to make regenerative practices work on his farm while maintaining productivity and profitability, and become a true mixed farm.

He is the only full-time labour on the farm, and he uses contractors at busy times.

Arable rotation 

Mr Weston runs 1,100 ewes across just over 400ha of arable and grassland at Sydenham Grange Farm, near Thame, 10 miles east of Oxford.

He’s keen to bring the sheep into the arable rotation rather than run them as two separate enterprises – arable land and permanent grassland.

His arable fields were not producing the yields they should and blackgrass had become a real headache and was strangling yields.

He started introducing grass leys into his 100ha of arable cropping with the aim of getting on top of the ubiquitous blackgrass.

He also wanted to lower expensive inputs such as fertiliser, agrochemicals and diesel, produce high-quality forage for the sheep and improve soil health.

The farm’s 2022 cereals harvest was hit by the spring and summer drought with the winter wheat – largely of the variety Skyfall with some Extase – averaging 7.83t/ha.

The first field, after a four-year ley that was direct-drilled into sprayed-off grassland, established slowly but yielded well at 10t/ha.

On the livestock side, by the second year of using temporary leys, Mr Weston was selling 90% of his lambs fat rather than only 10% previously, although this season’s drought has made finishing fat lambs more difficult.

By rotating the sheep around the farm using fresh grass leys, he is also working to improve stock heath by cutting parasitic worm numbers.

Looking to the future, he is exploring the option of introducing cattle to the farm. He is also keen to understand more about growing cover crops on heavy land.

He would like to maintain a largely closed sheep flock for health reasons, and of course wants to continue to make a profit on the farm.

© MAG/David Jones

Regenerative farming

Louise Penn, farming consultant and agronomist with Ceres Rural, is Mr Weston’s new agronomy adviser. She aims to trim inputs while introducing elements of regenerative farming, such as cover crops, on the farm.

“The rotation is dictated by the sheep, so we are looking to maximise cropping and yields, not compromise on blackgrass control, and still leave enough grass for the sheep,” she says.

Ms Penn is also looking at introducing new practices to improve soil health. This includes growing cover crops to be grazed by the sheep and grazing winter cereals in the spring to reduce disease pressure, which may negate an early T0 fungicide spray.

She would also like to create an understorey of clover in cereal crops to cut fertiliser use and give some post-harvest summer grazing.

After the four-year leys, she is considering two to four years of arable cropping with winter wheat following the grass, and then adding plenty of spring cropping to the rotation to keep blackgrass in check.

She is also keen to look at Countryside Stewardship options on the farm. Sowing cover crops will keep roots growing in the farm’s soils throughout the year and, together with break crops, will help with soil fertility.

“The aim is the cut back on inputs and introduce regenerative farming,” she says.

© MAG/David Jones

Two benefits

Lizzie Sagoo, soil scientist at crop consultancy Adas, says there are two main benefits to introducing livestock on arable land with the use of temporary leys.

First is that by taking land out of annual cultivations there is less structural damage to soils, and second the resulting increased soil organic matter from the grassland and dung.

An Adas trial on heavy land in south-west Oxfordshire saw a 24% rise in organic matter after six years of moving from arable production to grassland.

On a Bedfordshire site, the introduction of leys increased the water-holding capacity of soil, resulted in less erosion, and no subsoiling was needed.

On a further trial site in Somerset, a three-year ley increased soil organic matter by 0.3 percentage points over three years from 7.8% to 8.1% even in an already high organic matter situation.

There was a 60% rise in earthworm numbers and total crop biomass went up threefold.

The introduction of cattle on this Somerset site yielded a livestock profit margin better than all the arable crops grown on the farm apart from winter wheat.

This margin could be even higher if farmers grow and graze GS4 legume and herb-rich swards, for which there is payment available under Countryside Stewardship schemes.

“If you integrate grass into arable, I am confident the organic matter is only going to go in one direction, to benefit soil structure, make soils more workable and give greater water retention,” says Dr Sagoo.

The people featured in this article were attending an AHDB Monitor Farm meeting held at Sydenham Grange Farm in early November.