Designing stewardship areas to increase arable productivity
Redesigning Countryside Stewardship (CS) areas to better fit into his regenerative system has been one of the priorities for Edwin Taylor on his 1,200ha farm in south Northumberland over the past six months.
The Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement across the farm ended in April, leaving a decision about whether to roll it over or apply for a Mid Tier CS scheme to start in January 2022.
See also: 20 years of regenerative agriculture: One farm’s success story
With Basic Payment Scheme funding also reducing, life would be difficult without one or the other, Mr Taylor says.
One consideration in his decision was a slight fear about whether funding for the Mid Tier scheme might disappear if he delayed applying, but the biggest deciding factor in switching away from HLS was that the current options were not fit for the direction the farm is taking, he says.
“I feel that sometimes the arable areas we’ve put into permanent fallow, in essence, haven’t been as productive or improved, because you haven’t been able to manage them.
“But in Mid Tier, you can put those areas into options that can be managed more and, hopefully, within the five years of the scheme you can improve either the biodiversity or arable production from that area.”
In the previous scheme, about 40ha was in an arable fallow option, he says. “The majority of that will end up in AB15 [two-year legume fallow] or wild bird food [AB9] areas.”
The other major option he will use is GS4 (legume and herb-rich swards), which will fit nicely into plans to increase cattle numbers and integrate them into the arable rotation further.
“Our total area will go up, as there will be other areas that are in arable production now which we will try and improve during the five year scheme.
Frontier Soil Health trials help test different approaches
A Frontier Soil Health demonstration site at Edwin Taylor’s farm provides a test bed for trialling different techniques that can be rolled out across the farm if successful. “It helps convince us that we’re doing the right thing,” says Mr Taylor.
The site is one of the most challenging sites you could find locally in terms of altitude, rainfall and type of soil, says John Speed, Frontier commercial manager for the North.
“Our vision is to have four mini-rotations in one field, where we could demonstrate how you can build a more resilient soil by changing techniques, fast-track the learning to other farmers and also upskill our agronomists and farm traders.”
One of five such sites across the country, and now in its seventh year, it has compared different techniques, including cover cropping, disc versus tine drills, and long-term, legume-grass stewardship options.
Key lessons from the trials have been the degree of management and attention to detail regenerative approaches typically require.
“It’s also about learning from what doesn’t work. For example, establishing cover crops after wheat to mop up nutrients is difficult at this altitude with the late harvest and rainfall.
“That gets you thinking about whether to grow a different crop, such as hybrid barley, or an early maturing variety that gives you an extra week to get the cover crop in and established,” says Mr Speed.
While the site is not replicated, various soil measurements are taken across the field, which provides a helpful comparison with a neighbouring Base-UK trials field, which also evaluates an area of deep cultivation, as well as no-till.
“We have seen fields go backwards over the past 30 years,” he says. “While we’ve been on this journey for about 20 years, it’s only in the past 10 we’ve been no-till. Prior to that it was min-till, with a bit of rotational ploughing.”
He also hopes to take advantage of the capital grants available in the Mid Tier scheme for items such as walls, hedges and fences, which will enable him to add some livestock boundaries. “It’s only 2,500m, though, so you can’t do the whole farm.”
Some other options that on paper might fit his system are too restrictive in the prescriptions to work on his farm, however. For example, winter cover crops (SW6) must be established by 15 September, which can be a challenge after late-harvested crops and must be on land vulnerable to nitrate leaching or at risk from soil erosion.
With the most obvious alternative option in the event of not being able to establish a cover crop – a basic overwintered stubble (AB2) – not being allowed on that type of land, he feels there is too much risk attached to including winter cover crops in his application.
“It won’t stop us growing cover crops, but you’re putting yourself in a corner putting areas in Mid Tier up here.”
Edwin Taylor’s experience
After nearly 20 years of farming with nature at the heart of his enterprise, Base-UK chairman Edwin Taylor has tried many of the techniques commonly spoken about in connection with regenerative agriculture. Here are his experiences with:
1. Wheat blends
Mr Taylor has grown wheat blends on about 40ha each season since 2015, when an eight-way blend, including varieties such as Leeds, Einstein, Riband, Evolution and Duxford, was first drilled.
Since then, the seed from the blend has been farm-saved and additional varieties Shabras and Skyfall added.
“I thought it was a good idea after asking Adrian Newton from the James Hutton Institute to help spread risk and reduce disease.
“I’ve never seen an issue with harvest date, even though they all have different maturities. You can pick out some of the taller and shorter varieties but, overall, I’ve struggled to see if there is a difference between growing it and not growing it – I haven’t recorded a yield drop or increase.
“I don’t treat with fewer fungicides. Perhaps yellow rust wouldn’t go through quite the same if it is a single variety, so it is risk management, but I can’t say I’ve seen a difference.”
2. Intercropping
Intercropping peas and oilseed rape was reasonably effective over a couple of seasons, Mr Taylor says. “The peas harvest far more easily, which was the objective. They stayed standing, so it was like harvesting a crop of wheat.
“But getting both to maturity at the same time was not easy, and you need to clean the peas from the rapeseed. The following crop of wheat was fantastic.”
3. Changing to direct-drilling
Your whole system changes and you have to adapt when direct-drilling, says Mr Taylor. “If you’re moving less soil, you’re not mineralising nutrients. If you’re not incorporating residue, adding compost or growing cover crops, you’re changing the goalposts.
“If you chop your residue, don’t incorporate it and leave it on the surface, the biology has to physically break down that straw before it feeds the seedling you’ve just put in the ground. It’s taking nutrients away from the growing crop.”
If you grow a cover crop before a spring crop, it mops up the nutrients in the ground, captures a bit of sunlight and puts carbon back into the ground. “Fantastic, but when you come to destroy it, it has nitrogen in the leaf and stem,” he says.
“The spring barley you’re going to follow with will not get the full nutrition if that field has been ploughed. So you have to adjust for that – I think that’s where the wheels can fall off.”
Mr Taylor adds that you cannot expect one system to work the same as another.
In his system, he uses placed fertiliser and increases the seed rate for spring cropping. “Timing is important, rather than the total amount.”