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Know How / Soil

Healthy soil is an essential part of all food production. It also has a far greater capacity to store carbon. It underpins farm profitability and is set to be a major part of many future environmental schemes. We look at how farmers in all major agricultural sectors are working to improve the quality of land that they are farming.

SOILS

Notts Monitor Farm sees benefits of reduced cultivations

Reduced labour and machinery costs and more resilient soils are some of the benefits being seen since reducing cultivations at Manor Farm, near Bingham in Nottinghamshire. The Fisher family have…

SOILS

Sussex soil project aims to increase organic matter

The impact of soil type and land use on the ability of farms to improve soil organic matter levels is being investigated in a five-year project funded by Southern Water,…

ARABLE

The network nature reserve built by farmers on arable land

Supporting nature in a productive farmed landscape is the goal for a like-minded group of farmers in East Anglia, having come together to protect and enhance the biodiversity that surrounds…

ARABLE

How nature focus helps profits rise on east Kent farm

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.…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

Transition farm switch to strip-till boosts margins and soil

At a Farmers Weekly Transition project farm walk in Suffolk, Claydon Drill demonstrated how low-disturbance systems can boost soil health and improve margins. Claydon’s 360ha Gaines Hall arable farm and…

CROP MANAGEMENT

SFI 2023: The support options for arable growers

Arable growers are being encouraged to enter the new 2023 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for England as it is simpler and more flexible than previous financial support packages. The new…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Are wetland crops the future on lowland peat?

England’s lowland peat soils are some of the most valuable when it comes to food production, but they also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Draining peatland soils has allowed them…

CARBON

How fenland farmers are cutting greenhouse gases from peat

High levels of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the drained lowland peat soils in the Fens are threatening to change how they are managed and what they can produce. Finding…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How Wold Top Brewery barley grower lowered carbon footprint

The Yorkshire farming family behind the successful Wold Top Brewery and Yorkshire’s first single-malt whisky distillery is using the latest precision mapping technology in its drive towards a low-carbon, sustainable…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Show more ambition to support better soils, Defra told

Defra must show more ambition in its support for healthy soils as the foundation for sustainable food production in its Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes, industry leaders say. Cross-party MPs…

SOILS

How new tech aims to improve soil carbon measurement

Measuring soil organic carbon accurately has always been difficult. But with the rise in interest in carbon trading in agriculture, as well as the other benefits from managing carbon stocks…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Downsizing and enterprise stacking makes Kent farm resilient

If ideas and enterprise stacking rather than scale and focus make a farming business resilient, then Doug Wanstall is onto a winner. A business that at its largest was contract-farming…

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

Why soil management is so vital to reducing emissions

The decarbonisation of food production will be one of the defining undertakings of our industry this century, as farmers play their part to reach the UK's target of net-zero emissions…

SOILS

Carbon audit highlights priorities for net-zero success

A 10-year sustainability plan put in place just over a year ago at Squerryes Estate in Westerham, Kent, has provided a framework for the business as it navigates its way…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Will arable farmers opt for Sustainable Farming Incentive?

Finally, there's some clarity about what the Sustainable Farming Incentive will offer, with six new standards on top of the three existing ones, three-year agreements, quarterly payments, and simpler online…

LAND PREPARATION

How pasture-fed egg layers fit in Irish regen arable system

Norman Dunne is six years into his regenerative farming journey and is using a flock of 200 laying hens to graze down cover crops on his heavy land farm about…

MAIZE

How growers can produce maize and protect environment

Maize is a crop often perceived to be damaging to the environment, causing issues such as soil compaction, erosion and nutrient losses, which can lead to run-off, affecting nearby watercourses.…

SOILS

How two arable farms are tackling soil health

Big changes have been made to the cropping systems at two farms in Berkshire and Bedfordshire, which aim to future-proof their arable businesses. Both are tackling soil health with the…

SOILS

Dairy herd introduction leads to better crop profit margins

Dairy cows grazing outside for 12 months of the year have helped kickstart an improvement in soils and arable crop yields on Sophie Alexander’s south Dorset organic farm, helping to…

SOILS

Farm soil carbon: Is the focus on sequestration right?

Arable farmers must be realistic about the amount of carbon that can be locked up in soils and should be wary of exaggerated claims about sequestration, warns a leading soil…