Whenever possible, I try to respond to requests from university students looking to undertake research because usually I learn something new. This was the case recently when the farm’s data was entered into the CLA’s carbon accounting tool as part of one such project.

I’m now aware that this small business emits 64t of carbon dioxide a year, and that’s taking account of 21t sequestered through our clover leys. That got me thinking about my own contribution to the 10:10 scheme, which is the commitment to seek to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% in 2010. I think the results, like my old school reports, are mixed and could do better.

The greatest progress has been in changing to a Deutz tractor with common rail injection, reducing fuel consumption dramatically without compromising output, which has probably helped us to achieve 10:10 on its own. Although no doubt, like many others users, I get fed up of stalling the machine, especially when doing jobs like corn carting as the common rail is pretty gutless when the power first goes down.

Another positive has been persevering with undersowing clover leys into spring cereals, which is tricky to get right, but saves an extra set of cultivations as well as giving better spring growth by establishing the crop a year early. On the negative side, I still can’t get away from conventional ploughing to give us a clean start to each crop.

I’ve experimented with Delta wing cultivators, which are popular on organic farms in Central and Eastern Europe. But over there, they have a “proper” summer with many weeks of hot days to enable good weed control with shallow cultivations. In damp old Norfolk it’s not the same story. I’d like to experiment with shallow ploughing as a possible compromise and if anyone has a Kverneland Ecomat plough lying in the nettles I’d be delighted to talk to them.