Farmer Focus: Once again leaving Groundswell on a high

It was so nice to be back at Groundswell. Last year was the first time I had missed the event since it began.

The positive vibe and optimism are always things that leave you energised when leaving the two-day event.

After speaking four times and doing countless interviews, I still left feeling on a high, because there is so much coming through the system now to encourage biological farming and getting soil functioning again.

See also: Groundswell 25: Why regen agronomy is a specialist skill

About the author

Tim Parton

Tim Parton manages 300ha in South Staffordshire growing winter wheat, OSR, spring barley, beans, oats, lupins and wild flowers as part of a biological farming system. He grows cover crops and grass for haylage across sandy clay loam soils.

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Attending was such a mixed audience; it’s so nice to see teachers, chefs and nutritional advisers of human health getting involved.

This, to me, is just perfect, as it’s everybody’s responsibility to understand how their food is produced and what impact that food has on them and the planet.

Getting the correct nutrition into plants to sustain their own immune systems is essential for them to be able to withstand a pest or disease attack.

But having said plant functioning at such a high level allows it to pass on a revitalising level of nutrition to ourselves and the animals that consume it.

This passes on the phytochemicals that make our own immune system function to the same high level, as I have proved to myself many times. Nutrition and biology have all the answers for a healthy plant.

The farm is definitely in drought conditions, with crops holding out well, yet every system has its limitations. The combine will be rolling in a few weeks, and we can finally see what the year’s work will return.

Prices need to rise. The wheat price is well out of proportion with the cost of production, which is reflected across Europe.

There is still no support coming from government, only further abandonment. I feel we are on our own to get through this storm.

Never has it been more important to know exactly how much a crop has cost to grow.

Profit is everything, in my opinion, and is the only way a business can stay healthy. Debt leads to vulnerability, but it is sometimes unavoidable to move forward. 

Farming has always been a gamble, and not for the faint-hearted.