Farmer Focus: Stones skew soil indices and manure rules

The farm looks a picture at present. We have corner-to-corner wheat and barley. The wild bird mixes have been flowering and setting seed, and the cover crops have put on three feet of growth in the past month.

Life is so much better when you can look at the fields, and they are smiling back at you.

See also: How two farmers integrate strategic glyphosate in rotations

About the author

Robin Aird

Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird manages 1,500ha on the north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, with a further 160ha on a contract farming agreement. Soils vary from gravel to clay with the majority silty clay loams. The diverse estate has Residential, commercial and events enterprises. He is Basis qualified and advises on other farming businesses.

Contact:

Email: robin.aird@charltonpark.estate

Read more articles by Robin Aird

Grain is slowly being delivered out of the stores, and the winter chores are beginning.

Hedges are getting cut, and this season we are continuing the change to an A-shaped hedge to create more bottom and areas for birds to nest and forage.

As mentioned previously, we are doing a large area of soil sampling again this year.

Once again, the disparity is obvious. Where we have more stones in the fields the indices are higher. However, to grow a crop the soil that is there needs to do more, as the stones take up a higher percentage of the ground.

The problem arises because under the farming rules for water, we cannot apply manure to an Index 3 soil.

However, where 40-50% of that soil is limestone, in reality that field could be an Index 1 or 2.

The secondary issue is that with the volume of limestone, the nutrients that are there get locked up in high-pH soils.

We are also doing an in-depth soil report on each field again, after only three years. This is showing fluctuations in results, even though the blocks of fields have been treated the same over the period.

It will be interesting to see how the later sampled fields will come out compared with the fields sampled at the end of the drought.

On a positive note, it was a great relief to have our two Mid Tier agreements extended for another year.

Hopefully SFI 2026 will come out in a timely manner with sensible options and funding early in the new year, before we all start getting busy with spring and summer workloads.

The financials for the farm do not look as horrific as first thought, but good cost control and reaction to the growing season have resulted in us performing just above budget, which, considering the year, is outstanding.