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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.

ROTATIONS

AHDB analysis: The merits of SFI break crop alternatives

Finding a reliable break crop in the arable rotation is an ongoing challenge. Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) actions, such as herbal leys or legume fallows could be an alternative, especially…

ARABLE

No-till provides zero cost way into support scheme

Kent grower Richard Day is set to use his adoption of direct drilling and precision fertiliser techniques under new environment schemes to gain more than 40% of his old direct…

SOILS

New reports reveal arable's impact on the environment

Two new reports are being said to provide a clear roadmap for improving soil health, reducing carbon emissions and supporting biodiversity, while also enabling farm businesses to continue operating profitably.…

SOILS

SFI 2024 changes: What they mean for arable farmers

Arable farmers considering the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2024 scheme are being reminded that changes to actions and agreements were introduced in early August. The Defra update provided some…

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Somerset grower reaches direct-drilling 25-year milestone

Early adopters of zero tillage, the Quick family have been regen farming for the past two-and-a-half decades, having refined their system by adding cover crops, widening the rotation and slashing…

GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

How to minimise soil compaction without steel and diesel

Increased occurrence of extreme rainfall events should prompt farmers to remind themselves of the dangers of compacted soils. However, plenty can be done to reduce the risk of declining productivity…

ARABLE

How to plan crop and soil management after a washout season

Soils, rotations and cashflows were all impacted by the 2023-24 growing season washout, meaning there are important decisions to be made ahead of the new cropping year. The smallest wheat…

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…