Soil Health - applications and opportunities for climate-smart farming, food security and environmental integrity
Written by Neil Douglas Fuller of the Atlas Sustainable Soil Programme
Soil health is a product of interactions between plant roots and the living fraction of the soil, operating within the constraints of the physical, chemical and climatic parameters of the soil environment.
In part, soil health is determined by the inherent, effectively fixed, properties of underlying...
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Direct Driller Magazine
Direct Driller is a new farming magazine, designed by farmers for farmers to educate and inform the industry about no-till techniques
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As I sit down to write my latest article, I’m reminded that 8 years ago today I was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship. I was selected as part of the #Nuffield13 year group to study “The long-term benefits of no-till farming”. I remember walking onto the stage at the Nuffield conference to be presented with my tie by two very high-profile farming personalities, one of whom said, “It won’t work in a wet year”! Interestingly, that was in November 2012 at a hotel in Stratford, surrounded by very...
Effect of farm management on topsoil organic carbon and aggregate stability in water
Written by Jenni Dungait
Soil health and flood management: New research 1 led by Soil Health Expert Prof Jenni Dungait and scientists in the UK and the USA shows clear links between the last time a field was tilled, the amount of carbon in the soil, and the potential for soil to slake when wet.
In a unique collaboration, the science team worked with farmers around the Tamar Valley in southwest England...
Regenerative Agriculture: Another Passing Fad or a System Fit for the Future?
Written by William Waterfield from The Farm Consultancy Group
Open just about any agricultural journal and one is bombarded by stories about regenerative agriculture but why all this interest? The confusion surrounding the subject is compounded by terms such as holistic management circular systems, closed production cycles, conservation agriculture, agroecological systems, enterprise stacking, agroforestry...
Rethinking Permanent Soil Cover
Written by Joel Williams
Permanent soil cover! One of the three pillars of conservation agriculture and rightly so. There are numerous benefits to soil health and crop production that stem from this foundational soil protective principle. However, in recent years there has been an expanding body of research into soil ecology and soil organic matter [SOM] formation and this emerging evidence warrants and important rethinking and clarification regarding the...
ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES FOR WEED MANAGEMENT - STEPS TO GET YOU ON THE ROAD TO MAKING PEACE WITH WEEDS
Written by Chloe MacLaren As based on information found on Agricology (www.agricology.co.uk) Chloe MacLaren is an ecologist at Rothamsted Research exploring how we can design resilient, sustainable cropping systems. Her PhD focused specifically on weed management, but now she works more generally on how different crops and management practices can be combined to maximise both productivity...
By Ralph Early ([email protected])
Part one of this two-part article on agricultural ethics set out a thesis which argued that the development of farming as an industrial activity during the 20th century, aided particularly by dynamic and commercially advantageous sciences and technologies, has brought us to a point where agriculture itself now presents a substantial threat to the natural world. This is indisputable.
The UK’s State of Nature partnership’s 2016 report cites...
Written Sept 2020
I have always found that pioneering a different system of farming is a lonely task, there is lot of contradicting advice out there but ultimately you have to make the decisions yourself. I have read stacks of books on soil biology and regenerative agriculture and follow all the latest ideas from around the world, but I have increasingly found that a lot of information is not evidence based and relies on wishful thinking. Additionally, I receive advice on what I should be...
Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming
“I don't care what colour it is, what it looks like or it's consistency, it's lime, get it spread” were words quoted to me recently by an agronomist who clearly didn’t understand the basics of some simple chemistry. The above quote was part of a conversation about the quality of liming material and in particular the particle size of lime delivered to farms in the UK. I was being accused of overcomplicating liming by requesting that ‘Ground...
Written by Lancaster University, UK A major new international study has provided a first worldwide insight into how soil erosion may be affecting the longevity of our soils.
in collaboration with researchers from Chang’an University in China, and KU Leuven in Belgium, brought together soil erosion data from around the globe, spanning 255 locations across 38 countries on six continents. This data was used to calculate how long it would take for the top 30 cm of soil to erode at each...
Thank you once again to the people who put this together.
May I ask a couple of questions?
In Issue 10, why does it say "Anger & Frustration" on the cover?
And in issue 11, I'd love to have some more detail on Tim Parton's Johnson-Su Bioreactor. What's the "tea bag" made out of, and how does he apply the liquid?
Many thanks,
NP.
by Nick Woodyatt, Soil Fertility Consultant at Aiva Fertiliser
Normally when starting an article there is much gnashing of teeth and wandering around the garden, or pub in my case, deciding on how to help and enlighten our industry (hopefully). But seeing as it did not stop raining during the autumn/winter, on this occasion the decision was somewhat easier. My town should have been re-named Upton under Severn. On my rounds I saw two four-wheel-drive tractors tied together pulling a plough...
Written by James Warne @Warnesworth , Soil First Farming
Social media can be a useful source and tool for knowledge transfer, discussion around various topics etc. But far too often it can also be the source of misinformation or confirmation of prejudice, particularly where the discussion deviates from received wisdom. I am referring here to agriculturally based discussions around the topics of Conservation Agriculture (CA), soil nutrition, agronomy etc. There are some common recurring...
Written by Ralph Early
''No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.'' David Attenborough
Not so long ago, wildlife in Britain was so much more abundant than it is today. Back in the 1960s, in early summer, one could walk the fields of most counties from Land’s End to John O’Groats and quite literally trip over wildlife: rabbits, hares, pheasants, partridge, and many other species hiding in knee-high grass. A stroll through...
Compelling reasons to take a good look at Mg levels in your soils and methods of raising them Written by Jon Williams from www.thesoilexpert.co.uk
The result of over 700 detailed soil samples in West Wales has consistently shown a shortage of magnesium with 70 per cent of the soils depleted on the clay colloid and 48 per cent showing a shortage in the available form, and unless we carry out a detailed soil analysis this major nutrient deficit cannot be corrected. Here we consider some of...
If you are like us, then you don’t know where to start when it comes to other reading apart from farming magazines. However, there is so much information out there that can help us understand our businesses, farm better and understand the position of non-farmers.
We have listed a few more books you might find interesting, challenge the way you currently think and help you farm better.
The Fate of Food: What We'll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World We need to produce more food...
FEATURED FARMER
JAMES ALEXANDER
CONTRACTOR, LITCHFIELD FARM, ENSTONE, OXFORDSHIRE
Farm Facts
FARM SIZE: 1500 acres (800 farmed organically, 700 conventionally)
MANPOWER: 2.5 - 3.5 FARM TYPE: Arable with flying stock (lambing here)
TENURE: Contract farming
REGION: South East England
SOIL: Cotswold Brash
APPROACH: Organic & conventional
KEY FARMING PRACTICES: Undersowing, Diverse leys, Cover crops, Direct drilling, Diversified rotation, Leys
Litchfield farm near Enstone in...
Editor Mike Donovan interprets a vital study on soil run-off from Finland
Nutrient and soil run-off to water courses is a major concern in Finland, with land in the southwest of major concern. For more than 20 years farmers in the region have been involved in many efforts to reduce the problem. These have included the use of buffer strips which will physically hold back run-off and encourage the water to soak away.
Fertiliser restrictions have been another measure, but all have not been...
FEATURES FOR THE WET
Dale Drills have been helping farmers to drive down the cost of crop establishment for over 20 years. Founded by Lincolnshire farmer, John ‘Edward’ Dale, the company has been a long term advocate of low impact cultivation – recognizing the importance it has for improving soil structure and the associated benefits of improved fertility and increased yields.
Now run by Edward’s two sons, Tom and James, who grow 3500 acres of combinable crops (utilising No-Till and CTF...
Back to Basics
In 2013 I was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to look at the “Long term benefits of No-Till Farming”. My appeal to the Nuffield selection panel was that I wanted to visit farmers around the world who had been no-till farming for over 20 years and try to bring back some common threads and ideas which could be helpful to UK growers in our climate and on our soils. (As an aside, my report title was changed to “Moving from Sustainable to Regenerative Agriculture using No-Till...
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Tractor Chat #01
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Tractor Chat #01 - with Direct Driller Magazine Farmer Focus writer Phil Rowbottom
Discussing direct drilling wheat, Oil seed rape growing in the UK, Fendt 724 tractor and his Sky Easy Drill.
Discussing direct drilling wheat, Oil seed rape growing in the UK, Fendt 724 tractor and his Sky Easy Drill.