FT

[martian]

I'm all for no-till for cost reduction, soil OM improvement, hopefully less environmental provlems etc.

My gripe is the RPA offering grants for direct drills, but ignoring the needs of a carrot grower to buy a plough, or a harvester on tracks etc. And there is a tendency for no-tillers to promote their system and lobby government, whilst dissing other systems.

There are some terrible looking ex root crop fields now. Ruts, standing water, run-off etc. Cheapest way to fix that for spring will be a plough imho. But, we all eat spuds, carrots, onions, cauli, calibrese, sprouts, sugar etc. Is there any other solution for these fields other than a plough?

Meanwhile, many no- tillers are growing spring barley (to keep on top of grass weeds), which then gets made into alcoholic drinks - which is bad.

I'm all for no-till in the right circumstances on some (many) farms. I just think RPA are getting brainwashed that it is the only way, and they should offer grants to encourage no-till, whilst not supporting the veg grower in a similar manner. Really I think that if grants are offered, then grants should be available for each farmer, and the farmer should choose what to spend the cash on.

Economic and environmental gains from no-till is obviously a good thing if it is working.

I think we're all on the same page regarding grants for drills or whatever. If you read the article in the OP, I say that grants and subsidies distort everything, they are a blunt instrument. What I thought I was suggesting to the powers that be, or at least readers of the FT, was that our nations soil is a very precious resource and the Government's policy (whoever the Government is) should be to preserve and, ideally, regenerate that soil because there are so many public goods that come from healthy soil. Many civilisations that have come before us didn't learn this lesson, they destroyed their soils and collapsed soon after.

I don't know much about veg production, beyond the few no-till spuds we've grown and our no-dig veg patch, but there are farmers round the world who can see the damage that they've caused and are working out techniques to do things better. We had a German lined up for Groundswell last year who grows organic no till veg commercially and I know George Sly is doing some interesting experiments with strip tilling veg and there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in America. The point is, we have to admit that the current system is kerry packered, from the way we grow things, to how we sell them (aren't supermarkets wonderful?), to the creaking NHS having to deal with a unhealthy population brought down by a rubbish diet and succombing to degenerative diseases. And alcohol probably...

We haven't got the solution yet, but we're having a fun time looking for it. Once you see the problem, then at least you've got a chance to do something about. Asking for grants for ploughs isn't going to speed up any change for the better...

 

[Grass And Grain]

I think we're all on the same page regarding grants for drills or whatever. If you read the article in the OP, I say that grants and subsidies distort everything, they are a blunt instrument. What I thought I was suggesting to the powers that be, or at least readers of the FT, was that our nations soil is a very precious resource and the Government's policy (whoever the Government is) should be to preserve and, ideally, regenerate that soil because there are so many public goods that come from healthy soil. Many civilisations that have come before us didn't learn this lesson, they destroyed their soils and collapsed soon after.

I don't know much about veg production, beyond the few no-till spuds we've grown and our no-dig veg patch, but there are farmers round the world who can see the damage that they've caused and are working out techniques to do things better. We had a German lined up for Groundswell last year who grows organic no till veg commercially and I know George Sly is doing some interesting experiments with strip tilling veg and there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in America. The point is, we have to admit that the current system is kerry packered, from the way we grow things, to how we sell them (aren't supermarkets wonderful?), to the creaking NHS having to deal with a unhealthy population brought down by a rubbish diet and succombing to degenerative diseases. And alcohol probably...

We haven't got the solution yet, but we're having a fun time looking for it. Once you see the problem, then at least you've got a chance to do something about. Asking for grants for ploughs isn't going to speed up any change for the better...

Good, well reasoned post.

 

[sjt01]

Many civilisations that have come before us didn't learn this lesson, they destroyed their soils and collapsed soon after.

You must have been reading David Montgomery's "Dirt", quite frightening although he does go on a bit. I am currently reading Tim Spector's "Spoon Fed" which puts your comments on the NHS in good context.

 

[The Ruminant]

I plough between cereals, I min-till in to, and out of, OSR. I'm free to use the best tool for the job as the seasons dictate, not left following some neo-religeous dogmatic cult.
If John Cherry and the members of the pseudo-scientific cult think they need to persuade parliament that theirs is the only true modern method of farming worth subsidising, it's not 'sensitivity', but it shows that he needs to create an economic imbalance to make DD more profitable than it actually is.

I’m genuinely interested to know what your thoughts are on mycorrhizal fungae and the scientific research behind our (current) understanding.