In this 40 min long podcast titled ‘From the Ground Up: How Important is Soil Health to our Future Food System‘, This is Altruistiq‘s host Jamie Dujardin asked questions delving deep into issues surrounding:
The challenges and opportunities of soil carbon measurement
The commercial opportunities for actors across the value chain (farmers to retailers)
What a future farming system looks like
They talk about key levers that businesses and farmers can take to scale soil health initiatives and offer some positivity and enthusiasm for the road ahead.
Hear how the work we do at FCT supports farmers by giving tangible, practical and applicable ways to build soil carbon and reduce emissions, whilst also building on farm resilience without affecting productivity. Also, hear how this relates to the ongoing work at Yeo Valley, where Tim Mead and his wider team are not only producing healthy nutritious food, but building soil health, reducing their emissions and addressing issues regarding resilience in the farming sector.
Listen here:
The podcast is available here and on most major podcast platforms.
With the ever-increasing interest in the environmental and business benefits of soil health and regenerative practices, the Soil Farmer of the Year competition looks set to be even bigger for 2023. Click on the link below to apply — or nominate someone you know! Or click here to find out more.
FAQ:
When does the entry period close?
The closing date for the competition is the 5th of March 2023.
We encourage applications from all sizes and types of farm – if you are passionate about soil management we would love to hear what you are up to. Equally, if you know someone who you would like to nominate or have any further questions please get in touch and we will be happy to have a chat: emma.adams@farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk
How is the competition judged?
All entries will be anonymised and short-listed for judging by our panel including the winners of the 2021 competition. The highest placed entrants will then be contacted and farm walks with our judging panel will commence in May 2023 to decide the finalists for the 2023 competition.
Since 2015, our SFOTY competition has helped to find, promote, and champion UK farmers who are passionate about safeguarding their soils and building resilient businesses. The 2022 competition involved a cohort of applicants with new ideas and perspectives on what sustainable soil management means for the future. As part of the competition, the top three farmers host farm walks that bring farmers together to share their good practice and innovation to improve soil health.
Celebrating the 2022 winners
Winners of the Soil Farmer of the Year 2022 Competition. From left to right: Andrew Rees (Runner-up), David Miller (Arable Soil Farmer of the Year) and Billy Lewis (Mixed Soil Farmer of the Year).
As we launch the 2023 competition, we want to celebrate this year’s winners and thank them for all their efforts to promote the benefits of good soil management.
Farm walk with Andrew Rees, 2022 Soil Farmer of the Year (Runner-up) In the first week of August, farmers and industry professionals met at Moor Farm in southwest Wales to hear Andrew Rees explain how he has developed a dairy system with soil health at the centre. READ THE REPORT
Farm walk with David Miller, 2022 Soil Farmer of the Year (Arable) Managing 700ha in Hampshire of majority Grade 3 land in a purely arable rotation, David Miller demonstrated how a regenerative system can be both simple and profitable even on challenging soils. READ THE REPORT
Farm walk with Billy Lewis, 2022 Soil Farmer of the Year (Livestock) Billy Lewis explained to visitors to his farm in Herefordshire how he’s been focusing on regenerating tired soils (previously in a high-intensity arable system) through integrating livestock and increasing species diversity. COMING SOON!
Key statistics
4,411 Hectares collectively managed by applicants across a range of soils throughout the UK. Farming systems demonstrated soil managements across a variety of geographies and landscapes.
60% Mixed Farms. The majority of applications were from mixed farming businesses, with arable and dairy systems also represented.
215 Businesses attended farm walks, participating in information sharing and knowledge exchange to discuss new ideas of how to implement sustainable practices.
Key messages
Protect the soil surface
Maintain a flexible rotation
Understand the biological, chemical and physical requirements of healthy soil
Minimise the disturbance of soil created through cultivation, trafficking and grazing pressures
Written by Hannah Jones, Research Manager at FCT, as part of the demo farm trials happening in our Farm Net Zero (FNZ) project.
Overview
Recommended cereal varieties are bred to look identical; the genes between individual plants have only minor levels of variation. The regulations around breeding and the sale of seed ensure consistency as well as ensuring different varieties are unique and suitable for the use (or group) stated.
Wheat, barley, and oats mainly self-pollinate which results in offspring being highly similar to the parent plant. Rye is a bit different; it is cross pollinated. Thus, a field of rye is in fact a population of rye where very plant is considerably different from its neighbour in terms of genes and sometimes in appearance.
Landraces
Seed that has been saved by communities of farmers within one particular region are called landraces. These landraces were locally adapted to specific conditions including soil type, local pests and diseases as well as management such as type of seed bed preparation. In landraces, since each plant is genetically different, the plants best suited to a given climate produced more seed. If the seed is saved and resown, the best adapted plants take up a greater proportion of the subsequent generation.
Evolutionary breeding
Over many generations, successive seed saving and resowing results in adaptation of a crop population, and thus this is called evolutionary breeding or population wheat (or barley). Evolutionary breeding can take place by default with landraces, or a population can be created.
Composite cross populations
The creation of a crop population involves cross pollinating a range of varieties that have interesting characteristics. This cross pollination needs to be done by a plant breeder. One such composite cross population was created from 20 varieties which had either good yielding or quality characteristics: the “YQ population” and was carried out by a team at The Organic Research Centre and John Innes Centre in early 2000 led by Martin Wolfe. The rules for selling grain have been designed according to the standard rules of uniformity of crop. Recent changes in regulations have now allowed the sale of population wheat if there is certified traceability.
Built-in resilience
The physical and genetic diversity within a population can increase the crop resilience to extremes in stress. Crop populations generally perform above the average of the original varieties. For example, if a particular race of a plant disease dominates in one year there will be some plants that have resistance; there will be some yield despite high disease pressure. Alternatively, deeper rooting will ensure under drought conditions there will be some plants that yield grain, whereas the shallow-rooters may be sterile.
Tim Williams (pictured below) at Erth Barton (one of our FNZ demo farmers) is trialling population wheat with his pasture cropping. The wheat has the potential to adapt to local conditions as well as being sown into an existing sward. To follow updates on our Farm Net Zero trials and hear more news, sign up to the FNZ newsletter here.
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