Farm overview
Farming 395ha in Suffolk, Tom is focussed on understanding key issues and how best to resolve them. G.D. Jewers & Son is a host farm for Hutchinsons Helix East Anglia, providing a regional ‘testbed’ for ideas and technologies developed through the national Helix programme. Tom’s family farming business is in an ambitious countryside stewardship scheme; making use of multi-species cover, catch and companion crops in a direct drilled system. Spring cropping accounts for around one-fifth of the long (6-8 years) and varied rotation, with cover crops used to protect and enhance soil over winter. Tom is consistently looking at ways to reduce reliance on nitrogen on farm and is running trials on nitrogen use efficiency and polycropping, as well as biostimulants in several different fields. Tom achieves this whilst simultaneously providing habitats and resources for wildlife and is currently in the process of setting up a cluster group in his area with a key focus on ponds.
Project activities
- Creative Arena – an interactive event to discuss and evaluate climate friendly principles which can be adopted on farm (May 2023).
- Demonstration events – Trials, LENs (Landscape Enterprise Networks) and farm tour (December 2023); ‘Using low-emission fertilisers in Climate Neutral Farming’ (December 2024).
- Training – BASIS Certificate in Sustainable Land Management course at The Allerton Project (November 2023).
- Lead Commercial Farm visits – Boughton Estate, Brixworth Farming, J. H. Simpson & Son, Rookery Farm, Manor Farm.
- Demonstration Farm activities – Groundswell ‘Cover Cropping: Successes and Failures’ (June 2024).
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