In May the Allerton Project organised a 2-day Spring Event in Northamptonshire, where we visited three of the lead commercial farms (LCFs) involved in the project.
At Winwick Manor Farm Henry Tyrrell introduced the group to his 200 hectares (ha) mixed farming operation of beef, sheep and combinable crops, with a 50/50 split between the arable and grassland area. Within the arable side, Henry’s main saleable crop is wheat which he supplies to Nestlé. He also grows barley, beans and spring oats which are mainly fed to the livestock. Henry has been trialling the practice of bi-cropping – where two or more crops are grown in the same field at the same time, in this case, peas and oats. Introducing pulses to the rotation has the potential to decrease use of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser as well as increase biodiversity and variability in the farmed landscape. The Allerton Project have also been trialling a peas and oats bi-crop this year, to explore the feasibility of growing peas on heavy clay soil as well as assess the impacts for greenhouse gas emissions and soil nitrogen. However, unlike Henry, who milled the bicrop together as feed for his livestock, the Allerton Project have had to source a contractor to separate the two crops – a common problem with bi-cropping. Overall, Henry has been pleased with the results from the peas and oats bicrop this year, achieving 30 tonnes of feed from 6ha. As well as continuing with the peas and oats bicrop next year, he’s also interested in trialling a companion crop with oilseed rape (OSR) which he will also graze.
The second visit was to Brixworth Farming with Managing Director, Ian Matts. Brixworth Farming is a joint venture of six farms, totalling 2,000ha. 1,550ha are used for combinable crops, which are pooled together, and the remaining 450ha are dedicated to stewardship, which is managed on a farm-by-farm basis. During the tour, Ian introduced the group to his own version of growing multiple crops together – through the principle of companion cropping. Whilst bi-cropping generally refers to growing two or more cash crops in the same field, which are generally both harvested, companion crops are planted to help the main cash crop succeed either by growing alongside it or as undersown plants. Companion cropping is normally used to retain nutrients – particularly nitrogen, improve soil health and structure and reduce pest and disease pressures. For Ian, the main motivation to start growing a clover understorey alongside wheat was to reduce weed burden and subsequently applications of the herbicide glyphosate. He first established the clover understorey in two fields in Spring 2023. Since then, Ian has been trialling different drilling techniques and herbicide applications to find the balance between maintaining the clover and slowing its growth to allow the wheat to establish. Overall, Ian has found varying success with the wheat/clover companion crop, the main issues being slug pressure and inconsistent clover establishment – particularly in the heavier ground field. This year, Ian has received funding from Anglian Water to undertake nitrogen response trials in the companion crop fields, which will help him investigate both the nitrogen fixation capability of the clover as well as the feasibility of growing a continuous first wheat.
The third visit of the Spring event was to Manor Farm with Henry and Ana Reynolds. The family farm is 200ha – 162ha of arable, 10ha of permanent pasture, 9ha in agri-environment schemes and 7ha of woodland. The farm is also home to a variety of sheep breeds including Grey-faced mules, Hebrideans, Romney, Suffolk and Charolais. Upon arrival, the first noticeable feature was the mass of Spring beans in flower on the farm which Henry was growing as a low-input break crop. Beans are a useful break crop, not only for their nitrogen-fixing ability, but also to improve soil structure as their strong roots can grow up to 1m in depth. Henry is very focussed on utilising regenerative practices on farm, particularly when it comes to soil health and minimising soil disturbance. In fact, the farm has been implementing minimum tillage since the early 2000s. Minimum tillage or ‘min-till’ is a soil conservation system which uses mechanical methods other than ploughing to work the land less aggressively. Whilst giving the group a tour of the farm, Henry explained that he has seen an improvement in his soil health and increased soil carbon since ceasing ploughing twenty years ago. Although his family farm was the first to implement min-till in this area, Henry suggested that it didn’t take long for his neighbours to follow suit and that there is now a little cluster group of farms all following min-till/no-till principles. While Henry has overall found success in converting to min-till, he also spoke about some the drawbacks, particularly in relation to drainage in wet weather years. Between October 2022 and March 2024, England has had its wettest 18 months since Met Office records began in 1836 (Environment Agency, 2024). Henry stressed the value of maintaining good drainage, both for your farm business and for the environment, and suggested that when faced with such extremes, the more climate neutral alternatives are not necessarily more effective.
During the event, the farmers were also introduced to the opportunity to take part in cropping trials with Kings Crops. Six of the farmers opted into the trials which are focussing on 1) utilising living mulches 2) growing cover crops for Winter grazing and 3) the benefits of using catch crops.
