4 regen farmers on how they overcome technical challenges

Starting out on a regenerative farming journey can seem daunting because of the potential pitfalls. But who better to ask for some tips than farmers who have already learned how to make it a success on their farms.

Four farmers employing a regenerative approach to their businesses were quizzed by an audience at Groundswell about some of the technical challenges they’d faced and how they overcame them.

Farmers Weekly picks out some of the best questions and answers.

See also: Regenerative Agriculture: A Scottish farmer’s low risk approach

How do you successfully undersow clover into wheat?

Ed Horton undersows perennial short-leaf white clover into wheat using a camera-guided inter-row hoe equipped with seeder units.

“By the middle of April soil temperatures should be there, hopefully with some moisture, so if they need weeding we will use the hoe with the seeder unit or use a comb harrow.

“At 12m wide and running at 15 km/hour you can cover some ground quickly with a comb harrow,” he says.

Before sowing the clover, he will have grazed the wheat with sheep, and also applied pig slurry to provide most of the crop’s nitrogen requirements.

How do you approach cover crops and the cost of seed?

Chris Hollingsworth grows cover crops before all spring cash crops and catch crops between winter barley or oilseed rape and wheat.

“We try to keep it as simple as possible, and we were trying to keep costs below £20/ha, although it’s now up to about £25/ha,” he says.

“The important thing is to have plants with different root systems. For example, phacelia is good with lots of fine, shallow roots, while linseed is a stronger, deeper-rooted plant, which helps pick up nutrients from different levels.”

But he questions how much good mustard is doing to soils, although it looks good above ground.

How do you encourage a weed chit before winter crops?

“Like everything in my world: sheep,” says Mr Horton. “Pen 1,000 ewes in a wheat stubble after it has rained, and it will be the quickest flush of volunteers you will ever see.”

Alternatively, a set of 18m Cambridge rolls when there is some rain forecast will also encourage germination, he says.

Encouraging a weed chit before sowing is not something Hertfordshire grower Ian Pigott is trying to achieve.

“We put a catch or cover crop in straight away, let it grow on, drill into it and then take it out with the pre-emergence herbicide.”

Norfolk grower Jimmy Goodley works to a depth of 25mm with a CrossCutter disc on a Vaderstad Carrier to encourage a chit of brome on fields with a historically high weed burden.

If you have a big burden of blackgrass, Mr Hollingsworth says delaying drilling to the spring is sensible.

“If you are drilling in the autumn, we would wait for it to rain. We might drill before the rain, and then apply glyphosate before the crop has emerged, but timing is crucial and being patient enough to wait for the rain.”

What advice would you give someone just starting with a no-till system?

Get soil structure right to start with, says Mr Horton. “If you’ve got no soil structure you cannot direct-drill, as it will only come back and bite you.

“Occasionally ripping a leg through or even ploughing if it needs it is the correct thing to do, and not having a hard-and-fast rule that you will never cultivate.”

Look at no-till as a spectrum, with conventional farming at one end and complete no-till at the other, Mr Hollingsworth adds.

“It’s a journey from one to the other, so if the field isn’t in good enough condition, you’re going to have to do some remedial work before you go into it.

“Be prepared that not everything is going to go right. You will make mistakes, but after farming for years with a can and a blueprint for growing crops, you will learn how to farm again and make decisions.”

Find a couple of good mates to lean on, Mr Goodley says. “Farmers are good at throwing rocks at each other, criticising without any context.

“So when you think you’re losing your mind, a phone call or visit from a couple of friends who assure you everything will be alright is what you need.”

How do you establish spring crops under a no-till system, particularly on heavier soil type?

Use a tine drill in the spring, advises Mr Hollingsworth, who grows spring barley and spring oats. “There is nothing worse than the disc slot opening. It is a very harsh environment for seed growing.

“The other problem is where there is a lot of straw. This year, we’re going to go back to baling some straw where we’re going into spring crops.

“As the years go by, you do build up quite a lot of straw on the surface.”

Mr Goodley uses an ultra-low-disturbance subsoiler on trafficked headlands, but would also advise the use of something similar as soils transition.

“Just make sure the equipment you use is targeting the specific problem you’re trying to solve to help ease the transition.”

He uses cover crops as an indicator of problems. “If our cover crops haven’t grown very well, it’s either physical – compaction – or it is nutrition.”

The latter can be treated, but if it is physical a tractor and piece of equipment will be needed, he says.

Do you have problems with slugs and how do you get on top of them?

Slugs can be a nightmare, admits Mr Horton. “I’ve learned to spend a lot of time rooting around at the bottom of stubbles.

“In our system we find, instead of waiting until two days before to put a rake across to remove volunteers, it is better to put sheep in to remove volunteers and allow natural predators in.

“Where there is muck, there will be rooks, and sheep will also disturb some worms. Rooks will then happily also eat slugs. If we do need to apply slug pellets, we use ferric phosphate.”

Mr Hollingsworth suggests that it is important to keep the oilseed rape rotation wide and avoid using insecticides that will kill slug predators.

Those two things have solved 90% of slug problems, although he uses slug pellets occasionally. “It’s another reason to avoid mustard in cover crop mixes,” he adds.

Slugs occur randomly and not always where you would expect at Mr Goodley’s farm.

“What we have seen is that as soil biology improves, residues spend less time on the soil surface, which has helped slug control.”