A Trio Of MEETINGS- LONG READ

Over a week in February, I attended three events that presented different angles of the industry.

Resilient Grazing

I presented at an event on resilient grazing for the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland NFU group. This was the final Farming into the Future event as part of Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust sponsorship. Unsurprisingly after one of the wettest periods, there was a lot of chat about the changing climate.

Resilience

The point I made about resilience is that it isn’t just about surviving; there needs to be some thriving. The definition of resilience I used included:

• “nurture a positive view of yourself”

• “move towards your goals”

• “make connections”

• “accept that change is a part of life”

• “take decisive action”.

  
  

I suppose there is a bit of a growth mindset in there!

As part of the presentation, I encouraged the audience to turn to a neighbour and talk about what is working well, without any negative points. Then we did another two minutes of what isn’t working well, with the emphasis being on what they had control over. Again trying to move the focus from weather chat.

We then reflected on, with hindsight, what could have been done differently in 2025 with some conversations around irrigation, exploring alternative feed and forage options (including bi-crops) and having a better understanding of carrying capacity of the farm.

Soil health

A large part of the presentation was on soil health, with a surprising number of the audience not regularly digging holes on their farms. The aim is to do more meetings once the soils are easier to assess to help build confidence with soil assessments. Without understanding the structure of our soils, we can’t understand how to best help them become more resilient to varying rainfall.

I used some examples from my own farm to highlight the importance of baselining. I am one of the AHDB baselining project farm and have received the data about carbon stocks for the fields (see Figure 1) and with Daniel from Re-Genus I have done some soil food web analysis for some of these fields (see Table 1).

Figure 1. Carbon Stock report for Croft Farm from AHDB Baselining project.

Table 1. Soil food web results for Cow Pasture (006 in Figure 1) and Short Beck (001 in Figure 1).

The results show more work is needed to enhance the organic carbon levels in these fields and to improve the diversity of the soil food web. Even areas of the fields which are being rested (margins and verges) are not as diverse as ideal, so rest on it's own isn’t driving change. “There is no hope” was the response of one of the attendees when the results were discussed, as he was expecting my soils to be amazing. Not yet!

We talked through how the diverse ley through Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme that has gone into the Cow Pasture field will hopefully help. The different species of grasses, clover and herbs that have been sown will drive diversity above and below ground. The plan is to apply for an ADOPT funded project to trial the Re-Genus product on these fields to see if that can help.  

As with a lot of farmers, there was a consensus that we need to adjust our approaches, with more people aiming to increase their conserved forage reserves after a stressful few months. There was also an interest in feed budgets to help make decisions sooner and to understand what farms are capable of carrying in terms of stock.

Balancing nature with food production

I was asked to present at the East Midlands Farming Conference on how to balance nature with food production. I highlighted the work we are doing with the Be The Change farmers to really understand where the pains and gains are in their businesses.

I used a slide from Russ Carrington (see Figure 2) that encourages a wider view of regeneration, with natural capital, social impacts and economic and financial performance considered. I used the soil carbon and food web results highlighted above to talk through the soil section of Russ’ spider diagram.

Figure 2. What are we regenerating? Slide from Russ Carrington.

The idea was that enhancing nature of farms isn’t just about land sparing with areas allocated for margins, trees and special mixes. If we get the soil biology working harder across most fields, we can really effectively share land so we are producing food within a healthy ecosystem.

I also highlighted the planetary health plate concept (see Figure 3) that suggests that we need to have a think about what food we are producing rather than just up production, as it may not help soil or human health. For example, a third of the UK wheat crop goes to feed pig and poultry, so do we just want to produce more of this, or more human edible crops?

Figure 3: The planetary health plate.

I also highlighted that my farm has just drafted a holistic statement - “Farmed well” - we operate in a collaborative, profitable, socially and environmentally responsible way. We follow a clear plan that prioritises welfare, strong communication, and respect for each individual’s opinions and needs. This will help us evaluate decisions and approaches. This idea will also be included in the Be The Change project approaches.

My plea at the end was:

•        Make intentional food decisions with knowledge and consideration

•        Reconnect with nature - If we connect with nature, we make more environmentally focused decisions

•        Be curious about what is going on, e.g. why has the number of insects sampled on number plates gone down by 58.5% between 2002 and 2021?

Future of Food Summit

This was The Economist’s first Future of Food Summit. They had free tickets for farmers and a free breakfast, even though I had to get up at 5.30 am to get to London for my free breakfast. I am really glad I went to the breakfast as it meant you could find a fellow farmer throughout the day.

They really wanted farmers to be represented in the discussions, with Tom Bradshaw (NFU president) and Abi Reader (NFU Cymru president) on a couple of the panels. They didn’t have any farmers talking through their farms or system changes.

One of the questions I submitted – how many people in this room have been on a farm and talked to a farmer in the last 12 months? – was asked, and a surprisingly high number of hands went up. I asked it to see if there was a risk of lots of theoretical and abstract conversations, but engagement with the people who could deliver it seemed high.

There was a lot of talk about risk and how most of the current situations rely on the farmer taking most of the risk, e.g. growing costs with the hope of a market at the end of it. How the supply chain could share the risk was discussed, and the importance of the whole supply chain being willing and able to share responsibility. It mainly came back to price and market guarantees, and that farmers want to build strong relationships with trusted representatives within the supply chain. Yes it is cash, but it is also mainly about people.

Buzzwords and building for the future

There was a lot of chat about regenerative farming, with the slight risk of buzzword bingo. Some of the panellists defined what it was to them, and generally, it was about thinking wider than just production and the influence the farming sector could have on biodiversity and engaging people with nature. It sometimes felt like all the responsibility to save the world lay with farmers, but it was occasionally acknowledged that intentional decisions needed to be made with the supply chain and by consumers. It tended to come back to money and people's ability to make these decisions.

Tom Bradshaw’s point was that if lots of us keep talking about regenerative farming, the policy makers will be influenced, and policies will change to the detriment of farmers keeping on farming*. * This tended to refer to the use of nitrogen fertiliser, agrichemicals and cracking on with yield-focused systems. Some of the options with the SFI scheme are encouraging a change in behaviour in terms of soil and inputs, so the policy makers have already been influenced, and it wasn’t acknowledged that the efficiency of use of nitrogen fertiliser can be extremely poor.

We can’t just stay where we are, doing the things we like doing, the world is changing and staying with the status quo is not the answer. We need to investigate the range of tools that are available to us, be that foliar fertiliser, which reduces the amount applied, or trace elements applications to make the plants healthier and less likely to be attacked, or wider rotations with integrated livestock to drive diverse networks in the soil. The focus should be on encouraging farmers to think wider rather than just defending their “castle”.

There was an interesting session on waste management within supermarkets and food service. It was about all the various ways that they are trying to reduce waste, through pack sizes, hiding best before dates, having a route through to distribution services or local charities, and making the employees “own” the problem. However, the guy from foodservice said that he had been watching the plates after lunch, and there will be policies in place and people trying really hard in the kitchen to reduce waste. However there was food waste being generated from people in this room, by people taking too much and that we all need to take responsibility for our actions. This seems a relevant point for the wider conversation.