There will be opportunities to visit these farms over the coming months, to hear more about their systems and contribute your ideas and suggestions. The first of these events are listed further down.
Current trials which are being set up include an assessment of outwintering systems including varieties of cover crops; the benefits of herbal leys to reduce methane emissions, the use of compost to improve soil biology and carbon sequestration and the impact of paddock grazing systems on soil health, grassland productivity and carbon sequestration. These farms will be hosting 3 farm walks per year which will provide insights into progress with the trials in delivering emissions reduction, but will also offer the chance to understand the practical and financial issues in changing on-farm management.
Monitor farms
Our core community of 40 farmers will form a network of monitor farms that will work together with us throughout the next five years. They are made up of a mix of farming system, soil type and management practices and all have an interest in reducing their carbon footprint and improving soil health. Partners from Duchy College, Carbon Toolkit and West Country Rivers Trust have now started the first year of on-farm assessments on these farms and we will continue soil carbon and health assessments and carbon footprints on an annual basis over the next five years.
This complements the work undertaken previously by the Soil Carbon project and will provide a great chance to understand what is possible on-farm with soil carbon sequestration and how it aligns with farm productivity and soil health. A key part of this work is to also expand the reach further than the farming community; and the project has resources to come and talk to local community groups about the potential for farming to contribute to delivering climate solutions – as such please get in touch if this is something that you would like to discuss.
Citizen Science
There will be a citizen science project starting that will be developing soil health activities that are relevant for a non-farming audience including gardeners, allotment holders, local schools and other community groups. There will be further updates on this in future newsletters.
Field labs
During the project Innovative Farmers will be setting up three field labs which will provide the capacity to undertake on-farm research on topics which are identified as being important by the community.
At the moment, there is a project developing on the use of the Johnson Su bioreactor, which has been shown to provide a way to produce compost which is very biologically active and has been shown to provide agronomic and soil health benefits to farmers who are using them elsewhere in the UK and globally. If this is something that you would be interested in being part of then please get in touch. If you have any other ideas that you would like to explore and gain funding to research then please get in touch with the Field lab team.
