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Farm Net Zero April update

Welcome to the third newsletter from the Farm Net Zero project, sharing updates for our farmers and the wider community this project supports.

This project, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, is managed by Cornwall College and is a partnership between the Farm Carbon Toolkit, Duchy College’s Rural Business School, Westcountry Rivers Trust, Innovative Farmers and Innovation for Agriculture.

Summary update: There’s been lots of activity taking place across our demo and monitor farms, and wider afield helping to showcase the potential for farmers to contribute to net zero ambitions. Through calculating current carbon footprints, and digging deeper into the soil carbon levels and the impact on soil health, our community are developing knowledge and understanding about what they can do and the effect on their farm business. This edition our partners will be providing updates on their activities over the last few months.

Demo farms update

Our demo farms have been busy over the winter months on a range of trials that are feeding into the Farm Net Zero project as well as being featured in our upcoming films about the project. Three films have been commissioned to introduce the Farm Net Zero project and highlight our demonstration farmers, their approach and motivations for being involved and also a summary of some of the research taking place on their farms. The films will be out at the end of April and will be featured on our website and shared via social media so keep a look out for them!

An update from Duchy College

We have been cracking on with the soil sampling and carbon footprinting of the Monitor Farms. These baselines are a really important step in knowing what is already going well and where changes can be made.

It has been great to see so many of the Monitor Farms attending and contributing to events. There are lots more planned on a wide range of topics so there should be something for everyone.

Why not read our latest information from our overwinter cover cropping trial which has been taking place on two of our demo farms and one of our monitor farms?

Photo from our winter grazed cover crop event on 23 February

Westcountry Rivers Trust Update

In the past four months soil sampling with our four monitor farms has been carried out and they are in the final process of completing their carbon calculator audits. This year our monitor farms are expecting to use between 30-50% less fertiliser due to the astronomical price increases. This will reduce carbon emissions across all farms significantly but our monitor farms are still striving to reduce their carbon footprint further. To do so they are attending information events and incorporating practices into their businesses such as better use of farmyard manure and slurry, increasing sward diversity, cover cropping and companion cropping.

Why not read the fact sheet on reducing nitrogen usage in crop production from our recent monitor farm event?

Photo from our “nitrogen use on farm” event on 2 February 2022

Innovative Farmers update

Do you have an idea for a practice you’d like to investigate which could reduce GHG emissions, improve soil health, soil carbon and productivity? As part of Farm Net Zero, Innovative farmers will be running three ‘field labs’ - practical trials based on the needs of Cornish farmers and growers. A few ideas that have been received already include:

• Autumn sown cover crops in arable and vegetable cropping - what works?

• Strip or no till maize and vegetable cropping - effects on yields and soil

• Companion cropping in broccoli to reduce soil runoff and infiltration and the effect of sequential cropping on species choice

• Planting techniques for herbal leys - strip till or direct drill vs total reseed.

• Effect of undersowing grasses in maize

• Livestock grazing of cover crops

If any of these pique your interest and you’d like to be involved or if you would like to suggest another idea we’d love to hear from you - email info@innovativefarmers.org

Citizen Science project update

A key activity within the Farm Net Zero project is engaging with non-farmers and one of the strands of activity is the Citizen Science project which is being led by the Westcountry Rivers Trust. They aim to inspire them to make changes in their horticultural habits towards net zero and encourage practices to improve soil health. Several groups are already very engaged and there is also interest from outside the area that FNZ covers which is encouraging showing that the wider public is interested in the project and how to reduce their carbon footprint.

Keep a look out for our upcoming small farm and citizen science events.

Getting in touch

If you have any questions or ideas that would further support the community of farmers that we are working with the please get in touch with the project team (contact details below). All information about the project including upcoming events and resources are available on the Farm Carbon Toolkit website. If there is anything you would like to see featured please let us know.

Best wishes

Becky Willson

Project partners and key contacts:

• Duchy College: Alex Bebbington, alex.bebbington@duchy.ac.uk

• Farm Carbon Toolkit: Becky Willson, becky.willson@farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk

• Innovative Farmers: Rebecca Swinn, rswinn@soilassociation.org

• Innovation for Agriculture: Deborah Crossan, deborahc@i4agri.org

• Westcountry Rivers Trust: Jenny Bashford, jennyb@wrt.org.uk