Future Farming
Our Future Farming work-streams support the direction of travel and the priorities for our Regenerative Framing transition.
Regenerative Agriculture is our evolving approach to farming based on feeding organisms in the soil which, in turn, feed plants.
Maximising the days with green leaves covering the ground, and capturing sunlight increases photosynthesis to feed plant growth and soil microbes.
This heightened biological activity allows farmers to produce the greatest yield for the lowest cost.
The five principles of Regenerative Farming, are not hard rules. Understanding how the principles work is key to enabling the correct choices in recognition of context. Our farming contexts are many and varied across our diverse farming base and change with time. ”
Cover Crops
Growing cover crops provides a physical barrier for the soils surface from weather conditions including the impact on soils of UV, wind-blow, rain-splash, all which accelerate the rate of soil erosion.
Above ground, cover crops capture sunlight and convert this into sugars which are relocated into the roots and are pumped into the soil as exudates, feeding the microbial community within the soils which in turn make soil-bound nutrients available for the subsequent cash crop.
Below the soil surface, cover crop roots maintain soil structure by preventing particles from slumping together. As well as filling pore spaces, the exudates produced by plant roots act as a glue binding aggregates together producing a structure allowing the movement of air and water throughout the soil profile.
Reduced Tillage & Compaction
Reducing the depth, intensity and number of tillage passes reduces the disturbance to microbial communities and the soil structure they have produced.
Removing deep inversion tillage reduces the amount of soil carbon exposed to the air, in turn reducing the release of carbon dioxide from soil carbon oxidation.
Minimising the disturbance to the “mid-zone” of the soil profile, from 10-30cm below the soil surface, reduces the damage done to the soil horizon where the greatest biological activity occurs and the majority of roots grow.
Johnson-Su
Our soils have lost biological diversity through the integration of tillage, fertilisers and chemicals, allowing predominantly those species which thrive in high-disturbance environments to dominate, e.g. bacteria.
Johnson-Su is a static aerobic composting method designed by microbiologists David Johnson and Hui-Chun Su.
The method uses materials entirely from one’s own farm to generate a microbially diverse compost that is rich in fungi and higher trophic level microorganisms. The compost can be applied to pasture or cropping systems to inoculate soil, particularly in the root zone of living plants, with a broad spectrum of microbes.
See more detail in the Johnson Su R&D Priorities link
SAP Analysis
Sap analyses serve as an in-field blood test for all of our growing crops.
Understanding the nutrients currently accessible to our crops gives us a snapshot in time about plant health.
Through repeat sampling, we can determine the nutrient deficiencies or excesses that are limiting metabolic pathways within our crops.
Real Time Agronomy
Through our programme of sap testing, we can make real-time reactive decisions about agronomic applications.
These decisions can include, but are not directly limited to increased or decreased inputs of insecticides, fungicides and foliar nutrients.
Understanding the nutritional status of each of the crops we grow allows us to identify risk markers, allowing us to safely remove pesticides from our growing models.
By using data-driven decision making to upregulate metabolic pathways, we can pump-prime our plants to increase their production of sugars and proteins, affecting crop taste and quality.