Nature Recovery

How to farm using biology and natural capital rather than chemistry

Farming is at a crossroads and critical to a new path will be utilising natural capital and our soil biology to reduce inorganic inputs and create better margins.

This session will explore the transition from conventional to regenerative agriculture, what the impacts have been from fertilisers and chemicals not only for our soils but also the nutritional value of our food. We will cover:

How by introducing biology into our soils can reverse this damage,improve the nutritional density of our food and how this can be achieved at a practical farming level by activating
Nature’s own soil food web

Speakers/hosts include:

Harry Holden – Harry is a director at Springfield Agri, having spent many years in the chilled food industry can see the possibilities that a new way of farming presents to the next generation of Land managers

Daniel Tyrkiel – Daniel is a Director at soil ecology lab. His passion is to return the soil to a growing system which is enhanced by the biology that has always been there and provide the practical solutions to how it can be achieved

No-till with living mulches – the holy grail for arable?

Hosted by the Soil Association

No-till arable farming has revolutionised the arable farming mindset and is of interest to organic farmers because of its potential to reduce cultivations whilst providing weed control, fertility and soil health. It is also of interest to regenerative farmers who want to reduce inputs of artificial fertilisers and chemicals. But is it possible? Cover crops or green manures have always been part of organic arable systems but are now commonly used conventionally as part of regenerative farming systems.. The 4 pillars of regenerative farming are no-till, continuous ground cover, crop diversity and livestock integration.

In organic systems, cover crops have generally been ploughed in to provide fertility for the rotation but adopting organic no-till will require termination of the cover crop and this is difficult for organic farmers who cannot use chemicals.

One solution? A non-aggressive, low growing permanent cover crop such as small white clover, which shades out weeds and provides fertility.

In this session, we talk to an arable farming expert as well as the researcher who are looking at the potential of no-till with living mulches with a group of organic and conventional farmers running on-farm trials, plus a Scottish farmer trying out the technique.

Speakers/hosts include:

Jerry Alford- Soil Association arable and soils advisor.
Jerry is interested in a systems approach to farming, and looks at farms as a whole system rather than just a mix of enterprises or a series of crops in rotation. He is also looking at options to reduce cultivations within organic rotations and the adoption of more agroecological and organic type systems in non-organic farms.

Harry Henderson – Starting out as a tractor, combine and crop sprayer operator. Harry then worked for Rothamsted Research Station UK, before coming farm manager at Monsanto Cambridge. From there he took a role with John Deere UK ltd as a Crop Systems Specialist involved in technical dealer sales support in combine harvester, crop sprayer and precision technology products. In 2013 Harry joined AHDB as a regional manager for the North of England and is now a Knowledge Exchange Manager with a focus technical knowledge exchange, mechanisation, soil management and arable farming.

Stuart Mitchell – Stuart is an organic beef, deer and arable farmer from Denholm Scotland. He is trialling no-till in the Scottish Borders

Dominic Amos – Dominic works at the Organic Research Centre, having joined five years ago to pursue research interests in sustainable cropping and soils management. Having previously worked testing agrochemicals, providing data for agrochemical companies he now works with farmers across projects including the Innovative Farmers programme, supporting farmers to conduct on-farm research supporting them to test innovation. He works as researcher on the living mulch field lab exploring with the farmers the use of a clover understory as an approach for improving cropping system sustainability and improving soil health.

Lancashire Woodland Connect

Hosted by the Ribble Rivers Trust

Lancashire Woodland Connect Campaign is a decade-long campaign to double the area of woodland across Lancashire to fight climate change, improve air quality and reduce flooding. We will plant more than half a million trees to reduce flooding, improve air quality and remove 100,000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Working with private and public sector supporters together with community-based groups and conservation charities, we are aiming to create 100 kilometres of new or restored woodland alongside the Rivers Ribble, Lune and Wyre and their whole catchments.

Dedicated farm and woodland advisors within the three trusts work with our fabulous farmers to find areas of land to create woodland that would not only have a positive impact on water quality but also farm businesses. The introduction of the EWCO, carbon capture payments for farmers are creating an alternative income to compliment a productive farm business.

This aim of this session is to highlight the opportunities within the campaign, the evidence that is used to identify potential planting locations, developing a scheme alongside farmer priorities and the funding opportunities for farmers and landowners in Lancashire.

Speakers/hosts include:

Jack Spees – Jack started at the Ribble Rivers Trust in 2008 as the Fisheries Scientist before being made Trust Director in 2010. Jack now oversees the work undertaken by the Trust and the team as well as providing a wealth of information on all aspects of the river environment.

Kristina Graves – Kristina began working for the Trust in 2019, joining us to fill the new role of Woodland Creation Officer. Having worked on a range of habitat projects Kristina has an excellent knowledge of woodlands and ecology which is already proving to be a huge asset to the team.

Kathryn Oddie – Kathryn joined the team in 2019. Kathryn works as a farm advisor for the trust on the Ribble Life Together project and runs the River Loud farm group. As well as being a local farmers daughter, she has a background in agri- environment and environmental monitoring.

Heather Whalley – Heather is a farmer from the Hodder Valley, with a passion for the environment and combining sustainable farming and conservation. With a great knowledge of the local area, her work as a farm advisor will be to engage, visit and support farmers to make positive changes for the catchment

Northern seed networks – where we are now?

Hosted by the Gaia Foundation

Last year we held a networking session for northern seed savers at the Northern Real Farming Conference. This session is a follow on from last year to share where we’re at, what’s going well and what our next steps might be. Everyone welcome – come and find out more!

Speakers/hosts include:

Charlie Gray – Charlie is the Gaia Foundation’s Seed Sovereignty Campaign’s Coordinator for Northern England. She has worked in community growing in Yorkshire working with community and growers for more than 10 years, studying food systems prior to that.

Catherine Howell – Catherine is part of Barefoot Community Kitchen and she’s on our cohort of intermediate seed savers in Northern England. Catherine has 15 years experience in environmental projects that include food growing and horticulture, community development, sustainable materials, recycling and ‘zero waste.’ She has worked both within the community and with organisations of variable sizes, including in the private and voluntary sector and with local authorities. She is a passionate advocate of community activism, keen walker and loves sharing what she knows with others so that they too may have a ‘Tread Lightly’ impact on the planet. She also loves creating beautiful spaces for people to enjoy!