Feb 9th 2013 No Till Farming & Dairy

After seeing so many fields that had been cultivated with weapons of mass destruction, I was beginning to wonder if No-Till farming and the UK were mutually exclusive, but after meeting Nuffield Scholar Tom Sewell from Kent, my faith in the practice of No Till in the UK was restored. Tom’s study project is on No-Till and he is committed to making it work across his property. It was great to see the good establishment he had been able to achieve on his No till paddocks despite some very difficult planting conditions. This was in stark contrast to many of the conventionally farmed paddocks which had poor establishment and stunted crops.

The UK’s problem weed, equivalent to ryegrass in Australia is Blackgrass. Already there are problems with resistance to herbicides. It will be a challenge for Tom & other new entrants into No Till in the UK to learn from our mistakes and implement management practices to avoid the resistance issues that are occurring in Australia.

Tom runs a pretty tidy workshop, he built the benchhimself and bought the draws off ebay from  a decomitioned  RAA van

In field chemical mixing station and refilling tank. Tom has a staff member premixing chemical  then filling the sprayer in the filed, he says it increases his output from five to eight tanks per day.

13th Centuary gatehouse, the entrance to Toms leased farm property.

I also visited Joe Delves a Nuffield Scholar & UK Dairy farmer from East Sussex. Joe is a young dairy farmer with a lot of drive and a real desire to learn from the best. When Joe & Becky joined the family business, they had a couple of years of low profits. Joe made the decision to seek out the most profitable dairy farmers in the UK and find out what made them successful. He introduced the best from these farms into his business and has turned it around. Joe is also mentoring other young dairy farmers with the knowledge he has gained. 

Abandoned castle, just down the road from Joe's farm