Diss monitor farm Down to earth discussion – Love your soils

Please join Richard Ling, Diss monitor farmer for our first meeting of 2022, to discuss soil health. Soil physics, chemistry and biology are interlinked and all play a role in maintaining productive agricultural farming .

On the agenda:

Elizabeth has over 25 years applied soil and nutrient management research experience and has engaged with a wide range of research projects connected with the study of nutrient cycling in soils and with the environmental impact of farming systems. Most recently she has been very active in developing farmer-focused approaches to measurement of soil health and developing on-farm toolkits for improved soil management. She moved to NIAB and became head of the integrative interdisciplinary farming systems research team in 2017.

14.00 Monitor farm update, Richard Ling

14.15 Soil health measurement and management, Liz Stockdale

• The importance of a healthy functioning soil, what drives soil health and how to improve it.
• An introduction to the soil health scorecard approach, developed by the AHDB/BBRO funded Soil biology and health partnership to show how it can be used to evaluate soil health and guide management decisions, using results from a recent sampling across Jonathan’s farm.

15.30 Discussion; including compliance and regulation

• Manures, cover cropping and leys

16.00 Meeting summary and closing actions

(please note if time and weather allows we may head to the field for a demonstration of the VESS/worm method)

https://ahdb.org.uk/greatsoils