Learning from organic: Malmesbury

Learning from organic, with John Pawsey

John’s reputation will be known to many through his development work with the Chameleon Cultivator / Drill on his organic rotation in Suffolk, and as Chair of the NFU Organic Crops Board. He will discuss all aspects of his organic rotation and agronomy from variety choice to disease and pest management. He will not advocate everyone should switch to organic status, but there are a lot of principles that can be applied to conventional growing to help generate higher margins. With the political pressures on environmental farming and loss of actives in the ‘conventional tool box’, we can all learn a lot from this meeting.

About the farm

Roger Wilson farms in partnership with his brother Peter at Lower Odd Farm in Wiltshire. They have 170 ha owned land plus10 ha rented grassland. The arable rotation is flexible, incorporating winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring beans, winter and spring barley as well as grass leys. All crops are dried and stored on-farm. The farm has a beef herd which are fed home-grown cereals. Key challenges for the farm are the threat of ryegrass, inconsistent bean yields, rape establishment, pyrethroid resistance and managing the farm’s heavier soils. During the three years of the Monitor Farm programme, Roger would like to address topics including succession, soil management and the evaluation of variable rate fertilisers.

Unless otherwise specified, winter meetings take place from 10:30 - 13:00 at the Mayfield House Hotel, Crudwell, Malmesbury, Wiltshire SN16 9EW

For more information contact Philip Dolbear, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager for the South West on philip.dolbear@ahdb.org.uk or 07964255614