Minimum not minimal: Dereham

This will mark Simon's final meeting as the Dereham Monitor Farm host. We will be finishing at the slightly later time of 12.45pm to review the last three years of the work carried out at Swanton Morley Farms.

The meeting theme will be minimum not minimal: looking at how we can reduce inputs whilst mainting yield and crop quality.

Andy Howard, who recently completed his Nuffield Scholarship on maximising the available nutrients from soil and cropping, will talk about reducing inputs in a sustainable way. Learn from his experience and forward-looking approach.

An expert from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) will present on research carried out at Loddington: looking at game management practice and how this can support agricultural objectives, ensuring food security whilst minimising the impact on the environment.

About the farm

Simon has been the manager at Swanton Morley Farms, just north of Dereham in Norfolk, since 1998. He is responsible for 966ha of arable cropping, most of which is owned with some contract farmed. He runs a long rotation on the sandy clay soils which includes wheat, barley, oilseed rape, beans and sugar beet. A policy of minimal cultivation with rotational ploughing is employed and all the labour and machinery required is run in-house. Grain storage and marketing is mostly done on farm and Simon does his own agronomy. In addition to the arable land, the farm includes significant areas of HLS, ELS, woodland and grassland which is used for a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle. There is also a separate organic pig enterprise.

To attend any of these meetings, please email Teresa Meadows, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager, on teresa.meadows@ahdb.org.uk