Join us for the November meeting of the Huggate Monitor Farm. The event will focus on soil management.

By attending this meeting you will learn how to use the soil health card to measure and optimise your soil management practices. We will also cover maximising the benefits of using cover crops and ask whether they can improve soil structure and resilience.

Refreshments, including lunch, will be provided.

Programme

• Registration
• Introduction (Rose Riby, Knowledge Exchange Manager: AHDB)
• Introduction to benchmarking (Rebecca Brookes, Knowledge Exchange Manager - Benchmarking: AHDB)
• Monitor Farm update (AHDB Knowledge Exchange)
• Soil health and the benefits of cover crops (Anne Bhogal, Senior Research Scientist: ADAS)
• David Blacker (former York monitor farmer)
• Lunch & close

About the Huggate Monitor Farm

At his 657 ha, high-altitude family farm on the top of the Yorkshire Wolds, Gary Shipley grows winter wheat for feed, winter malting barley, oilseed rape/spring barley, vining peas for Birds Eye, potatoes, using a plough-based system. He is starting to investigate using cover crops in the rotation for soil benefits and sustainable farming. Soils are calcareous silty loam soils stretching to heavier clay loam. As well as arable cropping, the farm also has 150 gimmer lambs on rough grazing in the dales and a relatively young suckler herd. Gary wants to grow and improve the business while reducing his impact on the environment. And personally, his aim is to improve his skills, learn from others and increase his knowledge of modern farming practices.

You can access information from previous meetings via the Huggate Monitor Farm page.