Farm walk and review of second year at Saltburn Monitor Farm

Join us for the first winter meeting of Saltburn Monitor Farm. We welcome Robert Sullivan of GCS Grays who will evaluate the benchmarking data at Barns Farm. He will also take a look at costings included with direct drilling and rotations over previous conventional methods. Steve Townend of Soil First Farming will discuss key areas related to cropping and soil management and question current practice.

Speakers and topics

• Robert Sulivan, GCS Grays
• Steve Townend, Soil First Farming

Programme

• Registration and coffee
• Welcome
• Farm walk with Steve Townend and John Aynsley
• Guisborough RUFC - Coffee
• Robert Sulivan on gross margins and John Aynsley development for 2020
• Lunch 

About Saltburn Monitor Farm

John Aynsley runs a 1,302 ha mixed farm near Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the north-east of England. Covering 566 ha he grows a rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, and wheat on light loam to heavy clay. Combinable crops are established using a min-till approach and all grain is dried and stored on farm. In addition to the arable enterprise John also manages 1,300 breeding ewes and 450 spring-calving suckler cows. The main challenge which John aims to address on the farm is soil management. John is already a member of the Darlington Benchmarking Group and has been benchmarking since it started. By participating in the Monitor Farm programme, he hopes to prepare his business to be profitable without direct payments.

About Monitor Farms

AHDB Monitor Farms bring together groups of like-minded farmers who wish to improve their businesses by sharing performance information and best practice around a nationwide network of host farms. AHDB organises and facilitates Monitor Farm meetings for farmers, who own and operate the scheme – by farmers, for farmers. Monitor Farms are part of the AHDB Farm Excellence Programme. Each Monitor Farm project runs for three years.