Newbury Monitor Farm

Name:

Rob Waterston

Location:

Berkshire

Farm sectors:

Cereals & Oilseeds

Twitter:

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About Newbury Monitor Farm

Welford Estate has been a Monitor Farm since 2020
The estate covers 1,072ha, with 670ha of arable cropping
The soil types are: chalk, clay, gravel, Wallop and Winchester series
The farm's rotation was based on wheat, winter beans, oilseed rape, with spring barley introduced to control black-grass

Rob Waterston is the farm manager for the Welford Park Estate which covers 1072ha. His role involves the management of 864ha of arable land of which 224ha are under a contract farming agreement.

Rob’s ambitions are to develop a no-till farming system that is sustainable, viable and carbon neutral. Rob wants to improve water efficiency and reduce reliance on agro-chemicals by improving the farms rotation and soil health.

For information about past meetings and events, click '+ See more'.

Past meetings & updates

Cover crops from root to tip - 9 February 2023

Ben Harrington (Edaphos) visited Welford Park to take an in depth look at Rob's cover crops. Rob had some cover crop dry matter samples and soil analysis taken and the results of these analyses were discussed.

Natural capital markets - 6 December 2022

Rob Shepherd from the Environmental Farmers Group presented the benefits of joining the cooperative when navigating new policy. Catchment Sensitive Farming were also at the meeting to give an overview of current and upcoming agri-environmental schemes.

The future of water security - 1 November 2022

The first winter meeting of the 22/23 winter season saw Rob invite Kelly Hewson-Fisher on farm to discuss the impacts of this year's drought on harvested crops and those to be drilled for 2023.

If you would like to be included in the email invite list for future meetings, contact david.hunter@ahdb.org.uk or alternatively call on 07778 143404.

Preparing for zero-carbon farming - 2 December 2021

Becky Wilson from the Farm Carbon Toolkit shares and discusses results from a carbon audit carried out using their calculator at Welford Park. The group then built strategies to increase sequestration and reduce emissions at the farm.

Harley Stoddart and Tom Gent were also on hand to further discussions on how carbon calculations can assist arable farmers in managing their zero carbon targets.

Labour & machinery review - 4 November 2021

During the winter season, a Labour & Machinery review was conducted at Welford Park Estate.

The results were then discussed with Harry Henderson (AHDB Techinal Knowledge Exchange Manager), who compared the findings to other Monitor Farms in the programme.

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