Soil health and agriculture

Healthy soils are the foundation of productive, resilient and profitable farming, and there has never been a more important time to understand them.

Join us for a practical, farmer-led soil health event that explores how improving soil health can help tackle today’s biggest challenges, from ensuring food security and improving profitability, to sustainability and biodiversity.

You’ll hear directly from farmers and organisations in Greater Lincolnshire who have been working on soil health across different soil types and at different stages of their journey. They’ll share why they started, what they tested, the challenges they faced, and, most importantly, what they have learned and achieved.

We will be taking a look at experiments carried out on the five key soil types in Lincolnshire, based at the walled garden in Riseholme Campus and discussing soil health using these as examples.

There’ll opportunities to ask questions, join the discussion and speak one-to-one with various suppliers offering alternative nutrients, innovative farming technologies and analytical services to support your soil health decisions.

Whether you’re completely new to soil health or have been exploring it for years and want take your knowledge further, this event is designed to give you practical insights and confidence to take your next step.

Join us on Tuesday 17 February to connect with like-minded farmers, learn from real experiences and leave with ideas you can put into practice.

Hosts:

• Nicola Radford – LCC / Greater Lincolnshire Forum for Agriculture and Horticulture
• Iain Gould – LIAT / University of Lincoln
• Paul Ward – Business Lincolnshire Growth Hub

Guest Speakers:

• We have invited 6 farmers from around Lincolnshire to speak on their soil health Journeys,
• Cope Seeds will discuss cover cropping,
• Dr Iain Gould of University of Lincoln / LIAT & Paul Ward of Business Lincolnshire will discuss experiments in the walled garden soil pits, & a number of farmer groups will also discuss what they are doing on this topic & why.

Agenda:

08:00 Doors open – refreshments / networking

08:30 Welcome / Introduction and Purpose of the event – objectives of the day Nicola Radford

08:35 Selected farmers share their stories on why they have invested in soil health & what their lessons were, good & not so good. – Compare Paul Ward

• Andrew Jackson from North Lincs
• James Walgate fromWest Lindsey
• Craig Smith from East Lindsey
• John Turner from South Kesteven
• Trina Britton, from South Kesteven
• Stafford Proctor from South Holland District
  • Topics: Where you farm & soil type
  • Crops grown, including any animal production, if relevant
  • When you started on your soil health journey & why
  • What areas you focused on & why
  • Key learnings, benefits & advice to other farmers
  • Any challenges

10:10 Tea break & networking.

10:30 Cover crops: (Cope Seeds)

• Introduction to cover crops
• Species used as cover crops
• When to drill & benefits of cover crops
• What to avoid / look out for, e.g. overwintering pests / diseases for follow-on crops
• Grazing / mob grazing cover crops, do’s & don’ts including what species to avoid in case of poisoning grazing animals
• When & how to remove cover crops

11:00 Visit to Riseholme Walled Garden to view soil pits from5 key soils in Lincolnshire when effectively managed & when mismanaged. – Dr. Iain Gould (LIAT) / Paul Ward (Business Lincolnshire)

12:00 Presentations by localised groups working together collaborative on soil health in their areas / local opportunities and collaboration.

12:30 Summary & next steps – options including clusters / webinars / site visits / speakers.

12:50 LRSN appeal for support for Legacy giving programme.

13:00 Lunch break / networking / meet suppliers of alternative sources of nutrients, Biochar, biodigestate, straw ash, fish hydrolysate, etc. & technology & services to assess whole soil health.

Room available all afternoon to continue dialogue.

For any further information or questions about the event, please contact Paul Ward at: Paul.Ward@bizlincolnshire.com