Soil and Water 2024 – Keeping the field in the field

At Harper Adams University and on-line on Wednesday 4th December 2024

Conference Programme

9.30 registration and coffee

10am Chairman’s Welcome

Chairman: Dick Godwin – Visiting Professor, Harper Adams University

10.10 Session 1 – Scene setting

Part A The Weather – how much has it changed and how much will it change over the next 10 years?  What influence should it have on farm strategies going forward? Mike Rivington, JHI

Part B Impacts of weather and climate change on soil. “Impacts of weather and climate change on soil an overview” Professor Jane Rickson, University of Cranfield

Part C Impacts of weather /climate change on grassland and its management; a practical approach. Paul Newell-Price, ADAS

11.10 Coffee

11.25 Session 2 Drainage – Improving what we have and going forward what drainage capability will be need?

Introduction to session 2 by Jill Hewitt, NAAC

Part A Current drainage, what might be required, and innovation in drainage. Rob Burtonshaw, Farm Services Ltd

Part B The flip side of drainage can be nutrient leakage into waterways – new work at Harper Adams on the use of denitrifying bioreactors and sorbing filters for nitrate and phosphorus removal, respectively, in drainage water discharged from agricultural use. Charlene Lantigua, 1st year PhD student at Harper Adams University

Part C Case studies from farmers who have invested in a new drainage system or a strategic upgrade. Chaired by Fred Clark, Mastenbroek

1. Will Oliver, farmer in a family farming business located on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border

2. Farmer to be confirmed

12.30 Lunch

1.15 pm Session 3 – Practical farm solutions to building a more resilient soil

Part A Launch of The Farmers Guide – practical take-home points and opportunities for farmers, based on the learnings from the long-term Tillage and Traffic experiment at Harper Adams. HAU Presenter – Ed Dickin and Paula Misiewicz, Harper Adams University

Part B Controlled Traffic Farming (CTF) – Practical case studies of where it has enabled successful crop establishment in conditions that have challenged other systems?

“More than a decade on: has CTF lived up to expectations?” Julian Gold, farm manager

“Controlled Traffic Farming, has it delivered in challenging conditions?” Andrew Cragg, farmer and director of United Oilseeds

“NEXAT – The Wide Span Plant Production System.” Klemens Kalverkamp, Head of NEXAT GmbH and Kalverkamp Innovation

2.30pm Session 4 SFI – 18 Months into SFI and its continued evolution. What can it do for farms, the environment and improving soil health/ resilience?

Part A  A strategic view – How to make best use of SFI to improve farm resilience to climate, losses of BPS, carbon etc delivering on sustainability. The business case. “What can SFI & its continued evolution offer farmers and the environment?” Tim Furbank – Director Oakbank Game and Conservation Ltd

Part B Long term work in environmental management and its integration with profitable farming. “What can SFI do for farms, the environment and improving soil health/ resilience” Joe Stanley, Head of Sustainable Farming at the GWCT Allerton Project

Part C Adding biology to soil – With global pressure to reduce nitrogen application to fields both from an environmental perspective and a way of reducing carbon footprint, a number of food manufacturing companies are wanting farmers to consider nitrogen fixing bacteria as a way of achieving this. What is the science behind this? Could it have unintended impacts on the indigenous soil microbiome? “Cause and effect – how the commoditised food market is destroying soils” Paul Cawood, Soil First Agronomy

3.30pm Speaker panel discussion

3.55 Chairman’s wrap up and close

Click here to book tickets.

Soil and Water 2023 – Farming with the challenges of Net Zero

At Harper Adams University and on-line on Wednesday 6th December 2023

The conference recordings are available here : 

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Click here to book: https://store.harper-adams.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/soil-and-water-management-centre/conferences

Click here for speaker profiles https://soilandwater.org.uk/soil-and-water-23-speaker-profiles/

Conference programme (BASIS Professional and BASIS Environmental Advisors – 6 points each NRoSO – 5 points)

09.00 Registration opens – hot beverages available 

09.30 Introduction – Martin Hamer (chairman) – National Sales Manager, Fendt 

Session 1 – Carbon Policy and Practice

9.40 What are the Challenges to farming of getting to net zero – Dr Jonathan Scurlock, NFU

10.10 Carbon Calculators – How they can be used to improve farm profitability and progress towards net zero – Dr Emily Pope – Trinity Agtech 

10.40 Practices to reduce soil emissions: an Australian perspective on soil management – Dr Dio Antille CSIRO Canberra

11.10 Refreshment break

Session 2 – Improved resource use efficiency on farm – kindly sponsored by John Deere 

11.30 Using Protein mapping to improve NUE – Simon Beddows, farm manager and Will Downie, John Deere 

12.00 Promoting alternative weed control options and wider IWM through the Oper8 project – Kevin Godfrey and Lynn Tatnell, ADAS

Approaches to non-chemical weed control with FarmDroid – Chris Brettell of AgriDroid

12.40 Meeting the SFI Actions for soils standard; what is required and wider farm business benefits from knowing more about your soils – Tom Kirby, Agrii 

13.00 Lunch

13.30 Field visit for practical soil assessments – Please bring suitable footwear and outdoor clothing

Session 3 – Innovation towards Net Zero

14.30 Herbal leys – Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) trials and farmer’s experience in the White Peak, Ben Rodgers CSF and Robert Thornhill, Standhill Farm, Peak District.

15:00     Intercropping – Chris Judge PGRO

15.20 Case studies, challenges and future planning, Adam White, HO Agriculture, Barclays Bank

15.40 – Panel Discussion – Chaired by Andy Newbold -editor Tillage & Soils magazine  

16.00 Close                                                            

         Event supported by     

                Event kindly Sponsored by     

                    Session sponsors

Spring seminar series – Natural assets and the Green £

Kindly sponsored by Savills and Natural England

21st April 9.30-11.00 Jon Dearsley (Savills) – Cutting Through the Jargon; Phil Denham (Natural England) – Q&A Green Finance

Overview of Funding Schemes including Biodiversity Net Gain, Carbon Counting, Nutrient Neutrality

Jon Dearsley is a Director and joint head of Natural Capital at Savills. Jon has significant experience in practical land management, particularly environmental delivery on in hand and third-party land.

Phil Denham is a Principal Advisor with Natural England specialising in External Funding.

Registration page: April

24th May 9.30-11.00 Gregor Neeve (NE) – Nutrient Neutrality in the Landscape; Lucy Crockford (HAU) – Removing Nutrients with Constructed Wetlands Nutrient Neutrality with case studies, Constructed Wetlands for NN

Gregor Neeve is a Delivery Manager with Natural England specialising in Nutrient Mitigation.

Lucy Crockford is a Senior Lecturer in Soil and Water Management and works with the Constructed Wetlands Association serving on their Board.

Registration page: May

Soil 22 ConferenceBuilding farm resilience – bringing efficiency, nature and farm profitability into harmony

7th December 22 at Harper Adams University and online

The conference recordings are available here : Session 1, Session 2 and Session 3.

The Soil and Water Management Centres annual conference, is a timely opportunity to consider farm resilience in the context of efficency, profitability and nature.

This year’s conference tackles the consequences of climate change and how to successfully farm to mitigate these effects, be it extreme rainfall and shorter periods for harvest and crop establishment or prolonged periods of drought.

Speakers include the following:

  • Dr Philippa Mansfield (Natural England) will be presenting “Improving soil and farm resilience with the Sustainable Farming Incentive”
  • Dr Marie Kirby (Harper Adams University) will be speaking on the subject of the removal of contaminants from slurry and other wastewater using electrocoagulation, and she will lead a tour to show the installation of this technology at Harper Adams.
  • Ian Rudge (Agrii Sustainability Trials Manager and former Farm Manager, Bedfordia Farms) will share his experience of management of digestate and slurries in a reduced tillage environment.
  • Neil Furniss (local farmer) will be presenting his experiences of under-storey sowing of crops in maize.
  • Alison Karley (James Hutton Institute) will be speaking on “the practicalities and benefits of mixed species cropping”.

Programme                                                                                                         

09.15 Registration opens – hot beverages available

09.50 Introduction – Guy Smith, Essex farmer and past Deputy President, NFU

10.00 Pathways to sustainable agriculture – Chloe MacLaren – Rothamsted Research

10.30 Improving Nutrient Use Efficiency, Andrew Riche – Rothamsted Research

11.00 Umbilical spreading of digestate, Ian Rudge – Agrii / ex. Bedfordia Farms

11.30 Refreshment break

11.50 Improving farm and soil resilience with the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), Philippa Mansfield – Catchment Sensitive Farming, Natural England

12.20 Electrocoagulation, Marie Kirby – Harper Adams University 12.50 Lunch, videos, short tour of the Electrocoagulation plant, posters

14.10 Collaborative research with farmers to test the practicalities and benefits of mixed species cropping, Alison Karley – James Hutton Institute

14.40 Growing clover as a companion crop, Mark Lea, farmer case study – Green Acres Farm

15.00 Regen vs conventional – a systems study, Joe Collins, PhD student – Harper Adams

15.30 Under-storey sowing of crops, Neil Furniss, farmer case study – ME Furniss & Sons

15.50 Panel discussion

16.15 Close