WHY TAKE THE REGENERATION ROAD?
Herefordshire farmer John Joseph writes: In the January edition of Direct Driller, I was impressed by the article ‘Regenerative Agriculture…. Fad or system’ (William Waterfield) because it showed how useful this system is becoming and it took me back to my youth, (which is a challenge) when what we refer to as Conventional agriculture was at its height and still growing. On numerous occasions we watched as new ideas, normally based on organic farming, came to the fore and were then carefully laughed out of existence. Time and time again I heard the phrase, ‘this is it this time’, just to watch it dwindle away in the smoke of exhaust fumes from the chemical delivery lorry. I too have to admit that back in the day when I had a proper job actually growing plants that a non chemical system didn’t register at all, in fact if modern me turned up to see me back in the seventies and eighties I would be told to sling my hook (or something similar to that anyway). Now this started me thinking, what was it that finally turned us, (well some of us), from chemical junkies towards a more sustainable system that our children will not look back on in despair and anger which is how I view my own growing past. My reason for this is not just being nostalgic but perhaps those who are just thinking about coming into the light might like to hear this from me and a few others who I have asked this question. For me it started in 1995 just after I had stopped growing and entered the shady world of sales (yes it is, I was there). To be honest my old boss and I never really believed what we were told; consequently, I did all my own trials the results of which are so valuable to me now, so I didn’t get caught on the con but as soon as I went into the office scene it really was quite frightening. My own epiphany came when a chemical called Fongarid disappeared which had been the go-to chemical to kill Phytophthora, Fusarium, and Downy Mildew. As there was no replacement the industry was doing its normal, ‘oh woe is me’ routine so I decided to have a go with Bacillus Subtilus which was so much better than the chemical had ever been. Since then, nearly all my trials have shown that this is a way forward but unfortunately, we will have to wait to see the fruits of this work as most of the powers that be are joined at the hip with the chemical companies. Over the past two years with my overseas contacts, I have rid soils of Leatherjackets and Wireworm with Beauveria Bassiana, Frit Fly larvae with Bt and no end of diseases with a batch of bacteria. The thing we will have to note when we can do this is that they work better in groups with a food source rather than as lone wolves. So this, along with my experience with chemical companies when I was a National Sales Manager (I had to move to New
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Zealand to escape), was what prompted me to look at a more sustainable way forward. By the time I returned from New Zealand the terms Regenerative Farming and Carbon Capture Farming were the terms being used to soften the blow and move away from the frightening organic word. The question is, `What was it that moved others?’ They cannot all be cynics like me, surely. John Joseph is a farmer in Herefordshire and started his journey back in the nineties which explains why his soils are so much darker than his neighbours. John says that he had felt like he was on the hamster wheel just adding more and more products and spending more time working for his suppliers and needed an alternative. Added to these, two wet years had done an enormous amount of damage to the top soils as there was nothing holding them together explaining why no root structure was visible. This threw up many questions but the main one was simply economic as there was no future following this system. My question to John was that for smaller farms is it not easier to follow a conventional system with its list of fertilisers and chemicals rather than the hard thinking that is necessary for regen systems. John replied that the work is worth it in the end. He had started regen farming almost by accident as he started using cover crops in the early nineties; ‘People thought we were trying to pinch their pheasants’, John says. `I was drowning in a sea of cultivation and poor crops, so I needed a change and direct drilling gave me the time I needed.’ The cover crop work that John did meant that the change from ploughing to direct drilling was fairly simple, but it is this change that can define the successful regen farmers from the ones who are trying to get from A to Z far too quickly. Now John is starting to enjoy farming again, reporting that he can
see more root on a grass lay in 3 months than I did in a year before. The strip till arrived in 2013 which is a marvellous first step, in my opinion, as it keeps air in the soil at a maximum. This last winter an Avatar drill has arrived and has a place of honour in the shed and John reports it as fantastic. John also agrees with me that a liquid applicator on the drill is an excellent investment and allows so many options from fertilisation and microbial inoculation. Farm owners can make the decision to jump to regen farming as they only have themselves to please but looking at change from a manager’s point of view can be whole different ballgame. In my working lifetime I have always had a respect for managers as they have to balance the needs of the crop with the expectations of the owner or the board. In fact, I think I can make the statement that any manager has to have a likeminded owner to even contemplate going down this route. In the case of Jake Freestone at Overbury Enterprises he was brought onto the farm by a family who felt the responsibility of the past and the future and needed someone to take the soils forward. Jake was a Nuffield Scholar who had studied regenerative farming and had the necessary knowledge to put the right team together and to work out a system
Jake Freestone
ISSUE 13 | APRIL 2021
