SOIL FARMER OF THE YEAR
The Soil Farmer of the Year competition has been running since 2015, providing a platform for individuals and businesses to demonstrate how soil management can build environmental and economic resilience. The competition aims to recognise, promote and champion farmers who are passionate about safeguarding their soils and demonstrates how despite the vast variation across the agricultural sector, sustainable management can be universal. This year’s competition was conducted in association with and kindly sponsored by Hutchinsons and Cotswold Seeds, with ongoing support from Innovation for Agriculture. Traditionally the results of the competition have been announced on the main stage at Groundswell agricultural show, and 2021 saw a return to this practice following the cancellations associated with COVID-19 in 2020. The winning farmers from this year’s competition, Tom Sewell (Arable), Sam Vincent (Livestock) alongside Antony Pearce (Runner-Up) joined their fellow finalists ( Jack Martin, Mark Oldroyd and Rob Raven) in discussions of their soil health and regenerative management strategies through presentations to the Groundswell audience. Following the announcement of the winners at Groundswell, the winning arable, livestock and runner-up farmers are invited to hold farm walks which are open to the wider farming community. These walks provide a platform for discussion and practical demonstration of how different businesses and approaches have focused upon soil health and land management. Arable Soil Farmer of the Year, Tom Sewell from Kent led a tour around his 28 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE
farm during late July to discuss how his management approach has benefited business efficiency and soil health. As a previous Nuffield Scholar Tom has a passion for regenerative farming and sustainable farming practices centralised around no-till systems. A founding member of BASE UK, Tom himself has often contributed to Direct Driller magazine. The farm constitutes around 1500 acres split between 15 different landowners across 8 parishes, all of which is combined into a variable portfolio of soils from river silt to heavier and rockier ground. Explaining his management approach as “We’ll get it right, but it takes time, effort and attention to detail”. Challenged with managing highly variable soils Tom has adopted a biologically focused approach, explaining “We maintain the good structure by not ploughing and instead using our worms”. An early adopter of a Cross Slot drill, Tom aims to simplify his arable system through minimising tillage where possible to keep costs low, adding “look at what you do and why you do it and see if you can cut it out”. Inspired by his Nuffield scholarship, Tom has transitioned towards no-till over a number of years, progressing from a disc press to a
Simba Free Flow drill before settling on the Cross Slot. To maximise the benefits soil biology can provide, cover crops and compost are used to encourage ecological processes to build soil structure and infiltration alongside carbon sequestration. Chopping straw is another practice that Tom has implemented, providing available residues for biological breakdown and soil organic matter building, he states “I just want to improve the soil, I use compost and feed the worms, they’ll do the rest”. Acknowledging that it takes time to build a resilient and dynamic biological system, new land taken into management is treated in this manner with the hope of adding “life back into it” following previous intensive arable or orchard management in other systems. Tom’s compost is usually produced from horticultural by-products such as spent strawberry and raspberry plants and is seen as vital to his system through encouraging plant rooting and worm activity; a key metric Tom uses across his farming landscape. Through conducting worm counts and testing he approximates there to be 12 million worms a hectare on average. ISSUE 16 | JANUARY 2022
