On 14th October, Karen, Stacy and Evie attended a farm walk at nearby Boycefield Farm, Dilwyn in Herefordshire. The farm walk was hosted by Billy Lewis and family, who have been exploring a more regenerative way of farming over the last 3 years.
The Lewis family run a 350-acre mixed farm with approximately 100 pedigree Herefordshire cattle and 300 sheep. The farm’s main soil type is medium loam, with some areas of heavier soil.
In year one they first looked at rotational grazing and 5 acres of direct drilled winter wheat, each year gradually increasing the quantities of direct drilled cereals. The current rotation is as follows; 3 years cereals then 3 years herbal leys for silage and/or rotational grazing, with some fields of permanent pasture.
They are moving towards zero inputs of artificial fertiliser, and reduced chemical applications, with no ploughing, and no manure applied. The farmyard manure produced from the livestock is turned into compost, which is then top dressed to arable land to provide organic matter for the soil, and not with the main benefit of applying nitrogen and phosphate for the growing crop. All cereals will receive their composted cattle manure, which is not used on grassland to prevent weed seeds. It is applied as a surface dressing and on the winter oats it was applied on the standing crop.
Current field Stats:
- pH of 6 on grassland and 6.2 on arable ground
- K (potassium) is short on most fields
- Phosphate indices of 2 on arable land (only one field is over)
Livestock:
- Only purchased feed is a small quantity of lamb creep
Soil Health:
- They use the soil mentor app to help recording of worm counts
Here is some more information on the fields that were looked at during the walk:
Field 1:
Cropping: This was a current grass field that has been cut for silage and was currently being used for rotational grazing. They mob graze with sheep and cattle which allows a longer rest period for the grass and increases grass growth. Sheep are moved every 2 days, a ‘pie shape’ is created using electric fencing & the help of google earth for measurements. Billy is confident that this grassland management technique creates 10 x more grass than adding fertiliser.
Livestock mob grazing are never allowed to graze ‘the parasite zone’ this reduces his need for wormers. He claims he does not struggle with fluke, as the land is fairly dry.
Even during the drought this summer, Billy claims this grassland management system led to them having more grass and for a longer period than similar land conventionally farmed.
Field 2:
Cropping: This field was a silage field which had just been direct drilled with Winter Wheat seed.
The grass sward was sprayed off with glyphosate (2.5lt glyphosate, fulvic acid, citric acid etc). He uses this as it kills the grass off but leaves the clover which works as a living mulch. Glyphosate works best at a pH of 3.5 and feeds the soil. After this the Winter Wheat (dressed seed) is direct drilled using a John deer 7-58 drill, the field is then Cambridge rolled to close the slots.
They work to a budget of 50kg/ha Nitrogen applied over 3 dressings. Dependant on crop this example had one T2 fungicide application.
The final yield is expected to be approximately 10tns/ha or 4.8tns/acre.
On this field they also tried using a weaving saber tine to plant winter oats, which unfortunately ripped the clover out but did leave Nitrogen in the soil for the oats to grow.
Field 3:
Cropping: Herbal ley with a mix of chicory, plantain, and clover. Cropped currently for two years in this mix and will stay for one more year before going back into wheat or other winter cereals for 3 years.
This cropping mix is used as grazing for 150 Ewes + lambs (450 head in total). As previously mentioned, they will mob graze this field, with a practice following the rule of; graze 1/3rd, trample 1/3rd & leave 1/3rd .As they are grazed in a patch for such a short and intensive time, on occasion they will graze after the sheep with cattle. This tidies up the field, but it only happens on permanent pasture as he has found the clover can bloat the cattle.
Field 4:
Cropping: Cover crop consisting of buckwheat, phacelia, chicory, crimson clover, mustard, oats, rye & vetch. This was lightly grazed with lambs over the winter and topped in the summer but be aware Buckwheat can give Ewes photosensitivity.
The cropping is used as a soil improver, Buckwheat is good at unlocking phosphates in the soil and making it available for the next crop.
This field will be drilled with a herbal ley (GS4) consisting of more grass, Sandown, wild carrot, chicory, white and red clover.
Field 5:
An old pasture cut for hay and used to dry the sheep off.
Field 6:
Cropping: Ryegrass
Future plans are to move away from ryegrass, this field will be direct drilled with a herbal ley.
Field 7:
Cropping: Mustard, buckwheat and phacelia catch crop being grown for 7 weeks.
The main reasons for growing this catch crop are to ‘catch carbon’, provide soil cover, and to draw nutrients out for the next crop.
The cover crop is sprayed off with round-up at the end of the 7 weeks and the wheat is then direct drilled with a weaving saber tine drill.
Compost:
The production of compost on farm was an interesting and innovative topic. It is made using the following process:
Farmyard manure is first stored in a muck store in the farmyard. When suitable, this is taken out to a field and deposited 1 trailer load into a line, to build ‘windrows’ (as pictured).
A important part of turning the manure into compost is turning it, to create an aerobic process. There are compost windrow machines available, which works like a corkscrew moving through the heap and breaking up the muck into smaller pieces. Billy started off by just using the loader bucket, however when a friend was selling an old turner from their poultry site he bought this, which is far more effective!
He turns it 3 times over a period of 5 weeks, producing a product similar to soil humous.
As well as the farmyard manure he will sometimes mix in digestate fibre or woodchip from hedge laying, the latter working well to encourage fungi.
The process does lose nitrogen from the manure, but the compost helps to build soil structure which improves the natural nitrogen cycle in the soil, meaning there is less need for applied nitrogen through manures or artificial fertilisers.
The final product is spread at between 6 and 10 tn/ha.
Our observations:
- Ground that has been min-tilled or received fewer cultivations was noticeably softer to walk on and was more level under foot
- Grass fields were diverse with clovers and other species, colours were rich and fields were full of foliage
- Grass that had just been mob grazed was still rich and quite long
- Composted FYM was not lumpy, it was all evenly broken down, and had no noticeable smell
