Soil&Water 2019

Annual Winter Conference
Organised by the Soil & Water Management Centre

Sponsored by

(conference repeated on 7th, 20th and 21st November in Devon, Yorkshire and Essex respectively. See the Soil & Water Management Centre’s events page for more details)

5 BASIS and NRoSO points applied for

Programme

09.30  Registration and refreshments

09.50  Welcome

10.00  Soil Security

Speaker: Professor Chris Collins, Reading University

How can we secure our supply of food using less land with lower inputs? Chris is the co-ordinator of a multi-million euro research investment to understand how soils resist, recover and ultimately adapt to land use and climate change. The Soil Security Programme hopes to fill these knowledge gaps by adopting a novel, multi-disciplinary, multi-scale approach.

10.30  Sustainable Soil Management

Speaker: Dr Emily Pope, AHDB

Emily will speak about the Strategic Farm West platform which aims to integrate research and practical farming in a way that has the potential to change farming for the better. Trials are being conducted that test the results of research in a real farm environment and will communicate the full net-margin cost benefit of a particular strategy.

11.00  Break

11.20  Improving nutrient use efficiency

Speakers: Dr Jonathan Leake, University of Sheffield

Re-introducing grass leys into arable rotations to improve soil structure and nutrient use efficiency – how much do the arable crops benefit, is nutrient use efficiency improved and are plants and the soil healthier?

11.50  Protecting soil, water and air

Speakers: Philippa Mansfield and Ken Downward, Natural England CSF

Practical techniques to reduce soil and nutrient losses from farming – farmers working with the Catchment Sensitive Farming partnership to improve water and air quality.

12.20  Lunch

13.00  Commercial & practical session

This session will show the wealth of wildlife that exists in soils and how best to protect it by appropriate cultivation and by setting tyre pressures to maximise efficiency and reduce compaction. (HAU, Kverneland, Fendt & Trelleborg)

14.15  Farmer Case Studies from the locality

Neil Harley of Cheswell Grange has reverted his farm from arable to grassland and legumes and established a beef cattle enterprise. He will explain his motivations and report on the ensuing benefits.

Information about our second farmer shortly.

14.45 Agrocycle/Horizon 20/20

Speakers: Andrew Richards (Agrii), Ana Morais Natalio& Dr Simon Jeffery (HAU)

Our team will report on an EU funded project that’s been looking at the impact of organic wastes on soil and plant health.

15.15  Discussion/closing session