On the 22nd June 201, Environmental experts, politicians and representatives from the agricultural sector gathered to discuss how the UK can better manage its soils for the benefit of people and the environment. The conference, Creating resilient catchments: Better Soil Management, was organised by Westcountry Rivers Trust (WRT) and brought together key bodies and individuals to understand the drivers and interests in soil management, paving the way for future collaboration.

2. Soils: What are they good for?
By Dr Laurence Couldrick
Westcountry Rivers Trust

3. “Despite all our accomplishments,
we owe our existence to a six inch
layer of topsoil and the fact it rains”

4. BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL
PHYSICAL

8. “I’m playing all the right notes, but
not necessarily in the right order”

11. BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL
PHYSICAL
So how healthy is your biggest asset?

12. Asset condition Maintain your car
• Increase fuel efficiency
• Gets you from A to B
• Reduces stress
• Less emissions
• Reduced road debris
• Reduced oil leaks
• Reduced risk to others

13. Asset condition Maintain your soil
• Nutrient efficiency
• Higher yields
• Reduced stress
• Maintains summer flows
• Decreases flood risk
• Captures carbon
• Reduces pollution
• Provides habitat

14. So who cares?

15. Not all issues come from soils…
…..but…

16. ….soils do drive a lot

17. Rainfall acceptance
Freely draining soils over
permeable slates
Slowly draining soils with
impermeable shallow clay
Waterlogged uplands
Freely draining soils over
permeable sandstones

18. Cattle density

19. Combined Risk

20. ….soils do drive a lot

21. ….soils do drive a lot

22. So what do we need to do?

23. Farmer
Landlord
Agronomist
Advisor
Land
Agent
FamilyPeers
LenderBuyer
Vet
Insurer
Supplier
Contractor
Regulator
Working together

24. We all need to work together to
Act on Soils
Thanks for listening

25. The state of South West soils
Dr Richard Smith
Technical Specialist – Environment Agency

26. Localised flooding

27. The cause?

28. Poor soil
condition
Good soil
condition

29. Costs?

30. Soil compaction

31. Perched water?

32. Undersown Chisel plough Stubble Cover crop
53 litres 1litre 228 litres 179 litres

33. Natural runoff?

34. Runoff experiments at Boscastle
60% runoff from grassland with moderate / poor soil structure
2% runoff from grassland with good soil structure

35. BROWN SOILS - naturally well drained GLEY SOILS - naturally poorly drained
Can accept about 200mm rainfall Can accept about 30mm rainfall

36. Saturation excess overland flow
Infiltration excess overland flow
1 2
Through flow – Freely draining soil and substrata1
2 Slowly permeable soil and substrata

37. Soil metrics - compaction

38. Soil structure degradation in the South West
during winter months
© 2013 British Society of Soil Science
R.C. Palmer and R.P Smith, Soil Use and Management doi:10.1111/sum.12068

39. Soil Landscapes in the South West
Alluvial soils & lowland peat
Chalk & limestone soils
Clay loam soils over slates
Podzolic soils over granite
Upland peat over granite
Sandy soils over sandstone
Clay rich soils
Urban
Soil map derived from information supplied by the National Soil Resource Institute Cranfield University

40. Rainfall – Mid Devon Rainfall – Cambridgeshire,

41. • Regulation
• Incentives

42. Conclusion
- Soils in the SW are at high risk of compaction
- Compaction can be widespread in wet years
- Compaction can cause flooding and pollution

43. Martin Howard
Biological Farmer
Lower Northcott Farm
Boyton

44. Lower Northcott Farm on the Tamar

45. Where we have come from
• Set Stocked
• Making Silage
• Supplement with homegrown cereals
• A 5 year Rotation, 2 years clover and 3
years cereal Breakcrops

46. Where are we now?
• All Grass Leys, predominantly
Multispecies/herbal leys
• Long Rotational Interval Grazing (Mob
Grazing)
• 100% Grass Diet
• PFLA Accredited

47. Cattle on Herbal Leys @ Northcott

48. Cattle on Herbal Leys @ Lower Northcott

49. Regrowth of Herbal Leys @ Northcott

50. Farm walk at Lower Northcott Farm

51. Why PFLA?
• Public perception: “Cattle eat Grass”
• Move towards: “Free Range” and “Pasture for
Life” (Free Range Milk, Waitrose “100 day”)
• Better Health Benefits on Cattle eating Grass.
Higher PUFA’s, Vitamin E and CLA’s
• Certification, to ensure Customers receive what
they ask for.

52. • Increased cost of Store Cattle
• Increased Fixed cost (Labour, Machinary
and Fuel) to grow crop
• Cultivations reduced Soil Organic Matter,
and resilience.
Why reducing Cereals

53. • C14 = Carbon
• Soil Carbon = 2 x Air, and 3 x Biomass above ground Carbon
• Carbon content of Soil Organic Matter (SOM) = 58%
• Or SOM = 1.72 x SOC
• Also 1 % Organic matter at 30 cm depth = 160,000 L water
• Summer BGS 2015 @ Jono Cole @ 50 cm = 7.7%
SOM (4.5% SOC) = 2.0 M Litres of water can be
retained/ha = 200 Litres water/m² = over 0.2 meters of
Water = 8”
• Carbon sequestration! If Jono can increase his SOM
by 0.4%/yr. He will capture 24 t CO2/ha = annual
emissions of 2 Homes or 5 cars worth
Soil Organic Matter

54. Quantifying the Effect of land use on
Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks in the
Tamar Valley

55. • 1 – Relative cost of grazed grass
• 2.5 – Relative cost of Silage
• 4 – Relative cost of Concentrate
Reducing Feed cost

56. • Use Clovers, Nitrogen Fixers, add CHO to soil
and allow Free-living bacteria to fix Nitrogen
• Build Organic Matter. By longer grazing interval
length with Rotational Grazing i.e. Mob Grazing
• Use Biology (Soil and Plant) and Diversity of
plant Species to provide Nutrients to Stock
Benefits of Herbal Leys

57. Grazed Herbal Leys
• Adds fertility, as in Clover Based
• Allow for Long Rotational Intervals, Herbs
and Clovers stay digestible for longer.
• Contain Herbs with Anthelmintic
properties, reduced Worm Burden
• Wildlife and Pollinator Friendly.

58. Earthworms Benefit to Soil
Nutrition:

59. Looking at Herbal Leys 2013

60. 2017 FWAG Bronze Otter Winner

61. Soil Farmer of the Year 2018 winner announced
The other finalists this year who have all been awarded highly commended due
to exemplary soil management are David Lord, an arable farmer from Essex,
Martin Howard, a beef farmer from Cornwall, and Simon Drury, an arable farmer
from Dorset.

62. The future: Zero Till vs Plough?!

63. Stantyway Farm, Clinton Devon
Estates
Sam Walker

64. Farm facts
• 265 acres mainly arable
• Organic
• Easternmost breeding site of cirl buntings in
UK with higher tier stewardship scheme
• Ring fenced
• Loamy stony soils over sandstone with
excellent potential to grow most crops

65. Soils of Stantyway Farm

67. Mineral content

68. Air and water – soil pores

69. 4.4 tonnes per square metre

70. 2.4 tonnes per
square metre

71. 8 tonnes per square metre – if
tyre pressures reduced in field

73. Organic matter
• Soil at the farm is commonly known to go very
hard.
• Organic matter is low
• I believe improving the organic matter level is
vital to ensure good husbandry of my soils
• Once the OM improves, the soil will host more
fauna, particularly worms, and pore space,
structure etc will improve massively. Fungi and
bacteria will increase and further improve the
cycle

74. Options to improve the organic matter
levels:
• Quite limited:
• Organic so no AD waste unless free from GM
animal feeds
• No green waste compost allowed
• Can buy in dung – have bought moderate
quantity of organic chicken litter so far but
would be very expensive way to increase OM

75. Best means of building soil OM in this
situation

78. And once I’ve built up the OM...

79. The advisers role

80. How should you advise about soil?
• Where do you start?
– Source-Pathway-receptor
• Problems
• Barriers
• Solutions

81. Problems

82. Problems

83. Problems

84. Problems

86. Barriers
• Short term priorities
• Time
• Cost
• Mixed messages

87. 1945

88. 2002

89. Solutions

90. Dr. Chris Watts, Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems, Rothamsted Research.

91. Highlighting what’s often hidden

92. Other attempts

94. Taking responsibility
• Unaware of the scale of the problem
• Too much soil
• Often directly affected by poor soil (without
knowing it) – but not always.
• Farm the landscape