Chathill Monitor Farm meeting: Digging deep in into soil health

Please join Pip Robson of Chathill monitor farm, for the final meeting of this winter series to dig into what lies beneath and explore soil health with Liz Stockdale.

Farmers are increasingly looking to improve the resilience of their soils as weather extremes become unpredictable and more frequent. With so much focus on biomass above ground, how much more can we learn about optimising what is happening below?

On the agenda:

Elizabeth has over 25 years applied soil and nutrient management research experience and has engaged with a wide range of research projects connected with the study of nutrient cycling in soils and with the environmental impact of farming systems.

Most recently she has been very active in developing farmer focused approaches to measurement of soil health and developing on farm tool kits for improved soil management.

10.20 Monitor farm update, Pip Robson

10.30 Liz Stockdale, NIAB

What do we know and what can we do? This meeting will demonstrate where soil health levels are at on the Chathill monitor farm and quantify as well as demonstrate what is good or bad soil health for Northumberland and the surrounding area.

11.30 refreshments

11.45 Look at how to assess your soils in a consistent manner.

• Visual assessment of soil structure
• Earth worm counts
• P, K, Mg, pH, Organic matter
• Nutrient management
• Organic matter utilisation
• Cover crops
• Pest mitigation

12.30 Meeting summary and closing actions