GREATsoils: Soil Health Workshop

Farmers will learn more about soil assessment approaches and soil management strategies, as well as having the opportunity to visit a long-term trial site in their region and discuss soil management with leading soil scientists.  This event takes place at one of the long-term experimental sites being used to test the soil health scorecard approach being developed through the AHDB-BBRO Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership.

The event is aimed at both farmers and agronomists. It will be an opportunity to see the impact of a range of soil pH values on crop growth, across different crops in a rotation. 

Information will also be available about the soil health scorecard results from another long-term experimental site where the impact of organic amendments has been tested, and from farmers who are participating in the programme monitoring soil health on their own farms. 

The event will also provide an update on the activities of the Rotations Partnership, where soil management options such as cover crops or organic amendments are being evaluated in a number of trials. Researchers from JHI will also discuss the development of the Terranimo® soil compaction model and how it can be used.

A field based event which will include:

• Tour of SRUC’s Woodlands Field Long-Term Experiments (Robin Walker, SRUC)

• The AHDB-BBRO Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership results from the pH plots (Anne Bhogal, ADAS)

• Soil health monitoring on-farm with preliminary results from the farmer group (Liz Stockdale, NIAB)

• KE update from the AHDB Rotations Partnership  (Blair McKenzie, JHI)