Learning from organic: Blandford

Learning from organic, with John Pawsey

John’s reputation will be known to many through his development work with the Chameleon Cultivator / Drill on his organic rotation in Suffolk, and as Chair of the NFU Organic Crops Board. He will discuss all aspects of his organic rotation and agronomy from variety choice to disease and pest management. He will not advocate everyone should switch to organic status, but there are a lot of principles that can be applied to conventional growing to help generate higher margins. With the political pressures on environmental farming and loss of actives in the ‘conventional tool box’, we can all learn a lot from this meeting.

The Cossins family have been farming at Rawston Farm since 1877. Since then the farm has expanded to 670ha with a further 385ha rented or contract farmed. The five-year arable rotation covering 600ha includes winter wheat, winter and spring barley and oilseed rape. All operations are carried out by farm staff including a combination of minimum tillage and ploughing, with grain stored on farm. The business also has 300 dairy cows and 180 head of beef cattle, the majority of which are sold through their own farm butchery. James Cossins currently runs the family business, working closely with his daughter Georgie.

For more information, contact Philip Dolbear, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager, on philip.dolbear@ahdb.org.uk or 07964 255 614.