Petworth Monitor Farm

Mark Chandler runs Moor Farm at Petworth in West Sussex in partnership with his father Richard, managing a total of 1,285ha including AHA tenancies, FBTs, contract farming agreements and stubble-to-stubble contracting. Mark grows spring malting barley, oilseed rape, spring beans and winter wheat on loam over weald clay soil with some sandy clay loam. 

The farm has been in non-inversion tillage for 20 years, and Mark continually works towards minimal disturbance. In the initial launch meeting, Mark and Richard expressed their plans to extend their rotation, implement cover cropping and precision farming techniques, as well as secure new environmental land management schemes.

Petworth Monitor Farm meetings and reports

12 December 2019 – IPM

In this latest monitor farm meeting, Sacha White (ADAS) and Andy Barr (East Lenham Farm) suggested IPM techniques to control BYDV and CSFB.

The pair emphasised the following points:

• Know your pests, their thresholds and natural enemies – the Encyclopaedia of pests and natural enemies can help with this.
• Monitor grass margins for aphids.
• Carefully consider drilling date to reduce risk from pests.
• Incorporate natural enemy habitats into your farm if possible.

14 November 2019 – Collaborative Ventures

Adrian Matthews (Farm Business Consultant) and Robert Fox (Farm Manager) ran through important considerations to make when considering collaborative ventures and the benefits that can come out of them.

Meeting report: Collaborative ventures | Petworth Monitor Farm

14 November 2019 – Labour & Machinery Review

Labour and machinery benchmarking results from across the Monitor Farm network were discussed to see what can be learnt from others.

Take home messages included:

• Expansion is not always the right way to offset fixed costs – better to be more efficient with what you already have.
• Know your work rates required for a particular operation in an average weather season.
• Develop machinery maintenance schedules.
• Have a machinery maintenance plan in place – keeping depreciation in mind.

For full details, follow: Labour & machinery review | Petworth Monitor Farm

24 October 2019 – Yield Enhancement Network

Roger Sylvester-Bradley (ADAS) and Alex Wilcox (YEN Winner) gave an introduction to The Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) as well as holistic advice the help improve yields.

Meeting report: Yield Enhancement Network | Petworth Monitor Farm

6 June 2019 – Summer Event | Past, Present & Future

A range of topics were covered at this event including the ASSIST Experiment; a project that aims to improve food production and resilience through the development of innovative farming systems whilst reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture.

Other topics included CSFB control and biostimulants, more details can be found here: Summer Event | Petworth Monitor Farm

24 January 2019 – Nutrition, Biostimulants and Precision Farming

A full rundown of the importance of each individual macro- and micronutrient was given and methods of boosting their levels outside of spraying were discussed.

The detailed meeting report can be found here: Nutrition | Petworth Monitor Farm

18 October 2018 – Machinery & Soil Investment

In the first Monitor Farm meeting at Petworth, Mark and Richard explained that going forward their aim would be to move the ground as early as possible and create a stale seed bed in order to reduce the soil movement at drilling.

Their first trial as a monitor farm involved testing how different levels of cultivation and types of drilling (disk vs. tines) affect a wheat crop that follows beans.

Information on current Monitor Farms in the South East can be found here: Monitor Farms | AHDB