Saltburn Monitor Farm
About Saltburn Monitor Farm
- Barns Farm has been a monitor farm since June 2017
- Total farm area: 566 ha growing a rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, and wheat
- In addition to the arable enterprise John also manages 1,300 breeding ewes and 450 spring-calving suckler cows
- Soil types: light loam to heavy clay
John Aynsley runs a 1,302 ha mixed farm near Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the north-east of England. Covering 566 ha he grows a rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, and wheat on light loam to heavy clay.
Combinable crops are established using a min-till approach and all grain is dried and stored on farm. In addition to the arable enterprise John also manages 1,300 breeding ewes and 450 spring-calving suckler cows.The main challenge which John aims to address on the farm is soil management. John is already a member of the Darlington Benchmarking Group and has been benchmarking since it started. By participating in the Monitor Farm programme, he hopes to prepare his business to be profitable without direct payments.
Read John's blog for the latest on Saltburn Monitor Farm
Saltburn Monitor Farm meetings
For more information, please email Rose Riby, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager, on rose.riby@ahdb.org.uk
Meeting reports and regional webinars:
- Webinar: North East Monitor Farms regional update (3 February 2021)
- Webinar: North East Monitor Farm Summer Meeting 2020 (2 July 2020)
- Sprays and sprayer: 20 February 2020
- Markets: 23 January 2020
- Farming and wildlife: 12 December 2019
- Review of second year at Saltburn Monitor Farm: 12 November 2019
- Summer meeting: 6 June 2019
- Tyres, drainage and cultivation: 28 February 2019
- Trace elements and micronutrients: 17 January 2019
- Buying a new grain dryer (merits of different types and costs): 13 December 2018
- Farm walk and review of first year (including lessons learnt); Farmbench data – discussion: 8 November 2018
- Summer meeting: 24 May 2018
- Precision farming: 3 May 2018
- Marketing and varieties: 23 January 2018
- Controlling fixed costs: 12 December 2017
- Controlling grass weeds, rotations and understanding soil chemistry: 1 November 2017
- Launch meeting: 6 June 2017
