Wisbech Monitor Farm

Name:

Andrew and Sam Melton

Location:

Cambridgeshire

Farm sectors:

Cereals & Oilseeds

Twitter:

@andrewjmelton, @H_MeltonSam

View on Google Maps

About Wisbech Monitor Farm

Peartree Farm started as a Monitor Farm in June 2020
Arable rotation includes wheat, barley, oilseed rape, beans and sugar beet
The farm also runs a soil sampling business for potato growers
Soil on the farm is silty clay loam

Andrew Melton and his son Sam farm 1,400ha of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, beans and sugar beet on silty clay loam. Andrew and Sam operate minimum tillage and full inversion cultivation systems. The business also includes a large contracting operation extending approximately 15 miles around the family farm.

Having invested in a no-till drill, they’d like to explore reducing tillage to zero and using cover crops to improve soil health. Their business ambitions are to reduce cost of production and emissions without affecting profitability or yield. Andrew wants to prepare for the transition to the government's new Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS). He also wants to use benchmarking to reduce his fixed costs and reduce his use of inputs.

Background on the farm, along with a breakdown of business opportunities and threats, can be found in the launch meeting report: Wisbech Monitor Farm Launch Meeting Report | AHDB

For information about past meetings and events, click '+ See more'.

Past meetings & updates

On-farm innovation - 23 February 2023

Andrew and Sam were joined by Tom Allen-Stevens, founder and coordinator of BOFIN (British On-Farm Innovation Network), to talk about the latest farmer-led projects and David Clarke from NIAB to talk about the work taking place at Strategic Cereal Farm East.

Transition to reduced inputs - 19 January 2023

Andrew and Sam caught everyone up on what had been going on since their last meeting and welcomed Martin Lines (Nature Friendly Farming Network UK) on farm to discuss the practicalities of moving away from high-input systems.

Areas covered included IPM and establishing carbon baselines to access markets. Here, you can find a recent article published by AHDB covering the two types of carbon market.

Lessons from harvest 22 - 8 December 2022

In the first meeting of the 22/23 winter season, the group looked back on Andrew and Sam's harvest and discussed several topics, including:

Foliar N – does it work?
Relationship between fungicide and nutrient use efficiency
Establishment techniques and fuel usage
Margin vs yield

Preparing for zero-carbon farming - 3 March 2022

Becky Wilson from the Farm Carbon Toolkit shares and discusses results from a carbon audit carried out using their calculator at Peartree. The group then built strategies to increase sequestration and reduce emissions at the farm.

Digging up the dirt on soil health - 3 February 2022

Liz Stockdale (NIAB) gave a demonstration of how to use the newly developed AHDB Soil Health Scorecard and talked through the findings of the soil assessments which took place at Peartree Farm during the autumn prior.

Establishment: comparing systems - 13 January 2022

In this meeting, Andrew and Sam discussed the findings from the establishment tryout with the group and assessed what impact the different methods had on the soil. Details of the try-out can be found in the video at the bottom of this page.

Labour & machinery review - 9 December 2021

Over the winter season a Labour & Machinery Review was conducted at Peartree Farm.

In this meeting, AHDB's Technical KE Manager Harry Henderson and Bradley Hurn (Brown & Co.) analysed the results. Following this, Andrew and Sam talked about what they learnt from the review.

Tisssue testing - 11 November 2021

Pete Berry gave an overview of tissue testing and how it can be used for nutrient planning. Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland host David Aglen then went on to detail how he has put tissue testing and Brix testing into practice on farm.

East Anglia Monitor Farm update – February 2021

Andrew and Sam have access to the machinery to apply a range of approaches to cultivation and are looking to carry out a small-scale trial on farm.

Despite conditions being extremely wet over the winter, the pair committed to carrying out their trial which involved a combination of ploughing and direct both in the presence and absence of catch crops.

Modifications to machinery on the farm such as low ground-pressure tyres, RTK-assisted drilling and a crimper/roller to ill catch-crops aim to minimise soil disturbance and compaction.

Hear their full update, as well as other Monitor Farmer in the region, in the East Anglian Monitor Farms regional update.

+ See more