Morayshire monitor farmers Iain, Laura and Jemma Green revealed the results of their #soilmyundies experiment at a meeting for local farmers, recently.

The Greens are one of the latest to join the #soilmyundies craze, where farmers bury 100% cotton underpants in different parts of the farm, to show activity of soil biology.

Eight weeks ago Iain buried seven pairs of undies around his farm – in fields of spring barley with and without bio-stimulants; in a field margin; under two-year-old grass; under winter barley stubble; in a PGRS field; and in a spring barley try-out field.

The theory is that the more active the soil biology is, the healthier it is and the more degraded the pants will be. The most unwearable pants – those most broken down by soil microbiology and earthworms – were those buried in a barley field which had been treated with bio-stimulants.

Iain says: “The pants in the worst condition were almost unrecognisable, so it seems that the biostimulants field had the most biological activity and if that is the case it will be really interesting to see what effect that has on the yield.”

One of the surprises was the underwear buried beneath permanent grass at plough depth was more intact than expected. AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds knowledge exchange manager, Gavin Dick, said: “Usually you’d expect permanent grass to have a lot of soil biology activity. But we now have a trend of wetter, milder autumns and less frosty winters. This means that cattle are often left outside longer in less than ideal conditions. The livestock cause a layer of compaction and there is then less frost in the winter to break up that compaction.”

The results of #soilmyundies also seemed to show some of the impact of the huge amount of rain at Corskie Farm. Between June 1 and October 30, 2017, they had 612ml – nearly all of the annual average 700ml in five months. Fields that were wet for too long had poorer levels of soil biology activity.

Iain Green said: “It was very interesting today. A lot of growers do not pay enough attention to soils, but it is our biggest asset. We also heard about the difference between dual and single wheels, standard, flotation and super single tyres, and the effect they have on the soil.”

* The Morayshire Monitor Farm is one of nine that have been established across Scotland in a joint initiative by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds, with funding from the Scottish Government. Its next meeting is on December 12, 2017.