IMPROVING soil health will lead to a healthier farm – that was the overall theme of the Groundswell no-till show and conference, which took place at the end of June at Lannock Manor Farm in Hertfordshire.

The two-day event attracted around 1400 farmers and scientists, from all over the UK, America, China and South Africa – all eager to learn about no-till farming practices and innovation in conservation agriculture.

‘Health’ was the buzz word of the conference as host farmer John Cherry explained: “Most people know that when they are feeling hale and hearty they don’t get ill. The same applies to farm animals. We’ve found that since we’ve been practicing our mob-grazing approach and only feeding our cattle fresh or conserved grass from unfertilised ground, our vet’s bills have dropped to almost zero,” he continued.

“Soil Health works in the same way. To create healthy soil, a good starting point for arable farmers is to adopt the three basic tenets of conservation agriculture – minimum disturbance of the soil, keeping the soil covered at all times with living or dead plant matter, and growing a good diversity of crops,” explained Mr Cherry.

“In order to have a healthy farm, you need to start with healthy soil. Soil health is much talked about, but very hard to measure. Groundswell is a forum for discussing exactly this, both from the point of view of farmers who want healthy soil to make their lives easier and the subsidy providers who want to see the benefits of healthy soil for the wider population in terms of carbon sequestration, water absorption for flood prevention, clean water for drinking and clear rivers,” he stated.

“Healthy soil will grow healthy plants which will need fewer (if any) fungicides, insecticides, molluscicides and herbicides. Good news for arable farmers and the people who eat their produce. Healthy plants will also result in healthy animals if they graze them; healthy animals are also cheaper to produce and better for the consumer. So; health begets wealth,” summarised Mr Cherry.