Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Groundswell Farming Festival.

This is held over two days near Luton and is the celebration of all things associated with regenerative sustainable farming.

It was started 10 years ago by the Cherry family when 400 people attended.

Over 12,000 attended from all over the world - 300 stall holders and 20 venues for speakers to lecture and debate.

It’s difficult to sum it up in a few words but the nearest I can get is "a farm in Glastonbury without the music", although there is music and entertainment in the evening in one of the big top circus tents.

What amazed me most of all was, as well as the smaller stallholders, many of the big machinery manufacturers attended, displaying contractor size equipment for sward lifting, subsoiling and direct drilling.

It was interesting to see that fluid drilling is making a come back, where – if I have this correct – the seed is planted in a liquid along with fertiliser.

Mob grazing

One of the first talks I attended was on mob grazing. It was rather startling and I’m not sure it’s a system I can adopt.

Three organic farmers were on the stage giving their views on the trials they ran last year.

They go into a field at over 5,000kg cover, with the stock eating one third and trampling two thirds.

This creates an environment where moisture is held longer, useful in the coming droughts.

There was deeper rooting, greater carbon sequestration and increased bacterial and soil fungal activity and slightly increased production of dry matter.

I met a very interesting young lady – Clodagh – who had developed a business and won awards for removing lanolin from sheep's wool, to be used in non-ruminant feed rations

Having seen several slides, I asked the speakers what they did about dock control since they were organic. The reply was basically more topping or change your glasses. The other suggestion was to plant chicory since this is deep rooting similar to docks as it competes with the docks for nutrients.

One speaker was on grazing robots working an ABC system doing 6,000l on 500kg of meal, although some cows could achieve 9,000l.

Wool

While I’m browsing round the stands, I met a very interesting young lady – Clodagh – who had developed a business and won awards for removing lanolin from sheep's wool, to be used in non-ruminant feed rations.

I was also fortunate to meet the main organiser of Dairy Concept. My daughter said I was wrong to accuse him of being a keyboard warrior since he used every media opportunity to fight for better recognition and price for dairy farming.

Drought

Here at home, we had a brief deep respite from the last blast of hot weather where we lost 4l a cow a day.

We then had a computer problem in the parlour which meant four milkings with limited cake, which lost us another 2l. Since the wet weather it was reclaimed, but it looks like we’re about to go into another drought.

I met our feed nutritionist on one stand and he recommended that in very hot weather, we milk the cows in the morning and put them in the cubicles with bales of freshly cut grass, since if you send them out during the day, they just gather under a tree or any shade possible. I’m currently on a mission, opening up woodlands that we planted in 1976 after the Dutch Elm disease ravaged through the tree population of our valley.

I’m opening up these plantation to provide shade and shelter in the hot weather, which seems to be very successful. My son-in-law has just planted 400 trees, but I’m afraid it’s our successors who will get the benefit of these.