Regenerative tillage farming works environmentally and economically

Jake Freestone is not your average farmer. In 2011, he made a major decision on the farm. Payments and prices were decreasing and he decided to move to reduced tillage for economic reasons.

Little did he know it was the start of a journey that would see thousands of farmers all over the world follow him on social media and watch his YouTube videos online to learn from that journey.

He now defines his farming system as regenerative agriculture and is reaping the benefits every day in profits. He said from the outset he is not focused on high yields, but on profits. It is clear from the man with red wheels on his John Deere tractors that he is currently enjoying the ride.

Jake was speaking at BASF’s technical conference last week. He may seem like an odd choice to be talking at a chemical company’s conference, but this is the direction of travel in the sector. The EU’s Green Deal outlines a requirement to reduce pesticide use by 50% and fertiliser use by 20% and this is what Jake is doing.

Still using chemistry, where needed, he has managed to reduce use by having healthy soils and healthy plants – something that is needed not only to reduce the use of plant protection products, but also to mind the chemistry that is there and prevent resistance developing to that chemistry.

450mm of rain last year

There are many challenges facing farmers at present, but climate is a big one. Jake displayed pictures of floods near his farm and commented that rain and high temperatures are affecting crop yields.

He added that, in the UK, 30% of crop yield is lost annually due to lack of moisture. He wanted to manage water and improve soil health on his farm.

Key to combating this, Jake notes, are wide and diverse rotations, livestock integration and living roots in the soil at all times.

His farm business at Overbury Estate near Gloustershire in the southwest of England consists of 1,600ha which are owned, while Jake is also in a contract-farming arrangement on 220ha.

Located 298m above sea level, the farm receives about 700mm of annual rainfall, but just 450mm fell last year. Some 900ha of combinable crops are grown on the farm, along with 90ha of vegetables.

Crops include spring and winter barley, soya beans, quinoa, wheat, oilseed rape and many more.

Since moving to no-till or direct drill, which he carries out with a cross slot disc drill, Jake has estimated that his diesel use has fallen from 52l/ha to 17l/ha.

The horse power of his tractors has dropped from 620 to 370. He also estimates to have saved £270,000 (€306,000) on re-investment in tractors and cultivators. He has calculated that his carbon footprint has almost halved from 123t of CO2e to 63t of CO2e.

Cover crops

Jake focused on cover crops last week, explaining that you need the right cover crop in the right place and in the right rotation and that we need more legumes in those cover crop mixes to produce and save on nitrogen in the following cash crop.

He explained that different roots affect the soil in different ways. For example, radish plants are compaction removers. Legumes are nutrient-fixing crops. He said you need to create the soil tilth with roots, not steel. He once dug down to find a linseed plant with a root 80cm long.

Seed for these crops can vary in price from £10-15/ha (€11-17/ha) for home-saved oats to £50/ha (€56.60/ha) for a diverse cover crop mix. Taking one example, he explained the seed might cost £75/ha (€85/ha), drilling is around £35/ha (€39.60/ha) and nitrogen which is collected and fixed by the crop was £539/ha (€610/ha).

However, he emphasised the importance of getting the most out of these crops.

Using an example of a crop sown on 9 August and a crop sown a month later, Jake said the August crop produced approximately 6t DM/ha, while the crop sown a month later produced just 1.5t DM/ha.

Both crops cost the same amount of money to plant, but the early sown crop gave four times the return so planning and organising is essential.

Companion cropping is also something being used on the farm and while he has no definite reason for it, he thinks that companion cropping is helping with nutrient availability. It is also a pest deterrent, reduces weed populations and he commented that it distracts insects.

Jake chops pretty much all of the straw on his farm, but does have straw for muck deals with a neighbour and he encourages farmers to enter into these arrangements where you give a farmer the straw for bedding and they give you back the farmyard manure.

He also makes his own compost and while he had stopped for a while the rise in fertiliser prices drove him back to the process.

Livestock integration

There are 950 ewes on the farm. Bringing livestock into an arable farm is important and Jake said it is a key part of his soil improvement strategy along with cover cropping, straw chopping, livestock manure from a neighbour and composting.

He is moving to wool-shedding breeds of sheep. Some years, he grazes his winter wheat crops. A total of 600 ewes take 1ha per day and there is generally regrowth within four days. This, he says, reduces disease pressure early in the season, suppresses weeds and also reduces the need for a plant growth regulator.

More foliar N

One thing Jake has embraced on the farm is foliar N to reduce his N use. He said he is bypassing the soil and giving nitrogen straight to the plant to avoid loss. Along with more legumes in his cover crops, he has tried under-sowing crops with clover as well.

Insecticides

Jake has not used an insecticide for six years on the farm. He is focused on natural predators and discussing his crop rotation plans earlier in his talk, he went so far as to mention that having flowers at different times for pollinators was factored into those plans.

He sees a host of spiders on the farm and ladybirds, which eat aphids.

Interestingly, and something that we rarely hear said is that he also tries to avoid crops which he knows he will have to use insecticide on.

He has learned from past experience that some crops need to be sprayed or losses could be high and, as a result, he tries to manage that risk.

A member of the audience asked Jake about glyphosate use. He said that since moving to a regenerative farming system he uses less glyphosate. However, the glyphosate he does apply is almost integral to the system.

He outlined that a ban on glyphosate could have unintended consequences on farms like his. He also mentioned that he has a number of fields with blackgrass on his farm and glyphosate is essential in its control.

Jake, along with four other farmers, has founded The Green Farm Collective. This group has traded carbon and received payments for biodiversity on their farms.

“Farmers are in a unique position in the world to be able to offset carbon for other people.”

It needs to be genuine offsetting, Jake explained. So, companies purchasing the carbon credits need to have done everything they can to reduce their emissions before thinking about offsetting emissions.

Tagging birds

He is also recording and tagging birds on the farm and actively trying to improve habitats and biodiversity bring in money as a result.

Crop yields

Jake displayed crop yields for the past six years for many of his crops, including winter wheat on different soil types.

Winter wheat went over 10t/ha in 2022, spring barley was just under 6t/ha and beans were at 4t/ha. Jake detailed one winter wheat crop at 10.93t/ha on 132kg N/ha.

To put that into perspective, the average Irish yield in 2022 was 11.01t/ha for winter wheat, 8.1t/ha for spring barley and 6.1t/ha for beans.

So, he’s not pushing for high yields, but he’s saving in other places. For example, his establishment cost is now at £45/ha (€50.80/ha) on average. To compare this to an Irish figure, Teagasc puts a cost on ploughing, tilling and sowing for cereal crops at €223 to €242/ha (£197.54 to £214.37/ha).

Jake’s system isn’t for everyone. He has an advantage of scale which cannot be forgotten, but what he is doing to improve soil, reduce emissions and, very importantly, get paid for this is exactly what is needed. As farmers, we cannot reduce yields and income without replacing that income.

Jake is now doing that. He is beginning to replace that lost income from reduced yield with carbon and biodiversity payments.

One thing Jake said was that he has had a number of failures on his farm as he tries new things. He said he prefers to say it was “an outcome I wasn’t expecting”.

We might not be brave enough to implement all that Jake is doing, but there are things that we can try. A simple step would be the “straw for muck deal”. Another, would be planting cover crops and then bringing grazing livestock on to those cover crops.

Whatever it may be, he is providing plenty of food for thought.