Farm of the Future: Enhancing Natural Capital for Profitability and Resilience will be an interactive morning with Josh Stratton, at J.M. Stratton & Co.’s East Farm in Wiltshire. Josh is the most recent winner of the RASE Natural Capital Award as a result of East Farm’s demonstration of balancing profitable and productive farming with ecosystem restoration across 1,800 ha on Salisbury Plain, of which 1,400 ha is arable land.
The farming system is based on regenerative principles, and working with his in-house ecologist, Josh has combined good crop yields with 7,500 metres of new hedgerows, and the restoration of 25 ha of chalk downland. Josh is an active member of the Wylye Valley Farmers Cluster working to connect habitats, improve soil health and monitor water quality.
This event will give an opportunity to hear Josh’s experience of being part of Farmacy’s Helix project, an initiative aimed at supporting more data based decision making on farm through the implementation of technologies and building connections with other growers across the UK. The key objectives of the project in Wiltshire include:
- Understanding the mass balances and cycling of nutrition on the farm with an aim to towards decarbonisation of the food chain by using the farm’s resources more efficiently
- Improving the nutritional content of the grain produced
- Improving the diversity of the soil biology
- Aiming for optimal yield to find the balance between output and margin. Addressing in-field variation to improve, remove or farm areas to their potential
- Improving the natural capital of the farm by narrowing the gap in diversity between the field margins and the centre of the field.
(Image: Results from a trial on farm in 2023 assessing the impact of digestate)
Over an eight year rotation, Josh has incorporated poly-cropping, Johnson-Su microbial inoculants and has brought livestock into his arable rotation. Looking ahead, Josh is carrying out longer term trials investigating the impacts of different cultivation practices, straw management, organic vs synthetic nutrition and tailored nutritional inputs.
Join us to hear from Josh and his team about what it really means to incorporate these forward thinking ideas into day to day practices.
Event Details:
Thursday 4th December, 9:30 – 14:00
East Farm, Codford, Warminster BA12 0PG
Refreshments and a BBQ lunch will be provided.
Agenda:
9:30 Arrivals and refreshments
10:00 – 11:00 Introduction from Josh and the East Farm team
11:00 – 12:30 Farm walk
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:00 Final Q+A and close
