Soil

Thought some of you soil geeks might be interested in this report @Bronagh O'kane

Hi, has anyone got any recommendations of where I can send some soil to get it tested? I am growing a lot of different vegetables so I would be keen to get a detailed test that includes sampling for elements like boron. Many thanks

An example of why soil sampling is a difficult in biological systems. I have had the same field sampled and tested for CO2 burst now 3 years in a row with 3 differing results 2021 was very encouraging with the CO2 burst being off the scale 239mg CO2/kg soil 2022 was slightly underwhelming with it b

End of the grass growing season and below is how we've done for the year. Definitely seeing improvement in our permanent pastures as a result of rotational grazing and liming. The most surprising result is paddock 4 which seems to have been jam packed with grass all year. It's long term permanent

What I wasn't prepared for was the positivity, everyone was happy, chatty and jovial. And this was what others where commenting on too! Even while standing in a food que the guy behind you would introduce themselves and chat farming or soil or similar! In the evening the music tent fills quickly,

Hi Just seen a post of a diary farm spreading milk on their fields at 10litre to the acre. Never heard of this before. Has anyone used it and can explain when you would use it/ why? Thanks Esther

Following on for the last webinar, does anyone know the recipe for making a large qty of bam. Have a lot of slurry to treat and cost was putting me off. This would be a game changer. thanks.

I have a small 4 acre field that is going downhill fast. Moss is appearing, rushes are growing everywhere and the soil is literally oxidising. The ever helpful Damian McAllister from DLF seeds visited me last week to check my multi species reseed and we had a walk through this field to brainstorm h

Great chat last night about soil. We didn't record the session as we want folk to feel free to chat away but we did save the written chat which contains lots of links to resources. Video at the bottom is from Kevin O'Hanlon. 19:18:43 From Will Frazer to Everyone: We have a big issue with soi

Back in early November I was lucky enough to travel to the home of Princess Diana, Althorp House, to attend a workshop by the world famous agroecologist Nicole Masters. This guys sums it up way better than I ever could. Give his story a read. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/farming-lif

Recently I attended a regenerative Ag course with Gabe Brown, author of ‘Dirt to Soil’ and his team from Understanding Ag. It was incredibly insightful, I learned so much, I thought I would share some things I was taught over a few posts. Would love to hear your thoughts and experience of this too.

We've grown some winter cereals for the first time this year. Costello winter wheat on our best draining land. We perhaps foolishly thought coming out of a 10 year grass ley and with plenty of organic manure to apply if we could get through to harvest and get the crop off that it would be a fairly r

We had a great little farm walk around Culmore Farm, Kilrea today with David Laughlin describing the ins and outs of his organic dairy farming journey over the past 25 years and Jerry and Beth from the Soil Association sharing the current opportunities in the organic market place. Whether you want

A lot of the discussion around soil health seems to revolve around various indices and indexes which while really important don't always tell the whole story. A lot can be determined from an old fashioned spade and a bit of digging. We regularly hear around here about heavy land, high organic matter

Our flax is crap this year. We were late going in, blame the rain. We probably hadn't prepared the field as well as we should but I think there is more to it. The fibre that is there is really fine. Below are the soil test results from 2021 and the fields are marked where the flax did really in 2

We've been fencing off some of our poorer hedges for a few years now in a bid to get them back into better nick. Interesting to see how the edges near the hedge compare to last years reseeded ground a metre or so out...

What are your thoughts on this article? Interestingly most fraudsters are in Tyrone and Fermanagh 😂 https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/environmental-crisis-looms-as-fake-soil-samples-used-in-farm-planning-applications/a1171050847.html

I am at this event today and thought I would share some of the proceedings over the day. Let me know your feedback and questions and will fire it in... Note: I will be editing and updating this post throughout the day so apologies for typos etc... Talk 1: Policy Basically there is a shed load of p

The dock beetle was back in force this year. Leaving these dock infested fields alone all spring gives them a chance to multiply and munch their way through the plant. Although this helps reduce the quantity of docks in the silage it isn’t actually fixing the issue that’s enabling the dock to grow.

I suspect leather jacket but unsure of how many I should be finding to prove it's them. Water logging is bad but can't understand why in these patches unless it's just because their is no grass. But these dead patches are teeming with worms! I am finding the odd leather jacket too though. In this f

Hi All, Lots of advertising around supersoil going on at the moment. The principle sounds great around nitrogen fixing bacteria etc. I have asked for more detail/science behind what's in it but it's not been forth coming so far - which makes me wary. I know there are other nitrogen fixing bacteria

We had a visit today from a biodynamic farmer. Its something ive always toyed with, and we've frequently planted with the Lunar Calendar (although the weather and other external contexts frequently override that one) However, I've always struggled with preparations until today, possibly.... And the

Leatherjackets are the larvae of crane fly (commonly known as daddy-long-legs). They reach maturity in the spring, and feed on the roots and stems of grass or cereal plants and can cause significant loss of yield, seen in large bare patches. A group of four Fermanagh farmers have teamed up with Agr

Great session today with Niels Corfield and NFFN at Mount Stewart going fairly deep into the ins and outs of understanding soil health. I've certainly got a few field trials to look at as a result, with the main one being to try and solve the fairly tricky process of reseeding into MSS/Herbal l

PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Holmes, Ballyconnelly Farm Becky Wilson from Farm Carbon Toolkit visited Hillmount Farm last week to deliver the Farming Carbon Training day. Our own Prof Jim McAdam set the context - explaining what soil types are predominant in Northern Ireland, showing us soil maps and why

I started brewing my first batch of vermicast in an IBC of water. I added approx 1L of molasses to feed the microbes. Sack contains the vermicastings approx 10kg. it should all be dissolved by end of process. All total trial and error here! Hope to spray this on the fields tomorrow morning.

A quick chat with livestock farmer Bronagh O'kane on how she's using farm waste as a feedstock for a DIY worm farm producing vermicast to spread on the land as a soil conditioner. What methods are you using to boost biological activity in your soils?

We had a farm tour with the inspirational Bronagh O'Kane. She was showing us how she is gradually making changes on the farm to improve soil health, she's reducing the use of granular fertilisers with the aim of becoming more sustainable, more nature friendly and more profitable. Small changes acros