Regen champ wins high scholarship

The Nuffield Bullock Prize acknowledges the researcher who has made one of the best use of their prize within the 10 years since their acceptance into the Examine Tour Scheme.

We meet this 12 months’s winner and runners-up.

See additionally: Farmers provide their youth pearls of knowledge

Winner

Jake Freestone

Cotswold Arable and Sheep Farm Supervisor Jake Freestone is the winner of the 2022 Bullock Prize.

Now well-known in agricultural circles as an affable ambassador of the advantages of regenerative agriculture, his examine journey to Nuffield was a primary step on that journey.

Jake has traveled by means of lots of the world’s most notable combinable cropping nations to check the best way to break the wheat yield plateau, concluding that growers have restricted their potential to extend manufacturing additional in current a long time by damaging their soils. .

This is because of two major causes: overcropping, which limits the flexibility of soils to recycle vitamins, and shorter crop rotations, which will increase the stress of pests, ailments and weeds, in addition to decreasing soil natural matter.

Prepared for the longer term

Discovering a system to reverse these modifications and create an arable enterprise appropriate for producing long-term, high-yielding crops led him down the trail of regenerative agriculture, which focuses on minimal soil disturbance and higher variety of crops. cultures.

He says it is not nearly shopping for a direct seeder, stating that those that need a guidelines for transitioning land to regenerative agriculture will not discover a direct seeder buy so long as they won’t have reached quantity seven on the listing.

Nonetheless, value reducing by means of decreased tillage has been instrumental in bettering margins at Overbury Farms, of which he’s director, with wheat institution prices now down from £160/ha to £45/ha (not together with value of planting cowl crops).

It additionally calculates {that a} additional £250,000 would have been spent on equipment now not wanted had it remained totally standard, and is finishing up well timed trials to additional scale back its reliance on fertilizers and agrochemical inputs.

unfold the phrase

But Jake, within the true spirit of Nuffield scholarship, doesn’t preserve these developments to himself.

The judges wished to award him this 12 months’s Bullock Award after concluding that he’s presently among the many finest agricultural communicators serving to others make sensible modifications to their enterprise which might be financially and environmentally helpful.

Additionally they acknowledged his important contribution to serving to the general public see that sustainable agriculture may be a part of the answer to local weather change.

The door to Overbury Farms appears perpetually open to these wishing to see the way it places regenerative concepts into observe, with a gradual stream of farmers, politicians, civil servants and representatives from throughout the meals provide chain coming to have a look. a glance.

Hundreds of members of most of the people have visited the farm as a consequence of its participation within the Linking Surroundings and Farming (Leaf) Open Farm Sunday initiative, and Jake is beamed into school rooms as one among their many presenters Farmer Time.

He’s additionally a daily speaker at agricultural occasions and has appeared incessantly in mainstream media.

Wider recognition

The Bullock Prize is not the one honor bestowed upon Jake in recognition of his efforts.

Final 12 months he was topped Environmental Champion of the 12 months by Farmers Weekly and this 12 months he received the BBC Meals and Farming Award Way forward for Farming.

Going ahead, he plans to proceed to diversify farming operations at Overbury to permit extra direct advertising of regenerative produce, together with agroforestry fruits and free-range eggs, to property tenants and the group. group at giant.

He additionally hopes to begin a consulting enterprise to assist farmers transition to regenerative farming methods.

Finalists

Claire Bragg

Claire Bragg © Reverberate PR

Somerset farmer Claire took a detailed have a look at the poultry sector for her Nuffield Fellowship, asking “Does the broiler trade want to alter to feed a rising inhabitants? »

She returned with a renewed appreciation that every one agricultural sectors should frequently adapt to satisfy folks’s wants, with Winston Churchill’s adage that “to enhance is to alter; to be good is to alter usually” – a favourite motto of her and her husband, Nick.

Over time, their enterprise has developed from solely producing combinable crops and broilers to a way more public-facing enterprise.

A bustling café and convention amenities, together with an on-site wedding ceremony venue and florist, are actually an essential a part of Frogmary Inexperienced Farm.

Whereas a cooking faculty is presently mothballed, she has retained her ardour for educating youngsters and most of the people about the place their meals comes from, organizing common visits to varsities and in addition taking part in Open Farm Sunday.

Robert Hodgkin

It is truthful to say that Robert, a Hertfordshire farmer and former automotive engineer, and his spouse Jo Franklin have by no means been shy about attempting one thing new.

Robert was awarded a Nuffield Fellowship in sheep genomics and he and Jo later turned the primary breeders within the northern hemisphere to file utilizing DNA recording and file these outcomes with the well-known New Zealand SIL system (Sheep Enchancment Restricted).

Rob Hodgkins © Reverberate PR

As EBV rams shut in on among the finest stud farms on the planet, Robert and Jo’s well-known model Kaiapoi now markets some 800 lamb breeding ewes a 12 months and a number of rams.

Their analysis work on fascinating sheep traits continued with a venture on wool yield and micron high quality beginning in 2020.

This 12 months they’ve been awarded a £75,000 grant from InnovateUK to look at the genomic constructions of sheep linked to methane emissions and, over the subsequent three to 5 years, intention to start energetic trait choice for animals to low methane content material.

Rob Richmond

A deal with bettering soil carbon paid off for Cotswold dairy farmer Rob with a Nuffield Fellowship on the topic, capping a protracted interval of analysis into natural grassland administration.

Rob Richmond © Reverberate PR

The research led him to appreciate the robust hyperlink between excessive carbon content material and improved soil construction, soil fertility, pasture progress and milk manufacturing.

“Carbon, nitrogen, methane and water are all in cycles,” Rob explains. “These cycles are damaged. Grasses connect to the soil and nourish it in a method that trendy varieties don’t.

He plans to proceed sharing his data with farmer teams and contributing to extra analysis into medicinal crops, together with their potential to higher scale back methane emissions and seize carbon than standard varieties.

Robert Craig

Cumbria dairyman Robert Craig’s Nuffield analysis into the true value of low cost meals was one other prescient selection that had an outsized impact on his later profession.

Together with the expansion of a dairy firm that now employs 24 full-time and part-time workers throughout three models, he has held management positions throughout the provide chain.

Robert Craig © Reverberate PR

On a number of events, he has held positions with First Milk, Dairy UK, the Sustainable Meals Belief and the Royal Affiliation of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF), in addition to chairing his county group NFU.

Rob says his Nuffield Fellowship has had a specific impact on his function as farmer-director of First Milk, giving him the arrogance to assist push processor members in direction of the rules of regenerative agriculture and decrease carbon emissions .

He’ll assume the place of President of the RABDF in 2023.