We are proud to have partnered with DEFA, the Department of Environment, Food & Agriculture on the Isle of Man, on their Soil Health initiative (SHI) which supports Manx farmers to assess and improve their soil health and the resilience of their farms.
The SHI offers payments to farmers who are actively monitoring and improving their soil health. Prioritising soil regeneration and positively rewarding farmers for engaging with their soils is an exciting step forward in the government’s approach to supporting the farming community; this initiative pays farmers to look at their soil in new ways, as well as broadening their opportunity to build a profitable and resilient farm. As part of the initiative, Soilmentor provides the framework for farmers to monitor and evidence soil health metrics on their individual farms, whilst also enabling DEFA to see the progress of the initiative in real-time.
One of the farmers enrolled in the Soil Health Initiative is David Cooil from Ballagawne Farm, a 600 acre grass-fed dairy and beef farm. Ballagawne was previously managed under a typical New Zealand style dairy system; grazing the cows on a 21 day rotation and spraying the paddocks with nitrogen fertiliser. Despite winning prizes for its grasslands, the farm was overreliant on herbicide, “the weeds would get sprayed annually but always reappear the following year”. The issue of droughts was also annual, causing the grass to disappear completely for two months, which meant they had to use imported feed to maintain milk production; plus drought recovery times were, in David’s words, “epic”. These issues, combined with rising costs, led David to look for a more sustainable and profitable route forward. Coincidentally, it turns out that David had already been interested in Soilmentor as part of the toolkit he needs to help him make this change.
“Soilmentor has actually been something I’ve been interested in for years. I was going to buy my own subscription, and then when I heard that I could get it for free through the Soil Health Initiative, even better!”
Soil tests on-the-go
Using Soilmentor on the go has been the key to integrating data collection into the farm routine, “I do a quick assessment of a spadeful of soil here and there”. Even this simple process has given insights to the fields:
“I did expect some of my worm counts to be better. Although I have one sample where I found 267 worms on a hole dug under a cow pat. A couple of weeks ago I also counted 21 worms in a sample, and 9 worms in a spadeful of soil on a herbal ley field. It’s an easy job to give the kids while I’m working in the next field. I’m interested to see how the number of worms will compare to when I do more worm counts in late Spring.”
Dung beetles and wormers
David told us that one of his earliest learnings about taking a different approach came when he forgot to book an appointment to do worm/fly treatments on his herd. In a short amount of time he started seeing dung beetles appear in his cows’ manure. David went on to learn from Dung beetle expert Sally Anne Spence that dung beetles are harmed through the use of fertilisers and wormers but when they are allowed to flourish they are very beneficial to soil life, for example, they bury organic matter.
“The vets have the animals’ health and milk production at the front of their mind, but they fail to recognise how anything beyond the cow, let alone the whole ecosystem, suffers as a result; the vet told me to worm my cows even when they hadn’t actually been tested for worms.”
David has now greatly reduced worm treatments but not completely eradicated them just yet; in future, he hopes to use lung worm vaccines instead and only worm the cows when they are housed to reduce contamination in the fields.
David has found reducing the fly treatments more of a challenge, but he is currently experimenting with using grazing strategies, biological pest control, and planting walnut trees which emit a natural fly repellent pheromone. David also mixes his own fly repellents to apply to the cows and calves, something he is learning more about.
Since reducing his worm and fly treatments, David said that he’s witnessing the ecosystem coming back to life:
“Because of the dung beetles and how they’re improving my soil quality, there’s now more worms. I’m also saving money by not having to use an aerator or subsoiler! And off the back of that, we have more small birds feeding off the worms, and more birds of prey feeding off the little birds. It’s all coming back to life; now I make sure to go out of my way not to cause any harm.”
Regenerative farming and profitability
David is invested in regenerative experimentation at Ballagawne, however he emphasised that it is important to acknowledge the realities of running a farming business with limited financial leeway.
“We are hoping to eventually transition out of using a plough based system. Ideally we would use a direct drill but we can’t purchase machinery and you can’t hire contractors on the Isle of Man. It brings us back to the old question of which is worse: glyphosate or the plough? In an ideal world you’d use neither, but as a grass-based system, we need to use a plough. Because of our climate, we need to have stock inside in the winter to carry the number of stock we’ve got. The other thing I can’t get my head around is how we get ourselves to a more regenerative situation, with a lower stocking rate and a longer rotation with taller grass grazing, when I’ve got to pay back such big loans at 10.2% interest.”
David acknowledged the challenges of achieving an ecological and profitable farming business, but understands that this is a journey that will require patience.
“We’re a long way from getting where we need to be, but we’ve started and unless you start, you’re never gonna get there, are you?”
In our next case study from the Isle of Man we hear from Vicky and Neil at Ballacricket farm about how they are benefitting from the Soil Health Initiative and changes they are making on their farm.
If you have any questions about how to use Soilmentor or our organisational offering, please contact us at info@vidacycle.com for more information.
