Blogs & Case Studies

Making your soil rain-ready :  Skywatchers it’s time to look down 800 533 Soilmentor

Making your soil rain-ready :  Skywatchers it’s time to look down

This is a guest post by Niels Corfield, soil health, agroforestry and whole farm planning advisor, researcher and advocate. For graziers and farmers It’s been a “funny old year” from the wet, water-logged winter-spring to the now, dry spring-summer. Since we’re in a prolonged dry spell people are watching the sky and “praying” for rain…

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Know your Soils #3: Monitor the impact of water run-off 570 376 Soilmentor

Know your Soils #3: Monitor the impact of water run-off

Welcome to the third instalment of our new 12 part Know your Soils series sharing practical tips for monitoring the soil health on your land.  Keep an eye out for our bitesize videos and fact sheets on simple tests you can do yourself on farm. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” How…

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Soil testing: The experience is as valuable as the results 5184 3456 Soilmentor

Soil testing: The experience is as valuable as the results

This blog post was written by Annie Landless, after an eye opening afternoon of soil testing with Charles, her Dad. My Dad and I had been talking about soil testing at home on our 375 acre farm since January, but it took until May to get outside and do the tests. While I live in London…

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Intro to Jennifer Dungait: Soil Health Expert 451 193 Soilmentor

Intro to Jennifer Dungait: Soil Health Expert

We are honoured to have Professor Jenni Dungait as a soils advisor and ambassador for Soilmentor. Jenni is a leading soil scientist, Editor in Chief for the European Journal of Soil Science and also offers brilliant insights into how soil works in the field through her consultancy Soil Health Expert. Find out more at www.soilhealthexpert.com…

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Know your Soils #2: Earthworm Quiz 590 442 Soilmentor

Know your Soils #2: Earthworm Quiz

Welcome to the second instalment of our new 12 part Know your Soils series sharing practical tips for monitoring the soil health on your land.  Keep an eye out for our bitesize videos and fact sheets on simple tests you can do yourself on farm. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”  Take…

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Know your Soils #1: Meet the bugs! 1200 659 Soilmentor

Know your Soils #1: Meet the bugs!

In our new 12 part Know your Soils series we will share practical tips for monitoring the soil health on your land.  Keep an eye out for our bitesize videos and fact sheets on simple tests you can do yourself on farm. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”  Get to know the…

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Soil Health Principles 2000 1333 Soilmentor

Soil Health Principles

The Soil Health Principles, thanks to soils advisor Niels Corfield: Living Root – for as Long/as Often as Possible Covered Soil – with Residues or Living Plants Minimise Disturbance/Compaction – Tillage Diversity – in Rotations/Plantings Feed Soils – w/Organic Matter (Between Cropping) Incorporate Animals – Ideally Adaptive Grazed Minimise Use of Chemicals/Synthetics Get started with…

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Soil testing: How to measure infiltration rate effectively 700 445 Soilmentor

Soil testing: How to measure infiltration rate effectively

When the rains come, have your tubes at the ready, because a day or two after is the perfect time to test your infiltration rate. Measuring the infiltration rate in Winter or early Spring can be challenging because the ground is saturated with seasonal rainfall, so it can take quite a long time! The main…

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Building soil health: 5 Key Soil Tests to get you started 2000 1500 Soilmentor

Building soil health: 5 Key Soil Tests to get you started

The first thing to decide is where to do your soil tests. You might pick a few sample sites in 4 key fields and test them every 6 months. Most of these tests require a decent spade so you can dig 10-20cm depth into the soil profile in order to analyse it. Soilmentor is made…

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Getting started monitoring on our farm – Abby Rose 800 600 Soilmentor

Getting started monitoring on our farm – Abby Rose

  Sunday morning early my dad and I went out to observe and investigate our soils on our farm in Chile. As you may know 2017 was a very difficult year for my family’s small farm as the mega fires in Chile consumed our farm, burning all our crops — olives and vines, just the buildings survived.…

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Ian Boyd – Whittington Lodge Farm 2000 2667 Soilmentor

Ian Boyd – Whittington Lodge Farm

Ian Boyd is a farmer and wildlife photographer, who has been farming at Whittington Lodge Farm since he took it over from his father about 40 years ago. He sadly watched the wildlife decline significantly on his 700 acre farm as he grew monoculture cereals for 30 years. Plus his thin Cotswold Brash soils got…

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Tim Williams – English Farm 2000 1500 Soilmentor

Tim Williams – English Farm

“My role here is to look after the land. My aim really is to be a carbon negative farmer.” Tim Williams is a young farmer, based at English Farm, near Reading. He spent many years farming in New Zealand’s more intensive systems before moving here to find ways of farming that regenerate soils and mitigate…

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