In this episode, we hear from James Warne, a farmer in Devon and Managing Director of Soil First Farming, a consultancy business providing invaluable advice as well as agronomy packages for farmers looking to improve soil health and cultivation practices on their farms. James gives some great advice around ways to improve the microbial activity in soils and how feeding the ‘underground livestock’ in our soils is crucial to promoting and supporting healthy crops above-ground.

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In this first episode, Grant James talks with soil consultant and tillage expert and Director of Soil First Farming, Steve Townsend, about how building carbon and soil biology is the key for good conservation agriculture. Steve also gives a useful insight into some of the main issues with soils in the UK at this time in terms of their overall health for supporting crops, and discusses some of the tests and assessments farmers should be looking to do more routinely with their soils.

Steve also talks briefly about his involvement with BASE-UK, a farmer-led knowledge exchange organisation for growers interested in regenerative agriculture and the sustainability of soil health. Steve’s interest is in advising and helping growers throughout the UK improve their soils to produce better crops, using the crucial principles of getting soil chemistry, soil physics and soil biology correct and working to complement each other for good soil management.

Watch on Youtube or listen on Spotify.