ORGANIC SOIL IMPROVER: Providing a full nutritional profile for you soil to make it healthier and more productive
John comes from an engineering and nuclear industry background and works offshore, alongside running the farm. The business grows barley and runs livestock across rough grazing, while John explores expanding into summer crop production and winter store lamb and cast ewe grazing.
John brings an engineering mindset to regenerative farming. During offshore shifts, he has spent countless late nights researching biological inputs and foliar nutrition, building a detailed working knowledge of alternative systems. Because time is limited, every change has to be practical, measurable, and capable of delivering results without creating extra workload. In short, the farm has to “work smarter, not harder”.
Running a mixed farm in the far north of Scotland is demanding at the best of times. Doing it while working offshore full-time adds another layer: long stretches away from home mean systems need to be resilient, repeatable, and not dependent on constant hands-on management. John needed an approach that could improve soil health, reduce synthetic inputs, and still maintain performance.
After extensive research, John discovered Sea2Soil and began trialling it within a regenerative, low-input system. He used Sea2Soil alongside foliar-applied urea, Epsotop, and molasses, even without compound fertilisers, and began shaping a longer-term biological nutrient plan.
He has also built a strong support network around the farm, working with Jenna Ballintine at NewGen Agri on soil interpretation, Andy Cheetham on seed and grain analysis, and speaking regularly with Sea2Soil, with the team raising the possibility of coming up to Caithness, which would be a key opportunity to review progress and developments on the ground.
This was John’s first proper season using Sea2Soil within his regenerative, low-input system. John is clear that it is still a learning curve and he has not got everything perfect yet, but the year has been very encouraging.
The barley averaged 2.6 t/acre, and visually it was the best crop he has grown on his ground. One detail stood out immediately, and was picked up independently by multiple agronomists: grain fill right down to the base of the head, something John had never seen before on his farm.
To build an even clearer picture, John carried out proper seed and soil testing after harvest, so future decisions can be based on evidence and a solid baseline.
Seed analysis showed the home-kept barley seed tested extremely well, with ninety-four per cent germination, fifty-two point five g TGW, and sixty kg/hl bushel weight. John describes it as the best-quality seed he has produced so far. The analysis also highlighted a few minor nutrient gaps, which John sees as useful insight because it shows exactly what the crop was short of and what can be corrected going forward.
Soil analysis (NewGen Agri / Brookside Labs) backed this up, showing good underlying structure and biology, with a few key trace element deficiencies. Using seed and soil tests together gives a much clearer baseline and helps avoid applying anything unnecessary.
Looking ahead, John is planning to trial minimum tillage on a field or two. In Caithness, he still believes ploughing is often required, especially on heavier or older ground, but he wants to test reduced tillage as a soil health-focused trial rather than a full switch. He also trialled forage rape after harvest. It went in a bit late and did not establish as strongly as hoped, but the learning will feed into a refined approach next year. In addition, John is planning to establish one to 1.5 m biodiversity strips (flower and beetle strips) around some field edges, sown with the quad, to support beneficial insects and field ecology.
The most striking change came in older permanent pasture. John has seen a clear shift in grazing behaviour, which, for him, is one of the most telling indicators that something meaningful is changing below the surface:
“We’ve got older fields that sheep used to avoid. Since applying Sea2Soil, they’re now grazing those fields evenly. One field in particular was always strip-grazed for cattle, but the sheep would never touch the aftermath. Now they graze the whole lot without hesitation. That tells me something in the biology has shifted – it’s making the forage more palatable or healthier.”
Mixed farm with organic land and conventional arable rotation, native Aberdeen Angus cross cattle.
Farming with a regenerative approach for several years, implementing direct drilling, cover crops, companion crops, crop rotation, and mob grazing systems.
As both an agricologist and a Pasture for Life member, Doug brings scientific rigour to his farming decisions. His systematic approach to trialling products – including untreated control strips – demonstrates a commitment to evidence-based regenerative farming. Doug was also our winner of Sea2Soil’s Great Groundswell Giveaway 2025.
“With a mixed farm of around 1,500 acres, a mixture of organic land and conventional arable rotation, I have been farming with a regenerative ‘slant’ for a few years now,” said Doug.”Using methods such as direct drilling, cover crops, companion crops, crop rotation, and recently mob grazing with my native Aberdeen Angus crosses, this year I have also started implementing Sea2Soil.”
After attending a BASE seminar earlier in the year and hearing from Sea2Soil, along with encouragement from Chris Leslie at Cloud Farming, Doug decided to trial Sea2Soil on his wheat fields in 2025.
Doug took a methodical approach to testing Sea2Soil’s effectiveness: “In every wheat field, I requested that 6m strips not be sprayed with the product. I also asked not to be told where these strips were.”
This blind trial design meant Doug could assess the product’s impact objectively, without bias influencing his crop walking observations.
The results were striking – and visible to the naked eye:
“When crop walking, you could pick out every strip where Sea2Soil hadn’t been sprayed – the plants were lighter in colour, they weren’t as healthy as those that had received the product.”
For Doug, the product’s sustainability credentials were as important as its performance:
“While the legacy of the product remains to be seen – given that we can’t expect to see any yield results just yet, I do think there is something there. There are a lot of products coming into the market now, but this is completely natural; why not keep it simple? The product is making use of what is essentially a waste product from another industry and is saving that from being disposed of in a harmful way.”
“There’s no silver bullet when it comes to farming, and I know I’ve made mistakes over the years, but you have to try these things; that’s how you learn. Every farm is different, every field is different, so no one approach is going to work. Just as the industry is always changing, how we need to farm and adapt our systems is too. I’d like to think I’m a regenerative farmer, but there are always so many variables to consider; all we can strive to do is create resilient farms, with resilient soil, by adapting so we can be in the best position to face the future.”
As the winner of The Great Groundswell Giveaway, Doug joined the Sea2Soil team at Groundswell 2025, enjoying event entry, overnight accommodation, and a front row seat to Joel Williams’ talk on the Sea2Soil stand.