Soil Management

Jack Forster - 25 March 2011

 Now as this is the Soil Association Blog, I though a blog about soil management might be quite good! Now before you skip to another blog at the prospect of reading about soil, there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Soil is a living, breathing thing that needs to be treated as such. If it isn’t looked after, particularly in an organic system, then yield will be low. I can’t really speak for arable soils, as the only crop we grow is grass, but grass is the key ingredient to our low input system. Our cattle and sheep graze the grass in the spring, summer and as much of autumn as the weather allows, and then eat haylage and silage bales made on the farm through out the winter when they are inside. We are blessed with more land than we need for the amount of stock we have, meaning that not only is the grass used as cattle feed for us, but it is another source of income as we sell any surplus bales.

If we didn’t look after the soil we would have a lot less grass and not benefit from this potentially profitable crop. Soil has three main components: minerals from rocks, organic matter from plant and animal residue and living organisms (not just earth worms, but all sorts of bacteria too). Another major component however is air, which due to the heavy machinery used on farms these days is being forced out of the soil! We don’t have too much heavy machinery, but we do have cattle and sheep which all compact the soil with their hooves. We have noticed declining yields in the last few years, so we have decided to order an ‘aerator’.  An aerator fits to the 3 point linkage of the tractor and has 8 inch blades which penetrate the ground creating slits. This should help to improve drainage as well as reduce compaction. This should improve bacterial activity, and, if the water drains away earlier in the season, should encourage the grass to grow sooner as the soil temperature will be higher. It should be coming in a couple of weeks so I will let you know how we get on  with it.

Jack is a professional rugby player with Sale Sharks, but also has an active role in his family's farm in St Helens. The family are fourth generation farmers and and own two Soil Association licensed organic farms. All the cattle and sheep that are reared on the farm are butchered through the on farm butchery, and sold to local people through the farm shop, local deliveries and local farmers' markets. Jack is a keen supporter of British farming and wants to encourage more people to 'buy local and think organic'. He studied agriculture at Hartpury College and aims to go back into farming when he retires from rugby.

• Read more from Jack's blog
• Forster Organic Meats