Farm resilience starts with soil health

Resilience is “something that returns quite easily to its natural state” according to Andy Neal, adding “the rate at which things change to different states can all be considered resilience, but really, it's about the persistence of function as you perturb or stress systems.”

Measuring business success

With business success no longer just measured at the macro level through livestock, the micro level of forage management and the soil supporting it, is increasingly recognised, with its important functions as a “biologically active house for microbes.”

“The resilience of soil is the basis upon which a very successful business can be built,” says Tom Tolputt. “That's why I think we are starting to focus much more effectively on soil.”

This theme was picked up in a subsequent podcast episode with Sally-Ann Spence and Joel Williams, ‘How can I farm livestock beneath the soil as well as on top?’.

Soil organic matter

With the South West boasting a soil organic matter range of 4 to 16%, it is way ahead of the 1% thought healthy on a global scale. “We have incredible biodiversity,” Tom adds.

But if soil is not healthy, “a lot of other things further up will go wrong.”

Tom warns: “If your grass isn't healthy, if [it] isn't putting on biomass like it should, you've got to buy in or you've got a load of very hungry cattle.”

Both guests agree replenishing soil organic matter is vital. “The longer the plough has not entered the field, the greater the organic matter stocks in those soils,” says Andy.

“Resilience comes not from sequestration but driving the microbial processes because that's what creates all the good stuff in soil. The sequestration is a byproduct of creating that good environment.”

“There's probably nearly the same biomass in livestock below the soil as a good grazing farm has above the soil,” concludes Tom.

Episode showstoppers:

1.     Really understand your farm’s context and its soils, focusing on organic matter and trace elements and how it looked 100-200 years ago.

2.     Build organic matter. It's a slow but necessary thing to make sure we have the most resilient soils possible.

3.     Earn the right to plough by keeping soils healthy through constant feeding with ground cover and perennial cropping.

Listen to the full episode below - also available via Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

About our guests

Tom Tolputt is founder of Terrafarmer, a specialist soil health consultancy. He also farms in Cornwall, using regenerative and biological farming principles, and has worked as a livestock nutrition consultant for more than 25 years.

Professor Andy Neal is a microbiologist and senior research scientist at Rothamsted Research and a co-author of the report Regenerative Agriculture in the UK: an ecological perspective.