Future-proofing your farm

In some years, with second cuts ‘hardly worth bothering about’ and more regulatory environmental pressure in terms of inspection and compliance than ever before, Ian has noticed the changing landscape of UK agriculture. His assessment isn’t all negative, though.

“We are seeing more opportunities for cover cropping with warmer winters, we are seeing later grass reseeding opportunities, grass is growing through the winter, and we can turn the new environmental legislation into opportunity,” Ian says, determined to use the changing climate as a chance to challenge and review how he farms.

Survival of the farming fittest
“It’s good old-fashioned sensible practice to question what you do, and it’s something the best businesses do every day, week and month because they are looking to grow and change,” comments Ian. “It comes down to that old quote of Darwin’s that effectively said, it’s not the most intelligent or strongest species that survive, but the ones that are best able to adapt to change.”

According to Ian, the important questions to ask are ‘how do I change?’ and ‘how do I find out?’ and says the best way to do that is to get out there and see other great businesses.

“Farming is very unique in that you can say economically we are all competing with each other, but the truth is farmers are human, they’re kind, they’re good-hearted people and if you attend a willing discussion club, and say to a really good farmer ‘hey, how are you doing this?’, they’ll very often open up the farm gate, invite you in for tea and take you for a walkaround and share with you what they’ve learnt.”

A tool for all farmers
SFT’s Global Farm Metric began in response to farmers approaching them about the numerous audits being done, whether for certification, regulatory compliance or carbon footprinting. A subsequent gap analysis discovered an overlap of 60-70% between these audits, with only minor differences in questions being asked by each organisation. As a result, SFT started to develop a tool streamlining the data captured on farm.

“So, we have a project called the Global Farm Metric which is a farmer-led framework of metrics for measuring whole farm sustainability,” Adele explains. “The framework helps you look at your whole system and the business end of what you are doing, as well as the environmental and social impacts. And I think from seeing your farm from that system, which is ever changing, and starting to build up that baseline which then changes over time, information will be really helpful in helping us understand what works well where, and then how we can reward those things that are providing positive benefits.”

Episode showstoppers
·  Make sure you are challenging your business. Your business needs to operate in a constantly evolving environment. 

·  If you find any bottlenecks in your business, look at whether there is anything you could be doing differently. Turn drawbacks into opportunities. 

·  Review. Don’t sit on your laurels, when you’ve made changes, come back around and look at things again. What’s the upside? What’s the downside?

Right plant, right place
Challenges associated with climate change on his Cornish farm led Ian to focus his Nuffield Scholarship on sustainable forage cropping for dairy cattle.

In a bonus episode, Ian Baggs shared some of what he learnt about benefiting from a farm’s natural topography on his Scholarship travels, which took him around the world to meet farmers running successful pasture-based systems.

“Our business was in a challenging place,” explains Ian. “I returned to the farm in 2016, and for the first five years I was full-time farming we had four droughts, where I came back to grass having grazed it for say 40 days prior and there was just none left. I just thought there must be another way – we need to grow more forage. We need more tonnes of dry matter per hectare, and I’ve got to find a way to do it.”

This was the initial problem Ian identified, but as he looked closer, there were many different pieces in the puzzle. 

Using your farm’s natural strengths
Ian urges every farmer to reflect on their farming system and ask themselves what they are trying to achieve and therefore the best way to run their farm. His travels opened his eyes to a wide range of farming techniques matching the conditions, such as in Australia, where he discovered dairy farms with much less infrastructure than the UK. This made him realise they had adapted their systems to their environment, and less infrastructure had enabled them to produce milk much more cost effectively than the average British farm. 

In contrast to many areas, in northern Victoria dairying requires irrigation or it simply wouldn’t exist, but with water in place, the warm conditions make it good for grazing. One organic farm Ian visited was had permanent pasture with maize and lucerne alongside, mixing the cheaper forage provided by perennial permanent pastures and lucerne with more expensive and annual but high-yielding maize. 

The reason was based on the economics of the farm’s reliance on imported water. To produce one tonne of dry matter from permanent pasture three megalitres of water are required, with lucerne it’s two megalitres, but for maize it’s just one megalitre. So, good financial awareness is essential to underpinning decisions on using the right plant in the right place. 

Ian was also struck by the dominance of block calving across both Australia and New Zealand, matching the block to their climate; spring block further south where it’s cooler and autumn block where higher temperatures prevailed. As a result, Ian has decided: “Block calving on a grazing-based system is the way to go, it’s so much easier to manage cows when they’re on a similar plane of nutrition.”

Natural climate is your farm’s USP 
Nearer to home, Ian has met a farmer grazing profitably on 450mm annual rainfall, far less than Ian’s 750mm. This is achieved through a well set-up system, herbal leys, summer brassicas and a flying herd with second lactation and older cows producing more milk, converting dry matter into milk more efficiently than heifers. 

Commenting on farm conditions in the South West, Ian says: “Most farms generally have good rainfall, a mild winter climate, so cool season perennials, such as perennial rye grass, white clover, timothy and plenty of grazing for livestock businesses is a real win. And for arable and vegetable cropping, it’s that natural climate, that’s your USP, that’s what you’ve got that other places in the world don’t have. So, seize it and make it work.”

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

About our guests

Ian Baggs is the fourth generation on his family farm in south Dorset, managing its dairy herd on a pasture-based system. He is a 2021 Nuffield Scholar, completing his report on ‘Sustainable forage cropping for dairy cattle in the face of climate change’.

Adele Jones was Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT). A leader in UK regenerative food and agriculture, she now works as a freelance strategic advisor to all those in the food supply chain. She was with SFT when this episode was recorded.