Profit, Soil and Resilience: What are farmers learning?

Start with your objectives

There is no single blueprint for regenerative farming. Every business has different priorities, risks and opportunities, and Jack Pierce believes understanding your objectives should come before any management changes.

“I think that's always a really good starting point, …..what are the aims of the business and what are the objectives.”

Rather than chasing yield alone, the panel encouraged farmers to focus on margin, resilience and creating systems suited to their own circumstances.

Building resilience through gradual change

Having introduced regenerative practices on his Cornish farm over the past decade, Geoff Williams reflected honestly on the challenges he experienced.

“It is a leap of faith,” he said. “It was difficult.”

While Geoff admitted he moved too quickly without fully preparing his soils, he thinks today's farmers can learn from those experiences.

Will Marris agrees the transition does not need to involve a significant loss of productivity if it is carefully planned. He advocates establishing a clear baseline through soil testing before making gradual reductions in artificial inputs.

“I think where you have a managed reduction of inputs, that's the sweet spot.”

He also stressed the importance of mastering the basics before lowering inputs.

“You've got to have the fundamentals of your soil working first before you look at reducing nitrogen.”

Learning through practical experience

Rather than making wholesale changes across an entire business, all three guests encouraged farmers to experiment on a smaller scale.

“Pick a field, pick your smallest field and try it,” suggested Will. “If it worked, brilliant, let's scale it up. If not, why not?”

Jack sees farmers becoming increasingly willing to share both successes and failures, making it easier for others to avoid costly mistakes.

“I think the agricultural industry is good at collaborating, learning and engaging and sharing knowledge.”

Keeping an open mind

For Geoff, one of the greatest benefits of attending Groundswell is the opportunity to challenge existing thinking and return home with fresh ideas.

“I wanted to see what new ideas were coming forward in regen, because I've enacted a lot of what I wanted to do, but I wanted to know what's going on at the leading edge.”

The discussion concluded by urging farmers to remain curious, communicate openly and continue learning from one another. Building resilience is not about following a prescribed system but understanding your own business, preparing well and making thoughtful changes over time.

Episode showstoppers on moving forward

1.      Understand your objectives and what you are trying to achieve

2.      Be prepared. Start by setting a baseline through detailed testing and analysis

3.      Start small. Don’t try to everything at once, making sure the fundamentals are right first

4.      Learn from your mistakes and understand how you can achieve a better outcome

5.      Talk to others about what you’re trying to achieve

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

About our guests

Geoff Williams farms on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, transitioning to regenerative practices several years ago. He won the 2022 Otter Farming Award and was named in the Top 50 Farmers 2025 list. Geoff talked in a previous episode of Farming Focus™ about training to be a counsellor and farmers’ mental wellbeing. Listen here. 

Will Marris is a regenerative agronomist with Terrafarmer. He is particularly interested in integrating livestock and arable systems, having grown up on a mixed family farm in Lincolnshire.

Jack Pierce is Terrafarmer’s Head of Commercial taking his practical farm experience into a career as an agribusiness consultant. He featured in an earlier episode of Farming Focus™ examining Defra’s Farming Profitability Review 2025. Listen here.