Project Lamport, now in its seventh year, is embracing digital for 2020. The team, including Head of Soils, Chris Martin; Farming Systems Research & Development Advisor, Niall Atkinson; Director of Wright Resolutions Ltd, Phillip Wright; and Independent (PhD) Researcher, David Purdy, will be sharing regular updates from the site in Northamptonshire.
For our second blog update, Chris Martin discusses some of the soil health benefits seen at Project Lamport, as well as the impact of cultivating with metal.
Head of Soils, Chris Martin
“Having successfully controlled blackgrass over the years at Lamport, we’ve seen that the methods used have also had a really positive impact on our soils.
For example, increasing the diversity of species and time of cropping has had a big impact on soil biology. Whereas introducing spring cropping, particularly after cover cropping, has had a positive effect on general soil health.
Black oats in the rotation
We’ve seen this on a practical level in the field in that by using black oats in the rotation, we have increased our microbial biomass and respiration levels. We’ve also measured high numbers of earthworms associated with the black oats, prior to spring cropping. This is because black oats have a huge rhizosphere, or root mass, compared to other cover crops.
Ultimately, we want to build a ‘hotel’ for our soil biology to live in. Each time we cultivate, we potentially rip through the hotel we’ve built. So, we want to try to move as little through the soil with metal as possible, to allow roots to do this naturally instead.
Minimising soil disturbance
Our default setting is to not move the soil at all, and have a valid reason to do so before we do so. Also, every time we use metal in the soil we oxidise carbon, losing it to the atmosphere as well as organic matter from the soil.
When we do use metal, we must ensure that machinery is well balanced, putting as little pressure onto the soil so not to squash the soil biology. Select the lowest tyre pressure for the operation, allowing soil to naturally structure itself without hindrance.
Lamport has taught us to ask the question – do I have a grass weed problem, or do I have a system problem that allows weeds such as blackgrass to thrive? Improving soil health is starting to answer those questions for us.