Norfolk FWAG has engaged with the Royal Countryside Fund (previously known as the Prince’s Countryside Fund) for a number of years. The charity founded by HRH King Charles is dedicated to helping rural communities and farming families navigate increasingly challenging times by providing free workshops, 1 to 1 visits and a variety of programmes on business/diversification, conservation, ELMs and more.
20 Norfolk farmers took part in recently launched Savings in Soils programme which was run in partnership with Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT). Marta visited the 20 farms in May and June taking soil samples from 60 fields, three per farm. The samples were sent to a lab and tested for NPK and organic matter content.
On the 30th of August most of those who took part arrived nice and early at Joe Mitchell’s farm for a fascinating and very well received presentation from Emma Adams, a senior soil adviser from FCT. After going through the results stats, Emma gave a lot of guidance for better soil management and a practical session learning about VESS (visual evaluation of soil structure), earthworms identification and most efficient manure and artificial fertiliser use.
All the farmers expressed a strong interest in participating in further soil related workshops to broaden their knowledge about this vital ecosystem and to make their soils and therefore their farm businesses more resilient and productive in a face of climate change related weather extremes.
If you are interested in working with Norfolk FWAG to have you soil samples taken and analysed, please contact Marta.
