In the first of our winter webinar series we take a deep dive into blackgrass and some of the strategies we can use for controlling it by focusing on soil health.

As Kyle Richardville, from our mentoring team, explains, conventional farming practices have created circumstances which can actually benefit many weeds, including blackgrass.

In the webinar Kyle explains how adopting the Six Principles of Soil Health on your farm will build soils where water and air can cycle freely, reduce compaction and increase organic matter levels to feed beneficial microbes and fungi.

As a farmer myself, I appreciate how often farmers feel attacked for contributing to environmental harm.

This is especially frustrating when there are so many farming practices delivering substantial environmental benefits which go unrewarded or ignored.

There are clear environmental and wider cultural benefits that come from farming livestock in the landscape which would be lost if this happened.

It motivates me to make the case and collect evidence to help farmers be recognised and rewarded for the good that they do.

As part of our free winter webinar series we are excited to offer people the chance to hear directly from one of the pioneers of regenerative farming, Gabe Brown who heads up our mentoring team.

Gabe is a founding member of our mentoring partners Understanding Ag and is world-renowned as one of the leading voices in the movement.

Gabe will share his advice on transitioning to a more holistic approach to farm management and overcoming some of the economic, educational and cultural barriers which can stand in the way.

We are pleased to announce we will be launching another series of webinars looking at soil health and regenerative practice for farmers over the autumn and winter.

Join our monthly webinars between now and March to learn more about topics including regen for dairy farmers, using herbal leys for long-term soil health gains and lessons learned from outwintering cattle.

In December we will also be running a webinar with special guest Gabe Brown, author of Dirt to Soil, and one of the leading figures in regenerative farming worldwide.

“Farmers that make the most regenerative progress begin to view ‘weeds’, ‘pathogens’ and ‘pests’, as simply organisms doing a job for everyone else.

“In the case of weeds, plants like blackgrass are photosynthesizing and feeding a compacted soil so that the system can support a diversity of life one day.

“Does this mean we should let blackgrass or brome or wild oats overrun a field? Of course not. We’ve still got a business to run. But the fact is that they are doing a job, and we can learn a lot from them if we pay attention."

Farmer Chris Dawson is working with Regenerate Outcomes and landowners Jamie and Tom Warde-Aldam to improve soil health and productivity on the Healey Estate in Northumberland.

"I was very interested in going down the regenerative route to try and improve the soil quality and Tom wanted to change the way we were working and take more control,” says Chris.

“It won't be an easy transition, so it’s very helpful to get advice and support from Regenerate Outcomes along the way."

Regenerate Outcomes are hosting a series of free farm walks in England and Scotland this summer.

Join us to learn how farmers around the country are adopting practices to build soil health, profitability and resilience on their farms.

All our farm walks are free to attend and provide practical insights and advice to help you to implement and refine operations on your farm.

Regenerate Outcomes is excited to be welcoming one of the most well-known and globally respected figures in soil health to the UK this summer.

Dr Allen Williams, one of the founders of our mentoring partners Understanding Ag alongside Gabe Brown, is taking part in a number of events and farm walks in August.

A sixth generation farmer from South Carolina, Allen is one of the biggest names in the regenerative farming movement, having featured in films including Kiss the Ground, Soil Carbon Cowboys and most recently the documentary Roots so Deep.

In our latest webinar we are joined by Fernando Falomir from our mentoring partner Understanding Ag to discuss the positive effects that an adaptive grazing system can have on livestock health and behaviour.

Adaptive grazing, also called adaptive multi paddock grazing or regenerative grazing, involves high density grazing in smaller areas for shorter periods. This allows plants time to recover, encouraging more growth, greater diversity and improved soil health.

As Fernando explains, it can also come with benefits for the health of your livestock, lower vet and med bills and reduced inputs.

Regenerate Outcomes are pleased to be teaming up with our mentoring partners Understanding Ag to bring you Grounded: The regenerative farming podcast.

Grounded features interviews and insights with people from across the farming community as they share stories and expertise of uplifting soil, plant, animal and human health.

The podcast is hosted by Stuart Johnson, 2023 Soil Farmer of the Year, and Kyle Richardville, who works as a farm consultant for Understanding Ag.

Regenerate Outcomes are proud to work with Understanding Ag to help farmers maximise profits through improved soil health.

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting Understanding Ag’s first soil academies in Great Britain next year.

The academies are free to attend for Regenerate Outcomes’ member farms.

They will feature two days of interactive field walks and classroom sessions, led by experienced farmers combining practical knowledge with scientific expertise.

Regenerate Outcomes is excited to be working with a group of 25 farmers and advisers to grow their understanding of regenerative farming practices in the Cotswolds.

The Regenerative Agriculture Accelerator Programme (RAAP) is being hosted and administered by the Cotswold National Landscape team, with core funding from the Farming in Protected Landscapes grant.

It involves a 12-month intensive programme of workshops, farm walks, agronomy clinics, facilitation training and other events.

“I wanted resilience everywhere in the business, whether that was financially or environmentally.

“I thought that if there was a slightly different way to do it and I could still make money and be more resilient and not damage the environment, then that was worth exploring.

"We're more resilient to the price changes and the weather extremes. We've reduced nearly all the variable costs, without over sacrificing yield.

“It’s made me feel really excited about the future, because there’s so much more to learn and we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface.”

Farmers are being invited to take part in a scheme to trial advice on agroforestry given as part of the Environmental Land Management Scheme.

Participants will receive free advice, plus payment for the time involved.

The Defra-funded project will begin in September and is being run by the Woodland Trust. However, farmers are being asked to sign up by the beginning of June.

“As a farmer you tend to be pretty self-reliant, so this message of regenerating your land and becoming more reliant on your own resources and less on external inputs is very attractive.

“Our approach is to work with those who are ready and willing to make changes or experiment. And as long as we can prove that these methods are profitable and pragmatic we believe that people will start to see those results, ask questions and begin to make changes themselves.

“Regenerative agriculture has been a blessing in my life, watching this community of farmers being able to link up and talk about issues and talk about what works on their farm and what doesn't work on another. “

In the second of our series on agroforestry, we hear from Edd Colbert of Agroforestry Design.

Edd has lived and worked in the UK, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, in a variety of roles to support agroecological transitions.

He specialises in working with farmers, foresters and funders to design effective agroforestry systems.

Edd is also a key actor in the UK's agroforestry movement having organised the first Agroforestry Show, hosted by the Soil Association and Woodland Trust for the first time in Wiltshire last year.

We are very excited to be recruiting an Area Sales Manager.

The successful candidate will be strongly rooted in a local farming community, either being an active farmer themselves or working in an allied industry, with a good network of nearby farmers.

You will be approaching potentially interested farms with further details of the programme, and guiding those who are interested through the relevant onboarding stages.

This is an excellent opportunity to be at the forefront of efforts to improve soil health and return value from environmental benefits to farmers, while helping the industry adapt to a low-carbon future.

In the first in our series on agroforestry, Peter Leeson, Woodland Creation Adviser for the Woodland Trust, explains how trees and hedgerows can help create resilient farms.

"I'm a real advocate for trees, but they have to add value to our farm systems and when we put a tree somewhere, we need to make sure it's in the right place,” says Peter.

“It's not just about trees being pretty, it's not just about biodiversity, although that's important. It's about how a farm can take a tree, or hedge or whatever it is and add value to the farm.”

“On any family farm, one of the biggest challenges to making change can be around communicating with everyone else.

“In the last few years I’ve really tried to change my thinking, but more importantly engage with my family to bring them along as well.

“What I’m hoping is that working with Regenerate Outcomes leads to a better way of working within the family. It is a chance for us all to have much more focus on what we want to achieve.

“Regenerate Outcomes can help with that because you are working with outside consultants and it gives the transition some structure. It is also a project which involves a lot of farmers I already know and respect.

"I fundamentally believe that the only thing that creates soil structure is biology.

“The more biology that we have of different sorts, the more organic compounds that will come to help create that aggregate structure.”

In the latest in our Autumn and Winter Webinar Series, we were joined by Ian Gould, a director of Oakbank Game and Conservation, to focus on how increasing diversity of all living organisms can improve soil health.

Oakbank has built a great reputation working with farmers and landowners to make the best use of agri-environment schemes to improve wildlife habitats.