Herbal ley
Herbal ley

Build and restore

The roots of regenerative and biological farming

Regenerative agriculture is a method of farming that uses natural systems to build soil and soil health, restore water cycles, and encourage biodiversity.

Regenerative agriculture promotes systems that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store carbon in the soil in a more stable form, otherwise known as carbon sequestration.

While we understand that every farm business is unique, we believe there are some fundamental principles that are applicable to all. Our ‘five roots’ strategy outlined below seeks to improve soil health, minimise inputs, enhance farmland biodiversity, and improve the overall profitability of every farm business we work with.

Reducing tillage

Reducing tillage protects the valuable network of fungal hyphae and improves soil structure, drainage and water holding capacity.

  • Shallow incorporation of cover crops – feeding soils

  • Reducing deep ploughing – improving soil structure

  • Encouraging mycorrhizal networks – improving phosphorus and nutrient availability
  • Building soil nutrition from the ground up
  • Improving water holding and infiltration rates

Maintaining ground cover

Maintaining permanent soil cover, either by growing plants or by plant residue, protects the soil from erosion by wind and water, minimises excessive water loss, and provides habitat for soil fauna.

  • The regenerative route to reducing bare soils
  • Use of fertility building crops within rotations
  • Helps improve the diversity of crops on the farm
  • Improves the mobilisation of phosphorus and nitrogen in the soil
  • Improves soil structure and drainage
  • Increases soil organic matter and soil carbon
  • Improves carbon sequestration
  • Encourages greater soil biodiversity

Reducing harmful inputs

The soil community is a highly complex ecosystem and any artificial input can have unintended and far-reaching consequences. Careful consideration must therefore be given to what products are used and, where possible, efforts should be made to remove harmful inputs or (at the very least) select less harmful alternatives.

  • Reduction in the application of harsh nitrogen sources, potassium salts and the use of pesticides and other harmful sprays to soil bacteria
  • Applying fungicides to an intensive crop does great harm to the fungal networks within the soil
  • Using more biological input solutions, such as molasses and bacterial stimulants, helps to repopulate soil biology and provides feed substrate for microorganisms

Integrating livestock

Integrating well-managed grazing livestock improves the cycling of nutrients and water through the system, inoculates the soil with beneficial bacteria and tramples fresh biomass into the soil as a source of nutrients for soil biota.

  • The integration of grazing livestock and perennial crops can improve soil fantastically if implemented correctly
  • Correct grazing strategies for livestock can encourage diversity, reduce harmful chemical inputs, add biology and assist carbon sequestration

Increasing diversity

Diversity of plants and animals within a more complex rotation above ground also provides suitable habitat and nutrients for a wide range of beneficial macro- and micro-organisms below ground.

  • Not only is a diverse range of cover crops necessary, but also diversity and rotation of market value crops
  • Inclusion of animals on the farm encourages complexity in building back soil biology
  • More complexity and diversity of plant and animals means greater fertility and increased business resilience

Want to know more?

Find out how we can help you implement these regenerative five roots on your farm.