This years Organic Producers Conference was based at Aston University in the middle of Birmingham a rather unusual venue for a group of organic farmers to meet, and perhaps why there appeared to be more consultants and advisors present at this years organic producers conference. Jim Pace may have sent warm words to the Organic [...]

Ask an organic farmer or organic consultant, where does one start with a crop establishment?  And the answer will almost certainly be the plough.  The benefits of burying weed problem and having a clean seed bed will always seem to outweigh the issues of speed of operation, cost of seed bed preparation, loss of nutrient [...]

Adapting to the Market was the theme for this years European Dairy Farmers Congress, held at Stoneleigh.  Three days of discussions, farm visits, lectures and catching up with old friends.  This was my fourth EDF.  Whilst being held at Stoneleigh, the UK is poorly represented with only a handful of farmers attending, compared to the [...]

January and February are conference season and having been to both the Organic Producers Conference and the Soil Association conference I have now had my fill and it is time to reflect on all the papers and “going ons”.  The Producers Conference combined with the Institute of Organic Trainers and Advisors meeting (www.organicadvice.org.uk).  The highlights [...]

Having returned home and avoided the worst of December snows and Australian floods, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the three weeks spent in Australia and to set some new years resolutions. My first port of calls was to return to some of my Nuffield Farming Scholarship hosts from 1997 http://www.nuffieldscholar.org/ and in [...]

I was on farm the other day preparing some diets for an organic client who wanted to check the mineral status of his organic diary herd.  Under organic standards trace elements and some minerals are permitted when there is evidence of a shortage. So, I was duly inputting the mineral results into the diet programme [...]