The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) will host a farm walk for attendees to explore the role of livestock in the arable rotation.
The event will take place at Henton Farms, Atherfield Farm, Atherfield Road, Ventor on the Isle of Wight on Tuesday, December 5.
Isle of Wight farmer Richard Chapman and Cotswold farmer Ed Horton will speak at the event.
The meeting will include:
- Farm walk and talk from Isle of Wight farmer Richard Chapman or Henton Farms;
- Lunch at Wight Mouse Inn;
- AHDB update on winter events, research, and an overview of benchmarking;
- Sheep in the arable rotation presentation and discussion session from Cotswold farmer Ed Horton.
Chapman farms 550ha near Atherfield, Isle of Wight. He is an arable farmer introducing various new cropping strategies, including min-till, direct drilling, cover cropping and grazing sheep.
Horton manages a mixed 3,500ha farming operation across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire.
He uses a lower input approach to growing arable crops somewhere between conventional and organic, with an emphasis on livestock integration.
The sheep are grazed on all cereal crops and oilseed rape (OSR) to lower chemical usage.
BASIS and NRoSO points will be available for attendees and booking can be done via the AHDB website. The event is free to attend but registering is advised.
Those interested in attending are advised to bring suitable footwear and clothing for a field walk.
