On Thursday 4th January, 2024, RASE held a panel discussion at the Oxford Real Farming Conference, which was titled ‘Family farming decisions: Bringing together old and new thinking’. The session delved into how two farming families are making decisions to increase the resilience of their farm businesses. The session was chaired by Philip Gready, chair of the RASE board of trustees. The speakers were Lucinda and Billy Lewis from Boycefield Farm in Herefordshire, and Tony, Edward and Thomas Gent from Gentle Farming. Both businesses have adopted regenerative farming practices to minimise financial risk and improve the resilience of the farm business. Farm profile – Boycefield Farm Billy and Lucinda are working with nature to produce pedigree Hereford cattle, from the

Introducing livestock to an arable system can improve the biological function of soil. This impact can be maximized by using diverse leys and adopting grazing techniques to promote the build up of organic matter and soil fertility.   The impact of eliminating livestock from arable rotations   In the 20th and early part of the 21st century, the increasing availability of artificial nitrogen meant farms could reduce and even eliminate livestock from their rotations and still grow acceptable yields of grains and plant proteins. This allowed specialisation to occur and resulted in the investment in fewer, but much larger and heavier machines.   The combination of the loss of livestock in the rotation, the increased weight of machinery and the

Up to one third of farmers in the UK are either possibly or probably depressed, in a recent talk on mental health in farming.

In the latest episode of the RASE podcast, we spoke to John Cherry, to understand his perspective on regenerative agriculture.