Cover Cropping – Successes & Failures

The Study

When it comes to soil health and regenerative management, one technique seems to stand out above all others: the establishment and use of cover crops. Join us for a session talking all things cover crops and intercrops, with 400ha farmer Tom Jewers, 2022 Nuffield Scholar Toby Simpson and Technical Manager Jim Egan from Kings. As well as being a host farm for Hutchinsons Helix East Anglia, Tom’s family farming business is in an ambitious countryside stewardship scheme; making use of multi-species cover, catch and companion crops with a particular focus on soil health. Toby will take us through key findings from his scholarship: ‘Catch and Cover Cropping Opportunities in UK Arable Agriculture’, and explain how he is putting them into practice on his family farm, growing targeted cash crops in a highly biodiverse system. Jim Egan is a leading agri-environment advisor, joining the team at Kings in 2019, and works closely with the wider Frontier soil and plant health team. The session will be chaired by Joe Stanley – former farmer and head of Sustainable Farming and Knowledge Exchange at The Allerton Project.