A group of farmers is investigating whether they can limit ploughing or chemical inputs by establishing a permanent living mulch beneath their arable crops.
The project is part of the Innovative Farmers Network – an initiative to brings farmers, researchers and funders together – and involves input from levy body AHDB and the Organic Research Centre.
Both organic and conventional farmers are taking part in the project, which involves under sowing white clover into cereal crops this spring to establish a long-term living mulch system.
The mulch will then be grazed or mowed hard after harvest and prior to direct drilling a cash crop in the autumn, or next spring.
Researchers will collect data on both the cash and cover crop including information on weeds, soil nutrients, yields and grain quality.
It is hoped the living mulch created by the white clover will reduce or eliminate chemical fertilisers and herbicides by controlling weeds while also fixing nitrogen.
Clive Bailye from TWB Farms in Staffordshire, which moved to a conservation agriculture system 15 years ago, is one of the farmers involved in the project.
He said: “For me, finding out how we can do organic no till without livestock is like the holy grail of arable farming.
“Environmentally our farm has transformed and our yields and crop consistency have improved – although we have made lots of changes, so it’s not just down to the no-till system.
“But it has made a big difference and we have cut out insecticide use completely.”
The new living mulch systems will be compared to each farm’s typical farming practice as a control, and the difference between the two systems will be compared across all farms.
Innovative Farmers programme manager Helen Aldis said: “By growing a living mulch, we are hoping it might address key sustainability challenges for all types of farmers in keeping soil disturbance and chemical inputs to a minimum.”
