We recently held our first workshop of the year on a lovely property out at Glastonbury – the topic being the long awaited Cover Cropping and Small Grazing Management, which we had promised to reschedule since being affected by Covid-19 last year.
We had a wonderful turnout and the weather even turned up for us on the day, creating a lovely atmosphere that was neither too hot or too dry.
Our hosts Karren and Warren were extremely informative and we all loved how open and honest they were about their own personal successes and failures in managing the farm. Everybody could really get a sense of the passion that this couple has in their quest for becoming a completely regenerative farm set-up.
Karen began our day by holding a talk about the property – what they have tried to achieve over the last 5 years and how successful they have been in achieving this, whilst continually adapting their grazing management techniques. Karen taught us all about the importance of multi-species cover cropping to not only assist with biodiversity, but also to “upgrade” the network of root systems ultimately increasing the different nutrients that are shared between plants under the surface.
Karen also taught us about some of the techniques that she has learnt by studying the works of reputable regenerative agriculturalists, such as Joel Salatin, Dr Christine Jones and Allan Savory. These included aspects such as the amount of moisture your soil will retain at different soil temperatures and planting multi-species grasses to aid in plant root networking.
Warren then led us around the farm to show us their new water contours and we are now definitely looking into arranging a more detailed workshop on the topic of water contouring.
All in all we had a wonderful day and learnt some great techniques and advice from Karren and Warren. We must say a big thank you to them for having us all for the day, and also to their young sons who did a fantastic job being Karen’s helpful assistants for the day.
Rhiaan Ashton
Education & Events Coordinator