Rebuilding Soil: Protecting Your Farm's Most Valuable Asset

Soil is the foundation of every farming business, but are we giving it the attention it deserves? In this episode of Tramlines, host Tony Smith is joined by Agrii's Tom Perrott and Andrew Sincock from Agro-Vital to explore why soil should be considered a farm's most valuable asset.

 Together they discuss soil health, organic matter, practical ways to assess soil condition, and how small management changes can deliver long-term improvements in resilience, productivity, and profitability.

Podcast summary: 

• Soil is a farm's greatest asset, underpinning over 95% of food production and influencing the long-term success of every farming enterprise.
• Organic matter is critical to soil health, improving structure, nutrient retention, biological activity, and long-term productivity. Historic Rothamsted trials show benefits can last for generations.
• Start with the basics by assessing soil structure, drainage, porosity, pH, earthworm numbers, and biological activity before investing in solutions.
• Every farm is different, so soil improvement strategies should be tailored to the farm's individual circumstances, resources, and business objectives.
• Incremental improvements deliver lasting results. Farmers should set achievable goals, monitor progress, and focus on building resilience through better soil management and reduced reliance on external inputs.

Rebuilding soil: practical steps to protect your farm's most valuable asset

Soil underpins almost every decision made on an arable farm. Yet, with attention often focused on varieties, inputs, machinery and crop performance, it can be easy to overlook what is happening beneath our feet.

In this episode of Tramlines, Agrii's Tom Perrott joins Andrew Sincock from Agro-Vital to discuss why understanding soil condition should be a fundamental part of farm management, and why improving it does not necessarily mean making wholesale changes.

From getting a spade into the ground to building organic matter and setting realistic goals, their message is straightforward: understand what you have, identify what needs improving and take practical steps that fit your farming system.

Why should soil be considered one of a farm's most valuable assets?

For Andrew, the answer starts with the role soil plays in food production and the wider farming business.

Most agricultural output ultimately depends on the soil, whether crops are sold directly or used to support livestock production. That makes its condition fundamental to both productivity and the long-term resilience of the farm.

Tom argues that this can sometimes be overlooked when discussions around efficiency quickly turn towards products or inputs. Before considering those options, there is value in returning to some of the fundamentals of soil health and management.

That means looking at aggregation and soil structure, drainage, porosity, moisture movement and pH, alongside the biological activity taking place within the soil.

The aim is not to pursue an abstract idea of the "perfect" soil, but to understand how well the soil is functioning and where practical improvements could be made.

Where should growers start when assessing soil health?

One of the simplest messages from the discussion is also one of the most practical: start by looking.

A spade can reveal a great deal about what is happening below the surface.

Soil structure, rooting, compaction, moisture, porosity and earthworm activity can all provide useful clues. Tom also suggests comparing cropped areas with soil from underneath a mature hedge or another long-undisturbed part of the farm.

This can provide a useful visual reference. Soil that has remained relatively undisturbed for decades may show different aggregation, structure and biological characteristics to the neighbouring cropped field.

More formal measurements can then provide a benchmark against which changes can be monitored. Depending on the farm's objectives, this could include soil analysis and biological testing.

The important point is to establish a starting position.

Without that baseline, it becomes much harder to know whether a change in management is actually delivering an improvement.

Agrii's Soil Resilience Strategy takes a similar approach, bringing together physical, chemical and biological soil assessments to identify underlying issues and opportunities for change.

Why is organic matter so important?

Organic matter runs throughout the discussion because of the number of soil functions it can influence.

It can contribute to soil structure, nutrient retention, water management and biological activity while also supporting the longer-term productive capacity of the soil.

Andrew points to long-running Rothamsted research as an illustration of how management decisions made many years ago can continue to influence soils well into the future.

The wider principle is important. Soil improvement should be viewed over years rather than weeks.

At the same time, growers need to avoid simply drawing down the fertility that previous generations have built.

Andrew compares this to taking food from a fridge without ever restocking it. Soil reserves can support crop production, but continual removal without replacement eventually reduces what is available.

That makes building and maintaining organic matter part of a longer-term nutrient and soil management strategy rather than a short-term intervention.

For more on what soil organic matter is and why it matters for nutrient and water availability, listen to the Tramlines episode Digging into Soil Organic Matter.

Does every farm need the same soil improvement strategy?

No, and both speakers are clear that context matters.

There is little value in recommending a particular practice simply because it represents an accepted version of good soil management if it does not suit the farm itself.

An arable business without ready access to livestock manure, for example, needs a different conversation from a mixed farm with organic materials readily available.

Rotation, soil type, machinery, finances, labour, existing farming practices and business objectives will all influence what is practical.

Tom makes the point that the field itself is individual. The approach therefore needs to reflect what the grower is trying to achieve.

If the objective is better nitrogen use efficiency, the questions, measurements and management changes may be different from those on a farm trying to improve drainage, reduce compaction or build organic matter.

Understanding the objective first makes it easier to decide what action is worthwhile.

Do growers need to make major changes?

Not necessarily.

Andrew advocates making small, achievable improvements rather than trying to transform the farming system overnight.

That may begin with something as straightforward as digging a hole, assessing soil condition and counting earthworms.

From there, the grower can identify a particular issue, make a change and monitor what happens.

The important thing is to begin building soil assessment into normal farm management.

Large changes that do not fit the business are unlikely to be sustained. Smaller steps that can be measured, understood and adapted are more likely to become part of the farming system.

That also allows growers to learn from what is happening in their own fields rather than relying entirely on a prescribed model of what soil management should look like.

What role does soil biology play?

Physical structure and soil chemistry are only part of the picture. The biological activity within the soil also plays an important role in nutrient cycling and how the soil functions as a whole.

For growers interested in exploring this further, the Tramlines episode Boosting Bugs in Soil looks specifically at soil biology, its agronomic value and what it can mean for the farming business.

Can better soil management help reduce reliance on inputs?

This is one of the longer-term opportunities discussed in the episode.

Tom describes soil as a biological system that is continually being asked to process nutrients, crop protection products and other inputs while supporting crop growth.

Improving the way that system functions may help the crop make better use of the resources available to it.

His wider objective is for growers to explore how better soil management could contribute to greater business resilience and, over time, reduce some of their exposure to globally traded inputs.

That does not mean removing inputs for the sake of it.

Instead, it means understanding whether improvements in soil condition, organic matter, pH, rooting and nutrient availability can help make the whole cropping system more efficient.

For growers, the commercial question is therefore not simply "How can I use fewer inputs?" but "How can I make the soil and the inputs I use work more effectively together?"

What practical steps can growers take now?

The discussion points towards a relatively simple starting framework:

• Get into the field. Dig soil pits and look at structure, rooting, drainage, porosity and earthworm activity.
• Establish a baseline. Use appropriate soil and biological testing where it helps answer a specific question.
• Check the fundamentals. Consider pH, organic matter and physical soil condition before looking for more complicated solutions.
• Set a clear objective. Decide what you actually want to improve, whether that is nutrient use, structure, resilience or another aspect of performance.
• Work within the farm's circumstances. Build a strategy around the resources, rotation and farming system you have.
• Make manageable changes. Trial an approach in a field or even a tramline rather than attempting to change everything at once.
• Measure what happens. Review the results and use them to guide the next decision.
  
  

Start with one field

Perhaps the most useful message from the episode is that rebuilding soil does not need to begin with a complete change of farming system.

Pick a field. Pick a problem. Establish where you are now and decide what improvement would look like.

Then try something, measure it and learn from the result.

As Tom concludes in the podcast, every field is different. Building healthier and more resilient soils therefore comes down to understanding those differences and making decisions that work for the individual farm.

For growers wanting to explore this further, find out more about Agrii's approach to soil health, nutrition and soil management, or speak to your Agrii agronomist about assessing current soil condition and identifying practical steps that fit your farming system.