Soil is an essential natural resource for all farmers.
Over recent years many initiatives have sought to provide information and advice on soils and Soil Health, notably AHDB Great Soils.
You can view a summary on the AHDB Knowledge Library from which much of the info in the soil topics on Farm-PEP has been taken.
There are lots of other resources and organisations that provide info and advice on soils including:
Tell us about any resources and initiatives that you find useful.
Content below is from across the PEP community and is not necessarily endorsed by Stewards or by PEP
Field drainage is installed to rapidly remove excess soil water to reduce or eliminate waterlogging and return soils to their natural field capacity. Drains can be used to control a water table or to facilitate the removal of excess water held in the upper horizons of the soil.
Tell us how you are improving your soils. Share useful resources, organisations and initiatives.
Soil health has been broken down into measurable parts to help farmers optimise crop and grassland productivity. As part of the Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership, a project in the AHDB & BBRO GREAT Soils programme, guidance and protocols have been issued to help practitioners benchmark their soils
The Farming and Land Use Team at the Soil Association have a specialist knowledge of all UK agricultural sectors as well as in depth understanding of organic and agroecological food production systems. Our goal is to support organic and non-organic farmers alike to transition towards more sustainable practices.
We help farmers improve their soil health by enabling them to benchmark their existing soil data.
The standard way to measure and monitor soils has been through soils samples taken to 15-30cm in representative W patterns. A range of technologies are now available commercially and in development to provide higher resolution data across a wider range of metrics. This page provides a space to share and discuss the available and coming tools, services and technologies.
The intricate web of relationships between physical, chemical and biological soil components underpins crop and livestock health and productivity.
Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for both plants and animals, playing a key role in energy transfer as a major component of ATP. It is also vital in DNA. For full capture & conversion of solar energy, crop canopies need 30-40 kg/ha P. Crop species redistribute most of this P (~85%; more than for any other nutrient) to their seeds during canopy senescence, where it is stored as phytate. Plants appear to do this because, until their roots proliferate, plant seedlings are highly sensitive to P shortages.
Grass in farming is interconnected with livestock systems for their feed, in the form of grazing, haylage and silage, and is also used as 'leys' (short-term grasslands) to regenerate soil structure and quality.
The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) is an established international membership organisation committed to the study of soil in its widest aspects. The society brings together those working within academia, practitioners implementing soil science in industry and all those working with, or with an interest in soils.
The VESS is a semi-formal approach to assessing soil structure, first developed by SRUC.
The 18th Recycling of Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial Residues in Agriculture Network (RAMIRAN) conference will be held in Cambridge, UK from 12–14 September 2023. All sessions will be held in the heart of Cambridge at the Guildhalls and Corn Exchange.
The James Hutton Institute combines strengths in crops, soils and land use and environmental research, and makes a major contribution to the understanding of key global issues, such as food, energy and environmental security, and developing and promoting effective technological and management solutions to these.
Guidance from AHDB GREATSoils giving four easy-to-follow steps for assessing soil structure.
AgriTech 4.0 focuses on supporting farms and farmers in providing them knowledge and assistance on the key aspects of the evolving technologies, processes, and practices being developed and used for sustainable farming.
Scientific paper looking at the relationships between scientists and farmers:
We are a world-leading independent research organisation providing objective, expert geoscientific data, information and knowledge.
This topic refers to the whole food supply chain, from farm fork, and all the products and services that contribute to food production.
There is a lot of interest in soil carbon currently, due to the opportunity to store and sequester carbon in soil. It is also vital for soil health, forming part of soil organic matter.
Helping you protect your soil and improve its productivity. AHDB's GREATSoils inititiative brings together practical information on soil management as well as links to soils research and knowledge exchange. Whether you need an introduction to soil biology or a detailed guide to improving field drainage, AHDB has information and guidance to support you.
ipaast-czo: Interoperable Precision Agricultural and Archaeological Sensing Technologies Remote and near-surface sensing technologies such as satellite imaging, UAV imaging, and geophysical survey are used in the practice of precision agriculture to support farmers and land managers to make data-driven management decisions. Archaeologists use many of these same sensing technologies to investigate the buried evidence for past human activities and make this evidence for the heritage of agricultural landscapes visible. Fundamentally, practitioners and researchers in both precision agriculture and archaeology are invested in developing a better understanding of soil conditions and their impacts on plant development by using advanced sensing technologies and related analytical methods. Consequently, there is a vast, untapped potential for sharing data and analytical approaches, enabling new research in both domains at an unprecedented scale and level of detail, leading to enhanced interpretations of the character of the agricultural landscape.
Enviresearch exists to provide the best regulatory and risk assessment service in Europe for the global chemical industry.
As a specialist postgraduate university, Cranfield’s world-class expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally
Physical and online conference at Harper Adams Soil & Water Management Centre on 7th December.
Calling all agronomists! Sign up for the last few places at Soil Benchmark's event at NIAB on 7th December - hear from Dr Elizabeth Stockdale and join some of the UK's leading agronomists in the discussion on Farm Data and the Future of Agronomy
Report from European Environment Agency giving over of the metrics, challenges and plans for measuring soil health across Europe.
The 3rd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference to be held in Dublin (Ireland) in 2023 will expand on previous GSBI conferences and convene the world’s leading experts in this interdisciplinary field of soil biodiversity science to present and discuss recent advances addressing the urgency of meeting global challenges which link to human, animal and plant health and a more sustainable world.
The VESS is an approach you can use to assess soil structure. Developed by Aarhus and
Webinar hosted by GWCT with David Powlson - watch the video below.
Guide by Graham Shepherd (Landcare Research, New Zealand) giving an approach to assessing soil qu
For a chance to win a free ticket to Groundswell 2023, please fill out the full survey here:
Scientific paper in New Phytologist by scientists at China Agriculture University and James H
Guide from FIBL and Organic Research Centre giving the fundamentals of soil fertility.
Funded by AHDB and BBRO, this five-year Soil Biology and Soil Health Partnership is a cross-sector programme of research and knowledge exchange. The programme is designed to help farmers and growers maintain and improve the productivity of UK agricultural and horticultural systems, through better understanding of soil biology and soil health. See https://ahdb.org.uk/soil-biology-and-soil-health-partnership
In February 2018, ADAS, AHDB and Defra launched the Grass and herbal leys farm network. The network is a partnership between farmers, researchers and industry and provides a platform to investigate the long term impacts of leys in rotations, such as: Quantifying changes in soil organic matter and soil health from introducing temporary grass/herbal leys across a range of soil types and rainfall areas. Quantifying subsequent changes to soil organic matter and soil health following the destruction of the temporary grass/herbal leys and return to arable production. Investigating the effectiveness of grass/herbal leys in controlling blackgrass in ‘problem’ fields.
We aim to provide sugar beet growers and wider industry with the resources required to grow a healthy and profitable sugar beet crop in the UK.
Farmer Innovation Group as part of YEN Yield Testing project on achieving Deeper Rooting. Encouragement of deep burrowing earthworms might enhance yields by enabling deeper rooting, and capture of more sub-soil water.
Routine topsoil samples should be taken from all fields for analysis of pH, P, K and Mg every 3-5 years. Accurate information on soil nutrient Indices and soil pH is essential for nutrient management planning. Various approaches and services are now available for in field mapping of soil nutrient availability.
Good soil management is essential to maintain a wide range of ecosystem services, including sustainable food production, water regulation and carbon storage, and to minimise diffuse pollution of the air and water environments.
Environment Digest is a quarterly publication that provides a synopsis of recent news, reports and other materials that are of interest to the farming community. With a particular focus on how agriculture links with the environment, each issue focusses on articles across sustainable food production, climate change, water and waste management, soils and biodiversity. Environment Digest principally focuses on stories and policy changes that are relevant to England and/or the UK with a slant towards the arable sector.
Series of 20 videos from USA exploring Regenerative Agriculture and the "Future of Agriculture for Ecosystems and Human Health"
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The FarmSmarter app is an agri-tech decision making service aimed at smallholder farmers. Our primary focus is to support smallholder farmers in achieving sustainable profitable production developing regions. We are extending our development to cover sustainable farming practices and improvement of biodiversity and soil health in the UK and Europe for future additions to the FarmSmarter digital toolkit.
This report by the German Environment Agency examines the mitigation potential of climate friendly soil management practices at global, EU and German level, along with key management measures, their co-benefits and trade-offs, and implementation challenges.
A joint AFCP and NIAB event exploring what research is needed by farmers and stakeholders. Hear from researchers looking at cover crops for soil structure and health; fungus and plant nutrient exchange; alleviating subsoil compaction; and more.
Warwick Crop Centre is a national centre of excellence for research on fresh produce. We provide post-graduate training and specialise in research projects promoting sustainable agriculture, horticulture and food security.
Soil Fungal Communities Project to establish the level of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in arable soils across a range of locations, soil types and management systems.
6 October 2023: AFBI Soils Conference - La Mon Hotel and Country Club, Belfast
The 18th Recycling of Agricultural, Municipal and Industrial Residues in Agriculture Network (RAMIRAN) conference was a resounding success. See selected resources from the conference below.
The agricultural industry is heading toward a more sustainable, profitable, and efficient future. Future Farming Expo will bring together forward-thinking Scottish farmers, advisors, and rural businesses over two days for knowledge hubs, discussion, and networking across a busy exhibition hall.
Cover crop establishment is affected by several factors, including species, soil type, weather and the rotation. Time of sowing, seed rates and establishment methods all need to be considered.
Soil is the basis of every grassland system and aiming to constantly improve soil health will pay dividends in grassland productivity.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and crops can work together for mutual gain. A new PhD studentship report examines how these crop-friendly fungi can be nurtured by management.
New study suggests “techno-grazing” approaches can support more cattle in less space without adversely affecting soil structure and function
Certain crops (potatoes, sugar beet, maize, field vegetables) within a wider arable rotation pose increased risk of soil loss or degradation. Often described as ‘risky’ these crops may require additional management to ensure that field conditions are favourable and that there is no long-term disruption to soil functionality or structure.
Precision approaches and technologies will play a key role in successful, economically viable and
We are pleased to announce that the next British Society of Soil Science Annual Conference will be a joint event with the Soil Science Society of Ireland and take place in Belfast on Monday 4 and Tuesday 5 December 2023.
Increasing the amount of C stored in soil is beneficial from a climate change mitigation perspective.
From Crop Action Feb 2022: Sulphur is an essential plant nutrient and
In Devon, a group of six farmers and Rothamsted’s North Wyke research farm have teamed up through Innovative Farmers to form the Devon Silvopasture Network.
A major reason for the predominant failure of translational research from laboratory to field is
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Useful resources and fact sheets on soil quality from Australian perspective at www.soilquality.org.au
Lots of good resources, infographics and media at soillife.org