Overview
With the Sustainable Farming Scheme on the horizon, Marc, Wynn and Bethan want to explore how they can qualify for the scheme by completing the proposed Universal Actions.
Keeping accurate records is one element they would like to explore, but doing so in a way that does not take up too much time away from the day to day running of the farm. The latest technology will therefore be used to capture, store and present data in a way that benefits the farming business, whilst also helping them to comply with the proposed universal actions, specifically;
- UA 3 - Soil Health Planning
- UA 5 - Integrated Pest Management
- UA 11 - Hedgerow Management
Information such as detailed soil analysis, earth observations to identify areas of interest, combined with ground-truthing field surveys backed up by localised GNSS enabled readings with Geo-tagged photographic evidence will all be captured using the app.
The project will contribute to achieving the following Sustainable Land Management outcomes:
- reduce the farms greenhouse gas emissions
- support improvement in maximising carbon storage and sequestration whilst reducing the whole-farm carbon footprint
- maintain and enhance the ecosystem
Latest Project Timeline
July 2024
The project aims to demonstrate how using technology to gather and store records in relation to specific Sustainable Farming Scheme ‘Universal Actions’ (as they are currently proposed) could provide useful and beneficial data for the farmer, saving time, while also ensuring data is accurate and verifiable by;
- The use of ISO accredited soil sampling
- which will contribute towards completing UA3
- The use of earth observation to identify areas of interest, combined with ground-truthing field surveys backed up by localised GNSS enabled readings with Geo-tagged photographic evidence.
- Which will contribute towards completing / recording compliance with UA11, UA10, UA4, UA7, UA8 and scheme rules relating to minimum habitat and tree cover
- UA3 - Soil health planning
- UA4 - Multispecies cover crop
- UA7 - Habitat maintenance
- UA8 Create temporary habitat on improved land
- UA10 - Ponds and scrapes
- UA11 - Hedgerow management
Cilthrew has been working with Farmeye to collect and record data for the aforementioned purposes.
Data collected so far:
- VESS assessments - 168 assessments carried out across the farm
- Earthworm assessment (methodology in Appendix 1) - 168 assessments carried out across the farm
Data collected so far:
Examples of earthworm counts and VESS assessment report cards
Further information:
VESS assessments video with voiceover
Earthworm assessment video with voiceover
How to count earthworms | AHDB
