The Source

Artisan cheese supplier, Neal’s Yard Dairy and the Sustainable Food Trust, have been working together for a number of years to assess the sustainability of the farming systems of the cheesemakers who supply produce for NYD.

"I wanted to know whether ‘real zero’, rather than offset-dependent net zero, was achievable."

This POSTnote outlines how collaborative decision-making can support multifunctional land-use decisions to deliver locally legitimate outcomes in England.

Mass grant funding for field drainage dried up in the 1980s. Even well-maintained drains installed then will now be creaking and groaning, especially when extreme wet weather hits.

There are greater challenges in UK farming than for any of the 60 years the Nix Farm Management Pocketbook has been recording farm performance, despite good profits in some sectors.

Environmental schemes can look fairly straightforward when they are announced. There is an aim, a payment, some guidance and a set of actions.

At times of low commodities prices, cost control is, of course, a really important area and should be seen as a cultural way to approach farming, rather than reacting to low prices by trying to slash costs.

Although climate change is already having a negative impact on crops, declines in yields have so far been offset by technological advances in agriculture. For field crops that do not rely on pollinators, however, this trend appears to be reversing.

Padel is the diversification enquiry of the moment. The demand is real, the planning routes are better than most landowners expect, and the capital requirement is modest next to almost anything else you could build on a farmyard.

While cropping system diversifcation has strong potential to reduce climate risks to crop yields at a time when such risks are rapidly increasing, resilience of agricultural production is only part of what makes for resilient agricultural communities and food systems. Diversifying processes across multiple dimensions of agri-food systems will be needed to build adaptive capacity to climate change.

Genetic components of body condition score and locomotion in Holstein-Friesian dairy cows

What makes some farmers early adopters, and why being curious, well informed, and willing to test new ideas can be a competitive advantage.