Agricology Blog

Take part in the the #30minworms survey with Jackie Stroud.

For organic pig and poultry farmers, living up to the ideal of feeding 100% regional and organic feed is difficult and especially for protein that fulfils amino acid requirements (cysteine, lysine and methionine most notably). Balanced diets are important, not just for healthy growth and production, but also for animal welfare where, for example, an imbalance can lead to feather pecking and cannibalism in poultry.

Reducing tillage and chemical inputs can be beneficial for soil and the environment, so could a permanent clover understorey acting as a 'living mulch', moving towards a perennial soil cover, offer a practical solution to reducing inputs and having more sustainable cropping systems?

It is great that the pandemic has highlighted for people the importance of their food, which some perhaps previously took for granted. It has meant a massive increase in sales for us at the Seed Co-operative - the UK's community owned organic seed company - both to gardeners and to commercial growers who are experiencing greater demand.

In 1992 I started my career as a newly fledged post-doc working on the Integrated Farming Systems project and so have been intrigued to see the rising interest in regenerative agriculture. But what is it, and is it any different to integrated farming that has been promoted by organisations such as LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) since its establishment 1991?

Vicky Bowskill gives insights into the dynamics between healthy meadows and hay making, explaining her research looking at how hay yield and a range of dietary minerals change during the growing season in mixed species floodplain meadows.

When we think of a balanced diet, we think of eating a range of foods to give us different benefits. Why should it be any different for livestock? Cattle and sheep also need to get protein, carbohydrates and a range of nutrients from their food, and it’s not easy to get that from a single plant species

Agricology and the University of Reading have been awarded a DEFRA Environmental Land Management scheme test to research in partnership, how effective videos and podcasts are as tools to learn about farming practices. As part of this study we are conducting a series of focus groups and an online survey for farmers to understand their preferences and experiences of using these tools.

If you have never gotten down on your hands and knees to sift through a cow or sheep poo, then grab a 'stool.' Each pat is a whole micro-habitat in itself for a whole diverse collection of insects, but for the purposes of this article I want to focus on the dung beetles who occupy these gorgeous one-off homes. These beetles bring a number of positive attributes not just to farmers, but are also a very important link in ecology.

ll the knowledge in focus for vertical farmers, whether it be hydroponics, aeroponics, aquaponics or anything inbetween, has been borne from the knowledge gained from traditional farming, ecology and sustainability.

Have you ever wondered what the true benefit of hedgerows, tree lines or flower rich margins are on your crop yield? As part of the EU-funded project Ecostack, I am looking into whether these landscape features are helping improve crop yield

As part of #OrganicSeptember campaign, Daylesford Organic have been running a ‘Future of Food’ series, featuring interviews with thought leaders in the food, ecology and agriculture industries.