Peter Green is joined for the first episode by Tom Tolputt and Professor Andy Neal to discuss soil health in the South West. What state are the soils of the South West in and what could be done to improve them? How can better soils make your farm more resilient? 

In this series we are focusing on the topic of resilience. 

Farming Focus is the podcast for farmers in the South West of England. 

For more information on Cornish Mutual visit cornishmutual.co.uk

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Timestamps

00:01 Cornish Mutual jingle. 

00:06 Intro music.

00:15 Peter Green introduces the series.  

01:25  Cornish mutual jingle. 

01:34 Peter introduces today's subject - soil and soil health - and today's guests. 

02:29 Tom and Andy come in.

02:42 Tom talks about how he got into soil and farm consultancy. 

03:21 Andy discusses his background. 

04:17 Cornish Mutual jingle. 

04:24 What does resilience mean for Tom?

05:03 What does resilience mean for Andy?

06:00 A shift towards soil being the most important element - what has caused that shift in focus? Why is it important to discuss soil first when thinking about resilience?

07:52 Tom discusses the importance of soil and building biology within the soil. 

09:05 Grazing is associated with higher organic matter in soil. There are benefits of grazing in rotation for the function of soil. 

09:56 Why did Tom take the decision to go organic?

11:37 What is the state of our soils in the south west?

15:12 Could we be doing more to improve soils in the south west? Andy explains the role of tillage.

16:40 There are instances when ploughing helps. 

18:32 Rothamsted's long term experiments. 

20:20 Cornish Mutual jingle

20:31 Carbon, soils and organic matter - are they the same thing?

23:18 Resilience comes from the driving of microbial processes.

23:43 Carbon credits.

27:33 Understanding where we are at the moment and taking stock - the importance of this. Getting baselines and practical steps to achieve this. 

30:00 Andy's tips for taking soil samples.

31:17 The importance of context. Sandy soils and soil texture. 

33:27 Tom discusses different soil types. 

34:44 What can farmers do more of?

36:05 Andy reiterates that soil is a living system. 

37:55 Peter sums up the podcast. - understanding your farm and your soils; know your context; earning the right to plough, perennial cropping; building organic matter is a slow thing but what we need to do. 

39:09 The cream tea question...

40:22 Peter rounds up.