ReGenAg Chat

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Russ Carrington, who is a farmer and consultant from Herefordshire.

Russ was pivotal in the early days of setting up Pasture For Life. After 10 years there and working with regenerative livestock farmers across the UK and Ireland, Russ joined the Knepp team to establish a new regenerative farming business adjacent to the rewilding project. The aim of this new business is to investigate how a joined-up approach between different land management techniques can aid nature recovery on a landscape scale.

After a couple of years on this project - https://knepp.co.uk/2023/01/regenerative-farm-moves-into-its-next-phase-alongside-knepps-rewilding/ - he is heading back to his orchards in Herefordshire and the next adventure.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Stuart Johnson, who is a mixed farmer from Northumberland.

Stuart, alongside his dad and brother, is in the process of changing their farming methods using the principles of regenerative farming. They have been mob grazing their Stabiliser cattle and Innovis sheep, and they will talk through the impact on performance. They are also using compost teas, direct drilling, herbal and high legume leys and diverse winter forage crops.

He was one of the speaker at the recent event - Farming Forward - that Nic did with The Farming Network

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Emily Padfield, David Cornforth and Fergus Henderson about their grazing systems.

Emily Padfield is part of a farming couple from Warwickshire. She is currently doing a Nuffield Scholarship - The mob-grazed flerd: improving soil, biodiversity and farm incomes. She has recently visited Allan Savoury's Africa Centre For Holistic Management.

Fergus Henderson and David Cornforth farm near one another in Kent and have been practising tall grass grazing for over ten years. They will be talking through what they have learnt over the dry seasons down in the south-east.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Dan Carne (Woodmeadow Trust) and Dr Nigel Kendall (University of Nottingham) about the benefits of trees within all grazing systems.

Dan Carne is the director of the Woodmeadow Trust, which is aiming to set up a network of woodmeadows in every parish. He will talking about the benefits of trees from a biodiversity perspective and how to set up systems from their experiences with their flagship site. See https://www.woodmeadowtrust.org.uk/home.

Dr Nigel Kendall is a lecturer in nutrition at Nottingham's vet school and also runs their diagnostic lab. He has become interested in the mineral profile of trees and how they can support livestock production. See https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vet/people/nigel.kendall

They highlighted mainly the pros and very few cons of trees in grazing systems.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Professor Derrick Moot (researcher from New Zealand) and Dave Cross (mixed farmer from Norfolk).

Professor Derrick Moot from Lincoln University (NZ) led the work on dryland pasture production that Doug Avery applied on to his farm. He has done a lot of work on lucerne and high legume pastures. See https://drylandpastures.com/. Derrick also talked through his attitudes towards regenerative agriculture.

Dave Cross farms with his dad in north Norfolk and has been using lucerne and high legume pastures for the last three seasons. He will discuss his experiences with the crops. He was involved in an Innovative Farmers field lab on grazing lucerne - https://www.innovativefarmers.org/field-lab?id=2a12e37b-4a5d-ea11-8181-005056ad0bd4

They will be highlighting the pros and cons of the options for dryland production.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to Greg Judy, a regenerative rancher from Missouri.

He is the headline speaker for the Carbon Calling conference in Cumbria on Saturday 25th June and will be running a workshop on Sunday 26th June.

On this regen chat he will be introducing us to his and his wife's system of cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and mushrooms on rented and owned land in Missouri. They use rotational grazing and their animals are 100% pasture fed. There is a big focus on biodiversity and wildlife.

We will also talk through what he will be talking about at Carbon Calling.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - talked to Ian Bell, who is a Certified Soil Food Web Lab-Tech and working towards being a Soil Food Web consultant. He is the founder of Northern Soil Regen, which works with farmers to improve their soil biology through different compost techniques and inoculations. They are developing novel techniques for applications. He has also trained with the Holistic Management International and is interested in mixing farming systems.

He will be running a workshop at Carbon Calling and will welcome farmers to bring soil or compost samples to look at the life in them.

He was joined by his mentor, Tanja Dekker from the Netherlands, who is a soil food web consultant working with community projects and dairy farmers. 

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - spoke to the other two founders of Carbon Calling - Tim Nicolson and Reno. It is an opportunity to hear from Tim, who is the host farmer of Carbon Calling, and what he has found out already from the trial plots and what will be seen on the day. Plus various blatant plugs for his cactus tree guards.

Reno spoke through what Nic and him are up to on the farm, and their plans for 2022.

Liz and Nic highlighted the speakers that have been booked for the conference, plus some of the ideas for the workshops. Tickets are available to purchase after this chat - https://buytickets.at/carboncalling/653331

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - talk to two farmers from Weardale - William Emerson and Tom Vickers, who are around 18 months into their regen journey. They will share how they became interested in changing their farming practices and how some of their family and friends think they have joined a cult. We will talk through how they are aiming to make the most of their farm's resources and their plans to deal with reducing subsidy levels.

William will also talk about his recent trip to see Greg Judy - one of the speakers at Carbon Calling in June 2022.

Nic Renison and Liz Genever - two of the founders of Carbon Calling - talked to Jon and Nick Francis from Paddock Farm. They set up their business from an interest in food and aiming to produce the best pork without compromise. They now sell fresh pork, beef, eggs and vegetables to high-end restaurants and gastropubs, and through their own butcher's shop. Have a look at https://www.paddock.fm/ or https://www.instagram.com/paddock.farm/