Wildfarmed Grains, How to grow Commercial Regenerative Wheat Without Roundup

Most regenerative farmers are doing a great job of reducing pesticide use and fertiliser inputs by growing cover crops and making use of integrated pest management techniques -planting flowers in margins to encourage beneficial insects to control pests. One thing we've heard time after time is that it's common practice in regenerative farming to kill off the cover crop with Roundup before sowing the crop. Until now that is!

Wildfarmed grains are paying farmers to grow wheat on a commercial scale using strip tilling methods. This involves maintaining a permanent herbal lay understory and scraping off strips around 50cm apart and sowing the wheat crop directly into these strips using a custom-made drilling machine. Approximately 43% of the field is used to produce the wheat crop, with the remaining 57% being taken up by the ley-supporting development of high-quality soil structure and providing habitat for wildlife including beneficial insects. The ley is controlled by mowing using a custom built interrow mowing machine to stop it competing with the wheat with the cuttings left in situ.

The grain is harvested using a conventional combine harvester. Wildfarmed grains will forward purchase the wheat crop which they mill in their own mill, to make Wildfarmed bread which is being sold in outlets throughout the country. The caveats for purchasing the grain are that it is grown without any chemical inputs at all, using the methods developed by farmer and founder of Wildfarmed, Andy Cato.

Andy developed his methodology on his farm in France, where he was rewarded for his services to agriculture with a French equivalent of a knighthood. He is an English man. For an Englishman to be knighted for his services to agriculture in France, is certainly an endorsement of the highest order!

For all you farmers reading this thinking-how does this stack up? What about the yields? The key to your business case is the net profit. Yes-the yield is lower than for traditional chemically produced wheat. Approximately 40% of conventional yields, however with guaranteed forward contracts from Wildfarmed and a guaranteed price, and no need to purchase synthetic fertilisers or pesticides, the NET profit for many farmers growing for Wildfarmed Grains has been attractive, so much so that other farmers are catching on to this opportunity and following suit. Animals are required for mob grazing, which adds a natural fertiliser, and so there is additional income to be gained from livestock production. Farmers already farming on contract for Wildfarmed are seeing net profits per acre on a par with chemical farming, and in some cases are better off.

Added to this, there is of course ELMS, which is expected to pay farmers for carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Strip tilling in this way will tick both boxes very well-and produce food for the country and allow farmers to do what they do best-farm!

Some of the machinery required does have to be custom built, and to get around this, clusters of farmers are forming in some parts of the country, so they can share machinery, and help each other. Clusters to date have formed in Northumberland, Devon, and Swindon, and it is hoped more clusters will begin to form in other parts of the country.

Wildfarmed are all about buying wheat to make bread.  Strip tilling can be used for any crop. Tomson Consulting are committed to helping farmers and landowners maintain viable businesses, in a way that regenerates the planet. It is possible to have it all-we can break our chemical dependency and heal the land before we run out of soil.