DON’T GAMBLE AWAY THE LONG-TERM HEALTH OF YOUR SOIL

There is no denying that the current climate for farming is as challenging as it has been for many years, with a combination of global uncertainty brought about by the spectre of tariffs and restricted international trade, looming changes to the tax regime, the end of direct payments and the sudden turning off of the SFI tap, and, to cap it all, a serious risk of drought, writes James Hill.

Given all of this, it might not be surprising that some farmers are looking at maximising yields in the short-term in order to see off the immediate financial challenges.  But doing this could jeopardise the long-term future of the farm by ignoring every farmer’s key asset: the soil.

We have always seen this kind of short-term thinking.  For example, in certain cases some tenants who only have short-term access to land aim to maximise the outputs in that period, without having to think about the long-term implications of their actions.  However, landowners are now increasingly being tempted to adopt a similar strategy.

Many farmers face an overwhelming need to generate income right now to cover expenditure.  Yet looking at farm profitability only over a one year period is a fool’s errand; you have to consider the effect of current actions – such as crop choice and limiting inputs – on potential future sources of income which are reliant on that same soil.

The problem is that the number of farmers who are able and willing to accept a lower return right now in order to pursue a bigger return in the future is diminishing.

Alongside this we are seeing a growth in regenerative farming, such as using cover crops to manage soil and reduce the need for inputs.  But when you encounter an extremely dry year such as we are experiencing right now, you can find that those cover crops have used all the moisture, making the establishment of spring crops such as peas and sugar beet extremely challenging.

The evidence suggests that just two or three years adopting a short-term yield maximisation strategy can result in sub-optimal soil performance for the following decade.  Tempting though it may be, taking this kind of short-term view can be disastrous not just in the very long-term, but in the foreseeable future too.

As a farmer, if you ruin your soil, you have nothing.  Sadly, there are no quick and easy solutions to the challenges facing farming today; gambling the health of the farm’s key asset for a short-term fix is certainly not one of them.