BASE-UK Member Success - Soil Farmer of the Year Competition

Posted June, 11th, 2018

BASE-UK Members have once again had success in the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit Soil Farmer of the Year Competition for 2018 with Angus Gowthorpe taking runner-up and Will Steel placed third and awarded highly commended due to exemplary soil management is Simon Drury, also a finalist.  Congratulations to all of them!

This competition aims to find farmers and growers who are engaged with, and passionate about managing their soils in a way which supports productive agriculture, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and builds soil health, organic matter and carbon.

The competition, now in its third year is organised by the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit (FCCT) and Innovation for Agriculture (IfA) and is kindly sponsored by NRM and Cotswold Seeds.

Simon Cowell, an arable farmer from Essex has been announced as the winner of the 2018 Soil Farmer of the Year.  To read the full article please see the link to the FCCT website: FCCT Soil Farmer of the Year 2018

The top three farmers will all receive prizes of fertility building or green manure seed from one of the generous sponsors of the competition, Cotswold Seeds.

All of the finalists will have their awards presented to them at the FCCT stand at Groundswell, taking place on the 27th and 28th June. This will be a fantastic opportunity to meet them and see them rewarded for their fantastic management and find out more about the farm walks.

The top three farmers will also all be hosting farm walks who are open to anyone who is interested, where there will be a chance to see, understand and dig a bit deeper into what they are doing. Further details on the farm walks will be announced soon.

David Gardner, FCCT Director said “In the third year of running this competition, it is fantastic to see such amazing farmers sharing their soil management stories.  Yet again there was a lot of strong applicants, and it was a hard decision on who to shortlist as well as to decide the final result.  We appreciate the effort all entrants put in to the competition. Simon, as our winner was demonstrating exceptional management, and has even brought some ‘bounce’ to his heavy clay soils. This demonstrates that even the most difficult soils have the potential to be improved.”

We look forward to seeing FCCT at Groundswell 2018.