Managing water on your farm – Arran: event summary

This meeting focused on improving drainage and reducing compaction in soils to improve productivity and efficiency whilst also improving water quality.

A small but enthusiastic group of farmers turned out on a lovely summer evening to hear about soil improvements from guest speakers Seamus Donnelly (SAC Consulting) & Lucy Filby (Farming & Water Scotland).

Seamus began with an indoor presentation, highlighting the principles of drainage and compaction.  You can read his presentation slides using this link.   The meeting then moved outdoors to a nearby grassland field where Farming & Water Scotland were set up with some demonstration kit.

Here, Lucy Filby gave an overview of alternative watering options and demonstrated Springback fencing – a type of fencing that is of particular use along watercourses and river banks that may be prone to flooding.

Finally, Seamus dug some holes to look at soil structure and compaction before and after a sward lifter was used on an area of the field. However he did stress the importance of digging a hole to see where, if any problem is within your soil structure before carrying out any compaction alleviation or drainage work; without knowing what problem you are trying to fix, you cannot know which piece of machinery or plan of action will solve the problem.

 

Information available to take away and related documents can be downloaded from the links below.