Roxburghshire Nutrient Network Farm Meeting – event summary
3 March 2017The first Roxburghshire Soil & Nutrient Network meeting
The meeting started in Stichill village hall with an introduction to the programme, followed by sessions on:
- General group discussion of current local soil management
- Overview of role of key nutrients – see Donald Dunbar’s presentation here.
- Overview of bulky organic manures – a presentation by Audrey Litterick of Earthcare Technical – read her presentation here.
- Information on a big data project on soil health
After lunch, the group then moved to the host farm Girrick where we had sessions on:
- An introduction to the farm from Andrew Forster, the host farmer
- Key considerations when calibrating your spreader
- Discussion in the field on liming materials
- Discussion in the field on the host farm soil results and a look at soil structure and health
Information relating to this event is available to download below. If you would like any further information about the Roxburghshire Soil & Nutrient Network, please contact andrew.baird@sac.co.uk
- Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) Score Chart
- This is a downloadable copy of the Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) score chart for use in-field.
- Topics: Soils
- Assessing Your soils
- This simple, quick soil test describes soil by comparing a spadeful with a reference chart.
- Topics: Soils
- Valuing Your Soils – Practical Guidance for Scottish Farmers
- This brochure includes useful information about Scotland's agricultural soils and practical advice outlining the upfront financial savings and business benefits of better soil management and the efficient use of resources. Action and problem-specific 'field-sheets' are designed for busy farmers with limited time for reading.
- Topics: Climate Change, Soils, Water Management and Crops and Soils
- Technical Note (TN656): Soil Information, Texture & Liming Recommendations
- • Web based access to information on your soils on your farm is described. • Soil texture classes of mineral soils are described and identified by hand texturing. • Liming recommendations for different soils and managements are tabulated.
- Topics: Soils
- Technical Note (TN668): Managing Soil Phosphorus
- Efficient soil P management is challenging due to the varying ability of soils to mediate and regulate plant available forms of P. Farmers and land managers in Scotland are now able to access farm level information about their soils making it possible to provide more accurate P management advice.
- Topics: Crops and Soils
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