Regenerative Agriculture – Maintaining A Living Root

Bill Stewart is a beef finisher from Huntly who grows spring barley to feed his cattle, and he shows us why he believes keeping a living root in the soil is beneficial for his land and soil health.

The low rate of grass seed applied with the barley at sowing, provides a range of benefits that he first saw on one of his units that is managed organically, and has adopted the practice to his benefit elsewhere. Not only does the undersown grass benefit the soil health by adding to the fertility of the land, but provides additional income over the winter through sheep or cattle grazing and also helps him meet his EFA greening commitments.