Reducing our carbon footprint on the farm

We grow cereals on our farm in South East Cornwall, and thanks to a grant from LEADER funding South East Cornwall we have been able to buy a drill that will significantly reduce our carbon footprint. Traditionally we have ploughed all the land, before cultivating it numerous times, and then drilling the seed into the ground. There is a much better way to do this, that reduces the amount carbon used in this process and also speeds up the job.

This machine allows us to remove the operation of ploughing, that is slow, burns a lot of diesel and is very expensive. We can now cultivate and plant the seeds in the same operation . The first part of the machine, churns up the soil to a depth of about three inches, and just in front of the grey rollers, the seed is blown down tubes into the slot in the ground made by discs. By not disturbing the soil, over three or four years, there will be increased worm activity that burrow deep down, improving the soil.

Weighing our cattle has been slow and not very accurate, until recently, but we have just installed a new weigh system that can read digital ear tags that the cattle have in their ears.

This will speed up the cattle weighing, and allow us to quickly check how fast the cattle are growing. This was also part funded from LEADER funding South East Cornwall, the idea of which is to enable farmers in this area to benefit from the latest technology, to improve efficiency.