Determining soil health is best left to skilled experts

Soil health is currently top of the farming agenda.

It was also the subject of a recent James Hutton Institute seminar and, while everyone present agreed it was important, we simply could not agree on how it could be measured or assessed.

In my opinion, any assessment of soil health begins with a full knowledge of the soil and land capability – on a fieldby-field basis.

I often quote the old saying “the best fertiliser is the farmer’s foot”, which refers to the skills of the ploughmen who would walk behind the plough.

In October 1991, I commissioned a soil survey on the 680 acres of Stenton Farm and our starting point was the Macaulay soil survey maps together with many indepth discussions with our ploughman, Andrew Panton, whose knowledge of the Stenton soils was to prove invaluable.

Andrew was the ploughman when I took over the tenancy in 1990.

We would meet every morning at “yoking” time and, while he had no horses to yoke, Andrew looked after his beloved Massey with the same care and attention his father would have devoted to a pair of Clydesdales.

It was no surprise to him when we looked at the completed soil survey which showed some 25-acre fields had five different soil types.

“Aye, he’s nae bad,” was Andrew’s way of saying the soil survey was bang on.

In some places some of our topsoil is only eight inches deep and the skill of the ploughman is to choose the most suitable depth to retain the organic matter in the top seven inches.

More often than not the rich top soil is not sufficiently deep to make deep ploughing profitable and often the subsoil contains injurious substances that have a deleterious effect on plant growth and dilutes organic matter.

Andrew died very recently of a heart attack.

We will miss him terribly and are very grateful for his 29 years of loyal service.

Due to his skills in setting the plough and knowledge of every part of every field, organic matter has been preserved and crop yields have improved.

On his last day, Andrew died doing what he loved best – ploughing.

It was a beautiful day with cloudless skies and his plough was, as usual, followed by thousands of screeching seagulls enjoying a rich diet of abundant earthworms.

Andrew was a quiet and humble man but his skill and intimate knowledge of the land can never be replaced.

Sorely missed – Andrew Panton ploughing at Stenton Farm.