• Reduction in diesel : £ 16,200

• Reduction in labour : £ 12,000

• Reduction in insurance :

£ 6,000

• Stopping tractor hire : £ 5,000

• Reduction in fertilizer : £ 5,200

• Reduction in seed cost : £ 4,000

• Reduction in agronomy : £ 2,500

David said : “ I ’ ve chipped away at every part of the business . What I ’ m saving each year is now bigger than my single farm payment .

“ I ’ m hoping that the changes I ’ ve made will also lead to bigger yields and therefore lower costs of production .”

Over the past three years , the Monitor Farm programme has given David the confidence to continue making changes to his farm , for example cutting out

second wheats from his rotation and establishing all his crops with a strip till .

Throughout the project David has run a number of on-farm tryouts to test theories and add local evidence into topical farming debates . Compost

From 2014 – 17 David applied compost at a rate of 35t / ha , costing him £ 157.5 / ha per year , or £ 1,181.25 per field per year . He spread 140t / ha over the four years , with a total cost of £ 4,725 .

During this time he has measured a half point rise in phosphate levels , a slight rise in pH and organic matter , and a slight increase in potassium levels on heavier land .

David said : “ I ’ m slightly sceptical that the organic matter has gone up as much as the results say , as it could be due to semi-decomposed matter in the sample .”

Dr Liz Stockdale , from Newcastle University and a staunch supporter of the York Monitor Farm , was on hand to give expert insight into the discussions . She said : “ It ’ s important to look at how the land is working , as the measurable indices don ’ t give the

full picture . Looking at soil as well as analysing it is important to judge impacts .”

David agreed that he was slowly improving his seed bed and soil resilience – something the Monitor Farm group identified as an opportunity in the very first Monitor Farm meeting in 2013 .

Liz had more options for David to consider : “ You may be able to lower the compost application rate going forward . The positive impact of compost may not be linear , so you could have more than half the impact with less than half the application rate .”

A biomass map showed that the crop grown on land treated with compost was this spring bigger and healthier than other fields on the farm which had not had compost .

David said : “ The main caveat , however , is that I haven ’ t seen any yield increase yet from using the compost with the same N application . So this year I ’ ve decreased my N usage to see if I can achieve the same yield but with less N .

“ If I can get a cheap supply then I will carry on using compost to help improve the soil structure . It all depends on the price of the

compost , however .”

All the meeting reports from the York Monitor Farm can be found at cereals . ahdb . org . uk / york

Monitor Farms and Farm Excellence Platform

AHDB Monitor Farms bring together groups of like-minded farmers who wish to improve their businesses by sharing performance information and best practice around a nationwide network of host farms . AHDB organises and facilitates Monitor Farm meetings for farmers , who own and operate the scheme – by farmers , for farmers . Monitor Farms are part of the AHDB Farm Excellence Platform . The Farm Excellence Platform inspires industry to improve performance and succeed through farmer-tofarmer knowledge exchange .

Monitor Farm benchmarking groups use Farmbench – AHDB ’ s new whole-farm benchmarking tool . For more information , visit farmbench . org . uk .

To find your nearest Monitor Farm visit cereals . ahdb . org . uk / monitorfarms . For more information on your AHDB Farm Excellence Platform contact your local Knowledge Exchange Manager .