REGENERATIVE farming , a passion for soils , changes to the cattle system , going back into lambing , becoming the NFU North East Young Farming Ambassador and due to attend the World Climate Conference in Glasgow in October – you could say that James Johnson has his hands well and truly full .

James farms with his father Charles and mother Maggie on their tenanted 580 acre Mallard Grange farm at Aldfield near Ripon where they grow 160 acres of arable cropping that includes wheat , barley , oilseed rape , beans and oats ; and where they also have cattle and sheep . Maggie runs B & B accommodation in four rooms in the farmhouse and an Air B & B unit .

James studied at Harper Adams University and spent time away on much larger farming operations that saw him experience such as arable cooperatives of up to 4000 acres and other enterprises including suckler cows and a butcher ’ s shop .

He now firmly has the bit between his teeth at Mallard Grange where he and his father are working well together .

‘ My father is great because he is open to change , so long as I am able to prove what I ’ m doing . We have a mixture of youthful enthusiasm and his undoubted experience and with mum involved too we have a really good team .’

‘ We are always questioning the norm . I find that more and more I have this need for knowledge and I thrive off it . I want to be successful and I ’ m not afraid to fail as we progress as I will continue learning . Since I have been involved in the nitty gritty back home and have been involved in looking at the bills also and making the business work , I ’ ve had that real drive that I didn ’ t have before .’

‘ At school I wasn ’ t interested in anything but coming home , sitting on the tractor , getting outside and working . University was great for me , but I probably learned as much working away on other farming enterprises as I did through my studies .’ One of James ’ true passions is now soil health and sustainability of soils and cropping . He tells of how this has come about since his university days .

‘ When I was at university , studying soil and plant nutrition was just a topic

that you had to get through and it seems many farmers have taken soil for granted for a long time . I ’ ve learned a huge amount about soil nutrition in the past two years and through Future Farmers of Yorkshire I had the opportunity to attend Groundswell , a regenerative farming show .’

‘ Being there was so refreshing . There are so many that are really keen to change and adopt new soil health regimes , and some have been doing it for years . I thought we might have been a little late to the party but that has not been the case .’

‘ My father came down for the day too and was able to see the type of thing that was being talked about . I like to see the statistics and information , which allows me to decide if something is a good thing or not . Groundswell was good on both counts .’

‘ We need to be able to bring back that carbon we have been releasing as a nation , but that we as farmers have been releasing for as far back as the industrial revolution . We have bought a direct drill , a second-hand one as we can ’ t afford

ridiculous prices , but the drill is only part of the solution . It is also about the rotations and how we can implement such as organic manures that will improve soil health . We need to make sure we conserve the moisture in the soil .’

‘ We are now working our rotation with a direct drilling system , so we are putting a cover crop in after winter barley . It ’ s a polyculture of species that last year contained fodder radish , tillage radish , crimson clover , vetch and stubble turnip . Then we grow direct drilled beans into that which creates a really good nitrogen fix . We then direct drill the wheat into that .’

This year ’ s arable cropping at Mallard Grange has seen the Johnsons with 60 acres of winter wheat varieties Skyscraper and Kerrin ; 35 acres of winter barley variety Gimlet ; 26 acres of oats , 24

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