Directors' Diary - Wold Top and Sustainability
Posted by Tracey Baty on
We talk a lot about sustainability these days, so in case you weren’t already aware, here is a small snapshot of some of the things we do here at Wold Top to ensure our environment and impact are as sustainable as they can be:
1. Wind turbines installed in 2011. These generate 95% of all our electricity, any excess is fed back into the grid.
We are currently working on initiatives and methods (batteries etc) to store the excess electricity which is generated overnight when things are not running so we can use it during ‘non windy’ days.
2. All the water used on site is drawn from our borehole. This goes down into the natural chalk aquifer that is under this part of the Wolds and takes the water from there. Apart from some monitoring every now and then, it is untreated. Naturally pure.
3. For the last seven plus years we have been working towards a ‘minimum till’ approach to how we farm the land.
Traditionally, after harvest, land would be ploughed, cultivated (with discs or harrows), drilled (seeds sown) and rolled.
We don’t do this.
Our fields are harvested and then immediately after this they are directly drilled with cover crops, pictured right. These are plants such as radishes, phacelia, clover and buckwheat that give energy and nutrients back to the soil to replenish it.
After this crop has been naturally killed off by winter frosts/grazed by sheep, it composts down into the soil and we can then directly drill the barley/wheat seed back into the field as that year's crop.
Direct drilling means that we don’t plough or otherwise disturb the land. Only the top few centimetres of soil are moved by the drill rakes.
The reasons behind this approach are multiple:
1. Increasing soil health naturally avoids using excess chemicals and additives to increase plant health.
Using precision farming technology, we can now pinpoint specific areas of the land which need extra help and therefore only apply extra help where it is needed. This helps reduce costs, but also reduces our use and dependence on fertiliser and other additions.
2. Every time a tractor drives across a field, it generates and emits carbon dioxide. By only drilling once for cover crops and once again with the seed, we reduce our carbon emissions. Two passes of the field rather than eight!
3. Soil sequesters carbon. It takes it in and stores it underground. By only disturbing the top few centimetres of soil with a direct drill, we avoid releasing previously sequestered carbon from the soil, as would happen if a plough or other cultivator were used.
4. By improving soil health and structure, we are also helping to stabilise the land, so it can cope better with instances of extreme weather, like flooding for example. A more compact, higher quality soil will drain more quickly, recover better from waterlogging and is also more stable, so it won’t wash away as much.
Establishing the farm as a ‘minimum till/regenerative’ farm means that, for the brewery, our carbon footprint is also reduced. The aim is, at some point in the next few years, to be able to say our barley is carbon neutral, or even better, carbon negative, so that we can use this to offset other working practices that may not be so easily made carbon neutral, like distribution costs.