Why is this good for my farm?
This option helps address situations where crops are receiving inputs but are not responding as expected. By identifying and addressing limiting soil factors, farmers can:
This can lead to more consistent yields and better value from existing inputs, rather than additional inputs.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option helps farmers to understand why crops aren’t making full use of fertilisers/manures or sprays, and supports practical changes to improve how soils perform.
When soils are out of balance, crops cannot use nutrients efficiently. This leads to surplus nutrients and residues in the soil, which are more likely to be lost during rainfall through runoff or leaching.
Correcting soil imbalances helps crops use what is already applied, reducing losses to water and helping to protect water quality.
Why is this good for my farm?
Reducing bare soil helps protect valuable topsoil, improves trafficability, and lowers the risk of rills and erosion.
Maintaining soil cover can also support better soil structure, reduce surface sealing, and protect crops during establishment. This option focuses on risk reduction rather than changing crop inputs.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option helps keep soil in the field during high-risk periods by reducing bare soil, by maintaining crop residues from the previous crop and/or green cover.
In this way, soil is less likely to be mobilised and washed away by rainfall or wind and reach nearby ditches and watercourses.This should reduce the loss of sediment, nutrients, and pesticide residues to water.
Why is this good for my farm?
Improving soil organic matter supports better soil structure, water holding capacity and nutrient availability.
Using organic inputs can reduce reliance on manufactured fertiliser, reducing costs and improving crop resilience over time, particularly in dry or challenging seasons
Why is this good for water quality?
Soils with higher organic matter can hold nutrients more effectively and release them gradually, reducing the risk of nutrient losses to water through runoff and leaching.
This option supports the use of organic inputs to improve soil organic matter and nutrient retention.
Why is this good for my farm?
Deep-rooting crops can help relieve compaction naturally, improving rooting depth for following crops, and supporting more resilient soils.
Improved structure can reduce weed pressure, improve soil strength and access for field operations, and support more consistent crop performance over time.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option helps improve soil structure by using deep-rooting plants to open up compacted layers and improve water movement through the soil.
Better water infiltration reduces surface runoff and erosion, limiting the movement of sediment, nutrients and pesticide residues to watercourses.
Why is this good for my farm?
Moving to lower-disturbance tillage practices helps build longer-term improvements in soil structure and water retention.
This can support stronger crop establishment, reduce nutrient losses, and lower input costs over time by improving how soils function.
Why is this good for water quality?
Reducing the level of soil disturbance through a move away from conventional tillage improves soil structure and water infiltration.
Better infiltration reduces surface runoff and erosion, limiting the transport of sediment, nutrients and plant protection product residues to watercourses.
Why is this good for my farm?
Access to suitable tillage equipment can reduce time, labour and fuel use during establishment.
Lower disturbance systems also support improved soil structure and resilience, helping crops establish more consistently and reducing longer-term costs.
Why is this good for water quality?
Using appropriate tillage equipment and technology allows soil to be worked more precisely and with less disturbance.
Reducing unnecessary soil movement helps prevent compaction and improve water infiltration, reducing surface runoff, and the transport of sediment, nutrients and pesticide residues to watercourses.
Why is this good for my farm?
Cover crops offer multiple farm benefits, including enhancing soil health and fertility while reducing the need for synthetic inputs.
Cover crops can also suppress weed growth, break pest and disease lifecycles and improve insect biodiversity, which strengthens natural pest control.
This helps reduce reliance on pesticides and herbicides, lowering costs and environmental impact.
Why is this good for water quality?
Cover crops are a proven method to protect soils and reduce overwinter soil erosion, nitrate leaching and runoff.
Cover crops also contribute to soil organic matter, improving soil structure, water infiltration and retention.
Why is this good for my farm?
Intercropping helps improve soil health, reduces pest and disease pressure (by disrupting pest cycles), leading to increased yields and income.
It can also lead to more efficient resource use, such as water and nutrients, and lower reliance on external inputs like fertilisers and pesticides.
This option provides extra ground cover and helps to move away from mono-cropping.
Why is this good for water quality?
Intercropping, the process of growing two or more crops together, has multiple benefits to the environment.
The diverse root systems of different crops can improve soil structure, enhance soil aggregation and microbial activity.
This leads to better drainage and water infiltration, increases organic matter and reduces erosion.
Why is this good for my farm?
Low input leys build long-term soil fertility, supporting better yields in subsequent arable crops.
This reduces the reliance on external inputs such as synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
Why is this good for water quality?
Low input leys can improve soil organic matter which can benefit subsequent arable crops.
Diverse root systems from mixed species enhance organic matter at different depths and support soil biology.
A period of low input to soils encourages natural processes (e.g. nitrogen fixation, diverse rooting, soil microbiome recovery), improves soil structure and ultimately results in less reliance on artificial products, which can pollute water sources through leaching and runoff.
Why is this good for my farm?
Proper watercourse fencing can help farmers meet their regulatory obligations whilst also improving grazing efficiency by guiding livestock away from sensitive areas.
It reduces land erosion and protects the riparian zone, supporting natural flood management.
Over time, this encourages greater biodiversity and contributes to a healthier, more resilient farm landscape.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option aims to prevent livestock from entering watercourses, where their manure can introduce nutrients, pathogens like cryptosporidium, and other water quality risks.
Keeping livestock away from watercourses also prevents poaching, allows the natural bankside vegetation to redevelop, and further reduces soil erosion.
Why is this good for my farm?
Margins help protect field edges from compaction and machinery damage, helping to preserve soil structure.
They also support insect biodiversity, enhancing natural pest control.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option aims to protect watercourses by buffering them from field operations such as spray drift and fertiliser applications.
Dense vegetation slows surface water flow, allowing sediment to settle and improve infiltration which helps to protect waterbodies from pollution.
Why is this good for my farm?
Dense vegetation such as trees and shrubs slows down rainfall and surface runoff, helping keep soil and valuable inputs like fertilisers in place.
3D field margins create habitats for wildlife and beneficial insects, which can reduce the need for pesticides.
They are also a beneficial way to make use of unproductive areas, for example cutting grass to provide fodder during dry periods.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option aims to improve the water quality benefits of standard grass margins. In specific locations, standard grass margins can easily be overwhelmed by heavy rains, with field runoff simply running over the top.
A 3D field margin adds layers such as trees, shrubs, and deep-rooted plants that slow water, improve infiltration, and trap pollutants as well as landscape features such as scrapes, ridges and swales.
Together, these features stabilise soil, support microbes that help break down harmful substances reducing runoff and pollution to watercourses.
Why is this good for my farm?
Considered livestock placement can reduce parasite burden and improve long-term forage quality.
It can also boost grazing efficiency, helping animals get more from the pasture. This can lower the need for supplementary feeding and veterinary treatments, saving both time and money whilst enhancing livestock welfare.
Why is this good for water quality?
This option can significantly improve water infiltration rates in soil reducing soil erosion and runoff to watercourses.
This is primarily because livestock grazing can lead to soil compaction, poaching, and reduced vegetation cover, all of which negatively impact infiltration.
By removing livestock, soil compaction decreases, and vegetation cover can increase, allowing for greater water infiltration.
Why is this good for my farm?
The natural fertilisation provided by livestock reduces the need for synthetic fertilisers, reducing costs for farmers.
Grazing can also help build soil organic matter, remove diseased plants, control weeds, stimulate root growth and improve soil health, further reducing reliance on chemical treatments.
Why is this good for water quality?
Livestock, particularly through grazing and manure, have the potential to significantly improve soil health by increasing organic matter, improving soil structure, and enhancing nutrient cycling.
They also contribute to aeration and reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, which can run off or leach into water sources.
In rotational grazing systems, livestock are moved frequently, preventing overgrazing and allowing for soil recovery, which can reduce compaction, soil erosion and runoff.
Why is this good for my farm?
Organic manures release nutrients slowly, improving plant growth and reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers.
Organic manures offer cost savings on inorganic nutrient sources and provide a varied profile of nutrients. Better soil structure makes land easier to work and more resilient to drought, while increased microbial activity boosts nutrient availability.
Over time, this leads to healthier crops, improved yields, and a more sustainable farming system.
Why is this good for water quality?
Making better use of manures or slurries through either yard-based equipment, additives or precision application techniques can significantly reduce nutrient losses to watercourses.
These practices improve soil structure and organic matter, enhancing water infiltration and reducing surface runoff and erosion.
Healthy soils with active microbial life also help to break down pollutants more effectively, further protecting water quality.
Why is this good for my farm?
Applying pesticides in the right places using GPS offers significant advantages to all farms, including consistent coverage leading to better pest control.
Precision application can also save farms time and money by optimising the amount of inputs used, reducing the risk of over-spraying, reducing fuel consumption and improving overall efficiency.
Why is this good for water quality?
The accurate placement of both plant protection products and nutrients is hugely important to water quality.
When products are applied precisely, they are absorbed by the target that they are aimed to treat or improve, which limits the possibility that the product is lost to the wider environment.
This option aims to improve the accuracy of the application and therefore minimises the losses through which they could have a negative effect on water quality.
Why is this good for my farm?
Accurate application of pesticides and fertilisers may significantly reduce waste, lowering costs and improving efficiency.
It helps reduce the losses caused by drift related issues, while also protecting non-target areas such as hedgerows, wildlife habitats, and aquatic ecosystems.
Additionally, it integrates seamlessly with GPS-guided sprayers, weather sensors, and field mapping software, contributing to improved farm management and traceability.
Why is this good for water quality?
Low-drift nozzles are designed to produce larger or air-induced droplets, making them heavier and less prone to being carried by the wind.
This significantly reduces the risk of chemicals drifting into nearby water bodies such as streams, ponds, or drainage ditches, ensuring that more of the pesticide or fertiliser reaches its intended target crops or soil rather than surrounding areas.
Why is this good for my farm?
RPL options help to improve safety, reduce costs, and support more efficient pesticide use.
They help protect handlers from exposure to highly toxic concentrated pesticides, prevent crop damage from spills, reduce costs from product loss (and clean-up costs), and supports regulatory requirements.
Closed transfer systems and pesticide filling areas can also improve efficiency and productivity, making sprayer filling quicker and easier, reducing manual handling, and lower the risk of errors and contamination.
Why is this good for water quality?
Nearly 40% of pesticide detections in our catchments are from contamination when handling pesticides.The remaining 60% of pesticide detection comes from the field, after application.
Managing the spills, washings and wastes that come from pesticide handling is one measure that can be taken to help keep pesticides out of water.
No spill filling (RPL3) comprises three individual options: RPL3a drip and spill kits, RPL3b closed transfer systems (CTS), and RPL3c sprayer filling areas and biofilters.
Drip and spill kits (RL3a) help prevent concentrated pesticides from entering the environment. Spill pesticides can seep into the ground or run off into nearby water sources, contaminating soil, groundwater, and surface water"
Why is this good for my farm?
RPL options help to improve safety, reduce costs, and support more efficient pesticide use.
They help protect handlers from exposure to highly toxic concentrated pesticides, prevent crop damage from spills, reduce costs from product loss (and clean-up costs), and supports regulatory requirements.
Closed transfer systems and pesticide filling areas can also improve efficiency and productivity, making sprayer filling quicker and easier, reducing manual handling, and lower the risk of errors and contamination.
Why is this good for water quality?
Nearly 40% of pesticide detections in our catchments are from contamination when handling pesticides.The remaining 60% of pesticide detection comes from the field, after application.
Managing the spills, washings and wastes that come from pesticide handling is one measure that can be taken to help keep pesticides out of water.
No spill filling (RPL3) comprises three individual options: RPL3a drip and spill kits, RPL3b closed transfer systems (CTS), and RPL3c sprayer filling areas and biofilters.
A closed transfer system (RPL3b) is a device that allows pesticide formulations to be transferred from their container to the spray tank with negligible exposure to the operator and the environment. Closed transfer systems, therefore, enable operators to manage crop protection and nutrition products in a safer and more environmentally friendly way.
Why is this good for my farm?
RPL options help to improve safety, reduce costs, and support more efficient pesticide use.
They help protect handlers from exposure to highly toxic concentrated pesticides, prevent crop damage from spills, reduce costs from product loss (and clean-up costs), and supports regulatory requirements.
Closed transfer systems and pesticide filling areas can also improve efficiency and productivity, making sprayer filling quicker and easier, reducing manual handling, and lower the risk of errors and contamination.
Why is this good for water quality?
Nearly 40% of pesticide detections in our catchments are from contamination when handling pesticides.The remaining 60% of pesticide detection comes from the field, after application.
Managing the spills, washings and wastes that come from pesticide handling is one measure that can be taken to help keep pesticides out of water.
No spill filling (RPL3) comprises three individual options: RPL3a drip and spill kits, RPL3b closed transfer systems (CTS), and RPL3c sprayer filling areas and biofilters.
A sprayer filling area (RPL3c) provides a dedicated space where pesticides can be safely loaded into sprayers, and acts as a safe area for housing the sprayer and for sprayer cleaning.