Dealing with water scarcity on the farm

Practical briefing materials for irrigators have been produced within the framework of the European Innovation Partnership ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP-AGRI).

EIP-AGRI was originally launched by the European Commission to promote innovation in the agricultural and forestry sectors and to better connect research and practice.

Elveden Farms is identified as an exmelpar in the way that it nmanages soli and water.

A combination of favourable climate and light, sandy soils makes Elveden a perfect location for growing irrigated crops like potatoes, onions, carrots and parsnips – but managing the optimal application of crop irrigation is crucial to the success of the business.

Elveden Farms invests heavily in monitoring soil moisture and tracking weather patterns so that the farm’s irrigation scheduling system can be constantly checked and fine-tuned.

Andrew Francis, Farms Manager,  relies on a range of soil sensors which helps him to predict the water demand of his crops.

“I use a combination of neutron probes for accuracy and capacitance probes so that I can check what’s happening in the field in real-time from my mobile phone”, says Andrew.

“But during the irrigation season I always take my spade with me. It’s reassuring to dig into the soil to get a sense check of what the technology is telling me”.

Elveden is located in the Breckland area of Suffolk where no further water is available for abstraction. Andrew’s cropping system means that every drop of water that he is licensed to abstract is precious.

As a result, improving the organic matter (OM) content of soil to maximise its moisture content has becoming increasingly important for the farm.

Andrew Francis acknowledges a relationship between OM and moisture holding capacity but says that it is not clearly understood, and so the influence of improved OM is hard to quantify.

Nevertheless, Elveden Farms takes its soil management increasingly seriously.

“We have been bringing organic manures onto the farm for many years, but lately we have becoming more interested in growing our own green manures”, says Andrew.

So he is experimenting with different ways of using green manures, to try to bring down the cost.

He is also running trials to understand how to control the pests and diseases that can be harboured in the green crops, and how to overcome problems with preparing seed beds left by the high level of residual root in the green cover.

There is no doubt that Elveden Farms will continue to invest in ways to secure its water supply and make the most of that water.

“At Elveden we are turning water into crops for profit. Our philosophy is to use the latest knowledge and technology to justify the highest return possible for the water applied to the crop”, says Andrew Francis.

The Eleden case study is part of a series of practical briefing materials produced within the framework of the European Innovation Partnership ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ (EIP-AGRI).