Andy Falkingham has been farming his whole life. After years working as a farm manager, in 2007, he returned to the family farm in Barnby-on-the-Marsh, in the Vale of York, England.
Vicarage Farm produces multiple crops, including wheat, malting barley, linseed, vining peas and grass. He also has a herd of 15 pedigree beef shorthorns. In the 2024 LENs trade, he received funding from Diageo, Nestlé and PepsiCo for a variety of practices including cover crops, planting wild bird seed mixes, catch crops, subsoiling, companion cropping and two innovation trials – establishing cover crops using a drone, and yield monitoring on combine.
We interviewed Andy about his involvement in LENs Yorkshire:
When did you first start introducing regenerative agriculture to your farm? Was this before you joined LENs?
When I returned to Vicarage Farm in 2007, I introduced cover crops and reduced cultivation, so I have been on that route long before the idea of regenerative farming caught on. So I’m a long way down the regenerative pathway. I secured funding from LENs in 2023 and 2024. I’m hoping to secure further funding in the 2025 trade.
What was it that LENs offered that you weren’t able to get elsewhere?
LENs offers funding that wasn’t available under the Sustainable Farming Incentive for innovations. Trying out new things comes with a big financial risk that most farmers can’t afford. LENs means that we can experiment with a new machine or method that just wouldn’t be a viable risk otherwise.
What innovations have you tried through LENs?
In 2024, I secured funding to trial out using drones to apply cover crop seeds into standing wheat and compare that to conventionally-drilled seeding. LENs funded the drone hire and operator, the seed, and the analysis afterwards.
In July, the drone seeded radish, phacelia and vetch into standing wheat crop on 17 July 2024 and we conventionally drilled the same mix a month later. The hope was that these cover crops would be ahead of the drilled and therefore provide greater cover. Unfortunately, we only had 7mm of rain, so the cover was slightly bigger but not by a significant margin. If we’d had more rain, we’d have had more success and I plan to repeat the trial this year.
Frontier Agriculture measured the results. A biomass comparison was done on both trials using fresh weight cut downs, they used satellite imagery and VESS analysis (Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure, a field-based method to assess the quality of their soil’s structure).
The results showed that there were certainly benefits in the nutrients stored.
What else have you been able to fund through LENs?
In 2023, I focused on sub-soiling, cover crops, catch crops. Last year, in addition to the drone seeding, I continue with 2023 work as well as securing funding for yield monitoring on combine.
This year, I’m hoping to secure resilience payments, as my farm is a long way along the regen pathway. I want to plant some wildflower margins to encourage pollinators and I’m investigating different systems for an inter-row weeding equipment trial, which allows for mechanical weeding by a tractor, taking away the need for spraying with chemicals.
Thinking more generally about LENs, what would you say are the benefits that you feel other farmers should be aware of, that would encourage them to join a network?
LENs provides crucial funding for farmers to trial risky/expensive innovations, which is especially important now that SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive) has been discontinued, at least for this year. LENs can fund farmers who want to do good.
If you want to try something that would be a risk, LENs funding makes it possible – like the drone-seeding trial I ran. My plans for inter-row weeding is another good example of where LENs offers support where SFI didn’t. The machinery is £30,000-£40,000, which is just too much for most farmers. Once a LENs farmer has this kind of machine, they can demonstrate it to others.
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Andy Falkingham