On farm research is a tricky beast! Each trial starts with enthusiasm and motivation, but can so easily be de-railed by a wide variety of factors. Whilst we try to build risk mitigation into all field lab plans, nobody can plan for all eventualities, and any external problems which impact farming in general can necessarily also affect the viability of trials.

So it has been with this summer's extreme heat and drought, both directly: such as drought leading to poor germination, and indirectly: as farmers (rightly) have to prioritise other aspects of their business over their research. 

In this article we focus on a few field labs and ask the farmers how they have coped with the summer. 

In some cases new crops were swamped by existing plants with more established root structures, in others there was no germination at all. Organic farmer Dave Oates in SW Cornwall is trialling an on-farm fermented seaweed bio stimulant. The group set up multiple plots for the trial, and in some plots cereal crops were direct drilled into existing crops. These cereal plants generally struggled to get established due to the drought, with the result that the existing plants with their more established root systems, effectively smothered the cereals which due to be monitored as part of the trial. Luckily the group were able to adapt the trial to do replications within the same field.  

In addition to the problem of crop establishment, the group have found that leaf rust has been more evident this year. However, in a positive twist, the trial has shown some potential benefits to using the seaweed bio stimulant to control leaf rust which is really exciting.  

Germination has been a problem for Ben Andrews in Herefordshire who is trialling under-sowing broccoli with a cover crop mix to protect his soil. Unfortunately, due to 2 months with no rain and no irrigation, the under sown seed mix simply did not germinate and the whole trial was delayed.  Fortunately, he has recently seen some green shoots appearing so fingers crossed this has only caused a delay.  

Other farmers trialling living mulches under a cash crop have been even less fortunate. One triallist in Devon has had to write off his entire trial this year due to the drought as nothing really grew. One interesting feature of the trial, however, was the reaction of the soil in the extreme heat. The soil temperature  of the bare soil in the control plot was 52 degrees Celsius in early summer, whereas in the neighbouring treatment plot (same field) under the clover-based living mulch the soil temperature was just 32 degrees. Studies in Germany have shown that extreme heat can significantly impact soil microbiomes in both cropland and grassland.  This result reinforces the real need for trialling living mulches and working out the best way to grow them to protect the soil without impacting yield.  

Over in East Anglia Jon Cook is trialling a new method of testing his milk, as part of the raw milk field lab. Located in East Anglia, the farm has suffered severely from reduced grass growth and corresponding drop in milk yields. As a result they're selling almost everything in the tank as soon as they’ve milked it. That has made carrying out meaningful testing for the field lab really difficult, simply because there often isn’t enough milk left in the tank to test. Heat stress has played a part too, so it’s been a pretty extreme summer to be trying to run an on-farm trial. 

Farmers who have planted herbal leys for a specific purpose have discovered how resilient they have been in the drought, in some case out performing everything else on the farm. The benefits of trees as shelter for livestock has been starkly evident this year, but so has the massive amount of work needed to water new trees planted last winter, just to keep them alive. These are just a few issues experienced by the triallists, which have caused irrevocable problems in some trials, and highlighted interesting and unexpected data in others. 

Unfortunately we know that climate change is driving these more extreme weather events, and ironically that makes the trials more important than ever. If farmers are able to prove through their trials that they can protect their soils, reduce disease risk or ameliorate heat stress in their animals, then they become a driving force towards more resilient farming.