From Paper to Practice: The Living Mulch Journey

Cultivating Wisdom: Agroecology Innovation from Experts in the Field October 21 - October 22. Day 1 Session 1 Key principles of regenerative agriculture include minimizing soil disturbance and diversifying crop rotations. Direct drilling into perennial covers (e.g. white clover) within arable cropping systems is an innovative approach that builds on these principles. This system, known as “living mulches” is being adopted across organic and conventional farms delivering benefits for soil health and biodiversity, but often having negative effects on crop yields. Jake Freestone has been experimenting with living mulches since he joined an Innovative Farmers Field Lab led by the Organic Research Centre. Working collaboratively with researchers and sharing learnings with a network of farmers testing living mulches, Jake has managed to use living mulches successfully within a conventional farming system. In this talk Jake will discuss how he integrates living mulches into his crop rotation and also reflect on the pros and cons of working directly with researchers and farmer networks to develop innovative methods.