Farmer’s plan for post-Brexit UK

Simon Lord farms 800 hectares of arable land and 900 breeding ewes in Hough on-the-Hill with his brother.

He was very interested in the high yielding arable enterprises he visited in the country as part of the trip - and is now pushing for similar yields back in the UK:

“Growers in New Zealand are just so lucky with the soil and the climate; the winters are mild, and they have the day length to provide a long grain filling period,” said Mr Lord. “They can do absolutely anything. New Zealand growers want to keep their crop in the ground for as long as possible.

“Here in the UK we are facing different challenges to those in New Zealand and we just have to try and do what we do better.”

He added: “This season I plan to try and keep a field of wheat as green as possible until the end of August, rather than the start, to get a longer grain fill and just generally play around with inputs to see what we can do.”

Mr Lord will now join a group of farmers working with BASF agricultural solutions in the UK to develop new crop trials.

A BASF spokesman said: “The trip was an opportunity for 15 farmers to look at New Zealand innovations, how they have implemented change to improve efficiency, and what the UK can learn post Brexit.”