ARABLE farmer David Blacker has cut his business spending by £50,900 a year during his time as AHDB York Monitor Farmer.

Radical changes he has made over the past three years has seen him save £16,200 in reduced diesel; £12,000 in less labour; £6,000 in insurance; £5,000 by stopping tractor hire; £5,200 in less fertilizer; £4,000 in seed cost and £2,500 in less agronomy.

Mr Blacker said: "I've chipped away at every part of the business. What I'm saving each year is now bigger than my single farm payment.

"I'm hoping that the changes I've made will also lead to bigger yields and therefore lower costs of production."

The Monitor Farm programme gave him the confidence to make changes to his farming – such as cutting out second wheats from his rotation and establishing all his crops with a strip till.

He has also run a number of on-farm try-outs to test theories and add local evidence into topical farming debates.

From 2014-17, he applied compost at a rate of 35t/ha, costing him £157.5/ha per year, or £1,181.25 a field per year. He spread 140t/ha over four years, with a total cost of £4,725.

During this time, he has measured a half point rise in phosphate levels, a slight rise in pH and organic matter, and a slight increase in potassium levels on heavier land.

Mr Blacker said: "I’m slightly sceptical that the organic matter has gone up as much as the results say, as it could be due to semi-decomposed matter in the sample."

Dr Liz Stockdale, from Newcastle University and a staunch supporter of the York Monitor Farm, said: "It’s important to look at how the land is working, as the measurable indices don’t give the full picture. Looking at soil, as well as analysing, it is important to judge impacts."

Mr Blacker agreed that he was slowly improving his seed bed and soil resilience – something the Monitor Farm group identified as an opportunity at the very first meeting in 2013.

Dr Stockdale had more options for him to consider. She said: "You may be able to lower the compost application rate going forward. The positive impact of compost may not be linear, so you could have more than half the impact with less than half the application rate."

A biomass map showed that the crop grown on land treated with compost was this spring bigger and healthier than fields which had not had compost.

Mr Blacker said: "The main caveat, however, is that I haven’t seen any yield increase yet from using the compost with the same N application. So this year I’ve decreased my N usage to see if I can achieve the same yield but with less N.

"If I can get a cheap supply then I will carry on using compost to help improve the soil structure. It all depends on the price of the compost, however."

All meeting reports from the York Monitor Farm can be found at cereals.ahdb.org.uk/york.