Protecting and enhancing soils on farm

Following on from extreme weather events that have been occurring throughout Scotland over the past few years, Karen Dobbie, Principal Soil Scientist from SEPA and David Ross, Principal Agricultural Consultant from SAC Consulting discuss soils on farm. The James Hutton Institute have calculated that there is more water held in Scotland’s soils when fully wet than in all our freshwater lochs. Therefore, protecting and retaining soil on farm can be a key component to mitigating against flooding and protecting farms in a changing climate. 

In this podcast we discuss what ‘good’ soil health is and how farmers can enhance and protect this resource for viable businesses, retaining and improving soil on farm. 

Supporting information

Valuing Your Soils - Farming and Water Scotland 

PEPFAA: Soils

What can land managers do? - Farming and Water Scotland

The Farm Advisory Service as many pages offering information on soil management and groups looking at way to improve soil on farm Farm Advisory Service: Soils

Scotland’s soils Home | Scotland's soils (environment.gov.scot) 

The soil risk / vulnerability maps can be found at: Risk maps | Scotland's soils (environment.gov.scot) 

These can be used in conjunction with the Hutton Soil Finder App SoilFinder - The James Hutton Institute | Science connecting land and people

You can also access the soil maps of Scotland and the land capability maps on the soils website Maps | Scotland's soils (environment.gov.scot) 

There is also an agricultural soils information page within Scotland’s soils website Agriculture | Scotland's soils (environment.gov.scot). 

The soil heath score card can be found on AHDB website here https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/the-soil-health-scorecard

Information on Regenerative Agriculture can be found below:
https://www.fas.scot/crops-soils/soils/regenerative-agriculture/

Building resilience into Scotland’s rural sector through working with nature and technology