Prince William got his hands dirty whilst learning about composting diversification during his visit to Lower Blakemere Farm in Hereford. At the farm, the Prince of Wales heard about how the multigenerational farm has refined regenerative farming practices and farm diversification as part of its journey to net zero. The Prince was also shown around the farm's new grain store and had a chance to see how a seed drill works. Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:20We sold the old kit, completely changed the system that we adopted,
00:25and the idea was to use less metal, basically,
00:29grow the crops which make it use less carbon.
00:33At the moment...
00:35...
00:45Do you think we've got the science and the technology now to do that better?
00:49Historically, I'm sure you've seen the interesting systems...
00:53...
01:05So do you see it leaching out effectively with the soil?
01:07...
01:35It could, yeah.
01:37...
01:55So I'm going to go inside.
01:57...
02:08So basically, the idea of this kit is that you can cover large areas quickly,
02:13and ultimately, when you put on the equipment, it's worth it.
02:16...
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02:47If having a big like that, and a wide door, just means you can...
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03:24Let's move, everyone. Come on.
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03:53The big thing was getting RFYM back on the land,
03:56and also getting some more organic matter.
03:59And so, Dad wasn't keen to start with, because being a seed grower,
04:04he thinks that everything is going to contaminate his seed crops.
04:09...
04:10They've just realised that they actually work quite well together.
04:13Of all these years.
04:14Yeah.
04:15...
04:17So our first thing was the Johnson seed,
04:19which is quite a rudimentary agricultural version.
04:22Basically, they have to aerate it, just compost by itself.
04:26And then, once you've got this after sort of a year and a half,
04:30we can make tea out of it.
04:32So we basically put this into big tea bags, and bubble it up through water.
04:36And then, the idea is that...
04:39...
04:41Yeah, I mean, if you made a tea out of that,
04:44and looked at the amount of microbes and fungi in that,
04:47it's just unbelievable.
04:49Yeah, so the idea is that you'll put that in with the drill.
04:52I want to dribble this with the drill sheet.
04:54Sounds like a sushi bar.
04:56It's, you know, kombucha and kefir?
04:59Yes.
05:00So this is hokashi, which is a Japanese method of composting.
05:04I'm not sure if anyone's heard of it, so have a sniff.
05:07It smells quite...
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05:10Yeah.
05:11It smells a little bit like kombucha.
05:13Yeah.
05:14Yeah, in fact, a method.
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06:40This is my bit, so this is explaining it from a domestic sort of situation, so this is just
07:04basically you add your waste and you can deal with gluts of waste, so even with Christmas
07:17dinner you can put it all in and just add a little bit of your Bokashi bran and this
07:22one's now fermenting whilst that bucket fills, so it's a continuous process.
07:28And how long does that, how long does the fermentation take?
07:32If you get in there and sniff it, it's a bit like cider, pickly feel.
07:38Next you'll be making a chutney out of it.
07:41I'm not sure about that, I'm not sure about that.
07:44But like Monty said, you don't need too much of it to make a real difference and we're
07:49selling it all over the place in the UK, but in Japan, New Zealand, Sweden.
07:55Sustainability very seriously.
07:57And then you can use it with worms, so this is my wormery.
08:05A wormery?
08:06Yes.
08:07Is that a technical term, a wormery?
08:08Yes.
08:09I've never heard of a wormery before.
08:10Anyone that comes on the farm.
08:11I know, I show everyone my worms.
08:14I'm really quite right.
08:15So they're underneath, so they.
08:17Oh my goodness, look at that.
08:19That's amazing.
08:20I know.
08:21So every single bit of black that you can see, the worms have made.
08:26So all I've put in here is kitchen waste basically.
08:30And so they just go mad to eat it.
08:34So I've actually got this one in my kitchen, which is slightly unbelievable to fill.
08:41But, oh right.
08:44Yeah, okay.
08:46Let's have a look at the worms.
08:48Yeah, so they're, they like Bokashi.
08:52And.
08:54Look at that.
08:55That's fantastic.
08:56And how many do you put in?
08:57I mean, how many of these have you.
08:58Well, I started off with 250 grams.
09:01But I started this one on the 4th of December.
09:04And so now there's so many more than 250 grams.
09:08But these like regular waste.
09:10So they're useless as glass.
09:12So Christmas dinner couldn't go in.
09:14But weekly waste, they'll deal with probably normal family support.
09:19Really?
09:20And they'll break all the standards?
09:21Yeah.
09:22They eat about their own weight in waste a day.
09:24Wow.
09:25Give or take.
09:26They're amazing.
09:27It's amazing.
09:28And then you have a tray.
09:30So they don't know those holes.
09:32They just come up through the holes when you fill it.
09:35And that leaves the compost underneath.
09:38And then what will you do with that when it's finished?
09:40So this will be completely finished compost once I reach the top of this top tray.
09:46So it'll be really rich worm casts.
09:49So that will be like when you're potting out or going around the tops of plants.
09:53So very, very rich.
09:55So it becomes sort of A-grade fertiliser.
09:59Yeah.
10:00I mean black gold.
10:01How do we do that on a field scale?
10:04Well, the idea of our composting project is that once we've used the Bokashi to deal with kitchen waste...
10:14Hey.
10:15So we've got Charlie.
10:16Hello.
10:17He's actually saved.
10:18We've got Owen Whittle.
10:20He's very calm.
10:21I'm sorry.
10:22I'm sorry.
10:23So can I see who this is?
10:25Ruth.
10:27I don't know how to do it.
10:28What's that?
10:29Oh.
10:30That's the only bit right.
10:31Yeah.
10:34So this is our project area.
10:37Stretching across three and a half thousand acres.
10:40In context for you, we have the Dutch East State to the south.
10:44We have the Malthus Estate to the north.
10:46And in between, we have several home farms as well.
10:49So it's a really great partnership.
10:54Yeah, great partnership where lots of farms are working together.
10:57Very good.
10:59Okay.
11:02Good.
11:03So where are we?
11:04What are the colours?
11:05So these are all the different farms within the project area.
11:07So we have 16 farms in total?
11:10Yes, 16 different farms.
11:11We have 34 sort of land-owning managers across the project area.
11:16So it's a good collaboration.
11:18And it's the first time we've brought everyone together to work.
11:21Has it been?
11:24Has it been a collaboration?
11:25It's nice to be your neighbours.
11:28Yeah.
11:29But many of you must probably work and share lots of thoughts and ideas that's been going on.
11:34Yeah.