Returning to farming roots during difficult times
6th February 2025
Young farmer Jon Watt spoke to Rachel Hicks about rejoining his family farming business, and the importance of making the most of every opportunity you are offered.
Jon Watt grew up on the family farm in Laxfield, Suffolk, before pursuing his dream of becoming a racing driver.
However, after carving out a successful racing career, Jon realised he missed his farming roots and so in 2020, returned home to grow the business. Working with his dad, David, together they manage around 180ha of owned, tenanted and contract-farmed land based around Suffolk.
The farm is mainly arable but they also keep a small herd of Hereford and Red Poll beef cattle.
As well as growing their own crops, Jon and his dad offer contracting services for all crop establishment and management, as well as hay making, straw baling and hedgecutting.
What is your current rotation?
A: At the moment it’s one or two winter wheats, followed by a winter cover crop then spring barley and then either beans or an SFI option like herbal ley/legume fallow that our cattle can take advantage of. We also grow some specialist wheat for a contract with Wildfarmed. This is a recent addition to the rotation – we started contract farming for a customer who was very keen on the Wildfarmed ethos, and that’s how we got involved ourselves.
What are weed burdens like on the farm?
A: The weed burdens vary enormously field by field, but being heavier land it’s black-grass that worries me most. Some of the no-pesticide crops, such as the WildFarmed wheat blend, introduce new challenges like charlock and other broadleaved weeds that are not normally a problem as they’re easy to control conventionally.
What are disease pressures like, and how do you manage these?
A: I’m not the biggest fan of insecticides so have tried cutting down on those especially with the new SFI payment of £45/ha, but we have suffered a far greater loss from BYDV as a result, so I’m not sure what the solution is.
Delaying drilling only seems to bite you with the warmer and wetter autumns we’ve been having.
We’ve also used blends of wheat varieties and have been impressed with the added disease resistance; it’s just a shame that it makes marketing the crop harder.
How would you define your farming approach?
A: I find the one-size-fits-all idea very difficult. ‘Regenerative’ seems a very broad church. Some regen farmers would think my use of the plough unacceptable, and I would probably argue
with the fact they buy glyphosate by the IBC
to allow for the direct drilling! I think at heart I would summarise my philosophy as being regenerative but what my grandfather would
call traditional mixed farming. Integrating livestock, plus a rotation of autumn and spring crops with cover crops in between are all things my great grandfather would have been perfectly familiar with.
Tell us more about the Wildfarmed crops
A: We are growing both a winter wheat and bean bi-crop and a spring barley crop for them. The stubble was disced to generate a chit, this was then sprayed off on some fields if necessary. The beans were then broadcast through the fertiliser spreader at around 60kg/ha and ploughed down.
Around four weeks later, the wheat was combi drilled on top at around 220kg/ha. This has now emerged with a thick crop of wheat and good standing of beans. The wheat is a four-way blend of varieties and with the beans the idea is to encourage disease resistance through diversity.
You are not allowed any herbicides, fungicides or insecticides from the date of drilling, so crop protection is all through sap testing and optimum nutrition. We have already sprayed twice with a mix of trace elements etc. We are lucky in having a very good agronomist helping us with this as in some ways it’s a lot more complicated than a standard programme.
Without herbicides, good ploughing seems to be the key to a relatively weed-free crop in my eyes.
You are also allowed to apply 140kg/ha which will be split in many small doses and late foliar applications. The goal is to maximise N efficiency and reach the contract spec of 11.5% protein and therefore the price of £280/t. The target yield is 6.5t/ha.
The barley follows an over-winter cover crop that is usually a mix of phacelia radish, mustard etc. This is then terminated, cultivated and drilled as early as the weather allows in spring. Around April/May time the crop is then under sown with clover, which ticks the companion cropping box and provided a weed-suppressing mat in the base of the crop.
We’ve tried a variety of options, and have found white/Balansa clover to be the best. We tried a small area of vetch as an undersow on the recommendation of a seed merchant, but it was far too competitive and swamped the crop.
How can farmers can make their businesses more resilient in such difficult times?
A: I’ve only been farming a relatively short time, but with the political instability we are seeing, what I have noticed is that if there is an opportunity, take it. Whether it’s a grant for a new drill or an SFI option that is here today, it may be gone tomorrow with no warning so if it is right for your business, grab it while it’s on offer.
