Join FCT & IfA on a farm walk with Soil Farmer 2026 winner and see how he is creating more resilient soils to support vegetable production.

This years entrants in the Soil Farmer of the Year Award competition represented very different farming systems, all three winners demonstrated how investing in soil health can reduce costs, improve resilience and create more profitable businesses over the long term.

First place was awarded to Chris Molyneux, a field vegetable grower from Lancashire. Through legume-rich cover crops, strip tillage and controlled traffic farming, he has improved soil structure, drainage and biological activity, creating more resilient soils capable of supporting productive vegetable crops.

We will meet at Molyneux Kale's company yard (What3Words: ///sling.magnets.finalists)

Asmall Lane, Scarisbrick. L40 8JL

The farm walk will begin at 1:00pm and will provide an opportunity to further hear and see how Chris's management strategy has benefitted his business.

Further information and Accessibility:

This event will take place outside, please wear suitable clothing and footware. Light refreshments will be provided.

Access will be difficult due to the spread out nature of the farming operation and ground will be uneven under foot. We will need to drive to a second location with parking enough for 6 cars so car sharing will be required.

Soil Farmer of the Year is run in partnership with Innovation for Agriculture (https://www.i4agri.org/) and sponsored by Hutchinsons (https://www.hutchinsons.co.uk/) and Cotswold Seeds (https://www.cotswoldseeds.com/).

Description supplied by the event organiser.