Finalists announced for Soil Farmer of the Year

Six finalists have been shortlisted for the Soil Farmer of the Year competition, recognising their work to improve soil health.

Coordinated by the Farm Carbon Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture, entries for 2025 came from a range of farms – in terms of tenure and soil type, enterprise and farm size. The winner will be unveiled at this month’s Groundswell event on 2 July.

Business Development and Technical Director Becky Willson from Farm Carbon Toolkit, one of the judges for the 2025 competition, said the shortlisting process had been a challenging exercise.

Improvements

“The first step was anonymised, so we were reviewing entry forms and comparing vastly different farms. But what is interesting when looking at it through the lens of soil health, is that the same themes emerge time and time again.

“We’ve seen entries where the actions being taken to improve the soil are helping farms to save input costs, improve resilience to weather events such as drought and in some cases diversify incomes,” she says.

Following the final round of judging, which includes a farm visit, the finalists will each give a presentation at Groundswell, outlining their ideas, practices and results relating to soil health in their farming systems.

The competition is sponsored by Cotswold Seeds and agronomy firm Hutchinsons. Readers will have the opportunity to visit each of the top three farms for a farm walk later this year.

“The competition brings farmers together to celebrate and learn from how the winners have implemented practices to improve their soil and farm business resilience,” said Ms Wilson.

“For anyone thinking about coming to either the Groundswell session or the farm walks, I would say go for it, it’s an invaluable way to hear honest perspectives and learn from other farmers’ experiences.”