Environment minister Michael Gove praises ‘progressive’ Shropshire farmer

But Shropshire farmer, Tim Ashton, is finding that by avoiding ploughing his land he is getting better crops and is attracting wildlife back to his farm.

Environment minister, Michael Gove, paid a visit to Soulton Hall near Wem yesterday to find out more about Mr Ashton’s ‘No Till’ approach to farming, which has also featured on BBC Radio Four’s The Archers.

He praised him for embracing the method, also known as conservation agriculture, which, instead of ploughing up the fields, drills seeds down into the soil.

“We are lucky to have a young, progressive farmer embracing this method of farming,” Mr Gove said.

“His approach is stopping soil erosion and benefitting the environment to the extent that he now has barn owls on his land.

“It retains the nutritional goodness of the soil far better than traditional methods of farming.”

Mr Ashton says his soil is richer, production costs cheaper, and the environment better for not ploughing up his fields.

“We leave the ‘gleanings’ on the fields for the mice and the mice attract the barn owls,” he said.

Rather than plough up the fields and break down the nutrients, No Till uses carefully selected chemicals to get rid of weeds and then drills the seed into the soil.

He said fears over chemicals on the land are scaremongering.

“We have the gift of science that allows us to look after the landscape,” Mr Ashton said.

He said he had been helped in his work by his father, John, and also other farmers who have embraced No Till.

The work is being done in collaboration with Harper Adams University, where Mr Ashton is doing a masters following his degree at Oxford.

Mr Gove also paid a visit to the Shropshire university.

He said: “I visited Harper Adams when I was education secretary and was very impressed.

“It is good to be returning in my role as environment minister to learn more about the ground breaking work that takes place there.”

Also at the minister’s visit was North Shropshire MP, Owen Paterson, making his second trip to Soulton Hall in recent times.

“The work that Tim is doing is excellent,” he said.

“It shows that we can stop soil erosion, help the environment and at the same time cut production costs.”

Conservative Mr Gove was Secretary of State for Education from 2010 to 2014 and Secretary of State for Justice from 2015 to 2016.

He became Secretary of State for Environment in the cabinet reshuffle in June.

He has been the Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath since 2005.

Earlier this week, he said the UK is 30 to 40 years away from “the fundamental eradication of soil fertility” in parts of the country.

“We have encouraged a type of farming which has damaged the earth,” Gove told the parliamentary launch of the Sustainable Soils Alliance (SSA).

“Countries can withstand coups d’état, wars and conflict, even leaving the EU, but no country can withstand the loss of its soil and fertility.”