In this podcast, we hear from our Moray Soil & Nutrient Network host farmer, James Milne who farms at 'Balnellan'.  James chats with soil & drainage expert, Gavin Elrick & grassland specialist Dr. Paul Hargreaves.  

James has been applying distillery by-product/digestate at Balnellan for about a year and has an interesting discussion with Paul & Gavin about the pros and cons of the use of organic manures with a view to making savings on artificial fertiliser applications.

The Technical Notes referred to in the podcast can be found using the links below: 

TN699 - Agricultural use of biosolids composts anaerobic digestates and other industrial organic fertilisers

TN650 - Optimising the application of bulky organic fertilisers

For anyone interested in finding out more about sourcing or using digestate, Zero Waste Scotland's "Farmer’s guide to sourcing and using digestate and compost" contains a lot of useful information.

Find out more about the Soil & Nutrient Network and the other 11 farm hosts from our webpage: www.fas.scot/crops-soils/soils