It's been a quiet few months so not much to report.  Loddington has been drilled with winter wheat and winter beans are planned for the Tivington site.

The results from the 2nd SOWAP newsletter made the pages of Farmers Weekly interactive (VIEW) so thanks again to all who contributed.  Three SOWAP team members gave presentations at the recent CIWEM conference on Integrating Water and Soil Strategies: translating research into action.  While Ceris and Jeremy gave an introduction to the project and results from the aquatic work, Jane talked about the problem of soil erosion but managed to give SOWAP a few good plugs.

I'd like to welcome a trio of  Somerset farmers to SOWAP who are 'donating' a couple of fields to the project to enable field scale comparisons ('farmers fields' in project speak) of soil management economics. (VIEW).

With the drilling of spring beans at Loddington delayed until late March because of the weather, the bunding was not re-installed until early April (VIEW) Sophie finished her rainfall simulation experiments at the same time with the help of her international team - Prince from Ghana and Tarkur from Nepal (VIEW).  Germination counts on the Loddington site before it rained showed earlier germination on the 2 CT plots.  The aquatic team have been hard at work not only battling against the elements but also stinging nettles! (VIEW)

Rob and Pete set up the rainfall simulator and weather station respectively for the SOWAP demo at Cereals in mid June.  Despite the weather (wet and windy) we had a steady stream of visitors discussing the importance and benefits of good soil management to meet cross compliance standards  (VIEW).  At  a LEAF open-day at Loddington earlier in the month, Heidi talked to over 150 farmers about soil and water protection and farmland biodiversity. An open-day for Syngenta employees in late June saw a SOWAP team of Heidi, Keith, Mike and Sophie demonstrate various aspects of the project (VIEW).

SOWAP made it into Farmers Weekly twice in the last 3 months.  The initial results from the 1st newsletter appeared in 8-14th April edition (so many thanks to all for your contributions to the newsletter) and Heidi made sure the project got a mention in an article on the LEAF event.

According to the newspapers, it's been the third driest winter in 120 years in the UK . So in the absence of any large erosion events, the UK team has been busy on the communication front.

On 1st December, SOWAP went to Parliament and spent 2 hours discussing the project with MPs and other interested groups [IMAGE]. One week later, the Tivington site hosted an SMI open-day for about 30 farmers. There was lively discussion on how to manage soil and the new environmental schemes. Earlier this month, Kathryn was selected to present a poster of her work on soil microbiology within SOWAP at the Annual Parliamentary Reception for Younger Researchers in Science, Engineering, Medicine and Technology at the House of Commons.

With the final aquatic sites selected in September, Penny and Silke have been out sampling in all weathers. There must be easier ways of earning a living than standing in the middle of a stream in February when it's snowing! Sophie has just begun her rainfall simulation trials for this spring with help from Debbie Lister at the University of Bristol . [IMAGE]