An ADOPT-funded project is exploring whether locally produced biochar can improve grassland soils and farm resilience. PEP is supporting project delivery and the development of practical evidence for other farmers.
Heavy rain, compacted soils and unreliable grass growth create connected challenges for livestock farmers. Water running off a field can carry nutrients away with it, while land that becomes waterlogged in winter may still struggle to retain moisture through a dry summer.
Could material from local woodland and hedge management help address these problems?
That is the question behind South Devon Biochar, a farmer-led project supported through ADOPT, part of Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
The project will test whether biochar made from local biomass residues can be produced, spread and used effectively within working livestock and grassland systems. PEP is providing project support through Henry Leveson-Gower’s ADOPT facilitation work, helping the team coordinate delivery, gather evidence and translate findings into practical learning.
Who is taking part?
The partnership combines two farming businesses with the technical expertise of Flete Field Lab.
The Flete Farming Partnership, managed by John Mildmay-White, is the lead organisation. Based at the Flete Estate in South Devon, it will provide trial land, coordinate access and farm operations, support biochar application and contribute grass-growth measurements. The estate’s woodland management also provides a local source of potential feedstock.
Millco Farming Limited, managed by Harry Miller of Orcheton Farm, is the second farming partner. Its beef and dairy grassland, including relevant land at Butland, provides a further setting for testing the approach. Harry will help select fields, support application, contribute grass and forage measurements, and assess whether the process fits the demands of commercial farming.
Flete Field Lab is leading the technical trial. It will design the experiment, produce and process the biochar, coordinate application and sampling, arrange laboratory analysis, and interpret the results. It will also prepare technical reports and farmer-facing guidance, drawing on its existing work on soil and water regeneration.
PEP’s project support is provided through Henry Leveson-Gower as ADOPT Project Facilitator. His role includes coordination, project governance, evidence capture, budget tracking, reporting and risk management, alongside support for evaluation and sharing the findings.
The farmers will help shape the experiment throughout: identifying suitable land, explaining operational constraints and judging whether the approach could realistically become part of their businesses.
What will the trial test?
Biochar is a carbon-rich, charcoal-like material produced by heating biomass with a restricted supply of oxygen. Its potential uses include soil improvement and carbon storage, but the practical question for this project is what it can deliver under South Devon farming conditions.
The trial will compare untreated plots with plots receiving raw biochar and biologically activated biochar. It will examine soil condition, water infiltration, nutrient status and grass growth, using baseline measurements and repeated monitoring over two seasons.
Farmers will contribute grass measurements using plate meters—tools already familiar within the participating farming systems—alongside observations about grazing, cutting and field conditions. Flete Field Lab will coordinate more specialist measurements and soil testing.
This combination matters. A change detected in a soil sample needs to be considered alongside what happens in the field and whether it makes a useful difference to farming.
Following the whole process
The project will also investigate the work required before biochar reaches the soil.
Which local woodland, hedge and farm residues are suitable? How much material can be processed? What preparation, storage and transport are needed? Can farmers spread the resulting biochar with existing farm or contractor equipment?
These questions determine whether a promising soil treatment becomes an affordable practice.
The team will record labour, equipment requirements, production and application costs, and practical difficulties. Work will need to fit around grazing rotations, forage harvests, weather windows and machinery access.
The findings should help establish whether production makes sense for an individual farm or whether neighbouring farms could benefit from sharing equipment, skills and processing capacity.
Why PEP is supporting the work
The project brings together questions that are often considered separately: farm productivity, woodland management, soil health, water and the organisation of local enterprise.
A useful economic assessment needs to understand those connections. It also needs the knowledge of people managing the land, the technical expertise to test changes carefully and an honest account of the costs.
Different perspectives help the partnership judge what counts as success: measurable changes in soil and grass performance, manageable demands on farm time, and an approach that other farmers could adopt.
Public funding provides space to investigate those possibilities and share the learning. The planned outputs include practical guidance, technical findings and farmer learning events, with conclusions reflecting the benefits and limitations observed.
The ambition is to give farmers a clearer basis for deciding whether locally produced biochar deserves a place in their farming systems—and whether working together could make that possible.