Learning about cover crops and planting them for the first time at @DeepdaleFarm was our gateway into changing the way we farm altogether. We've learned a great deal in the past year - helped by incredible resources like @agricology and brilliant people like the @WSF_NRT team.

We had a bad experience with runoff and erosion on the farm last winter. Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis added up to the wettest February in a decade, with soil damage and flooding. @The_WMA did some emergency works to alleviate the issue and put us in touch with @N_Rivers_Trust.

The Water Sensitive Farming team at @N_Rivers_Trust listened, looked at our farm and offered advice - including to use cover crops on fields that had just had carrots harvested. Carrots were harvested in March, leaving bare soil, lacking life and susceptible to erosion.

What is a cover crop? It's generally a non-cash crop that is planted to enrich the soil. With the help of @CotswoldSeeds we chose a mix of 9 species designed to suppress weeds, boost soil fertility, build organic matter, stimulate soil biology and shield the soil from erosion.

Our cover crop mix was vetch, crimson clover, Persian clover, forage pea, diamente rye, mustard, fodder radish, tillage radish and phacelia. A mix of complementary functions, root structures, growth rates and foliage.

The cover crops looked fantastic last year and hopefully contributed to repairing fields left in a bad shape after root crops - they also provided a fantastic resource for wildlife.

Crucially, cover crops have shown us the value of continuous green cover on our fields for reducing runoff and erosion. This is the same field after heavy rain, a year ago after carrots had been cropped over winter and last week with a cover crop in place.

We're still learning, but planting cover crops for the first time has taught us a lot about protecting and improving our soils - and they'll be an integral part of our toolkit in the future.