Lead farm – Will Grant of JW Grant Co.
Lincolnshire arable farm cropping 2,200 acres of wheat, sugar beet, oats, and oilseed rape. Experienced in hosting trials and soil carbon projects.
Effective High-Capacity On-Farm Compost Operations for Soil Health and Sustainability
Managing farmyard manure (FYM) is one of the biggest challenges for UK livestock and mixed farms.
Strict regulations under NVZ rules and the Farming Rules for Water limit spreading periods, require large storage capacity, and demand nutrient planning. Raw manure can cause nutrient losses, weed spread, and pathogen risks, while also creating compliance headaches.
Composting offers a better way—stabilising nutrients, reducing volume, improving soil health, and cutting emissions. But uptake in the UK is low because suitable machinery is either too expensive or too slow. This project will trial a new British-built, high-capacity compost turner designed to process 50% more material than comparable machines, with fewer moving parts and legal highway mobility. Alongside machinery testing, a 24-month field trial will compare compost against raw manure application to assess economic, agronomic, and environmental benefits.
Composting can
Improve
Crop yields and soil health, structure and biology.
Reduce
Synthetic fertilser use and emssions, and spreading costs versus raw manure.
Enhance
Farm resilience to input price volatility and climate extremes.
Support
Net Zero goals through carbon sequestration and reduced ammonia losses.
"When you spread manure on a field most of the carbon disappears up into the atmosphere. But by composting you are stabilising it. So, when you put it on the soil you are literally raising the organic matter levels in the soil."
Simon Cowell, farmer
Who is involved?
Phil Gilbert of P. Gilbert Livestock Ltd.
Supplies consistent raw manure for composting trials. In a regular muck-for-straw agreement with With Grant.
Simon Cowell – farmer and innovator
Brings 20 years of composting expertise, guiding best practice and quality control, and assisting design of the compost turner.
Timmins Engineering Ltd.
Provides the engineering input from to build the new compostingmachine.
Hear from the farmers involved
Watch the video to learn more about the high-capacity composting project.
The Challenge
Raw manure management is costly and complex:
- Increases environmental harm.
- Heavy compliance requirements.
- Nutrient losses through volatilisation and runoff.
- Weed seeds and pathogens.
- Odour and variable application rates.
- Soil compaction risks.
Composting solves many of these issues—but farmers need affordable, high-throughput equipment and evidence that composting pays off.
The Solution
This project will develop and carry out
- New Compost Turner: British-built, trailed, and road-legal, offering 50% higher throughput than similar machines, with fewer wearing parts and lower maintenance costs.
- Field Trials: Compare compost vs raw manure vs no application across multiple crops and soil types.
- Economic Analysis: Quantify labour, fuel, and spreading costs alongside crop performance and soil health improvements.