OLD FARMING PRINCIPLES MAKING A COMEBACK ON UK FARMS AS CONSUMER CONCERNS ABOUT CROP RESILIENCE GROW

• 87% of farmers surveyed are more likely to consider changing how they farm to improve soil health and weather resilience than five years ago
• 86% combine traditional farming practices with modern tools such as soil testing, biological testing or precision technology
• More than half of UK consumers worry about the weather’s impact on grocery prices, while over a third worry about British farmers being able to grow enough food over the next five years
• Bedfordshire wheat farmer Claire Donkin says her 2026 wheat yield is around 30% below what she would normally expect

As UK farmers finalise their 2026 harvests, many farmers are considering changing how they farm. Of those who have already made changes, nearly nine in 10 UK farmers say some of the changes they are making are less about doing something completely new and more about applying older farming principles in a modern way.

A survey of 100 UK farmers commissioned by pet care company Purina, which supports programmes that help farmers make changes to improve soil health, found 89% agreed with the sentiment. A further 84% said many regenerative farming practices used today, such as cover crops, maintaining hedgerows and crop rotation, would have been familiar to their grandparents’ generation.

But this is not simply a return to the past. 86% said they are combining traditional farming practices with modern tools such as soil testing, biological testing or precision technology.

Pressure to adapt is growing. 87% of farmers surveyed said they are more likely to consider changing how they farm to improve soil health and resilience to extreme weather than they were five years ago.

And consumers are concerned too. Research among 2,000 UK adults reveals more than half (52%) are worried this year’s weather could impact grocery prices, while 39% are concerned about British farmers being able to grow enough food over the next five years.

Despite 55% of consumers being unfamiliar with the term ‘regenerative agriculture’, support for many of the practices is high. Around half support farmers rotating crops and planting cover crops to help protect soil between harvests.

Costs and changing weather driving decisions

The reasons farmers gave for changing practices reflect both economic and environmental pressures such as rising fertiliser costs, greater swings between wet and dry conditions as well as prolonged dry periods. 81% agreed that the more unpredictable the weather becomes, the more important it is to understand and protect the soil on their farm.

At Donkin Hill Farm in Bedfordshire, wheat farmer and agronomist Claire Donkin says her wheat yield is around 30% below what she would normally expect this year.

Claire is one of 110 UK wheat farmers supported by Purina through Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) to adopt practices intended to improve soil health, water management and biodiversity. She recently took over the family farm from her father and is now trialling approaches including cover crops, legumes, reduced cultivation and microbial soil testing.

She said: “The hot, dry weather has put our wheat under even more pressure, and our yield is around 30% below what we would normally expect.

“When you have a year like this, it makes you think very hard about what you can do differently. We cannot control when it rains, but we can look after the soil and try to give the farm the best chance of coping with whatever comes next.

“What is interesting is that many of the principles we are coming back to are things earlier generations of farmers would recognise immediately. From rotating crops, keeping the ground covered and looking after hedgerows, it’s not new. The difference is that we can now put modern science around that knowledge.”

In the past five years, almost a third (29%) of farmers surveyed said they had introduced or increased planting or maintaining hedgerows, while 23% had introduced or increased the use of cover crops or keeping soil covered.

Claire Donkin continued: “Our cover crops are helping reduce the amount of nitrogen fertiliser we need, cutting costs and giving us an early measurable sign that some of the changes are working. It does not offset a difficult summer, but it gives us something positive to build on.”

For Purina, the work is linked to the long-term resilience of agricultural ingredient supply chains. Cereals and vegetable proteins are used in many Purina pet food recipes, making healthy and resilient agricultural landscapes relevant to the business.

Claire Robinson-Davies, Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Director at Purina UK, said: “People may not immediately connect a pet care company with wheat fields, but cereals and vegetable proteins used in many of our recipes begin life on farms.

“That is why we are working with LENs to provide farmers with funding, expertise and the ability to trial practices suited to their land.

“This is not about promising an instant answer to difficult weather. Claire Donkin’s experience shows both the scale of the challenge and why testing new approaches now to build future resilience is so important.”

Across Europe, more than 630 farmers and 37,000 hectares are involved in Purina-supported regenerative agriculture programmes.

By the end of 2025, 29% of cereals and vegetable proteins used in Purina pet food across Europe were sourced from farmers adopting regenerative agriculture practices, using a mass balance approach. Purina’s goal is to reach 50% by 2030.

More information can be found at www.purina.co.uk/farming