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Biodynamic Association, Painswick Inn Project, Gloucester Street, Stroud (2026)

17/10/2026

🌱 Humus is a foundation of healthy soil. But where does it come from – and can farming build more of it?

🌱 Humus forms as bacteria, fungi, earthworms and other organisms break down crop residues, manure and compost. Nutrients are released, while some carbon becomes stable soil organic matter called humus. This humus creates crumb structure, holds water, and has charged sites that retain and exchange nutrients like calcium, magnesium and potassium.

👀 Over 42 years, systems receiving sufficient farmyard manure (around 1.4 livestock units per hectare) maintained soil organic carbon (humus); those with less manure or only mineral fertiliser lost it.

💫 The biodynamic system using composted farmyard manure went further: its humus increased and biological soil quality was highest, with differences clear after about 20 years.

🤓 Results reflect one Swiss site, but show that, with the right practices, farming can build this vital part of the soil.

The 42‑year DOK trial in Switzerland suggests it can. Running since 1978, DOK compares biodynamic, organic and conventional systems on the same land, revealing long‑term changes short trials miss.

👉️ Download the report: https://buff.ly/3crcWqz

16/10/2026

🌾 The Last Sheaf and the Turning of the Year 🍂

As October moves on, the harvest is coming to an end and the land is preparing for winter.

For centuries, people marked this change of season with traditions that celebrated the harvest and the promise of new life.

🌾 The Last Sheaf

In parts of Britain and Europe, the final bundle of grain cut at harvest held special meaning.

Sometimes it was woven into a figure, known today as a corn dolly, and kept through winter until the next growing season.

🌿 It symbolised that the harvest may be over, but the seeds of next year's crops already hold the promise of new life.🌿

🍂 From Samhain to Halloween

At the end of October, the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain marked the 🌿 end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter.🌿

With crops gathered, food stored and the days growing shorter, it was a time to prepare for the colder months ahead.

Today, we know 31 October as Halloween, but many of its traditions have roots in older seasonal celebrations.

🌱 What can these traditions teach us?

Farming has always been about more than producing food. It's also about understanding the seasons, caring for the land and recognising the cycles of growth, harvest and renewal.

15/10/2026

🌱 Exciting news for organic farming in England!

👀 On 14 October 2026, Defra published its Organic Action Plan for England (OAPE), setting out a 10-year vision to grow organic farming, strengthen British food production and create opportunities for farmers, growers and businesses.

💫 This is an important moment for the organic and biodynamic movement – and one we're delighted to see! Well done to all who made this happen.

🌱 The plan aims to increase agricultural land farmed organically in England from around 3.4% towards 10% by 2036, while strengthening supply chains, improving access to support and increasing awareness of organic certification.

💡 With UK organic retail sales reaching £3.9 billion in 2025, there's an opportunity for British farmers to meet demand while caring for the land.

🌿 Organic farming – and biodynamics beyond organic

At the Biodynamic Association, BDA Certification certifies *both* organic and biodynamic farms and businesses, supporting producers committed to farming in harmony with nature.

Biodynamic farming builds on organic agriculture. It embraces everything organic stands for and goes further, viewing the farm as a living, interconnected organism.

We're encouraged by the OAPE focus on:

🌱 Supporting organic conversion
🌍 Protecting nature
🤝 Strengthening British supply chains
🍎 Growing awareness and demand

The plan highlights Riverford Organic Farmers , Shimpling Park Farm and the Apricot Centre in Devon, showing how working with nature supports resilient farming businesses.

Through BDA Certification, we're proud to support organic and Demeter-certified producers putting these principles into practice every day.

We look forward to seeing these ambitions become reality and supporting more farmers and growers on their organic and biodynamic journeys.

🔗 Read the Organic Action Plan for England: https://buff.ly/clFlqm8

14/10/2026

🐄 Why Do Demeter (Biodynamic-certified) Cows Keep Their Horns?

Have you noticed that cows on biodynamic farms often have horns, while many dairy cows elsewhere do not?

🌿 What happens to cows' horns?

Both male and female cattle can grow horns, although some breeds are naturally hornless (known as polled).

On many dairy farms, calves are routinely disbudded — their horn-producing tissue is removed or destroyed before horns develop. This is mainly to reduce injuries to other cattle and people, particularly in confined housing.

Demeter farming takes a different approach. Routine disbudding and dehorning are generally prohibited, with farmers expected to provide the space and management needed for horned cattle.

🌱 Why are horns important?

Horns are living structures connected to the skull, containing blood vessels and nerves. They play a role in cattle's social interactions and may also help regulate body temperature.

But for biodynamic farmers, there's another dimension.

In his 1924 Agriculture Course, Rudolf Steiner described horns as having a relationship with the cow's digestive processes. He believed they helped direct what he called "etheric and astral forces" inward, supporting the transformation of food within the animal.

This thinking also inspired the biodynamic horn manure preparation (500), in which cow manure is placed inside a cow horn and buried over winter.

Steiner believed that manure, transformed through the animal's digestive processes and further developed in the horn preparation, could help enliven the soil and support healthy plant growth.

🐮 For Demeter farmers, rather than routinely adapting animals to fit farming systems, we should strive to adapt our farming systems to the animals' natural needs.

It's part of seeing the animal as a whole — not simply as a producer of milk or meat.

🔗 Learn more about Demeter animal husbandry:
https://buff.ly/U3LAS90

13/10/2026

🌿 Willow: A Climate-Resilient Crop for the Future

Willow is emerging as an unlikely champion of climate-resilient farming.

🎤 In the latest Farmerama podcast, Bryony Graham, an Essex arable farmer, describes how short-rotation coppice willow remained green throughout the dry summer of 2026 while many other crops struggled.

💦 Its ability to find moisture deep in the soil makes it particularly suited to increasingly challenging growing conditions.

🌱 Beyond drought resilience, willow offers significant environmental benefits. It is a highly effective carbon-capturing crop, can grow for 20 to 30 years with minimal soil disturbance, and provides valuable habitat for wildlife while improving soil health through leaf mulch.

💫 Most exciting is an ADOPT-funded project exploring the use of willow in commercial *peat-free* compost production. Working with industry partners, Bryony Graham is trialling compost made from willow, digestate fibre and ley cuttings for the horticulture sector.

The project aims to create a sustainable alternative to peat while opening new markets for growers.

👀 As farmers look for ways to reduce inputs, improve resilience and respond to climate change, willow demonstrates how a single crop can deliver multiple benefits for farms, biodiversity and the wider environment.

👉 Listen https://pod.link/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zb3VuZGNsb3VkLmNvbS91c2Vycy9zb3VuZGNsb3VkOnVzZXJzOjI5NDI3MjAyMC9zb3VuZHMucnNz/episode/dGFnOnNvdW5kY2xvdWQsMjAxMDp0cmFja3MvMjQwNzQ4MjcwNQ

10/10/2026

👀 What can we learn by looking more closely?

Biodynamic chromatography is a technique used to create images from samples of soil, compost or plants. A sample interacts with filter paper and specific substances to produce distinctive patterns of colour and form.

The method was developed within biodynamic research by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, alongside other “picture-forming” methods pioneered by researchers including Lilly Kolisko.

But what exactly do these unusual images tell us? 🌱

In a recent essay, biodynamic farmer and researcher Stewart Kahn Lundy argues that we should be careful about rushing to interpret them.

After almost 15 years of working with chromatograms, Lundy says he deliberately avoids giving students a simple guide telling them what different colours or patterns “mean”. He believes this can encourage people to see what they have been told to see rather than carefully observing what is actually in front of them.

Instead, he encourages people to compare many chromatograms, notice differences and ask questions before reaching conclusions.

🌿 This matters because there is no single picture of a “healthy” soil.

A healthy desert soil will be very different from a healthy soil in a wet, temperate climate. Each farm has its own geology, climate, plants, management and history. Lundy therefore argues that there cannot be one perfect chromatogram against which every farm should be judged.

His wider point goes beyond chromatography.

Farmers develop knowledge by repeatedly observing their land — noticing how plants respond, how soil changes, how animals behave and what happens from one season to another. Lundy sees chromatography as another opportunity to develop that same quality of attention.

Lundy advises:
👁️ Look. Compare. Question. Look again.
✅️ And keep our conclusions open to change as we learn more.

👉 Read Stewart Kahn Lundy’s full essay, Against Interpreting Chromatograms, https://buff.ly/pb2SvSH

09/10/2026

🍂 Ever wondered how biodynamic preparations are actually made?

Here’s your chance to find out — by getting your hands involved.

On Tuesday 20 October, the Weleda team in Derbyshire is holding its Autumn Biodynamic Preparation Day.

You don’t need any previous experience. In fact, if you “don’t know your preparations from your potatoes”, you’ll be very welcome! 🌱

It’s a relaxed, practical day where you can learn alongside others, help make the biodynamic preparations used to care for The Field, and experience an important part of biodynamic practice for yourself.

📅 Tuesday 20 October 2026, from 10am
📍 The Field, Hassock Lane, Heanor, Derbyshire DE75 7JH
🥾 Bring outdoor clothes, sturdy footwear and a water bottle.
🥗 Bring a vegetarian dish for the shared lunch — and cakes and biscuits are especially welcome!

Tea and coffee will be provided. October sunshine, unfortunately, cannot be guaranteed. 🍂

Want to join in? Contact Emma & the Garden Team at [email protected] so they can plan materials and refreshments.

👉️ More event details: https://buff.ly/PA90u4c

08/10/2026

👕 We Ask How Our Food Was Farmed. What About Our Clothes?

When we think about farmland, we tend to think about food: crops, vegetables, dairy and livestock.

But agriculture also produces much of what we wear. 🌱

👀 A new report from the University of Oxford’s Smith School and DIRT Charity estimates that the fashion industry is linked to more than 30% of the world’s farmland — around 1.45 billion hectares.

Why so much?

Because clothing doesn't begin in a shop. Cotton, wool, leather, h**p and flax all begin on the land.

And the report raises another important point: simply knowing what a garment is made from doesn't necessarily tell us how environmentally damaging it is.

🌍 How it was produced matters.

The researchers found enormous differences within individual materials. Leather, for example, ranged from 8.5 to 152kg CO₂e per square metre, while viscose ranged from 0.20 to 8.30 tonnes CO₂e per tonne, depending on production methods and energy sources.

Farming practice matters too. 🌿

Research cited in the report associated organic and biodynamic farming with greater species richness than conventional agriculture. It also highlights biodynamic cotton production in Egypt, where biological insect control was associated with pesticide use falling to below 10% of previous levels while cotton yields increased by almost 30%.

DIRT is now calling on fashion companies to look beyond simply choosing particular fibres and instead consider how those fibres are actually farmed and produced.

Perhaps we need to start asking the same questions about our clothes that we increasingly ask about our food:

👕 Where did it come from?
🌱 How was it grown?
🌍 And what happened to the land along the way?

👉️ Read report: https://buff.ly/1UhWQlx

07/10/2026

🌱 Can We Farm Without Synthetic Nitrogen Fertiliser?

Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser has helped increase food production, but its manufacture and use have environmental costs. Dependence on external fertiliser can also leave farmers exposed to volatile prices and supply chains.

👨‍🌾 So what happens when you farm without it?

The DOK trial in Switzerland has compared biodynamic, organic and conventional farming systems since 1978.

A 2024 analysis of more than four decades of research found that the organic systems used 76% less mineral nitrogen than conventional systems, while achieving approximately 85% of conventional yields.

Importantly, this does not mean mineral nitrogen fertiliser was applied to the biodynamic plots and simply reduced by 76%.

The biodynamic (BIODYN) and bio-organic (BIOORG) systems received manure and slurry, alongside nitrogen supplied through biological fixation - interestingly the largest nitrogen source - within the crop rotation.

The conventional CONFYM system received manure and mineral fertiliser, while CONMIN relied on mineral fertiliser.

So where did the fertility come from?

🌿 Grass-clover and other legumes fixed nitrogen biologically
🐄 Nutrients were recycled through livestock manure
♻️ Organic matter was returned to the soil
🌱 In the biodynamic system, farmyard manure was composted

The biodynamic system also increased its topsoil nitrogen stocks over the long term despite receiving less total nitrogen than conventional systems.

👉️ The study does not show that biodynamic preparations “replace” nitrogen fertiliser.

Rather, it demonstrates how rotations, legumes, livestock manure, composting and biological nutrient cycling can support productive farming without synthetic mineral nitrogen fertiliser.

✅️ As farming looks to reduce its dependence on synthetic nitrogen, perhaps one of the most useful questions is:

🌱 How much fertility can we generate and recycle within the farming system itself?

🔬 Research: Krause et al. (2024), Scientific Reports
👉 https://buff.ly/OnIJtUJ

06/10/2026

🌿 Is biodynamics a religion or a philosophy?

📚️ Biodynamics is not a religion. Its origins lie in anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy developed by Austrian thinker and social reformer Rudolf Steiner in the early 20th century.

In 1924, farmers concerned about the future of agriculture asked Steiner for his thoughts. At Koberwitz, now in Poland, he delivered eight lectures known as the Agriculture Course.

Steiner's approach included ecological, practical and spiritual ideas. He spoke about the farm as a living organism, soil fertility and relationships between earthly and cosmic processes.

👀 But Steiner did not present biodynamics as a finished farming system. He described his ideas as “guiding lines” to be tested in practice.

✅️ The Experimental Circle of Anthroposophical Farmers and Gardeners was established, initially with around 60 farmers. They took Steiner's indications back to their farms to experiment and observe what happened.

💫 These farmers and researchers helped turn the original ideas into biodynamic agriculture.

Early pioneers included Ernst Stegemann, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, Erhard Bartsch and Immanuel Voegele, experimenting with soils, compost, preparations, crops and farming systems. Pfeiffer later helped systematise the approach through research and his 1938 book Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening, while Bartsch helped develop Demeter (certifying organisation).

✅️ The Experimental Circle soon spread internationally, testing the ideas across different soils, climates and farming conditions.

👉️ Steiner provided the initial ideas. A community of farmers and researchers tested, developed and turned them into agricultural practice.

💡 So, in short: its origins include spiritual ideas from anthroposophy, including cosmic and formative forces, which sit outside mainstream science. However, biodynamics also has a century-long tradition of farm-based experimentation, observation and research.

Read more: https://buff.ly/3DMtC1M

Biodynamic Association

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