What I admired most this year was speaking with farmers who have taken their education into their own hands. They’ve learned through mistakes, research, and partnerships, and I am immensely proud that Aiva and our team have played a part in that journey.

It was great to speak with a few larger farming estates that had struggled to implement regenerative practices. They admitted they didn’t fully understand the systems. One criticism we’ve heard is that our systems-based approach can’t be done at scale, so it was refreshing to be able to share our achievements with other estates and large farms to show that this just isn’t the case – and I’m always happy to prove people wrong (and be proven wrong) sometimes.

Having Jan from Flex Fertilizer, the technologies behind Aiva’s liquid fertiliser and crop nutrition range, and Enrique and Alejandro from Daymsa on the stand was a masterstroke from the Harringtons. The boost of technical knowledge, different approach and building of these partnerships was a great experience (especially for our new Head of Horticulture, Joe Barfoot). 

At the end of Day Two, Enrique, who’s first experience of Groundswell was this very year (2025), told me he finally understood the benefits of a show such as this and that hearing about the concept from Alejandro last year was one thing, but seeing it in action showed him what we were trying to achieve and what the event was truly about in terms of collaboration, networking, information sharing, and education.

The owners of one of my farms told me that we were his methadone clinic – helping him move away from the addiction of high fertiliser and ag chem inputs. He would love to see the day when they were free and could farm in a manner which minimised all external inputs. While he’s pragmatic enough to know that may never be fully possible, it’s a goal worth aiming for.

Aiva has helped pioneer the path that many farmers and growers across the country are now following. But we have to also recognise that we’re still part of the ag supply chain and be open about that when speaking with clients. There’s no reason that the same education, partnership and learning can’t allow Aiva to adapt to the changing landscape of agriculture, grow with our clients, and not off the back of them, and aspire to be better. 

At Flex Fertiliser HQ in Denmark, they’re adding 20 L/ha of Trinity to blackgrass herbicides and seeing improvements in effectiveness. The theory is that stimulating growth of the BG, especially in poorer conditions, allows for more of the actives to get in and kill it. Whilst it seems slightly counterintuitive to ‘feed the weed, to kill the weed’, the methodology is sound. I suggest that like minded businesses & Aiva could trial this with some of their clients to see how effective it might be here.

Adding citric acid to glyphosate isn’t just about reducing the pH, or more importantly, reducing pH isn’t the whole of it. The citric will also break bicarbonates and help prevent calcium & magnesium in the water from interacting with the phosphorus in the glyphosate. Jan suggested that efficiency of glyphosate could be reduced by 10-15% just by calcium in the water alone. Whilst we’ve always talked about reducing pH, I think having an understanding of this chemical interaction shows the level of technical understanding that we can utilise to benefit you when engaging in our support.