Brow Farm Decision Framework
“No tool is out of bounds, but every tool must have a reason for use, not just being part of a routine.”
🚩 RED ZONE – Never Out of Habit
- Spraying “just in case” or following a calendar program.
- Repeated ploughing or deep inversion tillage every year.
- Letting soil sit bare through winter or for no good reason.
- Applying salt-based fertilisers as the main fertility source.
- Using any input without being able to say why you’re doing it.
⚖️ AMBER ZONE – Allowed if Justified
- Herbicides: spot-spraying, or one-off whole-field correction if weed pressure threatens crops.
- Strategic tillage: breaking a compaction layer, burying a problem weed flush, or resetting drainage issues.
- Nutrient props: foliar urea, molasses, trace elements, fish hydrolysate — if they buy the crop a season or fix a clear deficiency.
- Harvest sacrifices: leaving a dirty patch uncut to protect the clean sample.
Test: Can I clearly explain why I’m doing this, and what it buys us? If yes → it’s fair game.
If it is one of the above, we need to look at changing what got us to this point.
✅ GREEN ZONE – Always Building
- Living roots in the soil as many months of the year as possible.
- Diverse cover crops, rotations, and companion planting.
- Livestock integration — pigs now, sheep/cattle in future.
- Minimal disturbance as the baseline, not the exception.
- Recording soil health changes (photos, compaction, organic matter, biology).
- Sharing the story — showing customers and buyers why your food has more value.
📌 The Filter Question
Before any pass, ask:
“Is this a tool with a reason and is it the least damaging to the soil and our profits — or is this just routine?”
If it has a reason → use it.
If it’s routine → drop it.