The Journey of a Farming Pioneer: Innovations in Southern Spain's Agriculture

In 1999 Benito Cortines purchased a Brazilian made drill, a Semeato TDNG 420, a small grain no-till seeder for sowing his cereal crops on the home farm near Jerez in Southern Spain, which at the time was 300 hectares. He had learnt about no-till whilst managing farms in Argentina, the neighbours of course thought he was mad!

Twenty-five years later the same drill is still sowing the cereal crops on the farm that has now grown to 900 hectares and is managed by his son Felipe who is a forty year old farm manager and a well-known Agronomical Advisor in the Andalusian region.

I visited Felipe in early February to share some valuable knowledge transfer time with him, in his fields of El Bujadillo. I found him in the middle of a field with his head down checking the depth of the newly sown sunflower seed with his well-worn penknife.

“The depth is a bit shallow at 1.5cm, maybe would be better a centimetre deeper, but with rain forecast in three days’ time I am more than happy with it” says Felipe with a big smile on his face.

Felipe is using no-till equipment on his field purchased by his father in 1999.

Felipe took over the management of the farm from Benito in 2015 and has continued to develop the business in terms of area farmed and farming techniques employed. The sunflower sowing is just another example of how he is trying to cut the costs of operating the business whilst at a minimum maintaining yield with the aim of improving it.

“The use of no-till for our cereal has certainly cut costs through giving up recreational cultivation, but has also to a degree weather proofed our crop production, we gain at least an extra 75mm of rainfall soil retention in the season and this translates directly into yield, often 0,75 tonne per hectare more than our cultivating neighbours in dry years, and helps to de-risk the business.”   

So, to further develop his farming system, this year the focus is on direct seeding sunflower. I had told him of my own experiences of no-till in Ukraine where we had successfully transitioned from conventional cultivation to 50% no-till and 50% strip till on twenty thousand hectares of sunflower, with our yields increasing as a result, and Felipe being a pioneer was keen to try it.

The drill he is using is a standard Monosem NG Plus Precision Planter sowing into the stubble of the previous wheat crop, which has remained untouched and saved us from using glyphosate for weed control from the 2023 harvest. Considering its in a standard configuration and in no way adapted for no-till it's doing a pretty good job on the calcareous clay soils that predominate the region. The soil type is not an easy one and is what farmers call 12 o’clock land; 1150 is too early and 1210 is too late.

“I can already see that no-tilling the sunflower is allowing me to plant at exactly the right time, at a good speed, and importantly when the soil condition is perfect. If I invest for next season in some no-till adaptations for the drill, I think it will be perfect.”

To give some final context to that statement when we look across the rolling hills of the area there’s plenty of tractors cultivating, but the only drill working in the region is Felipes, and it's going to rain in three days time!

“My aim is to end up with a system where I can sow sunflower directly into a cover crop, in that way not only will I be able to build my organic matter but also help to reduce winter erosion which is a big problem in Spain.” 

When Felipe had finished checking the seed depth and spacing, he was aiming for 80,000 plants / hectare, so we moved on to inspect some of his Durum wheat crops. The field we stopped in was sown on December 4th and by the 20th February, just 78 days later was at growth stage 37, it is a variety called Don Ricardo, in Central Europe it would be classed as a spring wheat, as it will be harvested in about another two months time. 

“In a dry seasons like the three in a row we have now experienced I can establish the crop at least two weeks earlier with my direct drill than farmers who cultivate as the moisture is not lost and the seed germinates on day one, my diesel usage per hectare is five litres rather than twenty five litres, and we have seen a definite yield advantage compared with cultivation systems, it’s a win-win situation for me.”

To my eye the crop looks fantastic, the temperature unusually hot for February at 27°C, but the soil at the bottom of the crop being well shaded was moist and cool, even this early in the season a neighbours field sown at the same time using conventional tillage was showing visual signs of the soil cracking and the crop was looking stressed, plus there was considerable erosion damage plain to be seen. I told Felipe it looked like a 10 tonne crop, he was quick to point out that it is Spain and when the heat really comes on in late April that unfortunately my enthusiastic assessment would almost certainly be too high! We agreed though that the fact that it was advanced must give it an advantage in that it will be at a more advanced stage of development and probably not so disadvantaged by the heat, another big plus from the rapid germination as a result of using the direct drill.

Finally, we went to look at Felipe's first attempt at a cover crop. In a ten-hectare field that had grown sugar beet in 2023 he had sown peas to provide green cover during the winter. The idea being that by having a living root plus the additional biomass, that the net result would be an increase in soil organic matter, which in turn can only be a good thing, by improving the overall soil resilience to drought. 

Felipe's family field with some nice looking cover crops.

“It’s the first time I have tried it, my neighbours are very sceptical and think I am mad.” Felipe says with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “It started off well but a combination of drought and weeds have resulted in a poor result, but it’s a good thing, we learn far more from failures than we do successes, and it's much better if we make the mistakes rather than the farmers we advise.” 

We typically, of all farmers, stood for some time offering our opinion on reasons for failure and ways to improve next time. In summary we reached agreement that it’s pretty obvious that relying on one species in a cover crop is high risk, peas especially are non-competitive and should only ever be in a mix of species, next year a mix will be used, probably including phacelia, hairy vetch and tillage radish, but that’s next year! Another interesting observation was that there was no rhizobia on the pea roots, quite why we really could not answer.

I left Felipe filled with excitement of what I had seen and learnt on that hot February day in Andalusia, and could not stop thinking about how the neighbours had first thought his father was mad and now that Felipe is also mad.

Poppycock is what I say, all I see is a true pioneer of farming in Southern Spain, Felipe's crops stand out from his neighbours and I am willing to bet his accounts would as well!

If that’s being mad, I want to be mad as well!