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Revolutionising Farming: How Iain Tolhurst Grows Food Without Manure or Synthetic Fertilisers

What if soil fertility did not have to arrive in a bag of synthetic
fertiliser or in a trailer filled with animal manure?

At Tolhurst Organic, vegetables have been grown commercially for decades without livestock or animal-derived fertilisers. The farm lies near Whitchurch-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire, where Iain Tolhurst and his team have developed one of England’s longest-running organic vegetable-growing systems. In 2004, it became the first farm registered under the Stockfree Organic standards. [1]

This is sometimes described as farming without inputs.

That is not quite accurate.

The fertility still has to come from somewhere. The difference is that it is built through plants, roots, compost,
rotations and biological processes rather than imported from livestock systems.

There is no magic ingredient.

There is a carefully designed living system.

What does stockfree organic mean?

Stockfree organic farming — also known as veganic or animal-free organic farming — avoids:

animal manure;
slaughterhouse by-products;
blood, fish and bone fertilisers;
animal-derived feeds and soil amendments;
synthetic fertilisers and routine pesticides.

Instead, growers rely primarily on fertility-building crops, plant-based composts, crop rotations, mulches and the activity of soil organisms.

The approach is still organic. It simply removes the assumption that vegetable production must depend on livestock or products derived from animals.

Tolhurst Organic helped the Vegan Organic Network develop the Stockfree Organic standards and became the first farm registered under them. [2]

A farm built around relationships

The most important lesson from Tolhurst Organic is not that manure has been replaced by one alternative product.

It is that the farm has been designed around relationships.

Plants feed soil organisms.
Soil organisms release nutrients.
Hedges shelter insects and birds.
Predators help regulate pests.
Crop rotations prevent one group of plants from exhausting the same resources year after year.

Fertility, pest management and biodiversity are not treated as separate problems.

They are parts of the same system.

1. Fertility-building crops feed the soil

Some crops are grown primarily to improve the land rather than to be harvested for food.

These are often called green manures or fertility-building crops.

Legumes such as clover and vetch live in partnership with bacteria that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into forms held within the plant and soil system. Their roots also feed microorganisms, protect the surface and add organic matter.

Other plants contribute different qualities:

grasses produce fibrous roots and carbon-rich material;
deep-rooted plants can explore lower soil layers;
flowering species provide resources for insects;
mixtures create more varied root systems than a single crop.

When these plants are cut, incorporated or allowed to decompose at the surface, part of their biomass returns to the soil.

The aim is not simply to “add nitrogen”.

It is to maintain a continuous cycle of growth, decomposition and renewal.

2. Rotation makes fertility a long-term process

A productive farm cannot grow the same demanding crop in the same place indefinitely.

Tolhurst Organic uses rotations in which food crops alternate with periods devoted to rebuilding fertility.

A simplified rotation might move through:

a fertility-building phase;
demanding crops such as brassicas;
moderately demanding vegetables;
roots or other crops that use the remaining fertility;
another period of soil recovery.

The exact order depends on the soil, climate, weeds, crop requirements and the needs of the farm.

This is slower than responding to every problem with a purchased product.

But it also encourages the grower to think in years rather than weeks.

3. Plant-based compost returns nutrients

Green manures are only one part of the system.

Plant residues, crop waste, leaves and woody materials can also be composted and returned to the land. Tolhurst Organic has participated in on-farm research comparing composted and uncomposted woodchip as soil improvers, linking hedge and tree management with the production of organic matter for the fields. [3]

Plant-based compost can:

return some of the nutrients contained in harvested or discarded vegetation;
add stable organic matter;
support soil organisms;
improve water retention and soil structure;
help protect the surface from erosion and weather.

Compost should not be treated as a miracle cure.

Its quality, maturity, ingredients and application rate all matter. A resilient fertility system uses compost alongside rotations, living roots and careful nutrient management rather than expecting compost to do everything.

4. The soil is kept biologically active

Healthy soil is not simply a substance that holds plants upright.

It contains roots, fungi, bacteria, invertebrates, water, air and decomposing organic matter. Together, these components form a living network.

Stockfree farming aims to support that network by:

growing roots for as much of the year as practical;
returning plant material;
avoiding unnecessary disturbance;
preventing the surface from remaining bare;
maintaining organic matter;
reducing reliance on soluble fertilisers.

This does not mean the soil should never be cultivated.

Different farms use different approaches, and even low-disturbance systems sometimes need intervention. The principle is to disturb with purpose rather than by habit.

5. Biodiversity becomes part of pest management

Tolhurst Organic has planted and retained extensive hedgerows and created habitat features throughout its growing areas.

The farm describes this as a systems approach to pests.

Instead of trying to eliminate every aphid or caterpillar, the objective is to maintain enough habitat for predators such as beetles, hoverflies, parasitoid wasps, spiders and birds.

The farm reports that this habitat-based management has allowed it to avoid spraying crops, including with permitted organic sprays. [4]

That does not mean every insect is harmless.

It means an insect is observed within a food web before being treated as an isolated enemy.

A few aphids can support the predators that prevent a larger outbreak. Flowers near crops can feed adult hoverflies and parasitoid wasps. Hedgerows and undisturbed areas can offer nesting, overwintering and hunting habitat.

The farm sacrifices some growing space to biodiversity because that space contributes to the functioning of the whole system.

It is management, not magic

The phrase “growing without manure” can make stockfree farming sound almost effortless.

It is not.

Harvesting vegetables removes nutrients from the land. A grower must understand how those nutrients are being replaced, recycled or retained.

A stockfree system therefore requires:

carefully planned rotations;
enough space or time for fertility-building crops;
suitable sources of plant material;
monitoring of soil condition;
management of weeds and competing vegetation;
adaptation when a technique does not work as expected.

It also does not mean that every farm must copy Tolhurst Organic exactly.

A small market garden, an allotment and a balcony have very different nutrient cycles. What matters is the underlying principle:

build fertility as locally and biologically as possible, while reducing dependence on extractive or animal-derived inputs.

What can a home grower learn from this?

You do not need a 19-acre farm to apply these principles.

1. Feed the soil with plant material

Use mature plant-based compost, chopped leaves, suitable mulches and healthy crop residues.

Avoid assuming that manure is essential for fertility.

2. Keep living roots where possible

When a bed would otherwise remain empty, consider a suitable green manure or low-growing cover.

In containers, this may simply mean avoiding long periods of bare, exposed compost.

3. Rotate demanding crops

Do not repeatedly grow hungry crops such as tomatoes, courgettes or brassicas in the same soil without replenishing it.

Alternate plant families and include less demanding crops where practical.

4. Grow flowers alongside food

Include flowering herbs, native or locally appropriate flowers and plants with different blooming seasons.

They can provide nectar, pollen and shelter for beneficial insects.

5. Avoid routine pesticides

Do not spray simply because an insect appears.

Identify it first. Look for predators, assess the level of damage and intervene only when genuinely necessary, beginning with the least disruptive option.

6. Let some material remain

Selected stems, seed heads, leaves and small areas of undisturbed soil can provide food and shelter.

Tidiness should serve the space, not erase every ecological process from it.

7. Observe and adjust

Regenerative growing is not a fixed recipe.

Record what grows well, where water collects, which insects appear and how quickly the soil dries. Use those observations to make the next decision.

A note about balconies and containers

Container growing is not a closed farming system.

Plants have limited access to soil, water and nutrients, and repeated harvesting gradually removes fertility. Green manures and mulch can help, but they may not provide everything that fruiting crops need.

Balcony growers may still require:

fresh peat-free growing medium;
mature plant-based compost;
an appropriate veganic liquid or granular feed;
occasional replacement or renewal of exhausted growing media.

The aim is not to avoid every input.

It is to choose inputs consciously and understand what function each one performs.

Why this matters

Stockfree farming challenges a deeply rooted assumption: that growing plants must depend on raising animals.

Tolhurst Organic demonstrates that a commercial vegetable farm can organise fertility around plant growth, composting, rotation and ecological relationships instead.

That does not make the system perfect, effortless or universally transferable.

It makes it possible.

And that possibility changes the question.

Instead of asking:

“What fertiliser should we buy?”

we can begin by asking:

“How can this place grow, recycle and protect more of its own fertility?”

Start with the soil you have

You do not have to transform an entire garden at once.

Plant one patch of clover.
Cover one area of exposed soil.
Make one batch of plant-based compost.
Leave one flowering herb for pollinators.
Stop spraying one corner.
Observe what changes.

Small experiments teach us how the system responds.

Feed the soil. Support the web of life. Let fertility grow.

Plants have the answer. Find out how.

Watch: No Manure for 30 Years? This Farmer Proved It Works

Tolhurst Organic. About Us. The farm identifies its South Oxfordshire location, long organic history and Stockfree Organic registration in 2004.
Tolhurst Organic. What Is Stockfree Organic? Explanation of the standards, fertility-building crops and the exclusion of animal manures and slaughterhouse by-products.
Tolhurst Organic. On-farm Trials. Details of research partnerships and the WOOFS project examining composted and uncomposted woodchip.
Tolhurst Organic. Managing Biodiversity on Our Farm. Description of hedgerows, habitat management, predator–pest relationships and its spray-free approach.
Monbiot, George (2022). Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet. Allen Lane. The previous version of the Plantastics article used Monbiot’s account as its central narrative.