Salvage soil health post harvest
Record-breaking rainfall has washed away nitrogen, phosphorus and other essential nutrients, leaving soil health in tatters. In addition, it is expected that some soils now contain worrying levels of contaminants like aluminium that could jeopardise future crop quality. Soil health specialist Shane Brewer, from laboratory group Eurofins Agro, suggests testing soil immediately after harvesting crops […]
Biofertiliser boost for sugar beet growth
Sugar beet crops that have been slow to get going this season would now get a huge benefit from a Vixeran® biofertiliser application, advises Syngenta sugar beet specialist, Jonathan Ronksley. “Delayed drilling in wet soils and poor early growing conditions have left many crops behind where growers would like them this season. The wet winter […]
Bringing variety crop plots together for better comparison
Crop plots are back centre stage at the Cereals Event, meaning visitors can compare top varieties side by side. The winter wheat and barley feature showcases new and popular Recommended List varieties, says arable project manager Jonathan Backhouse, who has curated 26 winter wheat and 14 winter barley varieties. “We have worked with seed breeders […]
Scottish cereal farmers call for spring barley competition
Scottish cereal growers are working with ADAS on adding a new spring barley category to the national yield competition– the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN). At the inaugural meeting of the Scottish YEN Growers Group – funded and facilitated by AHDB – the members discussed how a new spring barley category, which focused on grain quality […]
Tramline trials used to test winter wheat nitrogen accuracy
An innovative set of trials has helped farmers test the accuracy of nitrogen (N) management in their winter wheat crops. Wheat yields differed both between farms and within farms but the cause of most of the variation was deemed unlikely to be a result of N tactics. The conclusions add weight to other research findings that […]
Resistant diamondback moths now capable of surviving winter
A ‘super pest’ moth resistant to a class of common plant protection is now also capable of surviving through the UK’s cold winter conditions, according to new research. Diamondback moth (DBM) caterpillars feed on crops including cabbage, broccoli, swedes and Brussels sprouts, causing cosmetic damage, which could result in the loss of up to 100 […]
Rapid increase in pesticide use and new evidence of health impacts of very low doses
New evidence suggests pesticide use has seen a massive increase in the UK over the last 40 years, with a potential impact on human health, delegates at a Royal Society of Medicine conference have heard. This is in sharp contrast to the claim by the pesticide industry that use has halved. Using data extracted for […]
Crops evolving ten millennia before experts thought
Professor Robin Allaby, in Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, has discovered that human crop gathering was so extensive as long ago as the last Ice Age, that it started to have an effect on the evolution of rice, wheat and barley – triggering the process which turned these plants from wild to domesticated. In Tell […]
Farming for free
Farmers at the Leicester Monitor Farm meeting on 10 January were encouraged to make the most of free resources available. The meeting covered soil health, crop nutrition and cover crops. Harry Henderson, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Knowledge Exchange Manager, said: “Farmers’ own knowledge and that of their neighbours, as well as sunlight, water and soil […]
