Written by Rob Nightingale from Frontier “Yield is king!” This was a tag line in farming throughout my career as a farm manager and agronomist. Interestingly, now as a technical sustainability specialist, it’s a phrase finding resurgence again. At times in our history it has probably been more pertinent than others, for example during the …
By David Maxwell, sales director, QLF Agronomy The welcome addition of a family-owned distillery at the site where QLF Agronomy products are manufactured not only gave us a healthy supply of rum, but we have also been able to ‘boost’ our BOOST with added fulvic acid as a byproduct from the distilling process. Distinct Distillers …
Beyond the barrel: the unique process behind the added fulvic acid in L-CBF BOOST Read More »
High yielding, profitable early-sown winter wheat crops are once again a regular feature on the heavy land rotations at Lamport AgX, Agrovista’s flagship trials site in Northamptonshire, despite a huge background population of blackgrass. Speaking at a recent open day, Niall Atkinson, consultant and Lamport AgX trials co-ordinator, said: “Historically, if wheats weren’t drilled by …
Early sown winter wheat returns to heavy land blackgrass site Read More »
Daniel Iddon of Woodland Grow came to the realisation that the soils we use to grow plants often simply aren’t purpose ready even though there may be crops growing at the moment: you can do EVERYTHING right, but still not get the bumper crops due! Written by Erin Wiedmer, Director, Woodland Grow Ltd “How does …
Have you ever had a lightbulb go off in your head? A true ‘Aha’ moment? Read More »
The 2023/4 seasons weather has presented significant challenges. Despite these difficulties, Winter crops sown in August and September 2023 held up relatively well. The OSR drilled in early August looked strong and mostly survived CSFB. Premium Crops contract HEAR (high erucic acid rapeseed) and HOLL (high oleic low linolenic) OSR varieties, which carry a premium …
LG Beowulf – the highest yielding wheat on the 2024-25 AHDB Recommended List offering a complete agronomic package for securing high yield potential on-farm. Ron Granger, arable technical manager for breeders Limagrain UK, shares his views on what the variety offers and where it fits on farm. As breeders, when we make a cross between …
Latest Agrii trials suggest while clear differences can be seen between varieties in various production scenarios, there is little to separate them when it comes to their performance in direct drilling or conventional cultivation systems.
Having started my career at Dalgety Agriculture too many years ago, I was hooked. Farming is so diverse, and there are many opportunities available from a nutritionist to an agronomist. I tried on a few different hats and was lucky enough to have support from some great people along the way. When I realised that I loved growing things and helping people do the best job possible, I decided to focus on agronomy.
With the delayed Spring, forages stocks have been severely challenged, late turn out meant that already depleted Winter stocks were used, and grazing paddocks left longer than expected in warm wet conditions continued to grow so quality was reduced. This alongside being unable to apply fertiliser particularly in the heavier soils of the west has meant a late start to both grazing and silaging in the livestock sector. Even now soils have not recovered, recent silaging has been under challenging conditions in many areas trailers and foragers being pulled in and out of fields. This means that the silage is likely to be poorer quality due to late cutting, little or no fertiliser applied so yields not what they could be and the resulting damage and compaction to fields potentially having a knock-on effect for 2nd cut. Upon completion of VESS soil inspections around the country, compaction can be seen because of heavy winter rainfall, animal treading following a wet Autumn and Spring, this will mean that plant roots will be restricted from taking up water if the summer turns dry reducing the ability of the plant to endure periods of drought.
There are new payments to encourage the uptake of precision farming, and increasingly powerful platforms to implement it. Steve Butler, Agrovista precision specialist, examines some of the benefits on offer. Precision farming has been gaining traction on UK farms for the past 20 years, aiding crop production, farm efficiency, grower knowledge and ultimately, business profitability. …
