The strongest set of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) management strategies to date has been released to help reverse the fortunes of oilseed rape (OSR). Jason Pole, AHDB Technical Content Manager, explains. We have seen large year-on-year reductions in the OSR area over the last decade. For harvest 2025, the AHDB Planting and Variety Survey …
Jamie Stokes – 2024 Nuffield Farming Scholar Getting an invite to write about what I have learnt from the last 18 months travelling for my Nuffield Scholarship is always welcome. I am a farmer from Cambridgeshire, running my family’s 1000ha ‘high-input, high-output’ arable farm, where we grow both target site and enhanced metabolism resistant blackgrass. …
Written by Chris Fellows Farmers are at the frontline of meeting environmental challenges while keeping their businesses resilient and productive. Innovation—especially farmer-led innovation—is key to moving regenerative practices forward. The ADOPT Fund is now open and aims to do exactly that. With up to £20.6 million available in 2025/26, the Accelerating Development of Practices and …
Apply Now: New ADOPT Fund Backs Farmer-Led Regenerative Innovation Read More »
Written by Dr. Hannah Fraser As a farmer and a medical doctor, I get to witness the intersection of agriculture, human health, and nutrition. My husband and I are organic farmers in Yorkshire, where we grow heritage and diverse population wheats, and have a keen focus on improving soil health and biodiversity. Our journey into …
Farming for Nutrition: How Soil Health Shapes the Food We Eat Read More »
Written by Joe Stanley from the Allerton Project ‘I know it isn’t the sexiest subject, but…’ is invariably where any mention of agricultural field drainage begins, invariably accompanied by an apologetic shrug of the shoulders and a gaze cast toward the ground. Personally, I take the opposite view. I have always been fascinated by field …
AHDB is demystifying the Recommended Lists for cereals and oilseeds (RL) by bringing the processes that underpin them to life. Jason Pole, AHDB Technical Content Manager, explains. With a focus on the RL protocols, our winter wheat on trial initiative is revealing how we decide which varieties to sow and recommend – and everything in …
Key to regenerative farming is the ability to cut fertiliser inputs, while not compromising on yield or quality. Foliar feeding nitrogen, in the form of urea treated with potassium humate, is one such method and as will be shown below, this has the potential to completely change how grassland is managed. In addition to improving …
Spring cropping provides one of the best opportunities for control of problem grassweeds, but with only a few of the selective herbicides used in the autumn authorised for application in the spring, growers need to plan carefully if they are to achieve the high-level control needed. Spring weed control requires different tactics because there are …
Newer herbicides and multiple modes of action are the key to grassweed control success Read More »
Written by George Hepburn, Crop Nutrition Consultant with AIVA. The time has come to think about crop nutrition and the questions that I hear year on year are: should I be doing tissue tests? Or sap analysis? Which crops? At what stage? How many fields? Is it even worth it? If you are looking to …
The UK Government’s revised National Action Plan (NAP) for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (2025) was published to reduce pesticide risk and promote more sustainable crop protection practices. However, for the World BioProtection Forum (WBF)—the voice of the biologicals industry—this plan represents a critical missed opportunity. While the NAP recognises Integrated Pest Management (IPM) as …
UK National Action Plan Overlooks Biologicals – WBF Urges Regulatory Reform Read More »
