Jason Pole, AHDB Technical Content Manager, explains how knowing what makes the ergot pathogen tick can help target management to reduce disease pressure, limit crop infection and keep clean grain clean. Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) grows in and replaces grain with its own fungal tissues, which eventually form a hard, purple-black sclerotium (with a white interior) known […]
The four weaknesses of ergot Read More »
Based on a paper by Dr Gareth Thomas et al., Rothamsted Research, University of Exeter and University of Warwick — adapted for Direct Driller readers Across the UK, farmers are dealing with one of the most stubborn and costly fungal problems in modern agriculture: Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. This soilborne disease causes white mould and stem rot
The Fungus That Fights Back: Harnessing Soil Biology to Tackle Crop Disease Read More »
By Dan Crummett from No-Till farmer USA Takeaways Big changes are under way in the soil testing industry as digital technology demonstrates the importance of viewing farm fields as a living system — requiring more than a yearly grocery list of plant nutrients. No-tillers and strip-tillers take soil biology seriously and many of them are looking beyond
How Soil Testing is Evolving into ‘Predictive Agronomy’ Read More »
Adapted for Direct Driller readers based on a paper by Dr Stephen Pearce from Rothamsted Research and the Czech Institute of Experimental Botany If there’s one crop that keeps British farming grounded, it’s wheat. From milling and feed markets to exports, it sits at the centre of most arable rotations. Yet after decades of breeding
Unlocking the Genes Behind Wheat Growth and Grain Size Read More »
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
Reboot for CSFB management Read More »
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 Dr David Cutress: IBERS, Aberystwyth University. • Seaweeds have long had suggested benefits for agricultural use• Research suggests green seaweeds to be beneficial for soil/plant amendments and redseaweeds to have some potential for animal feeds• To be able to include at meaningful levels, the production and supply chain ofseaweeds needs to be researched
Seaweed in agriculture Read More »
Written by Susan Wilson from Aphaeas Agriculture Bio-stimulants, soil conditioners, bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides have been key features of the move away from high level usage of conventional chemicals and fertilisers and are now mainstream – yet the market is still largely unregulated. This is an attempt to clarify the situation we find ourselves in. The
Regulation of bio-stimulants, bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides Read More »
Written by Rothamsted Research Study of 17 English farms finds nature-friendly practices can support yields, but only modest schemes are financially viable without subsidies A major four-year study across English farms has found that nature-friendly agroecological practices can enhance biodiversity and boost some crop yields, but high costs and land-use trade-offs mean most approaches remain
Agroecological Farming Boosts Soil and Biodiversity – But Economic Barriers Remain Read More »
With harvest well under way in parts of the country we, once again, are thinking about autumn establishment. With commodity prices under pressure, and support measures falling away, what are you doing to cut cost and attempt to maintain profitability. Being a soil consultant, I am always going to argue that the soil is the
Can you afford not to…? Read More »
