Back in issue one of direct driller Mike Donovan of Practical Farm Ideas wrote about our budget no-till drill in his article “How to start drilling for 8k”. The drill had been bought and modified at the time to run along our John Deere 750a, partly to increase capacity to cope with a seemingly ever …
If you are serious about reducing soil movement to reduce costs in fuel and labour without reducing yield through compaction what are your options, and how do you ‘dip your toe’ without financial commitment? “Just looking thanks” is the phrase while on a manufactures show stand whilst trying to form your own opinion. How do …
Andrew and Sam Melton, new to the AHDB Monitor Farm programme this year, are looking at how to make cover cropping and direct drilling work on their soils at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Farming silty clay loam soils and with a keen interest in farming sustainably, whilst improving yields and productivity, Andrew and Sam Melton have kept …
In this article, Jason Pole explores the crop-friendly fungi focus of one of our crop PhD studentship projects, funded by AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds If your crop roots are in good nick, there’s a decent chance they’ve cuddled up with some potentially powerful soil allies: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The word ‘mycorrhiza’ stems from two …
ESTABLISHMENT COSTS V RETURN For once weather conditions were similar around the country, poor conditions in the backend of 2019 leading to a lot of ground remaining undrilled or those that had been, failing due to water logging. A late start in spring thanks to prolonged rain on heavy land delayed drilling until well into …
COMPLETE TYRE PRESSURE SOLUTIONSWritten by Chris Dolman from Michelin UK Michelin is introducing its latest agricultural tyre technology into the UK with the launch of Zen@Terra for high-powered tractors – enabling farmers to easily adjust tyre pressures for heavy road and field work. Designed specifically for fitment in combination with a central tyre inflation system …
This year has been an incredibly busy year for us. We sent our first DSX seeder to our customer in February 2020 and have now manufactured over 20 which has been a huge effort from our team. We now have DSX seed drills in the UK, Tasmania, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark and France. We also …
Written by Sally Morgan who edits Organic Farming magazine smorgan@soilassociation.org With ruminants getting bad press at the moment over their methane-filled belches, Sally Morgan looks at the science and the critical role of methane-eating microbes Are ruminants really to blame for the rapid increase in methane levels over the last decade? There is no denying …
COLLECTING AND MANAGING DATA Farmers have to collect a large amount of data to manage their farm and for documentation requirements. With the ISOXML standard it’s possible to transfer field data from machine displays of the most popular manufacturers to the John Deere Operations Centre. In this way, John Deere is able to support customers …
Written by the Soil Association A survey of 346 people interested in agroforestry reveals much greater support, information and payment certainty are needed for farmers and land managers to implement agroforestry in the UK. Planting trees on farms can boost farm productivity by 30%[i] and bring a range of benefits including improved soil health, carbon …
