Soil health is one of the government’s main concerns relating to the future of agriculture, and with many farmersnow turning towards conservation and biological farming, it is important to get soil heath, the cornerstone of theseprinciples, right. George Hepburn, biological soils expert at QLF Agronomy, gives his six practical steps for improving soil health, nomatter …
Written by Ian Gould, Director of Oakbank Game and Conservation Ltd In an attempt to take myself out of my own comfort zone and into a new learning arena, I decided to venture across the “Pond” and immerse myself in US Agriculture for a week. Arriving in Indianapolis in January 2019 I was intent on …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming Ever measured the brix levels of your crops? Been told that if you achieve the magic figure of ~15% brix then you won’thave an issue with pest and disease? I have spent the last couple of years testing brix (during the spring) of most crops I visit …
WHEN ADOPTING DIRECT DRILLING, VERSATILITY IS KEY by Simon Clarke, Technical and Sales Manager for Simtech Aitchison It is probably true to say that no other make of direct drill is working over such a wide range of agricultural environments as the Simtech T-Sem drill. Vineyards, walnut groves, upland and lowland pastures, the often arid …
Written byAngela Lovell, originally published in No-Till Farmer USA in November 2018 Choosing a cover crop cocktail is only a start, says Adam Daugherty, as managing carbon-to-nitrogen ratios and adapting planting strategies play a big role in success. There are many variables for growers to consider when they’re implementing cover-crop mixes into their no-till rotation …
Tips For Managing Cover Crop Mixes For More No-Till Benefits Read More »
CORRECT ESTABLISHMENT IS VITAL TO GET THE BEST FROM SPRING-SOWN CROPS Spring crops have become an increasingly important component in many arable rotations, but to deliver best performance they must be established correctly, writes Jeff Claydon, who farms in Suffolk and designed the Claydon OptiTill® System In the last issue of Direct Driller magazine, I …
The Gross Output hamster wheel It’s not uncommon to hear no-till farmers talk about the ‘hamster wheel’ of tillage – i.e. that cultivation creates the need for more cultivation. This continues until you jump off the wheel and make changes, including those to your rotation and agronomy, breaking the bond that links tillage to growing …
Many farmers have commented that the greatest benefit from grazing their winter crops has been the additional pasture grown which can then be used by livestock at a later stage. This deferment requires the additional pasture production and better livestock condition from grazing the crop to be valued. The GrassGro model was used to calculate …
Quantifying The Whole Farm Benefits From Grazing Crops Read More »
Written by Christoph Felgentreu, Jan Hendrik Schulz · Bückwitz from DSV Farmers have a choice as to which ecological compensation measures they use to meet their greening obligations.According to the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), around 1.37 million hectares of land weredesignated as ecological focus areas in 2015, of which as much …
Growing different plants next to each other, in the same field or plot, is alien to many farmers but less so for ‘growers’. Farmers who talk to their neighbours with gardens may well find they have been growing combinations of crops for decades. The world of horticulture knows that marigolds create natural pesticides that keep …
