It’s called a fools spring for a reason…. The dry winter has meant that we have been able to get the first round of fertilizer out onto cereal crops this year nice and early. The wheats and barleys are looking a picture and are still tillering out nicely. The disease pressure looks low so far …
AHDB’s Crop Protection Scientist, Charlotte Rowley, assesses new methods of control against slugs in the face of theindustry losing metaldehyde. Following the announcement from Defra on the withdrawal of metaldehyde in 2020, thoughts are again turning towards slug management. The good news is that there is an effective alternative: ferric phosphate has been shown to …
Dr Jon Knight, AHDB Head of Crop Protection assesses the shifting political emphasis on environmental protection and the future for Integrated Pest Management What is Integrated Pest management (IPM)? The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations definition is as follows: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) means the careful consideration of all available pest control …
Why Integrated Pest Management Is Closer Than We Think Read More »
DRILL FOR THE MODERN ERA A seed drill that meets the needs of today’s progressive arable farmers needs to be strong, precise and, perhaps most important of all, versatile. That’s the mindset that’s been adopted by KUHN in the development of the AUROCK, which was launched at SIMA 2019 this year. Combining proven drill technologies …
February 2019 Despite not really wanting to start off with the weather it’s had such a significant impact on the farm in the last 12 months that I can’t really avoid it. Despite the late spring/early summer of 2017 being overly dry compared to an ‘average’ (what’s one of those anymore?) year, it turns out …
SPRING HAS BEEN AND GONE ?? Early drilling has been going on thanks to the unseasonably warm weather, winter crops have not really stopped growing and by the look of some local overwintered, cultivated and blackgrass ladened ground, the green hue says that the Blackgrass has not been checked either. There is no doubt that …
Written by Mark Atkins of Bio Farming Limited In 2015 a colleague who operates a company supplying various biological based products into the agricultural marketasked if I could make a product from him as his current supplier was increasing costs that would take it beyond what isviable for the farmer and agricultural applications. After studying …
The undisputed indicator of a “healthy” soil is the earthworm. There are various methods of sampling (or extraction) in order to estimate a level of communities and analyse the different species present. But what is the best of these methods, both chemical or mechanical in nature? In this article we will discuss the methods you …
Learning from our mistakes! One of the strangely satisfying things about farming is the opportunity we get each year to wipe the slate clean and plant a new crop into a field. Whether the previous crop had ranged from outstandingly good to outrageously bad we all get the opportunity to start again! This year I’m …
Wilfred Mole writes about his farm. Our family are the current custodians of 2600 acres of land with a chalk geology in Wiltshire, England. We took ownership of Lower Pertwood Farm in 2006 and resolved to establish an economically and ecologically sustainable organic enterprise. As farmers we are observers. We observe the weather, the growth …
