In the midst of difficulty lives opportunity! Well, as I write this from my room at The Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester on the 25th February the rain is currently lashing against my window and its 3 degrees outside! Hardly the weather for spring drilling, applying fertiliser to backward crops and even clearing up grubbed …
Have you heard the news? It’s amazing how no-till has captured the imagination of people far removed from farming. Even farmers whose ploughshares still shine with use are beginning to think they need to get better informed. The news is giving no-till the attention it needs. As can be see by the numerous soil events, …
Farmer – Shimpling Park Farm The Farm Our crops are all grown for specific markets. We grow organic wheat, barley and beans for British Quality Pigs’s organic herd, which are sold in Waitrose under the Duchy Original brand. Organic oats are produced for White Oats, organic spelt for Sharpham Park and organic quinoa for the …
Written by Dr Nicola Cannon, Associate Professor of Agriculture Introduction Herbicide resistance has become a major challenge to UK arable production and is forcing farms to rethink cropping choices and in some cases is even leading to fallowing instead of cropping to try and regain control of challenging weeds. The problem of herbicide resistance has …
Can Mechanical Weeding Offer Reliable Weed Control Solutions? Read More »
The UKSO is an online archive of UK soils data from nine research bodies. It provides easy access to fully described datasets allowing everyone to work with the latest UK soil research outputs. Knowledge of soil types and properties underpins good soil-management practices allowing us to develop vital strategies for sustainable agricultural production, UK’s carbon …
Free Data for farmers from the UK Soil Observatory Read More »
Editor Mike Donovan interprets a vital study on soil run-off from Finland Nutrient and soil run-off to water courses is a major concern in Finland, with land in the southwest of major concern. For more than 20 years farmers in the region have been involved in many efforts to reduce the problem. These have included …
Gypsum Trials Show Major Benefits On Soil And Phosphate Run-Off Read More »
Back to Basics In 2013 I was awarded a Nuffield Scholarship to look at the “Long term benefits of No-Till Farming”. My appeal to the Nuffield selection panel was that I wanted to visit farmers around the world who had been no-till farming for over 20 years and try to bring back some common threads …
FEATURES FOR THE WET Dale Drills have been helping farmers to drive down the cost of crop establishment for over 20 years. Founded by Lincolnshire farmer, John ‘Edward’ Dale, the company has been a long term advocate of low impact cultivation – recognizing the importance it has for improving soil structure and the associated benefits …
A common question being asked by farmers looking at Conservation Agriculture is whether it can be done withoutglyphosate. This is partly due to the possibility of its withdrawal but also because many farmers want to reduce all production costs and not become dependent on one input or technique. It is also a question being asked …
Innovative Farmers – Farmer LED Research Answering Farmers’ Questions Read More »
Written by Natallia Gulbis, Technical and Arable Farming Lead at PlantWorks Ltd According to the European Biostimulants Industry Council, a biostimulant is a material that contains substances and/or micro-organisms whose function, when applied to plants or the rhizosphere, is to stimulate natural processes to enhance/ benefit nutrient uptake, nutrient efficiency, tolerance to environmental stress and …
