A ‘Perfect Storm’ for Farming is Encouraging Many Businesses to Re-Evaluate Their Approach
Jeff Claydon on rethinking establishment
blackgrass
Breaking the Mould: Why Lamport AgX Is Rewriting the Rulebook on Variety Selection
Lamport AgX challenges variety convention
The four weaknesses of ergot
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 …
New Agrii trials put the focus on drilling and cultivation choices to manage blackgrass efficiently
A comprehensive Agrii trial focusing on different combinations of drilling date, cultivation technique and drill options is delivering vital insight into the best management strategies for achieving the most effective blackgrass control while encouraging strongly early crop growth. Delaying drilling to give the best options for blackgrass control or simply because of challenging autumn conditions …
Farmer Focus – Philip Bradshaw
June 2025 It doesn’t seem possible, but it is 10 months since my last article. I was at that point concerned whether our late summer drilled Pollen and Nectar mixes would be good enough for the year ahead, and indeed while some were good, a few areas unfortunately looked poor. In late October I drilled …
Farmer Focus – Andy Howard
Looking back with a Crystal Ball I am sitting here at the end of June, the weekend before Groundswell. I have just read through my last article I wrote for the Direct Driller magazine, which is from September last year and wondering what I would tell myself if I could go back in time to …
Farmer Focus – Tom Martin
April 2025 I always say farming is the fourth industry I’ve worked in—but it’s the one that feels most like home. Before I found myself knee-deep in cover crops and grazing rotations, I was in offices negotiating film rights at Universal Pictures. From cinema releases to Blu-ray deals in Portugal, I had a foot in …
Newer herbicides and multiple modes of action are the key to grassweed control success
Spring cropping provides one of the best opportunities for control of problem grassweeds, but with only a few of the selective herbicides used in the autumn authorised for application in the spring, growers need to plan carefully if they are to achieve the high-level control needed. Spring weed control requires different tactics because there are …
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New sequenced genome sheds light on weed resistance
Written by the Earlham Institute Genomic advances reveal how similar weeds can dominate wheat fields that are geographically separated by over 5,000 miles. Two new Alopecurus genomes have been sequenced, providing important additions to the growing body of community resources for weed genomics. Access to the genomes for blackgrass and orange foxtail, sometimes called shortawn foxtail, will …
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In pursuit of pixel perfect
Although artificial intelligence can help achieve wondrous things, it’s only as good as the information it’s learnt from. Tech Farmer looks at how synthetic imagery could take green-on-green precision to new levels. Written by Lucy de la Pasture Although per plant farming may have suffered a setback with the loss of the Small Robot Company, …