Cover crop establishment has been a serious challenge for many this season, with the extreme dry soils after the long hot summer. However, years of soil improvement and a minimal soil movement strategy have achieved good results at low cost for Northamptonshire grower, David Beesley, even on his light, free-draining ironstone soils. “It’s been very …
Written by Charley Snowdon, Office of Blake Stephenson MP Young Farmers from across the country stepped into the spotlight this month as Mid Bedfordshire MP Blake Stephenson hosted a two-part debating programme designed to inspire young people in agriculture and place their voices at the heart of national discussion. The initiative began as an event …
Young Farmers Take Parliament by Storm, and Back Regenerative Farming Read More »
Mar 2026 Ryan McCormack Farmers Weekly Farm Manager of the Year 2025, Dennington Hall Farms in East Suffolk, a 1,600ha arable farm with 12-year rotation and a suckler herd of Red Poll cattle. Woodland, Countryside stewardship Mid-tier, 4x SFI agreement, residential and commercial property and Bruisyard Country Estate (wedding and events business). Straight after the …
With many crops facing higher disease pressure this spring, Direct Driller takes a look at what this will mean for the crucial flag leaf (T2) fungicide timing Of all the main wheat fungicide timings, the flag leaf (GS 37-39) application delivers by far the greatest return, with the top two leaves typically contributing two-thirds of …
This is one of the questions being explored by 2026 Nuffield Scholar Matthew Steel. As agriculture faces increasing pressure to reduce emissions, cut input costs and improve efficiency, many farm businesses are already evolving. Renewable energy is already part of the picture on many farms, from solar to AD, but what if the next step …
What if farmers weren’t just producing food, but fuel too? Read More »
Spring Hope Sitting here writing this on April Fool’s Day, a full nine months since my last article, I’m wondering if I am the fool for believing farming was improving! The farm seems to have fared well through the winter in general. A nice, easy autumn, so we should be happy. Well, I was until …
Written by James Warne from Soil First Farming “Feed the soil” is one of those phrases that sounds faintly virtuous, like taking a cardigan to the theatre or remembering to write thank-you letters. You hear it and think, yes, quite right, very sensible. Though what it actually involves, and why we’ve not been doing it …
A rumination on scale in three songs I’ve got a brand new combine harvester, ‘an I’ll give you the key. Come on now let’s get together In perfect harmony. I’ve got twenty acres, an’ you’ve got forty-three. I’ve got a brand new combine harvester, an’ I’ll give you the key. I am sure that this …
Over the past thirty-five years, the Allerton Project has been at the forefront of many developments in how we now manage the farmed landscape. In that time, we’ve collected a huge volume of often quixotic data on everything from farmland bird and insect numbers to the rooting depths of plants under different biostimulant treatments. However, …
Dog & Stick – Survival Mode Apr 2026 For many arable farms, good management on its own is no longer enough. Right now, combinable cropping feels increasingly like a high-stakes gamble, and survival may depend less on pushing forward and more on stripping the business back to the basics. There are times in farming when …
