Written by Mike Donovan Downside pressures increase Every farming year has its ups and downs and in many ways 2022 didn’t perform too badly. The cost of inputs was certainly a real hit, but were to an extent balanced by the increase in crop values. Interest rates rose rapidly following inflation, but from an historic …
As a farmer, I have always been interested in new technologies that could make my job easier and more efficient. One of the most exciting new technologies in agriculture today is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is a broad term that encompasses many different technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics. These technologies …
Written by Mike Abram When prices of nitrogen rocketed ahead of last season, and supply looked anything but assured for a time, there was an understandable interest and move towards alternative sources of nitrogen fertiliser. One of those was foliar nitrogen with plenty of growers either trialling or increasing its use. Foliar feeding, particularly of …
How to make foliar nutrient applications more consistent Read More »
Written by Jeff Claydon April 2023 Issue Spring is the ideal time to check your soils and consider how to improve them, says Jeff Claydon, Suffolk arable farmer and inventor of the Claydon Opti-Till® direct strip seeding system. Spring is an excellent time to focus on soil health and how to improve it, because regardless …
April 2023 Since my last article we have taken delivery of the new Horizon disc drill and used it for Autumn and Spring drilling of cereals and Beans. Initial results have been good and I have been pleased at the lack of blackgrass germination behind the drill ( One of the main reasons for the …
The latest Cereals Agri-Outlook takes stock of the current situation and looks forward to what we might expect in the coming months, for supply availability, trade and demand. The volumes below are estimates at the time of writing. Production Wheat supply on the global market remains constrained, from the lasting impact of extreme weather trimming …
With extreme diversity locked into yellow rust and brown rust populations, the latest UKCPVS event (1 March 2023) examined how highly adaptable pathogens affect UK wheat and barley varieties. With a focus on wheat, Jason Pole, who leads AHDB’s crop disease communications, provides an overview of some of the key developments. Rust diversity Cereal rusts …
Rust in peace: pathogens versus cereal varieties Read More »
In the final part of our series on sap analysis, Mike Abram talks to a farming business that’s incorporated sap analysis into a wide range of cropping Extensive sap analysis, first in trials, but increasingly in commercial practice is starting to change the way Cambs Farms Growers, part of G’s Growers, is managing its wide …
Sap analysis proving valuable for large, diverse farming business Read More »
Home-made compost, massively reduced tillage and determined cover cropping have been central to the single-minded drive to improve the arable sustainability of the Green Horizons Network farm at Salford Lodge, Pitchill just outside Evesham over the past decade. A combination of challenging silty clay land contract-farmed with heavy kit for many years and lighter sandy …
Soil-Centred Worcestershire Sustainability Drive Read More »
Joel Williams, Integrated Soils In part 1 of this article, we highlighted that both urease and nitrification inhibitors have a minor impact on soil biology but there remains some concern over the negative impact of urease inhibitors on the plants ability to take up and metabolise the urea form of nitrogen [N] – a favourable …
