Direct Driller Magazine

Direct Driller is a new farming magazine, designed by farmers for farmers to educate and inform the industry about no-till techniques
The 8th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture The Future of Farming: Profitable and Sustainable Farming with Conservation Agriculture Held virtually in June 2021 in Switzerland and attended by 783 participants from farmer associations, international organisations, scientific institutions, private sector, non-governmental and civil society organizations, from more than 108 countries, from the developed and developing world. The main objective of the 8WCCA was to celebrate the...
Written by Chris Fellows Some people are born to be leaders, most just learn on the way. The latter seems to be how it works in farming. Our leaders are bred. Groomed though various roles to be the right mix of farmer and business we need to represent us. I’ve had the pleasure in meeting some of the spokes-people of farming in the UK and very few strike me as born leaders. The born leaders are the one’s that inspire you being around them. For instance, Minette is a brilliant public speaker...
September 2021 In my first Farmer focus piece, I am writing to you about a new company which will revolutionise our farming businesses and one I have become personally involved in. It’s a company called Farmdeals (you will have probably seen the adverts) and where better to start the journey than here at the Direct Driller magazine. The fastest growing farming publication on the planet and one of the very few farming journals where you get the real story not fake news. Agriculture is the...
There’s a rise in farmers and landowners interested in getting paid for carbon sequestration. Yet in the UK, an absence of robust guidance, protocols and industry experience makes this space feel like the “wild west”. Farmers are at risk of being misled, while NGOs and industry groups are struggling to form clear positions in what’s a fast-moving and confusing landscape. Written by Samuel Smith from Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) We help farmers to measure, understand and act on their...
Written by Joel Williams Soil Biology – two words that have become commonplace in the lexicon of the farming community in recent years, and rightly so. Biological interactions are of course as important as the physical and chemical interactions that make up the fascinating medium we call soil. Among all the groups of organisms that live in soil, there has been a particular growing focus on the microorganisms; interest in which gained significant traction as we began using more powerful...
Written by Robert Patton from Plantworks UK ‘It was a new day yesterday but by God it’s an old day now’. The briefest of reflections on the COVID I could dream up, courtesy of Jethro Tull (worthy of pointing out to the younger audience not the chap that developed the seed drill). While we struggle to find any positives from the last year, I would reflect on a discussion between a leading agronomist and a large Cambridgeshire farmer on the hugely popular Amazon Primes’ Clarkson’s Farm...
Catch and cover crop choices play significant part in positive transition to Sustainable Farming Initiative When any new technique is employed its initial benchmark for success is a measure of the financial return it provides over the technique it replaces or enhances. In that respect cover crops have had a rocky start in their introduction to UK agriculture. This is largely because the financial positives or negatives a cover crop brings in the initial stages of introduction are marginal...
Changes in weather patterns are just one of many challenges farming is facing. John Deere is investing huge resources into solving these challenges. Three core technologies are shaping the future: Electrification, Automation to Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence Electrification Electrification isn’t just about using batteries as the power source. It’s about using electrical drives to replace engines and hydraulics. Electric motors have huge torque at low speeds, they’re more efficient...
BOURGAULT PUTS BRITISH FARMERS FIRST British farmers will be primary beneficiaries of Bourgault Tillage Tools’ (BTT) decision to open a new subsidiary company in the UK. The Canadian company has become well established in the UK for many, initially working via distributors. But its’s new subsidiary – Bourgault Tillage Tools UK Ltd (BTTUK), based at Thorney, Cambridgeshire – will improve the company’s offer to its loyal and expanding client base, says Ian Clayton-Bailey, managing...
Authored by Eric Vukicevich, Tom Lowery, Pat Bowen, José Ramon Úrbez-Torres & Miranda Hart Published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development volume 36, Article number: 48 (2016) Abstract Commercial perennial agriculture is prone to declining productivity due to negative plant-soil feedback. An alternative to costly and environmentally harmful conventional treatment such as soil fumigation could be to manipulate soil microbial diversity through careful selection and management of cover...
Harvest 2021 roundup at Hawk Mill, an East Anglian perspective. September 2021 Today, the 2nd September we finished harvest 2021. We tried on several occasions over the past week but the continued dull weather with early morning drizzle has prevented us from crossing the finish line, but today was going to be the day come rain or shine with spring beans and cover crop seed plots getting the chop. Queue the start of an Indian Summer! Who knew on July 22nd when we started with the rape...
Joe Ryder with one of the Pasture for Life steers Encouraging greater biodiversity is one of the main drivers for farmers joining the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association, including some of the nation’s Wildlife Trusts. Sara Gregson went to meet Joe Ryder of Gwent Wildlife Trust to find out more… Traditional Hereford cattle and rare breed sheep are encouraging a rich diversity of wildflowers and wildlife across meadow sites owned and run by Gwent Wildlife Trust (GWT). GWT has been protecting...
Comparing infiltration rates in soils managed with conventional and alternative farming methods: A meta-analysis Written by Andrea D. Basche and Marcia S. DeLonge, published: September 19, 2019. Republished under original Copyright. Introduction There is a need to develop more resilient, multifunctional agricultural systems, particularly given risks posed by climate change to farm productivity and environmental outcomes [1–3]. Specifically, water-related risks from increased rainfall...
We weren’t quite sure how many people we could cram into the Groundswell site this year. We’d redesigned the layout, erected some large tents as lecture halls with double spaced seats to comply with covid restrictions and taken no end of advice from experts who all appeared to be making suggestions up on the spot. Then Boris pushed back ‘freedom day’ from the Monday of Groundswell week until some time in July. We thought what the hell, let’s just do it. We decided on a 3500 attendee limit...
R and R ………….. September 2021 Harvest 2021 was the second in succession where the combine saw no rapeseed through its 12m header. At least this time it was planned, as not an acre was planted following the 100% loss of our 2020 crop. This we redrilled with Linseed after finding most of the stems were infected with CSFB larvae in the spring. The 2020 loss underlined and reinforced the importance of our low stakes approach to growing this high-risk crop. At the point of redrilling the area...
Getting paid for carbon - farmers’ top 10 concerns Andrew Voysey, Head of Sales & Carbon, Soil Capital Seemingly at every turn, getting paid for carbon is the talk of the town. A flick through recent editions of Direct Driller is proof enough! As the independent agronomy firm that launched Europe’s first certified and multinational carbon payment programme for farmers, we at Soil Capital are certainly part of that momentum. Our scheme was launched in France and Belgium last year. It...
John Pawsey – Farmer Focus September 2021 I am currently bathing in post-harvest bliss. I haven’t actually been through our results in detail yet but I am aware of the general highs and lows. With twelve months of observation of what has looked good and what could have looked better, I am hatching a plan for harvest 2022. September is my favourite month of the year; I get to have another go. The slate has been wiped and I have a new piece of white chalk. So, the last twelve months...
Lincoln's Agricultural Legacy Written by Wayne D. Rasmussen and published with kind consent of the USDA National Agricultural Library On May 15, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed into law an act of Congress establishing "at the seat of Government of the United States a Department of Agriculture." Two and one-half years later, in what was to be his last annual message to the Congress, Lincoln said: "The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present energetic and faithful head...
What we can't see Written by Chris Fellows Farming is becoming as much about what we can’t see as what we can. We as farmers already know that. Many of the articles in this magazine cover what can’t be seen and the complexity of modern-day sustainable farming. Greenhouse gases in the air can’t be seen, our crops and tramlines can. Soil carbon under the ground can’t be seen, but soil on the road can. Soil microbiology can’t be seen but cover crops can. The carbon footprint of an avocado...
Durham farm trials put solid science into biological farming Spring barley profits from improved soil biology and structure Detailed trials assessing a broad range of regenerative farming strategies on a progressive Durham farm are putting some solid science into efforts to improve arable sustainability by making the very most of above and below-ground biology. Now into their third season, the Agrii Green Horizons trials with David Hankey on his family’s 160ha Dunkirk Farm, Birtley...

Forum statistics

Threads
259,627
Messages
6,252,223
Members
66,220
Latest member
Film the Farm

Tractor Chat #01

  • 4,854
  • 5
Tractor Chat #01 - with Direct Driller Magazine Farmer Focus writer Phil Rowbottom


Discussing direct drilling wheat, Oil seed rape growing in the UK, Fendt 724 tractor and his Sky Easy Drill.
Top