Written by Dr Nicola Cannon, Associate Professor of Agriculture, Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 6JS
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 been exasperated in recent years by narrow crop rotations...
This article first appeared on the Agricology Website
Farmer - Shimpling Park Farm
Farm Facts
SIZE: 649 hectares
MANPOWER: 1 assistant farm manager; I FT farm worker; 1 PT farm worker; seasonal workers; various skilled other workers to help at busy times; I PT book keeper; 1 PT shepherd.
FARM TYPE: Mixed
TENURE: Owner occupied
RAINFALL: 622mm
ALTITUDE: 85m
SOIL: Hanslope clay
APPROACH: Organic
KEY FARMING PRACTICES: Novel crops, Organic fertilisers, Relay cropping, Soil...
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 balance and a wide range of other services e.g. flood prevention.
What can Farmers do on the UKSO website?
The UKSO map...
Creating a Smarter Water Catchment in the Evenlode - Thames Water No Till & Cover Crop trial
Thames Water has recently started a No Till and Cover Crop trial in the Evenlode river catchment as part of its ‘Smarter Water Catchments’ initiative. The company’s work, alongside colleagues from Atkins and Natural England, is helping to encourage water sensitive farming across the Evenlode catchment and to reduce run-off of phosphorus from farms and fields into local watercourses. The project has...
Written by Becky Willson, Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit
The Soil Farmer of the Year competition aims to find, promote and champion farmers who are passionate about safeguarding their soils and building resilient businesses. The competition is now in its fourth year and attracts amazing farmers who are running a range of different enterprises and management systems, but are all connected by a focus on soil management and a drive to make the system more sustainable.
One of the highlights of...
Sustainable Food Trust
At our recent conference, 'Farming and Climate Change: Towards Net Zero Carbon Emissions', regenerative farmer and author of the book 'Call of the Reed Warbler' (2017), Charles Massy provided an eve of conference address, looking at, amongst other things, the critical role that ruminants play in landscape preservation and restoration. Charles Massy is a seminal voice in regenerative agriculture, which foregrounds ‘ecological literacy’ as a key tool. It looks to...
Just after Groundswell in June, the Sustainable Food Trust held an event at Fir Farm titled “Farming and Climate Change: Towards net Zero Carbon Emissions.” Climate change and the ability of farming to be #TheSolution has been in the farming media a lot recently and there were a number of mainstream journalists at the event who where hopefully getting a lot of exposure to farming ability to be part of solving climate change around the world.
Opening the speaking was Charles Massy on...
An Alternative System of Crop Nutrition
Back in 1894, Julius Hensel wrote "Bread From Stones" which proposed the idea that all the minerals plants need are present in rocks. He used the annual flooding of farmland beside the River Nile as an example, where the soil’s fertility was maintained for thousands of years by sediment washed down from mountains to the South. Hensel compared this to the soil of many other civilisations which gradually lost its ability to grow crops and so, after a...
Just after Groundswell in June, the Sustainable Food Trust held an event at Fir Farm titled “Farming and Climate Change: Towards net Zero Carbon Emissions.” Climate change and the ability of farming to be #TheSolution has been in the farming media a lot recently and there were a number of mainstream journalists at the event who where hopefully getting a lot of exposure to farming ability to be part of solving climate change around the world.
Opening the speaking was Charles Massy on...
An Alternative System of Crop Nutrition
Back in 1894, Julius Hensel wrote Bread From Stones which proposed the idea that all the minerals plants need are present in rocks. He used the annual flooding of farmland beside the River Nile as an example, where the soil’s fertility was maintained for thousands of years by sediment washed down from mountains to the South. Hensel compared this to the soil of many other civilisations which gradually lost its ability to grow crops and so, after a few...
HOW TO IMPROVE YIELD AND QUALITY AFTER APPLYING YOUR NORMAL INPUTS?
Written by George Hepburn from QLF Agronomy
I have worked with farmers on their inputs for the last 15 years. I worked with Soil Fertility Services for 12 years as a Soil Fertility Advisor, advising many farmers on soil health and nutrition. For the last two years I have worked for QLF Agronomy (based in the US), advising farmers on the virtues of using carbon in biological and conventional farming contexts to feed the...
Farm Manager at Overbury Farms
The Farm
Overbury Farms is an integrated part of Overbury Enterprises which has been in the same family for over 250 years. It is a mixed farm that produces a range of crops including wheat, barley, oilseed rape (OSR), pease, linseed and soya beans. We also let out certain areas of our farm to specialist growers who produce crops such as onions and peas. The farm also has a flock of 1,200 sheep and home-bred Texel Cross Mules. The ewes are a mixture of...
We are often asked how many of the UK’s farmed acres are direct drilled. It isn’t easy to answer exactly, but the easy answer is that it is always increasing. Data seems to suggest between 8% and 12% is no-tilled, but given all the confusion over naming, we are not sure that even this is correct. We’ve heard government officials talk about minimum-till, when they mean no-till and trying to explain to the same officials about strip-till, no-till and zerotill leaves you little hope of...
The use of inorganic nitrogen is key to maintaining fertility and yield in conventional arable systems. However, inorganic nitrogen is an energy rich product that is becoming increasingly expensive. With the assistance of The John Oldacre Foundation, research within NIAB TAG is exploring the potential of bi-cropped legume species to be integrated into modern conventional farming systems (e.g. clover grown along with wheat as an inter-crop). This is being carried out with a view to reducing...
NEW TO THE UK MARKET IMPORTED BY SAMAGRI LTD
Who are Virkar?
Virkar was set up in 2010 by three young entrepreneurs: an engineer, a mechanic and a farmer. We were looking for a no-tillage machine that was superior to the most prestigious machines on the market. Capable of offering high yield that no other machine can match right now, and able to meet the highest expectations and requirements in the sowing process. Virkar wishes to listen to farmers and at the same time provide a modern...
“Everyone copies and no-one thinks” - June 2019
As I sit here in a Spain an hour north of Malaga in the mountains surrounded by Olive groves it’s a good time to think and reflect. I must admit I’m really not that good at doing holidays! Fortunately I have a wonderful wife who makes it a priority and to be honest it’s a good time to get away. At home the flag leaf sprays have been completed, all fertiliser applied and machines given a pre-holiday/pre busy-season wash & polish. We’ve also...
We are all in need of healthy soils but how can we create that magical organic matter cocktail, Dr James Holmes from AHDB shares some simple advice on what to look for.
Soil organic matter is a mysterious substance with legendary qualities yet practical guidance on how to manage it has been thin on the ground. A series of research projects funded by farmers and growers through the AHDB has shed light on this extraordinary material.
What is soil organic matter?
Soil organic matter (SOM)...
All that glitters is not gold. Harry Henderson, AHDB Technical Knowledge Exchange Manager discusses the latest thinking in machinery costings.
With all the debates held at Monitor Farm meetings, which rumbled on about machinery costs a couple of spin-off debates came to fruition. A recent visit to Scotland found me standing in front of farmers talking to them about their machinery spend. There was a general assumption that ‘this Englishman’ was going to tell hardy Scots farmers to use...
Written by Charlotte Rowley, AHDB Crop Protection Scientist runs the rule over CSFB in 2019
If you are a regular Twitter user, you might be wondering how there is any oilseed rape left in some parts of the country following the onslaught of cabbage stem flea beetle this year. Pictures have been posted from across the country of OSR filled with larvae, and not just flea beetle but rape winter stem weevil too. This year seems to have been the perfect storm for flea beetle misery: newly sown...
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