NOVAG SET FOOT ON ENGLISH GROUND
“At the beginning of our story, we started working with Baker No-Tillage Ltd, a manufacturer from New Zealand, to source openers for the first machines we designed”, says Ramzi FRIKHA, export manager and company founder. This partnership did not work, due to strong disagreements about improvements to be made to the technology and general business terms.
But the early Novag team followed its vision and developed their own opener, with agronomical...
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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
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AFFINITY WATER SPONSOR GROUNDSWELL 2019
At this year’s Groundswell, headline sponsor and the UK’s largest water-only supply company, Affinity Water will demonstrate the relationship between soil health, water resources and the environment.
Shaun Dowman, agricultural advisor at Affinity Water, explains that there is a need to change how we manage our soils and water resources, and that a close relationship between farmers and water companies is the key to achieving this. “Whether you farm...
ANALYSIS OF INDICATOR WEEDS AND ORGANIC CROP ROTATIONS
PH-value, soil structure (elimination of capillary action, compression, smearing of the soil) and moisture of the soil can be seen by the growth of different weeds. If the crops in the field show an irregular growth pattern or there is extremely wet harvest and poor soil preparation conditions resulting in silting, acidification, nutrient or oxygen deficiency this will be visible for years in plant growth. Moreover, a lack of nutrients...
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO DO SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT? THE ENGLISH FARMERS' EXPERIENCE
Dr. Anna Krzywosznska is a social scientist, and a Research Fellow at the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield. Over the last few years she has been studying the uptake of sustainable soil management practices amongst English farmers. She has found that the experience of adapting soil-friendly farming systems can be difficult for farmers because it makes them ‘stand out’ from their peer...
MAKE SOIL HEALTH YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY
The importance of good soil health cannot be overstated, but the key is to achieve it. Strip seeding pioneer Jeff Claydon, who farms in Suffolk and designed the Claydon Opti-Till® System, explains how.
In my last article for Direct Driller I mentioned briefly the importance of good soil health in producing highyielding, profitable crops and here I want to consider the subject in greater detail as it is critical to maximise the benefits of strip...
Staff changes and opting for a bigger drill
Someone once told me that one of the great skills of good management was not being afraid to change your mind. Over the last decade our move to conservation agriculture has created the need to change machinery and labour profiles to match the workload and give us the balanced and efficient fixed cost structure necessary for profitable, subsidy free, combinable crop production. This transition has been gradual. I know when some make fundamental...
Written by Kristy Wesson of Secanim
KalFos is a slow-release calcium phosphate fertiliser produced from the combustion of animal by-products and bioliquids. It is produced as part of the UK’s safe and responsible treatment of fallen stock and provides a valuable route for the recycling of nutrients.
Replacing costly mineral-based phosphate fertilisers, the majority of which are produced from nonrenewable phosphate rock, the slow-release, acid soluble phosphate contained in KalFos can be...
Farmers and agronomists in Canada began exploring the benefits of reduced tillage and direct drilling nearly 50 years ago. The reasons were simple – the need to reduce soil erosion, retain soil moisture, save on fuel costs and reduce the time taken to establish their crops. It hasn’t been the answer to everything, and in some years additional tillage is required, but the technique has helped farmers achieve the goal of maximum yield while managing input costs.
Here in the UK, direct...
CROSSCUTTER MAKES LIGHT WORK OF STALE SEEDBEDS
Preparing the ideal stale seedbed ahead of a direct drill is an exacting task and like many farmers, Richard Budd has tried a number of approaches at Stevens Farm, near Hawkhurst, Kent. With 900ha of combinable crops on land varying from Weald clay to Tunbridge Wells sand, the focus is on winter cereals, but juggling the rotation can mean that volunteers are an issue as well as blackgrass.
Volunteers have become a particular problem in winter...
Written By Laura Barrera First Published on www.AGfuse.com
If someone asked you, “How do plants take up the water and nutrients they need?” you’d probably tell them through the roots. But did you know that for many crops, those roots aren’t working alone? That’s because most plant species associate with mycorrhizal fungi.
What are mycorrhizal fungi? University of Alberta biological scientist JC Cahill says that mycorrhizas are actually the interaction between a fungus and a plant...
Written by Eliza Jenkins Community Development at Sectormentor for Soils. Eliza helps to nurture the community at Sectormentor for Soils - a system that enables you to monitor and assess soil health on your farm.
Earthworm Engineers #1: Ecosystem Services
Many fascinating papers on earthworms have recently been open access to online readers of the European Journal of Soil Science, so we chose four of our favourites to summarise into a series on the on-farm heroism of earthworms. #1: A...
Farming in Transition
This year on our farm we have used no tillage, 40% less Nitrogen fertiliser than standard practice, over 50% less fungicides and only one insecticide on a 3ha field of Spring linseed. Has getting to this stage been easy? No. Has it all gone perfectly? Definitely not. It has been a hard road we have taken to get to this stage over the last 18 years with many lessons learnt and many more lessons to come. Transition is difficult and you must be prepared to fail. When I...
How innovative root research creates practical solutions
Written by Dr. Ulf Feuerstein • Asendorf, DSV Research Innovation Centre
The root system forms the starting point for a plant‘s performance. In the past it has been very difficult for breeders to select plants by root growth, but current research is now shedding new light in this field and creating new opportunities.
It’s the same spectacle year on year: swirling clouds of dust follow the giant combines as they harvest fields of...
Written by Denise Attaway, College of Agriculture, Clemson University, South Carolina
South Carolina soils are old and weathered, and Clemson University researchers are working with the Richland Soil and Water District and the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service to teach the public how growing cover crops can help rejuvenate and put some life back into the state’s soils.
Above: Cody Bishop, farm manager for Clemson’s Sandhill REC, explains cover...
Dr Tom Dykstra is an American agriculturalist who specialises in entomology. Many farmers see pollination as the main benefit of the insect population, but as he describes, there are many more. Insect damage is often an indication of an unhealthy crop, and this is caused by crop stress which results from heavy applications of N, pesticide damage to soil microbes, and mechanical soil damage. Through his laboratory and talks to farmers he helps them move away from chemical farming. In 2018...
When I was at school, the lights kept going out: we were in the middle of the 'energy crisis' of the mid-seventies and the country was struggling to function properly with three day weeks and queues at petrol stations and all the rest. Great fun for us kids, you might as well play outside, if you tried watching the TV, it likely would cut out halfway through your favourite programme. My one distinct memory from that time is watching one of the farm blokes ploughing with what looked like a...
Wilfred Mole writes about his farm. Our family are the current custodians of 2600 acres of land with a chalk geology in Wiltshire, England. We took ownership of Lower Pertwood Farm in 2006 and resolved to establish an economically and ecologically sustainable organic enterprise.
As farmers we are observers. We observe the weather, the growth stage of crops, the condition of animals and the state of our bank accounts avidly. We have, however, failed, as an industry, to observe the obvious...
Learning from our mistakes! (March 2019)
One of the strangely satisfying things about farming is the opportunity we get each year to wipe the slate clean and plant a new crop into a field. Whether the previous crop had ranged from outstandingly good to outrageously bad we all get the opportunity to start again! This year I’m really looking forward to that “starting again” on more than a couple of fields. We all wish we could grow 12t/ha+ crops of wheat every year on every field (and I’m...
The undisputed indicator of a “healthy” soil is the earthworm. There are various methods of sampling (or extraction) in order to estimate a level of communities and analyse the different species present. But what is the best of these methods, both chemical or mechanical in nature? In this article we will discuss the methods you can use on your own farms.
Above: This is one of the largest earthworms collected during soil sampling in the southwest of France. It is more than 30 cm long and...
STRESS LEVELS: FIGHTING ABIOTIC STRESS WITH AMINO ACID BIOSTIMULANTS
Just how essential are individual amino acids in helping plants cope with environmental stress? Taking a close look at the effects of amino acid biostimulants on early root and shoot growth in winter wheat and spring barley, we explore here the role some of the key amino acids play in resilience, yield, and overall plant health.
The impact of climate change is beginning to have an adverse effect on our crops. Never was...
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Tractor Chat #01
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20
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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.
Discussing direct drilling wheat, Oil seed rape growing in the UK, Fendt 724 tractor and his Sky Easy Drill.