Arable News

Understanding soil structure and nutrient content will be key to farmers meeting the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) ‘arable soils’ standard and supporting future crop growth, according to David Newton, technical manager at Timac Agro.

Replacing an aging, and often unreliable farm-built nematicide applicator with the Terracast GR, an applicator specifically designed for precision placement of nematicide, starter fertiliser and cover crops has enabled Cheshire-based potato farmer Zak Stanier to (not only) improve the accuracy of his previous system but also widen potential use of the farm’s new applicator to include sowing cover crops and placing starter fertiliser.

Following reports of weeds such as cranesbill, scentless mayweed and cleavers emerging in oilseed rape (OSR) crops, farmers are being advised to monitor fields closely and take prompt action if necessary.

The “well-organised” break-in at a secure distributer store saw a large quantity of herbicides stolen.

Findings from a three-year nitrogen (N) efficiency trial have been labelled as a ‘potential game changer’ for growers looking to enhance farm sustainability and variety performance while reducing the overall cost of N inputs.

A mild winter, forward crops and good conditions for sprayers to travel have conspired to offer many arable farmers an early opportunity to get ahead with weed control.

AHDB has produced its latest Agri-market Outlook, which explores the factors likely to affect farm businesses.

Thinking of spring, the majority of UK arable soils are deficient in sulphur which means that is needs to be part of the fertiliser strategy. With many buying straight nitrogen products this season, sulphur might need managing differently and you need to be aware of the differences, advises Yara.

A crop of DSV Champion winter wheat grown by UK producer Tim Lamyman has been pronounced the official Guinness World Record for wheat yield, beating the existing record of 17.40t/ha achieved in New Zealand in 2020.

2022’s floods, storms, drought and the volatile grain market shook the industry, but as 2023 gets underway, Natalie Wood, agronomy operations manager at Yara, discusses the findings from last years’ trials.

Following the recent launch of an updated post-em herbicide called Atlantis Star by Bayer, campaign manager Tom Chillcott offered insights on how post-ems fit into current weed control programmes.

Farmers and researchers at the Oxford Real Farming Conference 2023 discussed various practical and cost-effective ways of increasing fertility and nutrient availability in the soil while reducing or eliminating the need for artificial fertilisers.