Agronomy

Farmer-driven, independent trials conducted in northern England are showing some encouraging results when using biopesticides against septoria in winter wheat crops.

Keeping on top of weeds will be particularly important this spring after difficulties with autumn control and a wet, mild winter. But a new herbicide is at hand to help.

While disease pressure may be lower in late-drilled, thinner wheats, difficulties with leaf identification and timings as crops rush through growth stages will make fungicide applications challenging.

A majority of potato businesses are growing cover crops in order to improve soil structure, build organic matter and dry out wet soils, but there could be a benefit to yields too.

Sodden soils have severely hampered early weed control opportunities this season, and a wet and mild winter, which is typically followed by higher spring grass-weed populations, could make the challenge even greater.

Amid short supplies and high prices for spring bean seed, following a season when many winter crops have not been sown or have failed to establish, some growers are asking how late winter beans can be sown.

With increasing pressure to retain the performance of current actives, and a tight year expected financially, disease control this season requires a rethink.

With the backdrop of resistance issues and withdrawal of chlorothalonil (CTL), growers attending the AHDB/SRUC Agronomy 2020 meeting in Inverurie heard how to maximise disease control this season. Jo Learmonth reports.

Essex farmer and advocate of no-till farming Simon Cowell hopes that the new decade will bring Government support for growers to pursue sustainable farming practices more widely.

In search of lower establishment costs and improved soil health, one West Sussex grower has invested in a Mzuri strip till seeder complete with precision seeding capability.