Arable Farming

The autumn and winter of 2019 is not one many will forget in a hurry, with farms throughout the UK struggling to get crops in the ground and conditions compromising establishment.

With the wheat area for the 2019/20 season falling by an estimated 17 per cent as a result of difficult planting conditions, considerable amounts of overyeared seed remain on farm.

Farmers in the Severn Trent region have until September 15 to sign up for the Farm to Tap scheme, which pays out up to £5/hectare for protecting water quality

Assessment of a high number of black-grass seed samples shed this summer and collected from winter cereals has shown that dormancy is high at 24 per cent germination.

The first harvest results for AHDB Recommended List (RL) winter wheat trials have been published. Results include three treated sites, two from Lincolnshire and one from Hampshire.

Progress in wheat harvesting has been rapid in the last week or so, amid high temperatures, however, yields are very variable depending on soil type.

Scientists at the James Hutton Institute are working to understand the interactions between pathogen pectobacterium atrosepticum and an array of soil-microbe-crop interactions in the development of blackleg.

Potatoes in areas that have seen hot, dry weather recently are senescing more quickly than normal, particularly in unirrigated crops.

The NFU has launched its annual harvest survey. After a challenging year, NFU combinable crops board chairman Matt Culley explains why taking part in this survey is important.

The 2019/20 Beet Delivery Service Report, including results from a survey on the BDS has been published by British Sugar and NFU Sugar.