Arable Farming

A major new project aimed at using robotics to control slugs on a field scale has been launched.

Researchers from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) have joined scientists across Europe to study factors affecting the yield of beans.

Farms with heavy clay soils will have found managing ground over the last few months particularly challenging, with many areas going from being flooded and waterlogged, to now rock-hard.

Reducing stress and maintaining green leaf area could be vital not only for yield, but for grain marketability this season, with the potential for a heavily supplied market.

In conjunction with Bayer we will be keeping track of winter wheat crop development this season as emergence is likely to be variable following the challenging conditions.

NFU crops board chair, Matt Culley is a fourth generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother. The 720-hectare enterprise produces wheat, barley, oilseed rape, forage maize and rye for AD across varying soil types, from chalk and chalk loam to clay cap.

Arable farmers can now keep up to date with the latest news, views, research and advice in the world of crop production from the comfort of their tractor cab.

Scaled back Scotch Whisky production due to the coronavirus outbreak has left many barley growers wondering if there will be a market for their crop.

EU member states recently voted to restrict the sowing of seed treated with fungicide metalaxyl-M to glasshouses, meaning it will be lost as a seed treatment to sugar beet growers in just over a year’s time.

Three years’ worth of trials across three-five sites in Scotland found that yield responses to GS30/31 applications were unlikely in low risk scenarios.