Crops

Progress with winter wheat drilling remains slow, with rain last week hindering field operations and agronomists urging caution despite a few days of drier, frosty weather.

The potato industry is facing many challenges in terms of import and retail competition, growing the crop and recruiting skilled labour.

Investment to achieve good returns from spring oilseed rape is more about spending time, rather than money advocate Oxfordshire growers Nigel and Margaret Lawrence.

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.

Growers who have paid royalties for farm saved seed but have been unable to sow it, mainly due to adverse autumn weather conditions, can apply to their seed processor for a refund.

As November turned to December, there were still many acres of standing maize crops in fields across the country and, as the rain continued to fall, the chances of salvaging a useful crop diminished.

There is interest in whether research conducted at Wageningen University and Research using the thale cress plant, which has led to improvements in photosynthesis, could be applied more widely to agricultural crops. 

Crop production in Britain will decrease dramatically if climate change causes the collapse of a vital pattern of ocean currents, new research by the University of Exeter suggests.

About 20 per cent of UK land could come out of food production with some farmers taking an environmental path and becoming less productive while others focused on driving productivity.

Farm groups have slammed Channel 4 documentary Apocalypse Cow: How Meat Killed the Planet, after presenter and prominent farming critic George Monbiot claimed livestock farming was destroying the planet.