Arable

A Leading horticulture body has hit out at supermarkets saying that retailers’ failure to back British growers over the winter has led directly to empty shelves and rationing.

Careful selection of maize varieties is helping a large-scale beef enterprise in North Yorkshire to finish cattle within 90 days and maximise biogas yield from an anaerobic digestion plant. Debbie James reports

To date I’ve not found any larval damage – there is still plenty of time for it to show its head, but I believe we are keeping on top of it.

With increasing requirements of the need to use water more efficiency, the Environmental Agency and Defra are enforcing important changes to ensure that abstraction is sustainable.

Farmers were advised to remain vigilant as a once localised, coastal pest is travelling further afield into the UK causing foliage and root damage to sugar beet.

The organisers of CropTec 2023 have announced that the show will keep to its planned dates for 2023, taking place on Wednesday 29 to Thursday 30 November 2023 at NAEC Stoneleigh in Warwickshire.

The fava bean could make a comeback in farmer’s fields and shopping baskets, as Tesco and its suppliers trial the use of the crop across a host of different product ranges and ingredients.

Oilseed rape crops have been set back in some areas with leaf loss and bleaching induced by heavy frosts, combined with both cabbage stem flea beetle and rape stem weevil larvae damage.

Welsh farms have significantly increased farmland bird populations since growing seed-bearing cover crops and providing supplementary seed feeding stations.

Farmers who want to adopt more sustainable and environmentally friendly farming methods could face lower short-term margins, but the long-term benefits could outweigh the losses, according to the results of a trial in Scotland.