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Know How / Establishment

Successful crop establishment is crucial to achieving high yields and controlling costs and ensuring the profitability of your business. See the latest thinking this season on cereals, oilseed rape, potato and sugar beet establishment, drilling and seed-bed preparation.

Case studies

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PULSES

Peas increase wheat yields and lengthen OSR rotation

After a 40-year break, Norfolk farmer Chris Eglington reintroduced peas to the farm in a bid to widen his oilseed rape rotation and promote yields of following winter wheats. The…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet drilling success with near-perfect weather

Sugar beet drilling is racing to a close in the current dry weather with higher beet prices and the availability of a key virus yellows seed treatment prompting more optimism…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

How award winner grew 9.2t/ha crop of winter oats

Simon Best, Farmers Weekly's Arable Farmer of the Year 2021, believes his focus on crop nutrition, tailoring fertiliser applications according to leaf tests carried out in the growing season, was…

ESTABLISHMENT

Direct-drilling wheat into clover ley saves farm £100/ha

Listen to Richard Allison read this article or see the text below. Farmers Weekly · Direct drilling wheat into clover ley saves family farm £100/ha Direct-drilling winter wheat into a…

SUGAR BEET

Strip-tilling sugar beet - two growers' experiences

Lower establishment costs, retaining soil moisture and reduced impact on soil health are all reasons to consider a strip-till cultivation system for establishing sugar beet. The system produces a narrow,…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

How direct-drilling slashed fuel costs by 30% on Lincs farm

Making radical changes to crop establishment, such as ditching the plough and power harrow, could help farmers fill the income gap resulting from the loss of BPS payments. This is…

Practical advice

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ESTABLISHMENT

4 ways to maximise rooting in wheat crops this autumn

Increasingly unpredictable weather and sky-high nitrogen fertiliser prices are two significant challenges for growers in the 2022-23 cropping cycle. To make winter wheat crops more resilient to weather extremes, particularly…

SOILS

5 steps to introducing a no-till approach on arable farms

Farmer-led organisation Base-UK will be recommending a five-stage approach to adopting regenerative farming at Cereals, for growers looking to start their no-till journey. The five steps are: 1. Have a…

OILSEED RAPE

Tips on growing successful oilseed rape companion crops

Companion cropping has received a mixed response among growers, most of whom have not been familiar with growing two crops simultaneously in the same field. Farmers are understandably wary of…

OILSEED RAPE

Why primed OSR seed could help with crop establishment

A new oilseed rape variety will be available this summer only as primed seed which is aimed at helping with early establishment and coping with early pest attacks and dry…

SUGAR BEET

3 factors growers can influence to maximise sugar beet yields

After five years of monitoring more than 150 fields, the Beet Yield Challenge (BYC) has identified three important factors which growers can target to narrow the 10-25% gap between actual…

COVER CROPS

How to achieve the most effective cover crop destruction

Cover crops are becoming a mainstream option for growers, but their successful destruction ahead of spring cropping is greatly dependent on the type of cover species sown, timing and removal…

Insights

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ESTABLISHMENT

Why sowing in February could up spring oat yield and quality

Planting spring oats as early as February at a reduced seed rate rather than the conventional March drill date could prove beneficial to both crop yield and quality this spring.…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

How a new soil scoring tool picks the best cultivation option

A new crop establishment tool which assesses a range of soil management factors is set to help farmers identify whether a change in cultivation may benefit their soils. There is…

ESTABLISHMENT

Trial looks at veg seed tech to improve OSR establishment

Trials are to be carried out next season on whether primed seed could help oilseed rape growers produce crops that are better able to cope with the adult cabbage stem…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Is there still a need for costly wheat seed treatments?

Cereal growers are increasingly questioning the need for chemical seed treatments as they continue to improve soil health, encourage soil biology and drive down costs. With autumn drilling under way,…

VARIETY SELECTION

How OSR establishment risk-share schemes compare

Money-back schemes designed to compensate growers for some of the economic risk associated with failed oilseed rape establishment are being offered on seed purchases of selected varieties again this year.…

OILSEED RAPE

Could companion cropping be the key to successful OSR crops?

Companion cropping could offer growers struggling to grow oilseed rape a successful method of reducing cabbage stem flea beetle risk, enabling them to establish the valuable break crop. The oilseed…

SOILS

Is regenerative agriculture the future of arable farming?

A growing number of farmers are overhauling their systems and are now farming in a way that has little impact on soil health, includes greater diversity and leads to more…

PULSES

Lift seed rates for winter beans drilled very late

Bean growers can still achieve reasonable crop yields when drilling winter varieties in the spring, providing they lift the seed rates. One of the wettest autumns for many years has…

DRILLING

Video: High-pressure water tech aids direct drilling success

Replacing drill coulters with a high-pressure jet to open up the soil will not only improve germination, its inventors believe it can aid rooting by cracking compaction and aerating soils.…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

Why no-till is profitable despite having a yield penalty

As machinery costs are the main driver of arable profit, no-till farms can afford to produce 1t/ha less wheat than their more conventional counterparts. Speaking at the Groundswell event in June, accountant…