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Know How / Nutrition and fertiliser

Advice, case studies and insights on good nutrient management and fertiliser application for the best crop yields and quality. Get tips on when and how to apply nitrogen fertiliser to keep costs down, how to avoid nutrition deficiencies, problems such as lodging and how to achieve good sulphur levels for healthy soils.

Advice and tips

CEREALS

Cereals 2022: Budget better to help ease inflation pressures

Arable growers need to budget carefully, control cashflow and think hard about environmental schemes that take land out of production to help cope with cost inflationary pressures from higher fertiliser…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Cereals 2022: 6 steps towards a sustainable farming future

Six key steps can be actioned for a more sustainable or regenerative approach to arable farming, as many farm business look to cut their reliance on increasingly expensive inputs. Alice…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

A guide to the updated autumn manure spreading rules

Updated guidance on how the Environment Agency (EA) should apply the Farming Rules for Water has cleared the way for muckspreading this coming autumn and winter. This is provided there…

SOILS

How to build a bioreactor to produce your own on-farm biology

Building biology on your farm doesn’t need to cost the earth, although it does require a level of patience. There is more than one way to increase microbial activity in…

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Case studies

SOILS

How costs are falling for one regen farmer

The two big expenses on an arable farm – fuel and fertiliser – have been reduced significantly since Cambridgeshire grower David White decided to stop cultivating and move to a…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Why a wheat grower is cutting inputs down to the bare bones

Most farmers would like to reduce inputs, especially considering current prices, but Lincolnshire grower John Charity has gone much further than most would ever consider this season. He points to…

MAIZE

Why a Dorset farmer is undersowing maize with field beans

Dorset dairy farmer James Houghton is planting field beans beneath a crop of maize in a trial which he hopes will boost the protein content of feed and potentially reduce…

PULSES

Beans and oats bicrop helps eliminate fertiliser in Cambs

Growing a simultaneous crop of beans and oats enabled one Cambridgeshire grower to completely eliminate fertiliser, fungicide and herbicide applications as well as increase land use efficiency. Arable farmer David…

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Insights

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Should farms sell or chop straw with fertiliser prices high?

The value of straw, whether for power stations or traditional forage and bedding markets remains, buoyant, and many growers will be looking to take advantage of that. However, with high…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Why grain analysis now could save on fertiliser next season

Farmers are being advised to get their grain analysed this harvest to help refine next season’s fertiliser decisions, with data showing the average uncertainty equates to £2,000 for an average…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Tips on how arable farms can manage risk next season

The stakes are much higher and the risk is far greater, but in most situations the margins should still be there, say commentators, when asked about the prospects for next…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Can silicon crop sprays benefit growers this season?

Despite silicon being the world’s second most abundant element, making up 25% of the earth's crust, crops can still benefit from its application, which has a vital role in plant…

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News

CROP MANAGEMENT

Switch to hybrid barley can save on fertiliser, trial shows

Opting for a hybrid barley variety instead of a conventional type could help farmers reduce their use of expensive nitrogen fertiliser in 2022-23, which is set to be a high-cost…

NUTRITION AND FERTILISER

Groundswell debates how to eliminate fossil-fuel fertilisers

Nature Friendly Farming Network chair Martin Lines suggested at Groundswell that any fossil-fuel based fertiliser should be taxed to incentivise farmers to remove them from their systems. “We cannot continue…

CEREALS

Cereals 2022: Biostimulant fixes nitrogen in air into crops

A novel biostimulant which enables crops to convert nitrogen from the air into a readily available crop form is set to reduce dependency of nitrogen uptake from the soil. Utrisha…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Small Robot Company launches robot services to 50 farms

The Small Robot Company (SRC) plans to roll out Britain’s first fully autonomous crop-scanning service across 50 farms next season, which has the potential to reduce herbicide use by 77%…

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Podcast

OILSEED RAPE

FW Podcast Special: Prospects for OSR growers this spring

Farmers are returning to oilseed rape, having previously abandoned the crop due to pressure from cabbage stem flea beetle following the ban on neonicotinoid seed treatments. UK growers are gradually…

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Test and reviews

CEREAL DRILLS

New drill options for seed-bed fertiliser

New options for growers wanting to apply dry fertiliser when sowing spring cereal crops take different approaches to delivering the material, either down the same spout as the seed or…

MACHINERY

Spirit fertiliser and seed into place

Growers in Scotland who like to put down some fertiliser with their cereal seed will welcome the  the Spirit Next System Disc Combo (SDC). Using standard components throughout, the SDC…

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Video

ARABLE

Video: Grower undersows with clover to cut fertiliser costs

A regenerative farmer is experimenting with white clover understories to reduce his nitrogen fertiliser bills and provide additional grazing for the ewe flock. The price of natural gas, a key…

POTATOES

Video: Potato planting races ahead in the Suffolk sunshine

Potato planting kicked off this week on one large Suffolk Breckland estate, with high hopes for the early-maturing crop after it went into the ground in ideal conditions. The light…

ARABLE

Video: Farm uses drone to even up rapeseed yields

Reducing variation in the thickness of oilseed rape canopies in a bid to pump up yields is the focus at one family farm in Northumberland, using a drone to provide…

WHEAT

Video: Wheat yield record-holders tell us how they did it

Two world wheat yield record-holders came face-to-face in a New Zealand vs Northumberland match after Kiwi Eric Watson pipped Rod Smith’s record with a recipe of low seed rates and…

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Webinar

ARABLE

Webinar: Combating fungicide resistance

Farmers need to find ways to combat problems in crop protection that are caused by development of resistance to fungicides. Pathogen resistance to fungicides is widespread. This is especially true…

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