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Know How / Ploughing and cultivation

Advice on choosing the best cultivation system for your soil for soil health, cost control and crop establishment. See the pros and cons of the various tillage systems, including no-till, min-till or ploughing and help on how to prepare for switching systems without losing yield.

Advice and tips

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…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

5 cultivation and establishment methods compared

Establishment systems cover varying degrees of soil movement, from relatively little disturbance associated with direct-drilling and min-till through to deep cultivations and complete inversion with the likes of ploughing. Each…

BLACKGRASS

10 learnings from more than 21 years of blackgrass trials

More than two decades of work at Agrii’s Stow Longa site have shown how blackgrass can be successfully managed with plots getting as low as zero ears/sq m on a…

SOILS

How deep cultivations can repair heavy land after a wet winter

Heavy land arable farmers could benefit from subsoiling or mole ploughing after harvest in order to get soils back into shape, ready for autumn cropping, after a wet and damaging…

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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…

SOILS

How this arable farm became carbon negative and cut costs

Twenty-five years ago, when the term "net zero" was barely known, south Oxfordshire farm manager Simon Beddows unknowingly began his carbon-cutting journey when he took the plunge to reduce cultivations…

SOILS

Regen ag: Why farmers need to give the system time to deliver

Farmers who have begun putting regenerative farming in practice are becoming more confident about the system and are finding that the rewards vastly outweigh the risks. Farmers Weekly spoke to…

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…

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Insights

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…

BLACKGRASS

Why farmers should tailor blackgrass strategies to dormancy

Trials being carried out at a blackgrass research site in Cambridgeshire show that farmers can gain extra control of blackgrass with their integrated approach by taking seed dormancy results into…

SOILS

Tips on getting soils and rotations back on track

After one of the wettest winters on record, it could be assumed that UK arable soils will be in desperate need of first aid before the next cropping season begins.…

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News

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

SFI trials show ditching plough improves bird numbers

Fields established using conservation agriculture systems have higher bird numbers than those cultivated using a more conventional plough-based approach, according to research. Researchers believe this is due to improved soil…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Stale seed-beds need more time for weed kill

As we head further into October, pressure is rising on farmers to start drilling their wheat in bad blackgrass fields, especially if the neighbours have already made a start. However,…

ARABLE

Spud Watch: Avoid planting wet areas of fields

Planting finally got under way in Yorkshire and the Borders once it stopped raining and the sun came out for a day or two. Conditions are variable, to say the…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet drilling starts as growers play catch-up

Sugar beet drilling is racing ahead between the rain showers on light land with one Suffolk Brecklands estate looking to catch up from its latest start in more than a…

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Video

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet drilling starts as growers play catch-up

Sugar beet drilling is racing ahead between the rain showers on light land with one Suffolk Brecklands estate looking to catch up from its latest start in more than a…

COVER CROPS

Video: No-till wins over grower to direct-drilling

New to no-till grower Richard Boldan is driving forward his plans to convert to a reduced cultivation system for a more sustainable future, with ambitions to grow more spring crops and establish…

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