A new trials-based advice service for arable farmers with combinable crops has been set up in East Anglia.

Cambridge Arable Technologies is a joint venture between Cambs-based Richard Fenwick Variety Consultants, Essex-based CROPCO, and the Suffolk and Cambridge Crop Station.

The membership fee is 95 a year and a full series of trials will provide results in 2006 from variety plots, oilseed rape establishment methods and wheat inputs – examining the potential for cost savings.

For future years, members will be able to suggest work they would like to see carried out.

CAT’s trials centre is a 6ha (15-acre) chalky, clay loam site at Great Wilbraham, Cambs, but there are plans to establish an operation on stickier soil to reflect problems faced by heavy-land farmers.