Farming Futures Blog

September 2010 - Posts

• The Committee on Climate Change go anaerobic...

  Author Name: Kavita Srinivasan Along with others from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), I recently visited Crouchlands Farm, a 750 cattle dairy business in West Sussex. It’s home to Gwyn Jones, the NFU’s Vice President. Read More... Posted Sep 29 2010, 05:04 PM by Blog posts Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: Crops, Anaerobic Digestion, Horticulture, Potatoes, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, footprinting, carbon, nutrient, resources [Edit Tags]

• Mixed farming or factory farming?

  Author Name: Jules Hayward Efficient farming or factory farming? In the last 12 months, several proposals to create ‘super dairies’ or ‘super piggeries’ have hit the headlines. It’s creating a stir in both the farming community... Posted Sep 27 2010, 12:22 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, sheep, footprinting, carbon, resources, methane [Edit Tags]

• Re-defining bad: waste and energy crops are essential ingredients in the farm recipe

  Author Name: Bill Butterworth Government Chief Scientist, Professor John Beddington, was interviewed by John Humphries on BBC Radio 4 on the morning of 24th September and they discussed world food prices (especially wheat), climate change and farming... Posted Sep 24 2010, 05:22 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Biomass, Livestock, energy crops, waste, biodiesel [Edit Tags]

• Time for a laugh? Curbing nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture

  Author Name: Brian Chambers Nitrous oxide (N2O), commonly known as laughing gas, is a greenhouse gas about 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Predominantly produced from the soil following the application of nitrogen fertilisers, manure and deposits... Posted Sep 22 2010, 12:00 AM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, nitrous oxide, nitrification inhibitors, nutrient management [Edit Tags]

• 'Living' solar PV cells mimic nature

  Author Name: Farming Futures Researchers have developed the first ‘self-repairing’ solar PV cell. It mimics the way plants capture and use the sun’s energy during photosynthesis, but also how they continually reassemble and reuse their... Posted Sep 20 2010, 05:21 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, Solar, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, biomimicry [Edit Tags]

• Climate news and knowledge #7

  Author Name: Will Frazer Climate News and Knowledge is our fortnightly round up of some of the main stories covering climate change and sustainable farming. This time there is talk of getting the facts right, hot crops, and progress on renewables. Read... Posted Sep 17 2010, 05:48 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Wind, Biomass, Anaerobic Digestion, Horticulture, Potatoes, Solar, Livestock, Energy Efficiency, Micro-hydro, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, renewables, hydro power, yields [Edit Tags]

• The microscopic majority – we ignore them at our peril!

  Author Name: Dr Christopher van der Gast Producing sufficient crops while ensuring our farming practices are sustainable is the big challenge for agriculture. But as well as studying and improving crop plants we also have to understand the microbial diversity... Posted Sep 17 2010, 03:42 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, food security, carbon, resources, soil, biodiversity [Edit Tags]

• The Secret Ecosystem

  Author Name: Kate O'Hagan It’s often said that we know less about the depths of our oceans than the surface of the Moon. In agriculture there’s a pretty important resource that is probably even more unknown. Read More... Posted Sep 14 2010, 06:18 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, soil, biodiversity [Edit Tags]

• Calling all farmers - reduce fuel bills + GHGs

  Author Name: Rob Mannion Saving thousands each year in fuel use and reducing environmental impact is a no-brainer, isn’t it? I thought so. Read More... Posted Sep 10 2010, 08:00 AM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, carbon, resources, efficiency, fuel costs [Edit Tags]

• The future of farming is in precision

  Author Name: Edd Banks New technology has, throughout history, brought significant changes to the way we farm and RTK GPS is no exception. Read More... Posted Sep 09 2010, 11:22 AM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, footprinting, carbon, nutrient, resources, GPS, precision farming [Edit Tags]

• Suffolk farmers coast to the future

  Author Name: Alex Dinsdale What will coastal Suffolk look like in thirty years' time? How will climate change affect the area’s much-loved landscapes including farmland and other unique habitats? Read More... Posted Sep 06 2010, 02:47 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy [Edit Tags]

• Climate news and knowledge#6

  Author Name: Will Frazer Climate News and Knowledge is our fortnightly round up of some of the main stories covering climate change and sustainable farming. More CO2 = higher yields? Think again. Read More... Posted Sep 05 2010, 08:33 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Wind, Biomass, Anaerobic Digestion, Horticulture, Potatoes, food security, Solar, Livestock, Energy Efficiency, Micro-hydro, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, wheat, co2 fertilisation, biochar, twitter [Edit Tags]

• £1bn? Just this year’s invoice from the bees...

  Author Name: Kate O'Hagan "If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man." So said Einstein. Read More... Posted Sep 02 2010, 05:38 PM by Blog posts Filed under: Crops, Horticulture, Potatoes, food security, Livestock, Poultry, Pigs, Dairy, resources, biodiversity, bees [Edit Tags]