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Know How / Crop selection

Guidance and advice on choosing which spring or winter crops to grow for your end market to ensure you are profitable and insured against volatility. Find out which markets offer a premium, such as spring barley for whisky or milling wheat for bread and specialist crops such as quinoa or naked oats.

Advice and tips

CROP SELECTION

High fertiliser costs: Two cheaper crop options for 2027

With soaring fertiliser prices, lacklustre commodity prices and rising pest and disease pressures, experts have highlighted two alternative crops for this autumn, that are much cheaper to grow than wheat…

PULSES

Getting the most from intercropping: Your questions answered

Intercropping is becoming a popular option for arable farmers looking to reduce chemical inputs and enhance yields. Particularly as the Sustainable Farming Incentive pays £55/ha for companion cropping. Despite its…

ARABLE

How arable farmers can turn things around this spring

It may feel like doom and gloom at present, as any rare dry days are predictably followed by another spell of rain – a cycle that has limited field work…

OTHER CROPS

Round-up of the niche crop options for UK growers

Introducing alternative break crops to an arable rotation can help growers improve soil health, spread market risk and further financial gain. As pesticide actives are lost and resistance fears build,…

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Case studies

CROP SELECTION

Young couple's pasta start-up champions 100% British spelt

Imogen and Matt Royall have turned a shared passion for British food into a successful pasta-making business producing 100% British spelt pasta. Neither originally set out on a food-based career…

OILSEED RAPE

Why Devon farmer is growing oilseed rape again

Oilseed rape crops across parts of the UK started flowering a month ahead of usual, following favourable autumn weather and mild winter conditions. For Devon farmer Joe Mawle and his…

CROP SELECTION

How polycrop is paving way to premium feed market

No field is planted to just one type of crop at Paul Baker’s mixed farm in Devon – instead fields are planted to either polycrops, variety blends or companions. A…

MAIZE

How grain maize earns more profit than wheat for two growers

With yields approaching 10t/ha and gross margins currently exceeding those of wheat, grain maize can be a profitable break crop. However, the crop does have its challenges and requires good…

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Insights

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

Project investigates feasibility of combinable hemp

For a crop that is relatively cheap to grow, with plenty of end market uses, hemp hasn’t exactly hit major highs in the UK. Hemp has an array of potential…

ROTATIONS

Cereals 2026: Benefits of OSR and linseed in the rotation

While many see it as a choice between oilseed rape or winter linseed, one expert argues there is much to be gained by growing both within a rotation. Nigel Padbury,…

BARLEY

Whisky slowdown hits Scottish malting barley

Spring barley is the cornerstone of Scottish arable farming, accounting for 50% of all cropping across the country. More than half of this production is destined for the malting industry,…

OILSEED RAPE

UK OSR crop: Why there's growing optimism in 2026-27

There is growing optimisim in the UK oilseed rape crop this coming harvest due to greater knowledge on managing cabbage stem flea beetle, ideal establishment conditions along with an industry…

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News

ARABLE

Arable farmers needed for Defra-funded crop trials

The British On-Farm Innovation Network (Bofin) is recruiting arable farmers across England to take part in two major Defra-funded projects aimed at improving crop resilience and advancing precision breeding. Growers…

CROP SELECTION

EU lawmakers vote to commercialise gene-edited crops

The European Parliament has given the green light to the future commercialisation of gene-edited crops, bringing EU legislation closer to rules that already apply in the UK. In a vote…

CROP SELECTION

Cereals 2026: Higher growing costs shape autumn cropping

Autumn drilling plans were being finalised at Cereals as growers looked for ways to cope with the greater volatility, increased risk and cost pressures caused by the Iran conflict and…

ROTATIONS

Free crop rotation planning tool launched for farmers

A new free-to-use crop rotation planning tool is designed to help growers weigh up the financial and environmental benefits of different crop rotation options. Based on data from hundreds of…

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Video

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

Video: UK agroforestry system integrates fruit and arable

First-generation tenant farmer Stephen Briggs planted the UK’s largest agroforestry system, integrating fruit trees and arable cropping to boost land productivity. More than a decade after the 4,500 apple trees…

HARVEST

Video: Spring barley cut ahead of wheat in Cambridgeshire

Spring barley is being cut ahead of of winter wheat on James Peck’s Cambridgeshire farm and showing a good yields of 7.5-8t/ha. Mr Peck had cut some wheat for a…

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