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Know How / Rotations

Advice for growers on building the best crop rotation plan to keep disease, pest and weed pressure down, while maximising return on cereals, oilseed rape, beans, sugar beet and potatoes. Find out how other farmers are managing the switch to spring cropping to get on top of blackgrass.

Advice and tips

BLACKGRASS

Expert advice on using rotations to tackle blackgrass hotspots

Severe blackgrass infestations are costly for farmers, resulting in large reductions in yield, as well as adding £100/ha or more to herbicide costs. The good news is that a combination…

CROP SELECTION

Oat market offers opportunity for farms in the right areas

Oats are the UK’s third largest home-grown cereal crop, behind wheat and barley, and they can be a profitable addition to arable rotations. They are a useful low-input cereal break…

VARIETY SELECTION

Expert pointers on winter barley variety choices

Winter barley has fallen out of favour on many British farms in recent years due to a combination of its unattractive gross margins and farmers turning to spring cropping to…

CROP SELECTION

What to consider when choosing next year's winter crops

Farmers are being advised to consider crops that will set them up for the next few years, rather than just focussing on those giving the highest returns in the coming…

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Case studies

CROP MANAGEMENT

Farm manager's drought action plan results in 15% yield lift

Simon Eddell has spent the past seven years looking to improve his light Suffolk soils to cope with summer droughts, and the result is healthier crops and wheat yields up…

OTHER CROPS

Why rye is the ideal second cereal on one Yorkshire farm

Maize tends to be the favoured crop for anaerobic digestion because it offers the highest dry matter yields. However, on the Yorkshire Wolds, hybrid rye is matching it when grown…

ROTATIONS

Added-value crops help manage risk on variable soils

Growing crops for added value premiums allows Northampton farmer Rick Davies to offset the extra income against the effects of cropping highly variable soils. With 404ha of combinable crops being…

ROTATIONS

Why a Sussex farmer is changing his crop rotation

Sussex farmer Mark Chandler is searching for the best cropping combination for his farm near Petworth that will deliver blackgrass benefits and enable his first wheats to achieve double-digit yields. …

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Insights

ARABLE

Data reveals how raising crop yields can offset subsidy loss

Any reductions in support payments arising from Brexit can be covered on most UK arable farms by improved crop performance, results from ProCam’s 4Cast service suggest. The higher wheat yields…

WHEAT

Make wheat your top-performing spring cereal option

Spring wheat was the best gross-margin performer in the second year of one agronomy group’s field-scale rotation blackgrass trials – outperforming spring barley and late autumn-sown wheat. In addition, the…

ARABLE

Two crops of the future tap into lucrative health market

A once-common weed and a cereal that was widely grown in the UK many years ago are two crops that are being developed with the aim of adding value to farmers’…

ARABLE

Advantages of spring-sown soya in battle against blackgrass

Soya could be an ideal spring break crop for growers in southern England to give good returns, control blackgrass and help meet an almost insatiable demand. The crop’s area has…

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News

ARABLE

Video: Hertfordshire grower introduces livestock to rotation

One grower's experiences of introducing livestock into the rotation of a Hertfordshire arable farm have been discussed in a new video from AHDB Cereal and Oilseeds. Royston Monitor Farm host Jo…

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Video

ARABLE

Video: Hertfordshire grower introduces livestock to rotation

One grower's experiences of introducing livestock into the rotation of a Hertfordshire arable farm have been discussed in a new video from AHDB Cereal and Oilseeds. Royston Monitor Farm host Jo…

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