Cereals

It’s easy to be captivated by the rush of combines and trailers but a strong post-harvest plan can make or break a successful harvest.

Saving your own seed offers valuable extra flexibility and control as well as useful cost savings. But it must be done in a well-planned and managed way if this is not to be at the expense of crop performance.

With both an award-winning winter barley and a high-quality soft Group 4 winter wheat suitable for distilling, Senova’s new additions to the AHDB RL for 2021/22 look rather promising.

Wheat production in Britain for 2021-2022 has been forecast to reach 14.92m tonnes, according to an estimate by the AHDB.

Heather Briggs spoke to Prof Kim Hammond-Kosack of Rothamsted Research and Dr Simon Griffiths from the John Innes Centre who are leading Defra-funded research on wheat genetics as part of a collaboration between plant scientists and commercial breeders.

With new crop wheat trading at a healthy £160 to £170 per tonne, second wheats are looking an attractive prospect for 2021/22 cropping plans.

Dickey-john, which pioneered the use of 149MHz/UGMA technology when its GAC 2500 was released in 2010, introduces its all-new GAC 2700-UGMA Grain Analysis Computer.

Under the UK’s new Agricultural Bill and the upcoming ELMS scheme, farmers are likely to be rewarded for lowering their emissions but will ideally aim to deliver this without comprising yields. With a 45% reduction in nitrogen requirement compared with a second wheat and a significant saving on herbicide and fungicide inputs, hybrid rye could help achieve this.

Minimal soil disturbance and cover crops are the cornerstones of conservation agriculture. Demonstrators in this newly expanded area at Cereals 2021 will showcase and discuss the benefits of their machinery as it relates to direct drill, min-till and no-till solutions for arable farmers.

Multi-billion-dollar oat drink company Oatly has come under fire after suing a small Cambridgeshire farm for alleged trademark infringement, with consumers and farmers alike left bewildered by the accusation.

RYE NOT? Interest in hybrid rye for grain is growing in the UK, not just because of its agronomic merits but also because it adds diversity to the rotation.

Grain cooling and storage specialist Evans & Pearce explains the importance of looking after fans in and out of season, to avoid damage and downtime through dust and moisture build-up.