Arable News

Are schemes such as SFI and Countryside Stewardship making it possible – and profitable – to produce food and care for the natural environment? Sarah Juggins investigates.

Farming and food production is full of uncertainty at the moment – driven by the extreme wet weather, funding for environmental schemes taking priority over growing crops, and lack of data for decision-making.

Tissue analysis samples from 2023 have shown that 75% of cereal crops had below optimum levels of zinc, meaning a foliar application of the nutrient would have been beneficial, according to the latest findings from FMC.

Farmers entering Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements are being advised to ensure that they fully understand the potential impact their decisions will have on future pulse crop rotations.

Experts from Ceres Rural, British Sugar and De Sangosse discussed the prospects for sugar beet this season and recommendations for herbicide programmes in a webinar hosted by UPL.

Farming groups have expressed relief that the government has listened to the sector’s growing fears that environmental schemes could pose a threat to food security.

The Newt in Somerset, a part of the Newt Estate, which was recently named one of the best boutique hotels in the world, took on a challenge to supply its restaurants with ingredients grown, foraged and reared on the site. The processing of its own heritage wheat will enable home-grown flour to become a valuable additional ingredient. 

The UK government has been urged to deliver for UK food security as a drastic reduction in crops is expected due to wet weather. 

British Sugar has committed to covering 75% of farmers’ diversion costs following a difficult harvest. 

Positioned as the “future of application technologies” by Hardi, the Hardi PulseSystem, available on the Delta Force boom on Aeon and Navigator, as well as the Twin boom on Aeon, stands out for its environmental impact reduction capabilities.

Major wheat exporter stocks are already the lowest they have been for a decade, and the market appears to have very little risk premium factored in for any major weather issues.

Earlier this month, Scottish farmers had an opportunity to discuss topics about grain drying, storage and processing with post-harvest equipment experts from McArthur BDC and Sellars Agriculture during demo days.