Arable News

Growers are being urged to test and/or treat farm-saved spring crop seed for diseases such as loose smut and seed-borne net blotch.

With just five new varieties recommended for the 2024/25 season, 10 removed and a much-improved layout, the latest Recommended List (RL) for winter wheats has a cleaner, fresher look that should enable growers and agronomists to navigate their way more effectively through a maze of data towards an informed decision.

Limagrain UK’s benchmark milling wheat variety, Crusoe, has claimed the top three positions in the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) Milling Wheat Quality awards.

Amidst growing concerns over the threat posed by fusarium basal rot (FBR), experts from the University of Warwick are embarking on a groundbreaking project, run by the British Onions Producer Agency (BOPA), aimed at saving the crop and revolutionising FBR detection.

A governmental financial boost along with British Sugar’s own funding will ensure further research into how gene editing can be used to benefit the British sugar beet crop. 

After one of the wettest winters since records began, there’s a significant amount of disease present in those cereals which were drilled early and survived the winter successfully. Without knowing how the spring will unfold, it’s impossible to predict with any level of certainty how much disease pressure spring drilled crops will face. But it’s safe to say that crops in both camps (winter or spring drilled) will need a carefully considered programme of fungicides to ensure they go on to achieve their true yield and quality potential.

At a technical webinar held by LS Plant Breeding Ltd (LSPB) at the end of December, managing director Chris Guest discussed the challenges for OSR in the UK in a changing climate.

It has been a challenging season for weed control so far, but there are still opportunities to tidy up winter wheat crops in early March before moving on to disease control at the end of the month.

A Lincolnshire grower has successfully grown a crop of Capulet beans, which have been processed as UK-grown baked beans. Farmers Guide investigates what it takes to produce the crop and whether they have a future on British farms.

A Shropshire family farm is making a gradual move to regenerative farming and improved soil health with the help of a Weaving IR (inter-row) drill. David Williams reports.

NFU is generally supportive of the introduction of digital grain passports, but believes the current proposal does not meet the needs of its members – while NFUS says its members are largely unsupportive of the move.

Levy rate increases proposed by the AHDB for the Beef and Lamb, Cereals and Oilseeds, Dairy and Pork sectors have received approval from ministers at Defra and the Devolved Administrations.