Arable News

Openfield provides an update on the 2024/25 trading season, and what could be in store next year, as well as advice on grain nutrient analysis.

Yields are improving as the harvest 2025 continues, despite stop-start progress over the last couple of weeks caused by short spells of often heavy rain, according to AHDB’s latest harvest report.

Sugar beet growers who would like to learn about the domestic sugar supply chain and gain skills to advocate for the industry have been invited to sign up for the 2025/26 Sugar Industry Programme. 

The Recommended List winter barley harvest results have just been published, reporting yields above the five-year average. Winter oilseed rape yields remain variable, according to AHDB.

A sugar beet seed calculator has just been launched by the provider of innovative seed technology solutions, Germains. 

Foxes Farm Produce, a family-run farm based in Essex, began picking ripe, orange pumpkins from its fields in July, a full month ahead of the traditional season.

An early start to harvest and the arrival of some rain mean the OSR sowing season has begun sooner than usual, even considering the historic trend of earlier drilling to establish the crop ahead of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) attack, according to David Leaper, Agrii seed technical specialist.  

Over the last few years, the upfront costs and establishment challenges have made OSR a risky option, but with recent improvements in pest pressure, genetics, and recent market prices, the picture is starting to shift, arable experts believe. 

While eggs are the primary focus at Aberdeenshire’s Farmlay Eggs, the business also grows cereals, including winter and spring barley, winter oilseed rape, and winter wheat. The farm has just started the 2025 harvest.

Although this year’s harvest kicked off earlier than usual, intermittent and often heavy rainfall has slowed the progress, according to the AHDB’s second harvest report of 2025.

Black-grass control strategies need to change and adapt if growers are to keep on top of it. Paul Spackman visited the Hutchinsons Cambourne grassweed demonstration to learn more.

Latest resistance testing of samples collected in 2024 across Europe indicates that most grassweeds are largely susceptible to clethodim, a key herbicide for oilseed rape and sugar beet. However, resistance is present in some UK populations.