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Know How / Ploughing and cultivation

Advice on choosing the best cultivation system for your soil for soil health, cost control and crop establishment. See the pros and cons of the various tillage systems, including no-till, min-till or ploughing and help on how to prepare for switching systems without losing yield.

Advice and tips

DRILLING

7 steps for late drilling wheat success

Farmers with winter wheat still to drill this autumn need to be patient and do all they can to ensure crop establishment and soil health are not compromised following recent…

SOILS

Expert advice to improve soil fertility post-harvest

As harvest wraps up across the country, farmers are turning their attention to autumn crop nutrition and soil organic matter levels, where the use of a soil conditioner could help…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

How to introduce the SFI no-till action into cropping

The expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer for 2024 includes a no-till action which pays £73/ha for each of the three years of an agreement. Known as SOH1, the static…

ARABLE

How arable farmers can turn things around this spring

It may feel like doom and gloom at present, as any rare dry days are predictably followed by another spell of rain – a cycle that has limited field work…

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Case studies

ESTABLISHMENT

Drill change improves cereal crop resilience

Spring barley was the last crop to be fully drilled with the 3m Mzuri Pro-till drill and despite the tricky spring, it yielded nearly 8t/ha last summer.  Neil White believes…

SOILS

Why cultivation equipment is making a comeback on farm

For the past eight years a direct drill was the only piece of equipment Wiltshire mixed arable and beef farmer George Hosier has used to establish his arable crops. So…

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

How a large-scale regen system is working at Dyson Farming

Implementing regenerative agriculture principles across 14,000ha is a central component of Dyson Farming’s long-term circular farming model, as it produces high-quality food with minimal environmental impact. The plan has been…

CROP MANAGEMENT

How Wold Top Brewery barley grower lowered carbon footprint

The Yorkshire farming family behind the successful Wold Top Brewery and Yorkshire’s first single-malt whisky distillery is using the latest precision mapping technology in its drive towards a low-carbon, sustainable…

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Insights

MACHINERY

Buyer's guide: 7 UK-made mole plough options and prices

Even the fanciest field drainage system relies on a periodic pass with a mole plough to keep it performing at its best. Never is this more apparent than a wet…

BLACKGRASS

Why low disturbance subsoiling raised yields in trial

Cracking soil with a low-disturbance subsoiler has been the springboard to help raise yields in the direct drilling plots of Agrii’s Stow Longa long-term blackgrass trial. The silt-rich soils at…

PEST MANAGEMENT

How harvest cultivations can help beat flea beetle in OSR

Shallow cultivations carried out shortly after the combine can help reduce adult flea beetle populations, but more research is needed to refine advice to growers. Speaking at a recent Limagrain…

PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATION

Transition farm switch to strip-till boosts margins and soil

At a Farmers Weekly Transition project farm walk in Suffolk, Claydon Drill demonstrated how low-disturbance systems can boost soil health and improve margins. Claydon’s 360ha Gaines Hall arable farm and…

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News

AGRICULTURAL TRANSITION

SFI trials show ditching plough improves bird numbers

Fields established using conservation agriculture systems have higher bird numbers than those cultivated using a more conventional plough-based approach, according to research. Researchers believe this is due to improved soil…

CROP WATCH

Crop Watch: Stale seed-beds need more time for weed kill

As we head further into October, pressure is rising on farmers to start drilling their wheat in bad blackgrass fields, especially if the neighbours have already made a start. However,…

ARABLE

Spud Watch: Avoid planting wet areas of fields

Planting finally got under way in Yorkshire and the Borders once it stopped raining and the sun came out for a day or two. Conditions are variable, to say the…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet drilling starts as growers play catch-up

Sugar beet drilling is racing ahead between the rain showers on light land with one Suffolk Brecklands estate looking to catch up from its latest start in more than a…

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Video

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet drilling starts as growers play catch-up

Sugar beet drilling is racing ahead between the rain showers on light land with one Suffolk Brecklands estate looking to catch up from its latest start in more than a…

COVER CROPS

Video: No-till wins over grower to direct-drilling

New to no-till grower Richard Boldan is driving forward his plans to convert to a reduced cultivation system for a more sustainable future, with ambitions to grow more spring crops and establish…

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