Welcome return for Cereals event to Lincolnshire farm

• Popular farm hosts event again

• Sharing challenges and success

• Work together for better change

Arable farming has seen huge changes in the 17 years since the Cereals event was last held at Heath Farm in Lincolnshire.

The 445ha arable operation run by host farmer Andrew Ward is located near the village of Leadenham, almost halfway between Newark and Sleaford on the A17. It previously hosted Cereals in 2004 and 2008.

Roy Ward Farms has been an arable enterprise since Mr Ward’s father took on the Heath Farm tenancy in 1958. These days, it includes cover crops, agri-environment projects and its own YouTube channel with 19.7k subscribers.

Mr Ward says he enjoys taking on challenges head on. Being unafraid to experiment – and the first farmer to grow a baked bean crop from British seed – is what makes him a solid Cereals host farmer.

Highs and lows

“No farmer can farm perfectly, we all experience some real highs and some real lows – and I don’t mind sharing both,” he adds.

The farm’s heavy, medium and light soils – comprising clay, silt and sand – have in the past supported a wheat-heavy rotation. But blackgrass forced Mr Ward to undertake drastic action in 2013 to recover yields and profits.

Hitting the problem hard, he sprayed off some 60.7ha with glyphosate for three or four years, rogueing the worst land and implementing a traffic light system to get on top of the problem (see panel).

Delaying wheat drilling until the third week of October and growing spring barley on the worst land has helped gain ground against blackgrass. The rotation once again includes continuous wheat, on heavy land – with good yields too.

Flexible approach

“We follow the same cropping on the medium land as we did under the traffic light system, minus the spring barley, and taking advantage of the yield benefit to the wheat following the sugar beet,” says Mr Ward.

“In some fields the rotation will have three wheat crops following the sugar beet. On light land we have removed the oats and grow two barley crops.

“We still hand-rogue and we will target treat with herbicide. However, we are now using 34% less herbicide and we target all our inputs.”

The farm hasn’t been ploughed since 2003. Instead, Mr Ward uses a combination of Simba machinery and modifications to maximise soil health and achieve optimal establishment across a range of crops, soils and conditions.

Environment

A 6m flower margin is maintained in every field to support pollinators and beneficial insects. Mr Ward also grows winter bird feed plots throughout the farm, with feeders for songbirds and gamebirds – and a large pond area.

More recently, he has introduced the Sustainable Farming Incentive’s legume mix option into his sugar beet rotation, and he is also currently running a nitrogen efficiency trial as an Innovative Farmers demonstration farm.

“I’m looking forward to hosting Cereals once again,” says Mr Ward.

“We’ll all express our disgust at current affairs and share the day-to-day gripes, but there will also be plenty of talk that invigorates and excites us – it’s amazing how coming together can really be the change we need.”

Traffic light system against blackgrass

All land-rogued extensively and glyphosate used where necessary, plus:

RED   Heavy land – heavy burden
Treated as red ground, no wheat grown, only competitive spring barley

AMBER   Medium land – medium to
moderate burden
Four-year rotation of autumn-harvested sugar beet, spring barley (if burden high) or winter wheat (if burden manageable), oats and winter wheat

GREEN   Light land – minimal or
manageable burden
Four-year rotation of winter-harvested sugar beet, spring barley, oats and winter wheat

About Cereals

When: 11-12 JUNE 2025?

Where: Heath Farm, Leadenham, Lincolnshire LN5 0QE

Cost: £15 (pre-booked); £20 (on the gate)

Details: www.cerealsevent.co.uk

Visitors should follow directional signs – not sat-navs – when near the site. Signs will route you into the site more quickly and without additional delay.