Using tailored agronomy and precision farming to achieve crop potential will be a key message at LAMMA next month.
With many combinable crops establishing well thanks to the kind autumn, there’s a lot of potential to play for this season, says Rob Adamson, head of technical development at agronomy specialists Procam.
“Yield is still the key driver for arable crop profitability, but yield has to be produced cost-effectively,” says Mr Adamson.
Tailored agronomy
“With several possible agronomic challenges on the horizon for 2026 – as a result of early drilling plus variety disease resistance concerns – agronomy will need tailoring to individual fields, which is why this is our key theme for the event.”
Pointing to crop nutrition as an example, the variable size of crop canopies will need a field-by-field approach when it comes to crop nutrition and management going into spring, says Mr Adamson.
“There will be a good case for considering precision farming technology that uses satellite measurements of crop biomass to apply variable rate nitrogen this season,” he explains.
The aim is to produce the optimum green area index across each field, while using nitrogen cost-effectively, says Mr Adamson. Growth regulators on large crop canopies created by early drilling and the mild autumn will also need careful planning.
“Getting fungicide timings right will be critical – not least due to early drilling increasing Septoria risks and with the breakdown of the YR15 yellow rust resistance gene among winter wheat varieties.
“With early application of autumn soil-acting herbicides due to timely drilling this season, spring weed control will also need strategic consideration – to account for the likelihood that residual activity of these treatments will decline sooner.”