Farmers seeking profitable alternatives to traditional break crops flocked to last month’s maize growers’ conference. Almost 190 farmers and maize specialists attended the two-day event on 4-5 February in Leicestershire. Organised by the Maize Growers’ Association, it marked the highest attendance in the conference’s recent history. Some 240,000 hectares... Read more

Two companies behind a new crop nutrition programme say it is delivering strong results for growers across a range of arable enterprises. Cope Nutrition was launched by Lincolnshire-based seed and grain specialist Cope in partnership with crop nutrition specialists BioNature. It aims to help growers achieve higher, more resilient... Read more

Growers are advised to maintain their guard against cereal diseases in well-established winter crops this spring. Most winter wheat has established well and looks promising after early autumn drilling. But septoria risk could be higher in larger biomass crops. So too could yellow rust – especially in varieties affected... Read more

Wheat growers are being urged to reassess their fungicide strategies after a new race of yellow rust overcame the widely used YR15 resistance gene in winter varieties. Speaking at the Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC) annual technical conference, Jonathan Blake of ADAS said the breakdown marked a significant... Read more

Targeted input strategies will be essential if sugar beet is to remain profitable in 2025, as falling prices intensify pressure on margins. A £10/t price drop between 2024 and 2025 – with further reductions adding to the squeeze – means growers must extract more from every kilogram of fertiliser... Read more

A key pest has risen up the risk agenda for sugar beet growers, with the 2025 season marking a shift from isolated cases to economically damaging infestations. First noticed in UK crops just five years ago, beet moth is now here to stay, agronomists were told at the recent... Read more

Beet yields have improved in trials carried out on biostimulants – with better tolerance against key diseases too. Two plot trials during the 2024/25 growing season were carried out by Michael Rodger of Richard Austin Agriculture. Yields increased by 9% with improved disease tolerance against cercospora leaf spot, rust... Read more

Sugar beet growers have the opportunity to sell some of their 2027/28 crop forward – before annual price negotiations. The chance to trial a new index-linked contract option will enable growers to market sugar beet on a longer-term basis. It has been created by NFU Sugar, British Sugar and... Read more

Spring-emerging grassweeds and those that survived winter will need special management in the coming weeks despite generally strong autumn weed control, Most residual herbicides have performed well, says Hutchinsons technical manager Dick Neale. In the main, weaker results have been limited to early-drilled crops or where dry conditions restricted... Read more

Early removal of wild oats is key to protecting spring barley yields – producing a cleaner crop and helping to optimise crop margins, say agronomists. Growers should use pre-emergence residual herbicides to tackle expected wild oat populations before they emerge – following the same path as for winter crops,... Read more