Agrii

In our first workshop of the season and as part of the Countryside COP programme we met to introduce YEN Zero and discuss productivity and land use as it relates to crops and GHG emissions, addressing the questions: What is the role of productivity in reaching net zero agriculture? How do we balance meeting food demand while protecting our environment? Should we be ‘sparing’ land for nature or ‘sharing’ our agricultural land with nature?

YEN Zero is a recently established network in the ADAS YEN Family, with the overarching aim of creating a net-zero community. It aims to bring key players from across the agricultural industry together to meet the industry’s target of achieving net zero emissions by 2040.

Nitrogen Efficient Plants for Climate Smart Arable Cropping Systems (NCS) is a four-year £5.9M ambitious research programme involving 200 UK farms and 18 partners. The project is funded by the Defra Farming Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK. The consortium of UK companies, research institutes and farmer networks, led by PGRO, aims to bring about a reduction of 1.5Mt CO₂e per annum or 54% of the maximum potential for UK Agriculture. This will be achieved by increasing pulse and legume cropping in arable rotations to 20% across the UK (currently 5%). In addition, 50% of imported soya meal used in livestock rations will be replaced with home-grown feeds.  Both of these ambitious aims will be steered by science and proven by real farm enterprises, with significant benefits for both crop and livestock productivity, including cost savings of over £1bn/yr.

Roger Sylvester-Bradley      Tuesday 31st January 2023   It’s news across the world – the biggest wheat crop ever grown, yielding 18 tonnes of grain per hectare! This is fantastic, and laudable in all respects, but it’s no accident.    

Farmers taking part in and getting paid for on-farm trials as part of the NCS Project.

Understanding how to drive performance of pea crops, by sharing measurements, experiences and ideas

Physical and online conference at Harper Adams Soil & Water Management Centre on 7th December.

Follow the regen ag journey and learn how current research and trials are leading through to practical application and agronomy in this free webinar from CHAP.

Understanding and improving bean yields by sharing measures and ideas  

Ergot is a fungus that grows on rye, triticale, wheat and barley, and to a lesser extent, oats. It also affects a wide range of grasses, particularly blackgrass. Although the disease has a relatively small effect on yield, ergots contain large amounts of toxic alkaloids that can pose a pose a risk to animal and human health.

YEN      Friday 3rd January 2023   Russ McKenzie awarded YEN's Innovator of the Year in 2022 at the 10th Anniversary YEN Conference.

Sarah Clarke      Friday 3rd January 2023   Excellent grain quality as well as high yields were celebrated at the YEN 10th Anniversary Conference, with the Milling Quality Awards sponsored by UK Flour Millers. All UK Group 1 milling wheat entries were eligible for this competition, a total of 20 for 2022.

Though peas and beans have long been a trusted part of cropping rotations, it is perhaps only recently that the scope and value of their potential is being realised.

Farmers working with scientists to achieve the best from pulse crops and reduce their carbon emissions.

The trial will evaluate the long-term effects of pulses in an arable rotation, particularly the effect on available N to following crops. Objectives are: To evaluate the effects of winter beans, winter bean/ winter wheat intercrop and spring beans on soil nitrogen supply annually over 5 years. To evaluate the effects of species and species mixtures on GHG emissions. To evaluate impacts on soil structure and health resulting from cropping differences.

Technical Guide

Perhaps due to lower cropping area, resources for fundamental research of peas in the UK has lagged behind that of the major crops. This means that whilst we have fantastic agronomy guides from PGRO, some of the things we take for granted for the major crops such as crop development growth benchmarks don’t exist for pulses. In 2016 an enthusiastic group of growers and industry sponsors, steered by ADAS and PGRO, stepped in to help bridge this gap for combining peas with a participatory network approach.

Today we’re going to be talking with Lucy Cottingham, Agrii UK digital agronomy development manager, Steve Portas agronomist and Northern technical advisor and Josh Murphy, RHIZA product manager.  Agriculture is a very significant emitter of CO2 and today we are going to be talking about an innovative project called Nitrogen Climate Smart, which aims to bring about a reduction of 1.5mt of CO2 emissions per annum. The aim is to increase pulse and legume crops in arable cropping to 20%, the benefits of which to both arable and livestock enterprises could lead to cost savings over £1m per year. Let’s learn more about this innovative project and what it could mean for your farm business.