Analysing grain for all 12 nutrients can be an effective tool to improve nutrient management, providing information on crop nutrient status and nutrient offtakes. It can indicate whether your crops are getting hold of the nutrients they need, or whether you can save on future fertiliser use.
Share here your experience with using Grain Analysis.
View information on the AHDB website at https://ahdb.org.uk/grain-nutrient-analysis
View a really useful series of blogs by Alli Grundy of NRM below:
Watch the webinar below with Roger Sylvester-Bradley:
Content below is from across the PEP community and is not necessarily endorsed by Stewards or by PEP
Foliar sprays can be more efficient than feeding crops via the soil: they can be more targeted, cheaper, and less environmentally damaging than soil-mediated crop nutrition. But this is not always so: can foliar nutrition be made reliable ... to support sustainable crop nutrition?
Nitrogen is required annually by most crops (except pulses) to achieve yield and quality. Judging how much N to apply is a key part of nutrient management.
Plants need around 12 essential mineral nutrients to grow: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Sulphur (S), Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Boron (B) and Molybdenum (Mo).
ADAS are planning a Nutrition Challenge to compare the effect of different nutrition programmes on winter feed wheat yield, N uptake and gross margin, in the 2022/23 season. This is particularly timely following the recent dramatic rise in nitrogen fertiliser prices, which has forced the industry to re-examine nutrition strategies. Objectives of the project are to showcase good nutrition products and practices so that farmers are equipped and encouraged to use fertiliser better, for the benefit of the environment and their own gross margins.
Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for both plants and animals, playing a key role in energy transfer as a major component of ATP. It is also vital in DNA. For full capture & conversion of solar energy, crop canopies need 30-40 kg/ha P. Crop species redistribute most of this P (~85%; more than for any other nutrient) to their seeds during canopy senescence, where it is stored as phytate. Plants appear to do this because, until their roots proliferate, plant seedlings are highly sensitive to P shortages.
Farmers, advisors and researchers working together to understand and improve crop nutrition on-farm
NRM’s GrainCheck service was launched in 2020 following several years of work with ADAS on the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) project and to coincide with the RB209 recommendation for routine grain analysis. The test is suitable for cereals, oilseeds and pulses and should be interpreted alongside soil and tissue test results to give a full understanding of the effectiveness of crop nutrition programmes.
YEN Nutrition brings together those wanting to achieve more precise crop nutrition. High fertiliser prices now make this vital. Assuming that 'crops know best' engagement in YEN Nutrition starts by benchmarking grain nutrients to show those that were limiting (or excessive) for each crop.
Share your ideas and experience of how to improve nutrient efficiency and reduce dependence on artificial fertilisers
Grain protein content and quality is one of the most important determinants of functionality of cereals, defining whether wheat grain is suitable for milling for bread making or biscuit making.
Sulphur is an essential nutrient required for protein formation and a number of enzyme reactions within plant cells which are required for satisfactory crop growth.
Hill Court Farm Research Ltd offers independent research, consultancy and analytical services for agriculture, horticulture and the environment.
Article on
Blog by Alli Grundy of NRM on Grain Analysis - 2 August 2022. View origina
Blog by Alli Grundy 9 August 2022 View orginal
Marking a huge advance in improving crop health and nutrition worldwide, the Consortium for Preci
Farmers Weekly article from 2020: Grain growers could gain £500/field if they get crop
