Arable Farming

Tortoise beetles have been found in a sugar beet crop in Wissington, Norfolk.

IN Gloucestershire wheat yields have made a welcome comeback after last year’s challenges for Bibury grower Ed Horton, with some fields yielding around double what they did at harvest 2020.

With a winter barley world yield record already in the bag this harvest, Lincolnshire grower Tim Lamyman had hopes of achieving a double by taking the world wheat yield record too.

FARMERS could see increases to the costs of abstraction licences and charges for the volume of water taken as part of the Environment Agency’s (EA) first overhaul of the system in 10 years.

Cover crops have had a rocky start in their introduction to some arable systems, particularly where the benchmark for success is a measure of financial return.

Unless a new agreement can be negotiated between the EU and the UK, the trade in seed potatoes either way across the English Channel can be considered to have ceased.

The fungus responsible for light leaf spot, the UK’s most important oilseed rape disease, is becoming increasingly resistant to azole fungicides but not QoI (strobilurin) or SDHI fungicides, according to Rothamsted.

This year’s Potatoes in Practice was the first major industry event since levy payers voted against supporting AHDB Potatoes.

British Sugar has responded to requests for greater flexibility.

The unsettled weather at the end of July and beginning of August across Great Britain has resulted in a very stop-start harvest so far.