Forward-thinking farmers and agronomists will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of novel science and innovative technology when the CropTec show returns to Peterborough at the end of November.

CropTec is now recognised as one of the key diary dates in the arable calendar, gaining a reputation as the UK’s leading knowledge exchange event in the sector.

Farmers and their advisers are attracted by CropTec’s unique informal atmosphere that creates the ideal forum to exchange ideas and experiences, according to Elisabeth Mork-Eidem, group head of events at Briefing Media,  which organises the CropTec show.

“Content and knowledge exchange will remain the focus of CropTec. We want to build on being the show where visitors come armed with questions and leave with useful practical advice on how to become better at what they do,” she said.

“We would urge all those farmers and agronomists who are looking to the future to come to Peterborough in November to discuss adaptation of new technology, cutting edge agronomy and best business practices.

“They can get that advice from networking with like-minded industry peers, from the well researched, topical seminars and from visiting the exhibition hall and having the right conversations with relevant companies who have brought their best technical staff.”

CropTec’s key features include the trade stand exhibition which features a wide range of innovative products and thinking.

The popular seminar programme returns, featuring over a dozen leading speakers covering the four key technical areas of crop breeding, crop establishment, crop nutrition and crop protection. Seminar content is based on feedback and extensive research with farmers and agronomists to ensure it is both relevant and timely.

Four knowledge hubs, which consist of short, sharp presentations delivering key-take away messages, will also feature at CropTec 2017. The popular black-grass hub returns, and three new hubs covering oilseed rape quality and weed management, biostimulants, and data & analytics also feature.

CropTec also includes a sprayer demo area where visitors can drive some of the most advanced sprayers in the market.

New for 2017 alongside the hubs is a Farm Innovation Zone, where visitors can speak to a range of leading agritech innovators.

Biog: Tom is a second-generation arable farmer from near Maidstone in Kent, farming 1000 acres and cropping milling wheat, OSR and spring beans with some grass grown for hay and haylage. He is an AHDB Nuffield Scholar; on his travels he studied No-Till systems. He married to Sarah and has 4 young children. As well as my farming interests, he is on the leadership team of The Vine Church in Maidstone and involved in their local village with the school PTA. 

Title: Dry autumn leaves crops behind

The ground is crazy dry like it might be in August. And there is still no rain forecast for the next week. As the days shorten, and with no moisture, it’s a worry. 

I grow milling wheats; this year the quality was good, but Skyfall yields were variable – yielding just over 10t/ha down to 7-8t/ha, but the quality was good, with proteins in the 14% range. The weather was damp and gloomy in June and July, so it’s not very surprising that yields were down. 

What’s been valuable is that our drying costs were nil for the wheat and we’ve only had to dry some spring beans, plus we are very low cost establishment using no-till. 

Our oilseed rape (Elgar) is looking very good, we drilled it straight into Skyfall stubble and chopped wheat straw with 100 litres of liquid fertiliser; it won’t get anything else until the spring Astro Kerb. We will save seed back from this for next year’s plantings. We’ve had no issue with stem flea beetle – I don’t know whether it’s because we are no-till, with more soil beneficials, or because we never use insecticides, or because we are in a low pressure area; but we’ve been very fortunate. 

Blackgrass is an ongoing headache, but I do think no-till is helping us with the war on it. In previous years I wondered whether Atlantis/Pacifica was having any affect at all on the populations; this year, we can see, to a line, where either of these herbicides were sprayed and where they weren’t, so I’m sure it’s making a difference. 

We have 200 acres of cover crops in, but it went in late; as a result, and with the ongoing dry conditions, it’s not as far on as I would have liked. The mixture is oats + vetch + phacelia + linseed + fodder radish + vetch + clover. The seed cost was £30/ha.

In my experience, cover crops are best drilled after rape – it’s a good time to establish them in the longer days and when we are likely to have some heavy thunderstorms.

CropTec 2016

Good soil structure and factors that affect it, such as soil organic matter levels, cover crops and cultivation systems, are key to good establishment. All this and more discussed at this year's CropTec event.

CropTec 2016

Visit Agrii on stand 120 at this year's CropTec event to discuss your Black-grass issues and also take part in their competition. 

Harvest has been a mixed picture. Our Glacier winter barley yielded a disappointing 3t/acre, wheat varieties Reflection yielded 4t/acre and Evolution did well at just over 4t/acre. Winter bean variety, Tundra, was disappointing too, yielding just over 1.5t/acre, despite looking great during the growing season. However, the highlight of the harvest was a four-wheat blend that I trialled following the lead from Steve Childs in Kent, it was by far our highest yielding crop.

We also trialed rye for the first time in partnership with KWS, it fits well with our rotation, particularly with our blackgrass issue. I’m no longer growing rape, I’m just not brave enough!

Our wheat is sold into local pools because we are short of storage on the farm. Last year our wheat price ranged from £115/t to £130/t – a long ways shy of the £200/t in 2012. Thankfully drying costs have been minimal and we fatten 200-head of cattle on the farm, so we can walk the grain off the farm on four legs instead of four wheels which helps spread the risk.

Looking ahead to 2016/17, we are trying four different wheat varieties – Siskin, Graham, Marston from DSV and Anapolis from Hutchinsons. We will continue to grow rye and plan to grow soya for the first time next spring – in theory, it fits well. Drilling is recommended into May which gives us an opportunity for a late blackgrass spray and it helps spread the spring workload.  

Soya will be an interesting trial driven by a conversation with David Naughton of Soya UK – he currently contracts growers for 1,000 acres of production, he wants to increase it to 3,000 acres this coming season.

We also plan to join the local AHDB cost of production Benchmarking Plus group, I think it will be very valuable in focusing my mind on what works financially and what doesn’t.

CropTec 2016:

Want to find out more about R&D, Innovation and your cropping choices for 2017, make sure to visit CropTec 2016.

In addition to the free advice on offer in CropTec’s topical and technical seminars, there will be numerous exhibitors you can talk to find ideas, inspiration and answers on everything from crop protection and nutrition to plant breeding and soil management in one place, at one time.

CropTec is FREE for those who pre-book tickets. You MUST pre-register here to ensure you receive your free ticket.

All visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Biog:  Matt mostly works as a contractor. He was Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year in 2014. He owns a small amount of tenanted land on which he grows continuous cereals due to limiting size – winter and spring cereals in rotation along with introduction of cover crops ahead of spring crops in 2015 in mid- Bedfordshire. When possible he carries out all spraying and application record keeping for family farm, 210ha – wheat, OSR and Beans – also in mid-Bedfordshire. He has sent close to 24,000 tweets and has over 4,000 followers.

Title: Protect actives, broaden rotations and focus on soil health

Like everyone, I hope that my farmed area increases, and that we can extend our rotation to include more spring crops, or a more varied range of crops, so that we can move away from the standard wheat, wheat, rape sequence that has been so prevalent over the last decade.

I’m certain that wider rotation and range of crops will help to improve soil health, as well as spread the workload. I’m also really keen to explore more use of direct drilling/zero tillage to reduce establishment time and costs.

We currently use a wide mix of cultivations – the standard approach for the last seven years has been non-inversion tillage, with some use of the plough when we needed a boost to blackgrass control. The land ahead of winter beans is always ploughed and power harrowed early, to help us create a stale seedbed ahead of drilling. Oilseed rape is predominantly sub-casted, although I have used a John Deere 750a zero-tillage drill for half of the area this year.

This autumn I’m also trialling some zero-till direct drilled wheat to limit soil disturbance, as well as some single pass, non-inversion ahead of the zero-till drill.

Our variety choice for wheat is Skyfall as a second wheat – new this year in an attempt to move away from Group 3s and to grow a milling wheat in the second wheat slot to add some extra premium. We’re looking at KWS Lili as a replacement for Target which we’ve grown for the last few years.

Oilseed rape choice will be Elgar, because it’s second on the RL list, but 3 year average including 2015 will bring it to highest yielding conventional on RL list. We also grow winter beans – Tundra – grown on a seed contract, a change from growing Wizard for the last few years after advice from agronomist. Plus we will drill the spring wheat – Mulika – a new addition to rotation for 2016, to allow late autumn or spring planting depending on conditions. My plan is to direct drill it into a standing cover crop.

Looking ahead, I’ve got a few areas of real concern; the threats of losing the crop protection products we use mean that we as farmers need to constantly find better ways to utilise the products we have and reduce the risk of resistance to them building up. We also need to be mindful of increased regulation and the need for compliance – for example NVZs and water pollution – if we fail to address these issues, then we are even more likely to lose more products.

Added to this, the constant pressure to reduce cost of production means it is vital that we find ways to produce more from less, so industry R&D into improving yields is a very important focus over the coming years. Linked to R&D, farm trials are vital for developing practical ideas for use on farm.

In the contracting sector one of my biggest headaches is finding good seasonal staff – they seem to be impossible to find because they need to have certification like PA accreditation.

CropTec 2015:

Matt is also speaking at this year’s CropTec event in the Careers forum, held on day 2 of the show read more.

Want to find out more about No-till, Black-grass and your cropping choices for 2016? make sure to visit CropTec2015.

In addition to the free advice on offer in CropTec’s topical and technical seminars, there will be numerous exhibitors you can talk to find ideas, inspiration and answers on everything from crop protection and nutrition to plant breeding and soil management in one place, at one time.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Twitter: @russbmckenzie

Biog: Russ farms 750ha, spread over 17 miles and four units, between Cambs and Beds. He grows predominantly first wheats (mostly for seed) with winter barley, oilseed rape, spring beans and spring barley. He describes himself as not form a farming family, but as having loved everything about farming since a very young age, starting with a harvest job on a local farm when he was 13.  He graduated from Writtle College with a BSc in Agriculture and then took on a trainee manager’s position with Albanwise Farming in Norfolk.  Russ is BASIS and FACTS qualified and is a partner in his wife’s family farming business which he jointly manages along with John Sheard Farms.  He has recently undertaken a Nuffield Farming scholarship, sponsored by AHDB, researching how the best no-till practitioners across the world manage to make the system work in both the wettest and driest of conditions which took him to Australia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, USA, Brazil and Argentina.  “I love being involved in such a fantastic industry and outside of work I am along suffering England Cricket fan, husband and father to two lovely (sometimes) children!” Oh and he’s an avid Tweeter!

No-till Nuffield study influences farming approach

Things have changed on the farm following my Nuffield, the market price situation and blackgrass.

Our oilseed rape area has been reduced for three reasons – the move to a more balanced rotation, because we felt it wasn’t helping with blackgrass control and because the current prices have resulted in diminishing returns for what is an expensive crop to grow.  However, we have looked to increase premiums by growing HOLL rape for this coming autumn alongside some of our stable hybrid varieties like Extrovert & Harper.

There has been an increase in our milling wheat acreage with Skyfall bringing feed wheat performance along with full milling specification.  When prices are lower, the added benefits of the milling premiums comes in to greater focus. The disease profile of our varieties is very much based on cleaner ratings to minimise the risk of delayed spray timings.

Our winter barley area has increased slightly. Hyvido Volume is taking up the area that was previously planted to second wheats – it has brought good crop competition against the blackgrass. We will also grow more spring barley this coming season in the more difficult situations following a solid spring performance this year.

Our use of cover crops will increase significantly this autumn, having seen the benefits of better over winter water management, crop structure and nutrient capture for the following spring crop.  We still have areas where we have to be aggressive in our approach to reducing blackgrass and so ploughing and delayed drilling features for some of the areas.  But for other parts of the farm, reducing the cultivation depth based purely based on soil condition has become important.

Certainly following my Nuffield travels it became increasingly apparent that no-tillage was potentially the most robust and reliable system for coping with both very dry and very wet conditions.  Understanding the mind-set of some of the best no-tillers I met was very revealing and, although it might be easy to say, patience waiting for the right soil conditions, was one of the most critical factors between success and failure.

There were a whole series of different facets determining the success of using no-tillage, but everywhere I went, two factors were pivotal to it working – the retention and increase of organic matter; something that is almost impossible to achieve with intensive tillage.  If the hype is to be believed that there are only 100 harvests left in our soils, then the momentum for adopting no-tillage in this country is leading us in the right direction.

Here is the link to download Russell McKenzie’s Nuffield Scholarship Report, Success with No-Till – Under any Conditions.

CropTec 2016:

Want to find out more about No-till, Black-grass and your cropping choices for 2017, make sure to visit CropTec 2016.

In addition to the free advice on offer in CropTec’s topical and technical seminars, there will be numerous exhibitors you can talk to find ideas, inspiration and answers on everything from crop protection and nutrition to plant breeding and soil management in one place, at one time.

CropTec is FREE for farmers and Agronomists to attend. You MUST pre-register here to ensure you receive your free ticket.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.