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Know How / Drilling

Get guidance on the right conditions for drilling for successful crop establishment.  See the pros and cons of different establishment techniques, including min till and direct drilling, how to get good seed to soil contact for rapid establishment and how to cover off early weed and pest threats.

Advice and tips

DRILLING

Oats come out top in heavy land direct drilling trial

Oats gave a higher yield and profit margin when direct drilled compared with minimum tillage in an eight-year trial, due largely to the cereal crop showing a very vigorous growth…

ESTABLISHMENT

Why field loss is important for seed rate calculations

Calculating the correct seed rate is essential in achieving optimum wheat plant populations and, therefore, must be accounted for each year. Thousand-seed weight (TSW), field losses, soil type and sowing…

OILSEED RAPE

Advice on when to drill next season's oilseed rape crop

Oilseed rape growers are being urged to hold off drilling next season’s crops in this extremely dry summer until there is enough moisture in the soil. Agronomy experts say even…

SOILS

5 steps to introducing a no-till approach on arable farms

Farmer-led organisation Base-UK will be recommending a five-stage approach to adopting regenerative farming at Cereals, for growers looking to start their no-till journey. The five steps are: 1. Have a…

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Case studies

ESTABLISHMENT

How strip-till drill offers flexibility in low-cost system

Scottish grower Stuart McNicol is on a mission to build a simple and cost-effective arable system at Castleton Farm on the North Berwick coast. Farming 160ha with just the one…

SUGAR BEET

Video: Sugar beet growers set for April rush to get crop drilled

Sugar beet growers are set to have a busy Easter as better forecast weather will see them trying to catch up on beet drilling, with only 5% of the national…

DRILLING

What Lincs grower learned from spring barley drill demo

Successfully direct-drilling spring barley is a tough challenge on heavy soils and for one Lincolnshire grower, a min-till approach delivers the best returns. However, work continues to find a viable…

ESTABLISHMENT

How one grower tackles late drilling of wheat on heavy soil

De-risking late drilling of wheat is at the heart of Brixworth Farming’s strategy, and catch crops are the key to extending the drilling window on the heavy Northamptonshire soil. Tackling…

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Insights

DRILLING

Direct-drilling: Main findings from major five-year trial

Farming on heavy land in Leicestershire, Joe Stanley was skeptical that reducing cultivations by adopting a direct-drilling system would increase farm profitability and improve the environment. But after seeing the…

CROP MANAGEMENT

Suffolk grower sees big savings with lean management

Short videos on setting up three grain drills are part of Suffolk grower Richard Ling’s move into lean management techniques in an overall approach that could benefit him £82,000 each…

DISEASE MANAGEMENT

Is there still a need for costly wheat seed treatments?

Cereal growers are increasingly questioning the need for chemical seed treatments as they continue to improve soil health, encourage soil biology and drive down costs. With autumn drilling under way,…

VARIETY SELECTION

Why more research is needed for no-till wheat variety picks

More scientific information on how different wheat varieties perform in no-till systems is needed, as growers are having to make selections based on limited data. As the establishment method increases…

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News

SUGAR BEET

Video: Robotti successfully drills and weeds 150ha of sugar beet

Autonomous Agri Solutions and Sentry farming have teamed up to use a fully autonomous robot to successfully drill and weed a 150ha area of sugar beet across Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.…

WHEAT

Top two wheat varieties to extend lead next season

Two top winter wheat varieties, Dawsum and Extase, are set to increase market share and stretch their lead over competitors. This is due to their solid packages of good yield,…

DRILLING

Farmers make early start to spring sowing campaign

How early is too early to begin spring drilling? Well, a handful of growers across the east and south of England have already kickstarted the 2023 spring drilling campaign. We…

CEREALS

Cereals 2022: Wheat area set for small increase in autumn

Winter wheat is expected to show a small rise this autumn as it is still the most profitable combinable crop, despite a sharp rise in cost inflation of fertiliser and…

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Opinion

OPINION

FW Opinion: Farmers shouldn't bear full cost of wild weather

Uncertainty in farming is nothing new – whether it's late support payments, commodity price swings, or changing consumer trends. But it seems each year is becoming more of a gamble…

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Test and reviews

DRILLING

How new tech turns standard drill into variable-rate system

Thanks to a new drill-conversion kit, arable farmers hoping to adopt an adjustable-rate system can now simply and affordably convert any standard drill into variable-rate capacity. Developed by crop production…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver's View: Steve Heard's John Deere 750A drill

Leicestershire farmer Steve Heard imported and assembled his own John Deere no-till drill – he gives us his verdict on how it has performed, what he most likes about it…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver’s view: Sky Easy Drill

Cambridgeshire grower Edward Davison picks out the best and worst points of his Sky Easy Drill, which he bought in 2016 when his crop yields were hammered by a high…

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Video

SUGAR BEET

Video: Robotti successfully drills and weeds 150ha of sugar beet

Autonomous Agri Solutions and Sentry farming have teamed up to use a fully autonomous robot to successfully drill and weed a 150ha area of sugar beet across Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.…

DRILLING

Video: High-pressure water tech aids direct drilling success

Replacing drill coulters with a high-pressure jet to open up the soil will not only improve germination, its inventors believe it can aid rooting by cracking compaction and aerating soils.…

DRILLING

Video: Min-till drill-off the highlight of Cereals 2018

Cereals show-goers were treated to a drill-off at this year’s event, giving them chance to see how five different low soil-disturbance systems deal with the challenge of a cover crop.…

HARVEST

Video: Drilling OSR companion crop follows early wheat harvest

Drilling a companion crop is the order of the day for Cambridgeshire grower David White as soon as early-maturing winter wheat is cut on his light soils. He is sowing…

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