20th Anniversary Edition See p8 for your chance to win a bottle of quality malt whisky In this issue... Machinery marvels LAMMA comes in fr Confer om the cold page 46 ence call Crop momentum page 10 Building blocks for a wonder wheat Potato blight page 66 page 82 Opinion 4 Talking Tilth - A word from the editor. 6 Smith’s Soapbox - Views and opinions from an Essex peasant….. Volume 21 Number 1 8 Publisher’s perspective - A look back on 20 years of CPM. February 2019 91 Last Word - A view from the field from CPM’s technical editor. Technical 10 Conferences - Farming’s fourth revolution starts here New Year conferences were tinged with a buzz of confidence, both for the technology the sector has to access, and how it could be applied in the field. 16 CPSB conference - New thinking shapes up the toolbox There were no new products but plenty of new ideas for some of arable farming’s biggest challenges from scientists who gathered in Brighton. 20 Theory to Field - Ensuring a future for fungicides Preserving the efficacy of fungicides has never been more important. 24 Tech Talk - Savvy selection eases pressure Managing barley diseases without undue selection pressure on fungicides. 28 Real Results Pioneers - Spreading risk but staying focused At the coal face of commercial agriculture without the cushion of subsidies, farming in New Zealand is about an understanding of farming fundamentals. Editor 32 OSR nutrition - Optimising sulphur in OSR AHDB has recently updated industry guidelines for sulphur in OSR Tom Allen-Stevens . 36 Company profile - A pipeline of promise Technical editor At a time when innovations in crop protection are thin on the ground, Lucy de la Pasture Corteva Agriscience is bringing an array of new products to market. Writers 42 Insiders View - Barley with a unique malting trait Tom Allen-Stevens Lucy de la Pasture If you like your barley to have good yield, strong agronomics and a unique marketing trait, then you’ll like Chanson. Peter Hill Paul Spackman Melanie Jenkins Martin Rickatson Machinery Rob Jones Design and production 46 LAMMA 2019 - In from the cold Brooks Design Exhibitors and visitors welcomed LAMMA’s move to the NEC. Advertisement co-ordinator 52 LAMMA 2019 - Farming focus for firm financial footing Peter Walker It’s worth putting the finances in order before making large purchases. Publisher 58 Fertiliser spreaders - A pattern that’s precise Clever technologies do a remarkably successful job. Angus McKirdy 62 On Farm Opinion - Nozzles widen the spraying window Business development manager Field conditions for applying pre-em herbicides can often be spot-on, Charlotte Alexander only for the weather to limit spraying opportunities. To claim two crop protection BASIS points, send an email to [email protected], quoting reference CP/67207/1819/g. Crop momentum To claim two NRoSO CPD points, please send your name, NRoSO member number, date of birth and postcode to 66 YEN - The drive to close the yield gap [email protected] The YEN results for 2018 reveal some jaw-dropping yields. But every grower could build crop momentum and achieve maximum crop potential, says ADAS. *the claim ‘best read specialist arable journal’ is based 69 Soil health – Nematodes better measure of soil health on independent reader research conducted by Although earthworms are widely considered to be a good indicator of soil Research Engine (Mar 2018) health, new research identifies nematodes provide a better insight. Editorial & advertising sales 72 Take control – Early nurture provides momentum PO Box 4856, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 9NX Now’s the time to take your crop in hand and set it up to ensure it makes the Tel: (01743) 861122 E-mail: [email protected] most of whatever the season brings. 75 Pushing performance - Science backs up biostimulant boost Reader registration hotline 01743 861122 CPM dives deeper into the role of some of the key amino acids and organic Advertising copy N in plant health and crop development. Brooks Design, 79 Marine algae - Natural resource provides green chemistry 24 Claremont Hill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY1 1RD Emerging from muddy waters is a new generation of products Tel: (01743) 244403 E-mail: [email protected] underpinned by credible science. CPM Volume 21 No 1. Editorial, advertising and sales offices are at White House Barn, Hanwood, Shrewsbury SY5 8LP. Tel: (01743) 861122. CPM is published ten times a year by Roots CPM Ltd and is available free of charge to qualifying farmers and farm managers in the United Kingdom. 82 Potato agronomy - Aggressive strains on the rise In no way does CPM Ltd endorse, notarise or concur with any of the advice, Something interesting is going on in the blight population in Europe. recommendations or prescriptions reported in the magazine. If you are unsure about which recommendations to follow, please consult 89 Fenland trials - Testing year for potato trials a professional agronomist. Always read the label. Use pesticides safely. Extreme weather variations played havoc with potato crops in 2018. CPM Ltd is not responsible for loss or damage to any unsolicited material, including photographs. crop production magazine february 2019 3 20 farms across the UK, mine should take for granted. Food, overburdensome EU regulation. being one. for example. As farmers, we tell But what’s been brilliant is the It’s a brilliant concept, governments they need us to innovation that’s come from but there’s a lot of work produce it, and society will farmers themselves to replace to do, as was evident need more of it as global it. The rise of the farmer-led, from Tom’s last visit. populations increase. But who collaborative network is A fellow investor had says farmers will produce the something new. It is glorious joined us, to see him in food of the future? and empowering and it is up to action, and there was For tens of thousands of those farmers, now, to position Will tech help quite a wait, in the chill years mankind has relied on themselves as the architects January sunshine, as Tom photosynthesis to turn the of the fourth agricultural the transition? had to be rebooted and a sun’s energy into the food revolution. few synchronisation issues energy that sustains us. But it’s And that’s why I’ve invested sorted out. incredibly inefficient –– we’ve in Small Robots. I could have I’m going to start by declaring Eventually it was all systems developed photovoltaic got it all wrong, and agriculture an interest: I’ve invested in the go, and Tom trundled into the systems that are already four could go in any number of Small Robot Company. field. But as he bumped over times better than the plants completely different directions. Apparently I’m not alone. the field margin, his 3-D printed we rely on for sustenance. But any technological revolution There are hundreds of us –– orange livery bounced off to Perhaps some new takes a stuttering start that you farmers who have been drawn reveal the simple Raspberry technology will replace food only identify in hindsight, years by this very disruptive concept Pi-based gadgetry that makes as a vital human requirement after it’s happened. I remember that crop management can be up what could be part of –– there’ll be something we’ll in 1979, sitting down with some replaced entirely, or at least the AI/robotics element of smear on ourselves, like a schoolfriends and manually augmented, with autonomous agriculture’s fourth revolution. smart suntan oil, that will keying into a microcomputer robots, to the extent we’ve Or is it just a bunch of cheap convert the sun’s energy some basic code that made parted with our cash. electronics that will never directly into sustenance. Food a triangle shoot a dot across To be honest, I don’t know replace a tractor? And it’s this as we know it will become a a screen. I saw that same whether this forms an element doubt that underlies everything, frippery, a designer good, and clunkiness in Tom as he of agriculture’s fourth revolution absolutely everything, that sits farmers will become the Ralph tumbled into my wheat field. we’re being encouraged to before us –– the uncertainty fills Laurens, Coco Chanels and I don’t know where this forge (see article on p12), or us with fear, but in equal Alexander McQueens of their journey’s going, but I want UK Farming’s version of the measure fuels our excitement. own profession. to be part of it. Emperor’s New Clothes. It It’s the combination of Brexit There’s then the question seemed a little like the latter and the fast-moving pace of of how farmers will transition. when Tom, the autonomous technology that has completely For decades we’ve become scouting robot, came to visit the turned our world upside down. accustomed to innovations from Tom Allen-Stevens has a other day (actually it was the If there is a seismic change brilliant minds that appear on 170ha arable farm in prototype Britney, but let’s not taking place, I do believe we’re the market and help us make Oxon, and this year’s trend confuse things). at the epicentre of it here in the the step change in productivity highlights see blackgrass For those who don’t know the UK –– it will either ruin us or –– just look at the products receding, wheat making a Small Robots, Tom looks like a restore us to global mastery. behind the hundreds of pounds confident re-entry into the remote-controlled car and is We have the talent and the you spend on every single ha rotation, and temporary the size of a spaniel.