Second wheat, warm soils and take-all are an awkward combination. Rather than simply saying “don’t drill early”, this article asks a more useful question: once one part of the risk has increased, what else can we do to shift the odds back towards the crop? Conventional take-all management still matters: drilling date, green-bridge control, drainage, seedbed condition, nutrition and seed treatment all have a place. But take-all also gives us one of the clearest examples of dis

Can high Brix really stop aphids? Probably not in the simple way it is sometimes claimed. But the observation opens up a much more interesting question about plant physiology, nitrogen assimilation, crop stress and BYDV risk. This autumn, many early-drilled cereals are establishing in warm soils after dry seedbeds, with residual nitrogen still available and some fairly strong herbicide programmes already applied. A two- or three-leaf cereal is trying to build roots, develop p

That’s a provocative title, but bear with me. Yes, the drought and heat have certainly nailed a lot of crops, especially spring-sown. I’ve seen some dreadful spring oat yields in particular. But if drought and heat explain everything, why have we also seen some exceptional oilseed rape yields, while so many winter wheat crops have disappointed? Different crops, different critical growth stages and different responses to the same season, obviously. But I think there is more to

So why do they look different? I'm not sure this season has given us many answers. If anything, it's raised more questions. Farm finances are under huge pressure. After several difficult harvests, the obvious reaction is to start cutting costs. Looking back, it's easy to say some expensive fungicide programmes didn't deliver the return we hoped for. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. At flag leaf, most of us were looking at a wet forecast and protecting yield potential. A fe

We are at that stage when agronomists across the country will be recommending the autumn phoma sprays. Almost a routine exercise and is...

Until relatively recently, most farm data have been in the hands of big ag platforms, including John Deere, Omnia, Rhiza, and Syngenta’s...

It’s been one of the hottest and driest summers we’ve seen in years. Crops came off early, yields are down, and in many fields, there’s...

Introduction The 2025 wheat season has revealed significant vulnerabilities in cereal production systems across the UK. Yellow rust...

With one of the driest springs on record in the UK, many crops are already running the gauntlet before summer has even begun. While we’re...

Many UK farmers face an unusual scenario this season—extended dry conditions resulting in significantly reduced disease pressure on...

I recently participated in the Aiva Fertilisers (https://aivafertiliser.co.uk/) Time to Talk series, giving talks on the importance of...

A blog series that looks at various aspects of soil health and dives into the science and tries to pick out the 'take-home messages' -...

The YouTube video below is from Groundswell 2018 where Joel Williams of Integrated Soils gives some fantastic insights to Advanced plant...