Our blog
The latest ideas, opinions and innovations from people working in sustainable agriculture
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Plant teams in the field - Intercropping in practice in the UK and Sweden
Intercropping has been shown to be beneficial for pest, disease and weed management, preventing lodging, improving water quality, soil fertility and biodiversity as well as...
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Blowing in the wind: forecasting pathogens to improve phoma and stem canker control
For those living in parts of the south and east of England, the switch from summer to autumn came very suddenly three weeks into September,...
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Filling the Hungry Gap - Agricology Vlog
Dr Alastair Leake (Director of Policy & the Allerton Project for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) talks about why it's important to consider using...
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Multi Species Leys - Agricology Vlog
Dr Alastair Leake (Director of Policy & the Allerton Project for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) discusses why they are trialling taking an arable...
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Soil Science Latest: How Can We Sequester More Carbon and Build Soil Health?
At the Wageningen Soil Conference in August 2019 we listened to many brilliant talks on the latest soil science; some of which were incredibly relevant...
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Minimising Soil Disturbance - Grass & Cattle - Agricology Vlog Oct 2019
Richard Smith of Daylesford Organic Farms talks about grass leys and how they put them into stubble, and undersowing grass leys into cereal crops. He...
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The fight against anti-microbial resistance - how can you improve your animal health & production?
The end of the Second World War saw an increase in the need for food. It’s also the period where antibiotics first became available to...
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What do you know about plant-based veterinary uses? Can you help?
Can plants still be used as veterinary treatment of animals or is this old tittle-tattle? That is the question we want to help answer. It’s...
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Combining sticky traps & technology to monitor cereal aphids & predict BYDV risk
This year will be the first that neonicotinoid seed dressings will no longer be routinely applied to cereal crops following their ban last year. This...
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The greatest weapon against stress is the ability to control our thoughts
When I first met psychologist Willie Horton during my Nuffield scholarship, he professed that you could learn to achieve your goals - effortlessly! It was...
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Sowing a Grass & Clover Ley - Agricology Vlog August 2019
Richard Smith, Farms Manager at Daylesford Organic Farm discusses how he is converting a conventional arable field into a grass and clover ley for livestock...
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Mob Grazing Herbal Leys - Agricology Vlog September 2019
In this follow up to August's vlog on herbal leys by Ian Wilkinson, Ian (Farm Manager of Honeydale Farm & MD of Cotswold Seeds &...
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Herbal Leys - Agricology Vlog August 2019
In this short video, Ian Wilkinson (Farm Manager of Honeydale Farm & MD of Cotswold Seeds & FarmED) discusses why they chose deep rooting herbal...
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Fecal Egg Counts (Fecpak) - Agricology Vlog August 2019
In this month's Agricology vlog, Richard Smith, Farms Manager for Daylesford Organic, discusses a method they use on the farm called Fecpak which allows them...
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Will putting grass into your rotation solve your black-grass problem?
Is black-grass a major problem on your farm? Are you considering bringing grass back into the rotation to control severe infestations of this weed? Centre...
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Management and maintenance of agroforestry systems: Lessons from a 30 year old ash silvopastoral trial
The fifth and final AFINET workshop for the UK silvopasture sub-group took place at Claydon Estate in Buckinghamshire in early July and was well attended...
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Groundswell 2019: Farming with Nature to produce healthy land, people and profits
Inspirational. Innovative. The best farming conference in the UK. These are just a few snippets from recent Twitter posts describing Groundswell 2019 - but are...
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Could farming with trees help to control pests and boost pollinators?
Can farmers control pests without pesticides, and pollinate their crops without honey bees? All while making money out of it? Agroforestry, which is basically farming...
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Free support for organic farms to take part in AHDB Farmbench 2019
*Last chance to join an organic combinable crops benchmarking group in the East region! Benchmark one or more of your organic cereal and oilseed enterprises...
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Learn about the Earthworm Engineers
At Soilmentor we have been researching the science behind on-farm earthworms in the European Journal of Soil Science, which recently made some fascinating papers available...
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