Huggate Monitor Farm meeting: Attention to detail and what to measure to manage

Please join Gary Shipley, Huggate monitor farmer for the first meeting of the new year, to explore how you can understand and maximise your crops' performance profitably.  

Sarah Kendall (ADAS) and David Hoyles will be joining us to discuss analysis of factors that could be limiting yields and provide you with some of the tools you need to start closing the gap between theoretical and actual yield. 

On the agenda:

Sarah has worked at ADAS as a Crop Physiologist for 8 years, after completing her PhD at the University of York. Sarah grew up on an arable farm in East Yorkshire and now lives on a mixed farm in Nottinghamshire. Sarah has a keen interest in understanding factors affecting cereal and oilseed rape yields through her involvement in the Yield Enhancement Networks (YEN). This has now developed further to include a focus on nutrition, where YEN Nutrition uses benchmarked grain analysis data to help farms determine the success of their crop nutrition strategies. 

10.20 Monitor farm update, Gary Shipley

• Achieving yields – what to measure and manage

Sarah Kendall, Principal Research Scientist, ADAS 

• The effect of cultivation on crop establishment and cost implications
• The impact of soil type on cereal establishment 
• How can seed rate and plant population impact on yield? 
• How can crop recording and analysis help to provide a detailed and comprehensive understanding of the crop’s performance? 
• Understanding what is limiting a crop’s potential in any situation, such as root development, fertility, or moisture availability 

12.00 David Hoyles – how to make data and detail work for you

The Hoyles family have been farming in South Lincolnshire since the mid 1700’s and moved from Benington, Boston, to Lutton farming 700ha of Wisbech Series Grade 1 silt, split over 4 farms within a 7 mile radius of each other.

12.30 Meeting summary and lunch

(please note if time and weather allows we may head to the field for a demonstration of the VESS/worm method)

https://ahdb.org.uk/greatsoils