On-farm trials at Strategic Cereal Farm East (2023-2029)

AHDB Strategic Cereal Farms put cutting-edge research and innovation into practice on commercial farms around the UK. Each farm hosts field-scale and farm-scale demonstrations, with experiences shared with the wider farming community.

David Jones hosts the second Strategic Cereal Farm East (2023–2029) at Morley Farms Ltd (Norfolk), which is a 750ha farming enterprise, 700ha of which is an arable rotation. The first Strategic Cereal Farm East (2017–2023) was based in Suffolk.

David is no stranger to innovation and he manages land steeped in research history. In fact, Morley Farms has hosted trials since 1965.

Although the commercial farm business does not plan to move from its conventional roots, David wants to explore farming in an environmentally sympathetic way that delivers on yields.

Updated throughout the duration of the six-year project, this page will feature core information about the on-farm research.

The first-year (2023/24) trials and assessments are led by NIAB, in collaboration with ADAS and Harper Adams University, within three work packages.

Work package 1

Cultural weed control strategies (rye-grass target)

Lead: Will Smith, NIAB

Aim: To assess the impact of rye-grass management strategies in cereals.

Keeping herbicide resistant weeds, such as Italian rye-grass and black-grass, at manageable levels is a challenge.

There is a relatively good understanding of the black-grass control value associated with various techniques (in isolation and combination). This work will start to develop a similar understanding for Italian rye-grass.

One field site, selected for this study, has relatively high and even Italian rye-grass pressures. The research will also exploit several other fields with more moderate and uneven grassweed distributions to assess control approaches.

The field trials will compare the following approaches:

1. Control (farm-standard treatments)
2. Cultural method, such as drilling date, seed rates and varieties
3. Non-chemical methods, such as inter-row cultivation and weed surfing, combined with the best cultural control method

The impact of grass leys on weed seed return will also be examined. In this initial year, a ley will be established with baseline seedbank measurements taken. This element will also explore options for payment from stewardship schemes.

The work will also assess if weeds in winter wheat’s narrow rows can be managed with a camera-guided hoe. Garford Farm Machinery has provided one (in-kind contribution) to help fine-tune the approach for arable systems.

Weeds will be monitored closely across all trials (including analyses of the seedbank), with crop performance and costs/gross margins assessed (where applicable).

The significance of any weed seed transfer across the farm, via cultivation equipment, will also be assessed.

Opportunities to collaborate with EU-funded networks will also be explored, including the alternative weed management demonstration farms in the Oper8 project and trials on Italian rye-grass management (in France) in IPMWorks.

Work package 2

Integrated pest management (BYDV target)

Lead: Mark Ramsden, ADAS

Aim: To investigate cultural management approaches for aphid/BYDV management in winter wheat.

This work will assess aphid vectors (and their natural enemies) and BYDV levels in resistant and susceptible winter wheat varieties (in adjacent fields).

Decision support tools will also be assessed in field tramline trials to guide insecticide applications.

The work will examine the potential to reduce or eliminate the need for insecticides – with interest in the latter option increasing due to a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) action option that requires no use of insecticide on arable crops.

Treatments include:

1. T-Sum model (direct assessment of the second aphid generation)
2. Pilot ACroBAT model (direct assessment and treatment guidance)
3. No insecticide application

The work will assess disease spread, yield impacts and provide cost-benefit information on the approaches. It will also enhance understanding of the factors that influence aphid populations at Morley Farms.

Opportunities to collaborate with EU-funded networks will also be explored, including IPMWorks, which features demonstrations of aphid/BYDV decision support approaches across Europe (and conducted work in East Anglia during the 2022/23 season).

Work package 3

Nutrient use efficiency (nitrogen target)

Lead: David Clarke, NIAB

Aim: To use site data at Morley Farms to evaluate field spatial variability and its impact on nutrient use efficiency (NUE).

Spatial variation in economic optimal nitrogen application rate and fertiliser recovery is highly variable, with large variability in yields recorded across Morley Farms.

Variability is mainly due to interactions of soil organic and mineral nitrogen stocks, water holding capacity and crop demand (which is seasonally influenced).

The Morley Soil and Agronomic Monitoring Study (SAMS) sites are an excellent source of site-specific data (2018–23).

Each site is about 150 m² and the network covers high, low and variable yielding areas (and headland sites). The data collected includes soil and grain nutrients, yield and management records for 29 arable sites. NUE is already assessed at eight sites.

Old Hall Piece Field provides a particularly interesting site for NUE analysis. It has 5 SAMS sites that vary in yield and soil electrical conductivity (EC) and is the only SAMS field in winter wheat for harvest 2024.

EC can be used to estimate soil texture and stone content and act as proxy for water holding capacity, which has close linkage with NUE.

Identical replicated nitrogen response trials will be conducted in three contrasting management zones in the field.

All cereal SAMS are entered into the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) providing an opportunity to assess results in the context of YEN benchmarks.

Some farmers use N-sensors to vary nitrogen application rates. Such approaches often apply more nitrogen to areas associated with lower biomass. However. a ‘robbing-the-rich-to-give-to-the-poor’ approach does not account for the causes of underpinning variation and may not be the best approach. As a result, the research will include assessments variable rate application technology (Yara ALS1 N-sensor) against the current farm standard.

Morley Farms has already compared a foliar applied controlled release nitrogen fertiliser with a traditional soil-applied nitrogen dose at the final split.

A replicated tramline trial (Ravens Grove Field) will build on this initial work to help establish which approach delivers the greatest NUE. The field is interesting as it hosted the long-term Morley Straw Incorporation Experiment (1986-2018) providing useful data to help understand nitrogen responses.

The research will also investigate the fertiliser nitrogen that is utilised and allocated to grain yield (NUEgrain). Grain NIR protein mapping has also been used on the farm since 2022.

For P and K, grain offtake calculations will be compared to fertiliser and manure inputs and soil indices to demonstrate changes in soil nutrient levels (as part of a CENTA PhD project).

ADAS is part of the EU-funded network NUTRI-CHECK-NET that aims to improve nutrient management practices across Europe. Opportunities to collaborate with the network will be explored.

*Note: Project cost/value is based on year-one information. Total project value includes a £13,593.60 in-kind contribution from Garford Farm Machinery.