Crop establishment: Herefordshire

Hosted by Hereford monitor farmer Russell Price, whose 780 hectare business based on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border is on soils ranging from medium sandy loams to Bromyard series clay.

Cropping includes wheat, barley, oilseed rape, beans, potatoes and grass.

Over the past three seasons, Russell has compared six crop establishment methods in 24m-wide blocks. His aim is to investigate how to best reduce his establishment costs without making compromises to his soil health, crop yield or overall profitability.

Join us on 29 May when independent soils specialists Philip Wright and Kate Speke-Adams will be leading this tour of the establishment plots where discussions will be based around the practical principles of crop establishment choice and soil management.

Topics of discussion will include:

• Correct choice, use and setup of primary cultivation machinery
• Cultivation strategies to reach yield potential by enhancing crop rooting
• The role of cover crops in improving soil productivity
• The importance of building soil organic matter
• Management of best performing land compared to poor performing land
• Traffic management and compaction
• The impact of cultivation strategies on weed burden

BASIS and NRoSO points have been applied for. There will be a field walk so please bring suitable footwear.