Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland

Name:

David Aglen

Location:

Fife

Farm sectors:

Cereals & Oilseeds

Twitter:

@DavidAglen

View on Google Maps

About Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland

David Aglen, Farm Manager at Balbirnie Home Farms, has hosted Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland since September 2020
1,200 hectare mixed farm with 800 hectares of arable crops and 200 suckler cows
Diverse rotation includes oats, spring barley, winter wheat, spring beans, potatoes and brassica vegetables
The farm has a collaborative approach that unites research and practice to increase economic and environmental resilience
It aims to use intelligence and data from industry to ground-truth novel management decisions
Key areas of focus include regenerative agricultural practices, plant and soil health, and reduced inputs
The vision of the farm is to be inclusive, independent, and open in testing research outputs in a diverse business setting
Ultimately, the farm aims to give other farmers confidence to make changes in their own businesses

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 via on-farm and online events to the wider farming community.

Podcast (Farm Advisory Service CropCast)

In January 2025, CropCast featured strategic cereal farmer David Aglen and Professor Fiona Burnett (SRUC applied plant pathologist), who discussed the latest results from AHDB Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland.

Listen to the ‘Thinking Outside of the Box’ CropCast

Video insight

This video provides an overview of Balbirnie Home Farms at the start of its Strategic Cereal Farm journey in 2020.

Watch David Aglen give an overview of the Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland trials in 2023.

See AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Sector Council Member Dave Bell outline some of the benefits of the Strategic Cereal Farm programme (2023).

Watch more videos from Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland (YouTube playlist)

Main trials

Cover crops ahead of direct drilled spring barley
This work established a cover crop (oats, peas and beans) ahead of a spring cash crop and quantified the benefits, including the potential to reduce inputs.

Optimising crop nutrition
This work aimed to determine whether in-crop monitoring can be used to amend crop nutrition, while considering the economic benefit on crop health, yield and grain quality.

Impact of regenerative management on pests and natural enemies
Researchers used simple survey techniques to collect baseline biodiversity data, based on natural enemies and key pests, in May 2021. Six fields and their margins were assessed: three conventional and three regenerative. The regenerative fields featured cover crops, livestock, reduced inorganic fertilisers and improved hedgerow management. Follow-up surveys were conducted in these fields in May 2024.

Learn about the on-farm trials at Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland

Follow Strategic Cereal Farm Scotland on X (Twitter) by searching for #strategicfarm and @DavidAglen

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