Soils
Soil management and nutrient network farms
Nature Based Solutions to Combat Rising Fertiliser Costs
The rising costs of inorganic fertilisers alongside concerns regarding their environmental impact has seen many Scottish farmers explore alternative solutions. To ensure sufficient nutrients are available for plant uptake, a…
Read More >Agribusiness News July 2022: Sector Focus – Soils
Soil Testing: Benefits and Limitations Without a doubt, soil testing has come to the forefront of UK agricultural policy over the past few years. With the roll out of mandatory…
Read More >Soil Health – A Route Towards Net Zero for the Scottish Livestock Industry
Farm Stock (Scotland) Limited (FSS) was awarded a KTIF grant on 10/11/2021. The grant covered a project entitled A Route Towards Net Zero for the Scottish Livestock Industry to be…
Read More >Disease Planning Starts Early
Planning out a disease management strategy in cereal crops needs to start earlier than usual this season. Programmes can be adjusted as the season goes on but setting out the basic framework makes it possible to work in a diversity of chemistry to minimise resistance risks and cover the main diseases and timings.
Read More >Integrated Pest Management – Top Tips from High Scoring Farms
The IPM planning tool for Scottish growers is starting to give useful insights about what high scoring farms do and where they get their information. Filing in an Integrated Pest Management plan is now standard practice on most arable farms and is a useful tool to explore what can be done on individual farms to increase IPM practices. IPM plans are also being picked up across mixed and grassland farms too. Almost 5000 arable plans have been completed to date for arable farms and nearly 300 for grassland plans – just launched at the end for 2021. Average scores for arable farms are 64.8% and for grassland farms 56.9%. This provides really positive evidence about what the farming industry is already doing to produce crops in integrated and sustainable ways.
Read More >Strategies to High Fertiliser Prices & Planning for 2022
With fertiliser prices having seen a drastic increase over the past few months now is the time to plan if you haven’t already done so what your fertiliser policy will…
Read More >Encouraging Cropping – Machair
In this podcast we hear from Johanne Ferguson of NatureScot about the importance of cropping on the Uist Machair. We discuss what the machair is and what it is designated…
Read More >Video: Making the most of digestate applications
Thomas Neely from Entrust Environmental explains how farmers can benefit from applying digestate as an organic manure. With rising prices for artificial fertilisers many farmers are looking for…
Read More >Healthy Soils – Drainage
Well-drained and aerated soils are of paramount importance for efficient farming and livestock production. As part of our Healthy Soils Series, we have interviewed a specialist to provide you with…
Read More >Healthy Soils – Liming
Liming has many benefits to soils, environment and livestock, but also faces crofters and farmers with certain challenges. As part of the Healthy Soils Series, we have interviewed farmers in…
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