It’s always been said that many farmers adopt or adapt techniques by ‘looking over the hedge’ at their neighbours. Nowadays ‘looking over the hedge’ should not be taken too literally as it is a process that includes all forms of communication. However, …
One of life’s treats for me is to settle down with a cup of coffee (or two) and read The Sunday Times. The process starts by throwing away all the bits we don’t read, then finding out about the latest cars and gadgets and then onto the sport and then …
In the late 1990s I gave a talk at a highly charged conference on GMs at which I stated that there was progressively less hunger in the world. Naturally, I checked my facts with some aid agencies before making such a statement. I attributed this good news …
Last week I visited Rothamsted Research with a few arable farmers. As always, it was very good value and we were updated on many aspects of the organisation’s research. Pesticide resistance and availability and soil issues were the main themes. One area …
I have had a few enquiries this autumn about the fate of black-grass seed after shedding. This type of question is fostered by rather imprecise language describing the number of black-grass seeds formed on a head of the weed. On average one head of autumn …
P rofessor Seralini is not a household name but he has been in the limelight in the ‘GMO world’ for a few years. He is Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Caen in France and has been known to be against genetic modification. I’m not sure …
Times were tough for UK cereal producers around the turn of this century and costs were really under the hammer. Whilst some savings could be made with variable costs, labour and machinery costs were the main targets for savings. There were many …
A few years ago ‘Brussels’ sat down to review the EU pesticide legislation. There were existing directives on pesticide registration (91/414), on waste (the Water Framework Directive and a Directive on hazardous waste) and on residues (regulation 396/2005 …
Just before Christmas I heard a radio programme about the Druid celebration of the twelve days around the winter solstice. They celebrate the twelve days when the sun stands still. This got me looking up data on the angle of the sun and daylight hours. …
Few readers of this blog will have heard of Nick Peters. Nick diligently (some might say over-diligently) researched the agro-ecology of wild oats. Most of what you understand about how wild oats tick is almost certainly based on Nick’s research. We had …
Niab
Park Farm Campus
Villa Road
Histon
Cambridge
CB24 9AT, UK
Tel: +44(0)1223 342200
Email: [email protected]
