Monitor Farm walk: Malmesbury

Meeting programme

Registration and tea

Philip Dolbear – AHDB Knowledge Exchange Manager: AHDB news and developments

Roger Wilson, monitor farmer: Farm update

Farm Walk

• Variety performance traits to reduce input costs
• Reduced fungicide try out review and discussion
• Review of T3 management
• OSR - performance review. Future viability in rotation?
• Hybrid vs conventional barley review and assessment
• RB209 recommendations - theory and practice
• Cover crop try out review
• Pre harvest weed assessment, stale seedbed management, biological and mechanical weed control strategies
• Black-grass control strategy - is it working?
• ELMS - future plans
• AHDB Market Intelligence Crop marketing update

Philip Dolbear: Conclusions and 2019/20 winter meeting topics

Close and BBQ

About the farm

Roger Wilson farms in partnership with his brother Peter at Lower Odd Farm in Wiltshire. They have 170 ha owned land plus10 ha rented grassland. The arable rotation is flexible, incorporating winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring beans, winter and spring barley as well as grass leys. All crops are dried and stored on-farm. The farm has a beef herd which are fed home-grown cereals. Key challenges for the farm are the threat of ryegrass, inconsistent bean yields, rape establishment, pyrethroid resistance and managing the farm’s heavier soils. During the three years of the Monitor Farm programme, Roger would like to address topics including succession, soil management and the evaluation of variable rate fertilisers.