Agriculture is both a hard industry to recruit in and a notoriously hard industry to get into if you’re not from a farming background. With the UK facing a cost of living crisis, the prospect of supporting good employees may be daunting, but there are many things farm businesses can be doing to help retain and attract good staff. In this employment-focused podcast, Alice Dyer finds out how to be both a prominent employee and employer, with tips to stand out from the crowd to continuing professional development and training options. 

Speakers: Dave Back, labour auditor, DB Compliance.George Mallender, recruitment consultant, MorePeople.Jade Prince, business development manager, Basis.

The integration of cover crops have been a key ingredient for many farmers in improving the health of their soils and their overall farming system.

But they don’t come without their challenges, and ‘getting them to work’ isn’t always as straightforward as it seems.

To find out what we’re doing wrong and how to get more out of them tune into the latest episode of the Crop It Like It’s Hot podcast.

From nutrient lockup to yield penalties and why destruction method, not just timing is key to success, this podcast offers a crash course in all things cover crops from three experienced experts.

Speakers: 

Ed Brown, head of agroecology at Hutchinsons.

Richard Barnes, sales manager at Kings Crops.

Angus Gowthorpe, Yorkshire farmer.

This episode sees Farmers Guardian arable specialist Ash Ellwood discuss how one farmer has introduced sheep into their arable rotation, what role data can play on farm and finds out the latest on the urea legislation changes, all recorded from The CropTec Show in Stoneleigh.

Speakers - Jo Franklin (Arable & sheep farmer), Tom Macbride (Yagro) , Robert and Will Ingham (Glasson Fertilisers)

Being a farmer comes with the privilege of being a custodian of the land, and a love of the countryside and wildlife is why many farmers do what they do.  In this episode of Crop It Like It’s Hot, the Arable Farming team speak to three conservationists about how arable farms can become a haven for wildlife. From hedgerow management tips to habitat creation, and encouraging more beneficial insects, there is plenty that growers can do to improve the environmental credentials of their farms.

More businesses are now looking to offset their environmental footprint, and with new laws on enhancing biodiversity for housing developers, there are some interesting opportunities emerging for land managers to make some extra cash.

But is trading natural capital all it is cracked up to be, or could land owners be tying themselves into long-term contracts to fulfil a fairly new and unknown concept?

Tune in to Crop It Like It’s Hot to hear Arable Farming’s Alice Dyer find out if and how farmers could tap into this potentially profitable market from three experts on the frontline.

Many growers might feel like they have taken three steps back in weed control this year, with grass-weeds seemingly doing particularly well. But what can be done this autumn to get back on top of them? In this episode of Crop It Like It’s Hot, the Arable Farming team get the latest from weed control connoisseur, John Cussans. 

With all the tools in the box needed to keep on top of emerging weeds, and glyphosate authorisation in the limelight in Europe, we also get an update on what the UK situation is looking like.

John Cussans – NIAB weed biology and management specialist 

Mark Buckingham – Corporate engagement lead, Bayer Crop Science 

Economic and environmental drivers continue to put pressure on availability of crop nutrients. As nitrogen prices remain volatile, in this episode of Crop It Like It’s Hot, Alice Dyer explores what is driving fertiliser markets and what growers can expect for prices going forward

With many growers looking to utilise organic nitrogen sources, Alice gets an update on the latest Farming Rules for Water policy for muck spreading and finds out how one organic and conventional farmer is using clover understoreys to alter his crop nutrition programme.

Growers keep being told ‘widen your rotation’, but how do you manage risk with reward when it comes to growing new crops? How long should you give a crop in the rotation before throwing in the towel? And where do you start in deciding what to grow? From alternative pulse markets, to Wildfarmed wheat, to the weird and wonderful, in this latest episode of Crop It Like It’s Hot, we take a look at what other growers are giving a go, and how to measure success when it comes to integrating a new crop into your arable rotation.  

Speakers: 

Ed Hutley, partner - Ceres Rural  

Nick Padwick – Farm manager, Wild Ken Hill  

Michael Shuldham, LS Plant Breeding and Pulses UK President 

Risk management in agriculture is largely associated with personal safety, however in other industries, the management of risk extends to financial and planning and resource management. In this episode of Crop It Like It's Hot, machinery editor, Toby Whatley sits down to with three farmers with different business models, crops and land assets to hear how they approach risks to their business differently, and how their approach to expenditure, financial planning and crop sales varies.

Speakers

Rob Beaumont - Arable farmer, agronomist and Arable Farming columnist

Adam Lewis - Arable farmer

Alice Dyer - Babyleaf salad grower

As the agricultural industry navigates the loss of the Basic Payment Scheme, in this episode of Crop it Like it's Hot the Arable Farming team takes a look at future funding options available to arable farmers.

From Environmental Land Management to productivity grants, there are plenty of options out there, but do they fit the bill and are they worth taking up?

In this episode, head of farming at Strutt & Parker Jonathan Armitage discusses where he sees key investment opportunities for Defra going forward, what funding we can expect coming later down the line, and why the uptake of ELMs is struggling.

We also speak with associate partner and charted rural surveyor at Barbers Rural, Harriet Jones about the Countryside Stewardship Scheme as it enters its final application window. Ms Jones considers the options that are most suited to arable farmers and how to make the most out of the capital grants.

Will Huck, farm adviser for North West Auctions, speaks about funding innovation in agriculture. Defra’s investment provides funding for both the introduction of robots on farm and the development of future robotics, but how can farmers access it? We also look at resource management with grant funding options for water management and irrigation.

Speakers

Head of farming at Strutt & Parker, Jonathan Armitage

Associate partner and rural chartered surveyor at Barbers Rural, Harriet Jones

Farm advisor at NWA professional and property, Will Huck

With the UK seeing long periods of no rainfall almost annually, and changes to abstraction licensing and planning restrictions on water storage threatening to compound the issue, water security in agriculture is a concern many growers should and are taking seriously.

In this episode of Crop it Like it’s Hot, the Arable Farming team delves into the world of water policy, application and economics, to find out: how can we make UK agriculture more water-secure?

Tune in to hear three industry experts share their views on effective water-saving models, whether the Government really wants to safeguard water supply in agriculture, and how irrigation prospects are looking for the season ahead.

Speakers:

· Kelly Hewson-Fisher – NFU national water resources specialist

· Prof Jerry Knox - Professor of agricultural water management at Cranfield University

· Daniel Johns – managing director of Water Resources East

Since the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) was established by ADAS 10 years ago, it has recorded multiple crop world records, droughts, floods and a fertiliser crisis. But all of these events have helped the network to gather important information on how growers can maximise crop production on their land.

In this episode of Crop it Like it’s Hot, ADAS’ Dr Sarah Kendall discusses key learnings from more than 5,000 crop yields that have been recorded, and how detailed crop post-mortems, benchmarking and reporting has seen some farmers exceed the yield potential of their land.

Two top yielding farmers, David Passmore, who won gold for his OSR crop, and Tim Lamyman, who broke both the wheat and barley world record last harvest, tell all about their crop management programmes and they achieved the top yields they did in 2022.

Speakers:

Dr Sarah Kendall - ADAS crop physiologist

Tim Lamyman - Lincolnshire farmer and world record holder

David Passmore - Oxfordshire farmer and YEN winner

Join us as Ash Ellwood hosts a roundtable discussion with three newly-elected, arable-focused Nuffield Farming Scholars before they embark on global travels to see what agricultural knowledge they can gain from other countries.

Hear about the scholarship application process, individual projects and travel plans as we delve into the inner workings of their titles and highlight each of their hopes for the next 18 months.

We are joined by Jamie Stokes (Cambridgeshire arable farmer), Sam Watson-Jones (Agricultural autonomy and data technologist) and Tom Scrope (Co-founder of Soil Benchmark)

Regenerative agriculture seems to be the buzzword of the moment, but whether it can or will be the mainstay of food production remains to be seen. In this episode of Crop it Like it’s Hot – regenerative agriculture – fad or the future?, Alice Dyer explores what is fuelling this green revolution in farming.

With an esteemed panel of guests, including a soil scientist and two of the UK’s pioneering farmers of regen ag, listeners can get to grips with the science behind ‘good’ soil biology, get pointers for making changes to their farming systems and take lessons from the organic sector.