This week I presented on findings on PCN and groundkeeper sampling as part of the PCN Action Scotland group project. Funded by Scottish Government’s SASA (Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture) and in partnership with SRUC, the James Hutton Institute and Scottish Agronomy we held an Open Day at Barnyards…

When we first started using autosteer we used to notice the “unnaturally” straight tramlines done by autosteer. Now autosteer is normal your eye is caught by the manually steered tramlines. This has only taken around 10 years. The next big change is coming. The slow evolution in agricultural technology from…

In a bid to help the Scottish agricultural industry contribute to the Scottish Government’s target of net zero by 2045, farmers co-operative, Farm Stock (Scotland) Ltd is leading a Government funded project which aims to demonstrate how attention to soil health benefits both agricultural production and the wider environment and…

Land can be the hero of the climate change piece, even if it usually painted as the villain. As we move to net zero people are realising that every material that we use in our lives needs to be made from sustainable materials that are grown, mined, or recycled. Much…

The most recent buzz-phrase to grip the rural chattering classes – particularly those of us who like to make a loud noise in the farming glossies or social media – is “regenerative agriculture”. Like many trends, this nomenclature seems to have a polarising effect; not in terms of the wrongs…

I was recently lucky enough to join the Cereals Live event, “New tools for a new era” as a panellist, along with Neave Anderson from Farm 491, Dr Ruth Bastow from CHAP and Dr Shamal Mahammad from Agri-Epi Centre, excellently chaired by the brilliant Sarah Bell. https://www.cerealsevent.co.uk/cereals-qa-edition/new-tools-for-a-new-era We were talking…

The past 30 or so years have brought major changes to farm machinery. This has usually been most evident in the scale of tractors and machines visible in fields and on rural roads. However, under the shiny metal skin of the machines is where the most significant changes have occurred.…

Hello, how are you? Here at SoilEssentials, we are attempting to maintain as near to a ‘business as usual’ approach as we hurdle the ever-evolving challenges that the COVID-19 outbreak sets in our path. You can contact us as always by telephone on 01356 650459 or email:enquiries@soilessentials.com, Technical support is…

For about the last 150 years agricultural products have declined in value relative to all other goods. The world economy has been on a consumer growth boom based on oil. As oil derived products replaced agricultural ones our industry suffered. Clothing became nylon, buildings became concrete instead of timber, fuel…

The Oxford Farming Conference is how our industry starts the year, sets the agenda and talks the talk. It is up to companies like SoilEssentials to follow-up by walking that talk. So far, every speaker has brought up soil health, but what do they mean by that? Do they know?…