“Alternatives to glyphosate for terminating cover crops”.

Following concerns about the possible withdrawal of glyphosate and increasing herbicide resistance inarable farming, a group of farmers in East Anglia came together to look at alternatives. The group have now set up a practical ‘field lab’, focused on the best ways to destroy cover crops, while still enabling successful establishment of a cash crop afterwards. In this session the panel will discuss their motivations, the techniques they’ll be trialling and some of their early findings.

The Panel includes:

Liz Bowles

Liz is Head of Farming at the Soil Association and is a co-ordinator for several Innovative Farmers field labs. Liz has worked in the sector for over 20 years and has a practical approach combined with scientific and sector knowledge. She is a Nuffield scholar. Her research explored co-operation in the red meat sector and was a precursor to her joining EFFP where she worked on developing supply chain collaboration in England in all UK agricultural sectors.

Jerry Alford

Jerry farms in Devon with a mix of dairy, beef, sheep and combinable crops. He has been farming organically for the past ten years and has now taken up a crops advisory post and will also be working on co-ordinating field labs.

James Alexander

James runs PrimeWest Ltd, agricultural contractors and no-tillage specialists, along with his father and is based in Oxfordshire. The business contract farms 400 hectares including an organic and conventional mix and contract drills around 1000 hectares per year with a cross slot drill. In 2012, the company undertook the design and building of the first cross slot drill frame. There are no more than 20 such machines in the UK and Europe. Prime West also produces crimper rollers to work along the seed drills.

The Panel Discussion took place at 12.20 on No-Till Day, Seminar Barn – 29th June 2017.