Agronomy in expert hands at roadshows

Soil health, crop selection and integrated pest management (IPM) are among the topics up for discussion at a series of virtual workshops starting next week.

The agronomy winter roadshows are hosted by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the Scottish Government’s Farm Advisor y Ser vice (FAS).

They will be held online this year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, with events running on each Wednesday from January 13 to February 10.

“We have moved our popular agronomy roadshows online this year so we can still let farmers know about the latest crop research, as well as addressing some of the hot topics affecting their businesses, not just in Scotland but local to their region,” said AHDB’S arable knowledge exchange manager for Scotland, Chris Leslie.

“We will provide information and thoughtprovoking conversations delivered via a range of speakers drawn from research, industry, and farming, to provide expertise from all areas of agriculture.”

He added: “I encourage anyone with an interest in arable farming to attend so they can benefit from the valuable and practical information that we will be sharing.”

Professor Fiona Burnett from SRUC said: “The sessions will cover the launch of a new planning tool to let growers track their IPM practices, and span new asks around soil health, effective fungicides and resilient varieties that support both key markets and more sustainable practices.”

Each virtual workshop will run from 10am to 1.30pm and the dates and subjects are: January 13 – IPM planning and fungicide updates; January 20 – crop selection and variety performance; January-27–business resilience and markets; February 3 – soil health; and February 10 – Strategic Potato Farm Scotland results day.

Full details of each event, including information on how to book a place, is online at www. fas. scot/ events/

MUCKING IN: Soil health is one of the topics for discussion at the virtual workshops.