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Table of Contents

  1. Building better Agri Intelligence
  2. Grateful for rain on the 15 tonne plots
  3. Welcome to our Summer 2012 ‘Journal’
  4. Cotswold challenges
  5. Agrii launch new environmental development site
  6. Agrii Farm Saved Seed Processing Service
  7. Agrii at the heart of Grassland
  8. New Varieties for Autumn 2012 Sowing
  9. Agronomy plus Precision
  10. Promoting Stewardship
  11. Combined research adds value
  12. Local innovation at AgriiFocus
  13. Future thinking, traditional values
  14. Take Off boost for Wheat and OSR
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Agronomy plus Precision

Fraser Rennie, SoilQuest – West Region

Fraser Rennie

As the SoilQuest team prepares to embark on what promises to be another busy season, the dust has barely settled from last year’s work load. With an increase in power from both man and machine the team was able to accomplish some very pleasing results.

The bulk of the work took place post harvest in August and September. August was a particularly busy month which saw the team scan and sample over 8500 hectares. The team has remained busy right through the winter, picking up a lot of ground going into spring cropping and an increased acreage of grassland.

On the back of the successes of last season, the SoilQuest team has once again grown. We have added two new enthusiastic recruits in Josh Lawton and Sam Fordham, positioned in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire respectively. In addition to the extra bodies on the ground, we have two new quad bikes with automatic samplers attached on order and furthermore there are currently two new veris scanning machines in transit somewhere on the Atlantic. These new additions put the team in a great position to tackle the growing demand for the service. We will be aiming to not only build on the success of last season but very much surpass previous targets and expectations.

As we look to the forthcoming season our attention turns to innovative new aspects of the SoilQuest service. While variable rate P and K and variable rate seed remain stalwarts of the service, we continue to offer more. In the same vain as variable rate P and K, we are now producing maps for variable rate manure applications. On the sampling side of things we can offer a broad spectrum analysis of trace nutrients for grassland. This will enable growers to target possible nutrient deficiencies, in the grazing stock. One customer had noted that his cows would tend to sit in specific SoilQuest zones of a field at certain times of the day.

We have also recently seen the advent of our new irrigation service. We know that varying soil types have fluctuating water holding capacities, and with increasing drought concerns – although it may seem hard to believe in arts of the west region the drive for increasing efficiency of irrigation is growing in importance. Soil moisture is monitored with strategically placed irrigation probes and we can then utilize our conductivity scan maps to target irrigation applications according to time and zones.

Fields are complex biological eco systems with many variables, such as weeds and diseases. SoilQuest’s ambition is to understand the complexities of a field and apply that information specifically to each management zone; with that in mind the possibilities of this service are limitless.

For any enquiries in regard to SoilQuest Precision Agronomy please contact John Lord telephone 07918 054765 email john.lord@www.agrii.co.uk


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