Direct Driller Magazine

By Rosalind Platt, managing director of BFS Fertiliser Services, UK leaders in crop nutrition since 1948. Late-season foliar nitrogen applications can significantly lower the total nitrogen required in crop production while maintaining – or even increasing – yields. Recent research has shown particularly strong results in oats. Ongoing volatility in the fertiliser market continues to place pressure on farmers.

When you walk into Cereals in 2026 (if you can get in past all the influencers who are going to descend on Diddly Squat), it will be immediately clear this is no longer just a machinery show. Gone is the really big kit, with combines and tractors lined up in neat rows. But look closer and something fundamental has shifted. This is now an event about systems, precision and decisions.

In direct drilling systems, every pass carries weight. With fewer opportunities to intervene through cultivation, crop protection strategies need to be both precise and adaptable. As a result, spray application is under increasing scrutiny – not just in terms of efficacy but also cost control and environmental responsibility. Maximising the performance of each litre applied has become central to success.

Written by Chris Fellows The agricultural sector stands on the precipice of a fundamental shift in how crop protection products are applied, formulated and regulated. Driven by rapid advancements in precision application technology, from AI-guided optical spot sprayers to autonomous drones, the traditional model of broad-acre, high-volume spraying is being systematically dismantled.

Precision-bred oilseed rape will be put to the test in trials on commercial farms for the first time in Europe, offering fresh hope for a crop under pressure. A new £2.5m, three-year project marks a major step towards rebuilding the UK’s most important break crop.

How UK farmers are drowning in test results from different tools and labs, and what happens when you finally bring it all together. There’s a quiet irony at the heart of modern soil management. Farmers have never had access to more data about their land. Soil chemistry tests, leaf tissue analysis, plant sap readings, nitrate sensors, satellite imagery: the menu of diagnostic technologies keeps growing.

One year ago, Direct Driller covered the launch of the ADOPT funding scheme from Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme with Innovate UK. ADOPT supports farmers in testing new ideas, products or practices on farm, providing project grants of £50-£100k over 1–2 years. 70 farmer-led projects have now started. With a total initial funding commitment of £20 million, there is still scope for more farmers to start projects to test their ideas. Direct Driller readers have been responding to the opportunity.

For the past decade, the agricultural industry has been sold a vision of the future farm that looks more like a science fiction film than a muddy Tuesday in Lincolnshire. Fully autonomous tractors, robot swarms, and artificial intelligence running everything while the farmer watches from a dashboard were promised as the inevitable next steps. Step onto most UK farms in 2026, however, and the reality is markedly different.

How an olive-derived compound could save UK Oilseed rape from the cabbage stem flea beetle By Chris Fellows For nearly a decade, arable farmers across the United Kingdom and Northern Europe have been fighting a losing battle against a formidable, albeit tiny, adversary: the cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala, or CSFB).

By CEO, Steve McLean, UK Agri-Tech Centre Our ambition is to make the UK the best place to start, grow and scale agri-tech businesses. But that only matters if technologies are proven in real-world, commercial environments – and adopted at scale. Our strategy is built around helping agri-tech businesses move from innovation to commercial reality – to prove what works, build viable agri-tech businesses and scale impact at pace.