LEAF News and Views

News and opinion on topical issues at the LEAF Innovation Centre

Waitrose Innovation Forum

Blair McKenzie and Geoff Squire were both invited speakers at a recent forum organised by the Lancaster Environment Centre and Waitrose. The event was held at the Royal College of Surgeons, London on 15 February 2012 and attracted around 90 delegates from among growers, producers and retailers. Blair summarised the problems of compacted soils, caused primarily in this country by unregulated traffic on fields. He described how moving heavy machinery results in compaction and shear stress at some depth in the soil. Remedial action depends on 'loosening' the compacted soil and strict control of where farm vehicles move across fields. Geoff spoke about the increasing use of the term 'ecosystem services' in policy and academia and stressed that sustainable agriculture is both a 'service' and has to be managed so that it supports other ecological functions that maintain soil and regulate losses from the field. He compared approaches for planning future sustainable systems, advocating a broad holistic framework that looks much wider than short-term economic output. Good to see so many delegates interested in these topics. 

Cafe science Dundee - Feeding the world

Dr Tim George will give a talk on Feeding the world - science or reliance on nature at 6 pm (1800) on Wednesday 8 February 2012 in the Cafe Science Extra series at the Dundee Science Centre, Greenmarket Dundee DD1 4QB. Tim George says 'For the last 10,000 years humans have been growing crops for food and trade, but only in the last 200 years have we industrialised fertiliser production to sustain this. In just two centuries, we have all but used up our readily available mineral resources and created a number of environmental problems.' The talk will consider how different fertilisers and technological inventions, including plant breeding, may be used to adress the problem. Cafe Science Extra, established in 2008, 'showcases the cutting-edge research performed by younger scientists'. Events are held at 6 pm on the second Wednesday of every month at Dundee Science Centre's Infusion coffee shop. Events last until about 7 pm, are free - there's no need to book - but seating is limited to 60. Click the links above to find out how to get there.

Tim is a regular contributor to LEAF activities and open days. His display at the 2011 LEAF Open Farm Sunday exposed the impending global shortage of fertiliser phosphorus.

[6 February 2012]

Weather and yield stats

Questions are prompted by the latest annual summaries of weather and cereal yield (see links below). The weather (January to December) continues to set records. In contrast to 2010, the 12^th coldest year on record (presumably since systematic records began in 1910), 2011 was another warm year for the UK as a whole, reinforcing the trend to warmer than average temperatures in the past decade. Rainfall in 2011 varied enormously between parts of the country. While the across-Scotland, spatial average of 1860 mm (73 inches) was the highest rainfall recorded since records began, the arable lands of east Scotland got very much less than this and parts of southern England suffered drought.  

In contrast, the 2011 agricultural data showed cereal yields have remain level over the past decade, both in Scotland and most parts of the UK. The final estimates for Scotland of yield per unit area of 5.61 t/ha (tonnes per hectare) for spring barley and 8.09 t/ha for winter wheat remain high by UK standards, but are hardly different from 2010, despite the differences in mean weather variables. 

Why then over the past decade have the yields been so stable in the face of variable annual weather? It’s not that cereals are unresponsive to weather – they are very responsive, but they are affected by different weather-factors at different times in their growth, so annual averages of weather may be of little use in interpreting yield. The question remains, however, over any possible connexion between the record temperatures of the past decade and the levelling of yield over the same period. This is one of the questions that will be looked at in our extended analysis, in progress elsewhere on this site, of what might be causing the levelling of yield. To view the data for 2011, click the following web links to the Met Office 2011 weather and the Scottish Government 2011 yield. 

[10 January 2012, GRS]

The story of soil

'It's easy to take for granted, yet it's one of the most important resources we have.' So writes the Soil Science Society of America as a lead in to its three informative videos provided for free use and download from www.soils.org/Story: Human Health (the microbes in healthy soil that can be used to treat disease), Food Security (much of our food is grown in soil) and Water Quality (the filtering of impurities by soil). If you want stickers like the image to the right, you can get them through the above web web.

To mark World Soil Day on 5 December last, the biophysical scientists at the Institute wrote a series of short review articles on topics such as 'soils as natural capital', 'soil surveying and monitoring' and 'soil forensics'. Links to the articles, and an introduction to the importance of soil, can be found at http://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/world-soil-day.

[5 January 2012]

Glensaugh visit 14 December 2011

Ten science staff from the Dundee site were hosted by Donald Barrie and colleagues at the Glensaugh Research Station, the James Hutton Institute's upland site near Fettercairn, a few miles off the main road between Dundee and Aberdeen. The group was given an update on the activities of the station and then a tour of the facilities and a flavour of the environments. Topics discussed included the potential to include Glensaugh as part of the Institute's LEAF Innovation Centre, complementing the lowland farms near Dundee. Together, the Institute's lowland and upland farm sites offer unrivalled opportunities for linking science to practise.

LEAF President's and Winter Events November 2011

This year's LEAF President's event was held at the HSBC Group Headquarters at Canary Wharf in London on the morning of 2 November. Presentations and active discussion centred on the use of resources and were followed by the launch of the LEAF Water Management Tool by Farming Minister Jim Paice MP. The Winter Event in the afternoon was the opportunity for LEAF Demonstration Farmers and Innovation Centres to get together. The evening meal, combining victuals and animated discussion, was provided by LEAF, also at Canary Wharf, and much appreciated by all present. The next day, the party visited the House of Lords, not least to see the astonishing roof architecture of Westminster Hall. It is good to be reinvigorated at these annual events by the commitment, knowledge and enthusiasm of LEAF people. (GRS)

Open Farm Sunday 12 June 2011

Open Farm Sunday, 12 June 2011 this year, was a great success. Displays and demonstrations were based at the Invergowrie site near Dundee. The weather held. The farm staff laid out a selection of tractors and other machinery, tractor tours took visitors on a round of the crops and fields, the science groups rolled out 13 distinct exhibits and the Living Field put on extra demos, including one on bread making from heritage cereals. Among others joining us on the day was Dundee City Council's Discovery Compost who process urban green waste from gardens and parks into nutrient- and carbon-rich compost, and who had free samples to hand out to visitors.

The main theme for the day was Scotland’s Sustainable Croplands – examples of the science and technology that will support our croplands through the 21^st century and beyond. The welcome mix of ages, included primary school children and the very young, makes OFS a very special day for all JHI staff involved. The little girl in the photo to the right is surely a future farmer-naturalist! More information on the science displays, together with downloadable leaflets and handouts, can be found on the Living Field web site.

PURE research grant on integrated pest management

The EU-funded PURE research project kicks off this month for a period 2011-2014 that will see a Europe-wide, multi-disciplinary research group bring about major developments in integrated pest mangement (IPM) as a contribution to food security and reducing the environmental footprint. 'Pest' includes diseases, weeds and insect pests. The aim is to achieve substantial reductions in chemical pesticides by targeting crops such as vine, wheat, maize and vegetables that rely heavily on chemical control. PURE will examine all existing information on IPM, fill some gaps with new data, and use modelling and decision support tools to provide IPM solutions that will be tested on cropping systems across Europe. The Institute is one of 14 academic and research partners in PURE and will contribute expertise and field work in IPM, ecological engineering, and the crops wheat and field vegetables. Emerging results will be applied and evaluated on the new research platform at Balruddery farm. For further information on the build up to PURE, see - Integrated Pest Management in Europe. Contacts: Nick Birch and Graham Begg.

VESS Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure meeting Denmark

The Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS) is a useful, practical aid developed by Bruce Ball of the Scottish Agricultural College and collaborators in Aberdeen, Denmark and Brazil. "This simple, quick soil test describes soil quality by comparing a spadeful of soil with a reference chart which shows the different types and qualities of soil structures. The test, shown in detail on colour charts provided (example right), involves digging-out a slice of soil, laying it down on the ground or on a table, pulling it apart by hand and breaking or crushing some of the aggregates which are created. The quality of the structure is estimated from how easily it breaks up, the shape and size of the aggregates, the pores and the roots inside the aggregates and by comparison with the photographs in the chart." You can find out more at the VESS website. For its use as an indicator of the state of arable soil in Scotland, see the Comment page.

This and other estimates of assessing soil quality will be looked at at a meeting on the Applications of Visual Soil Evaluation on 16 and 17 May 2011 at the Research Centre Flakkeberg, Denmark, followed by a Knowledge Transfer day on 18 May for advisers, farmers and policy makers (read more about the meeting here).

LEAF Open Farm Sunday 2011 kicks off

The latest monthly LEAF e-brief for January 2011 announces the following. "The Open Farm Sunday website is now open for registrations! Just go to the Open Farm Sunday website to get involved in this year’s event on the 12 June. Resources will soon be available to order online and we’ll also be running free OFS workshops all over the country starting in March to help host farmers get geared up for the big day – dates will be announced shortly. We’re still on the look out for sponsors so if you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact annabel.shackleton@leafuk.org to find out more."

This e-brief also has information on the LEAF audit - now live, technical days, the LEAF marque, food labelling, CAP reform discussions, and various farming / environment seminars and events. For information on joining LEAF, email enquiries@leaf.org or see the LEAF website.