We will be joined by the Cereals Team form Organic Research Centre who will provide results and an update on the LiveWheat and Living Mulch trials.
LiveWheat
LiveWheat is a participatory winter wheat variety trial which is assessing which varieties are best suited to organic farming systems. The work does not discuss which variety is best but rather which varieties are most appropriate in certain situations. An better idea as to what the trial involves is available from a video recorded as part of the 2020 trial.
Living Mulch
The Living Mulch Field Lab is investigating how to grow a cereal crop by establishing it into a growing clover ley, or Living Mulch. The aim being to be able to leave the soil untouched for several years whilst the ley is active. The project seeks to establish whether this is practical and investigate how such a technique may be achieved without the use of herbicide to terminate the growing cover crop. Can certain crops be grown and not others? What is the impact on yield and quality? Does the equipment used to drill make a difference?
Spring Oat Trial
Having run participatory spring oat trials across 4 farms this year we will be disseminating the results of these trials. How has Isabel performed after a difficult harvest in 2020? Does the new variety, Lion have the potential to deliver the quality needed to achieve milling specification? Results will be revealed.