The time between harvest and sowing seems to get shorter every year! Yet again, we have arrived at sowing season and the team are getting organized for the trials for the coming year. We have all been busy chatting to clients about their plans for upcoming trials and what research questions are wanting to be looked at this year.

Once a protocol and research question has been established, we can then create the trial design and get the seed packed. The seed is packed using various calculations which allow for optimal plant numbers and the correct sowing rate.

Before a trial can been sown however, we have to make sure that the ground is ready for action! Apart of this is to burn the stubble from last year, which we have been completing at both Streatham and Inverleigh. Despite the predictions of a drier autumn break, the rain has meant burning has not been as effective as it could be! Once burnt, it is scarified and harrowed and is then ready for the seed!

The team is busy doing a combination of all these things, all working together to get everything prepped and ready to go. While we have already sown one canola trial, we are looking to get the rest in by mid-April, as well as the first time of sowing for the faba beans. It can then be a bit of a juggling act for the wheat, faba beans and barley to go in before the end of May.

We are all looking forward to the trials this year and think we have a great line up of trials from contract trials to projects and everything in between!