Project Lamport Visit - July 2021

Posted August, 12th, 2021

BASE-UK Members were invited to attend a visit at the Project Lamport Blackgrass trail site in Northamptonshire on 20th July which turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer.  There was a great deal of interest in the planning of this trip so the group was split into morning and afternoon visits.  Our thanks go to Niall Atkinson, David Purdy, Mark Hemmant and Craig Morgan who took the time to meet our members and explain their latest results.  

Chris Martin , Agrovista's Head of Soils talks through the meaningful soil tests that we focus on here at Lamport.

Mark Hemmant (Hemmy), Agrovista Technical Manager, talking about the "Bioscience Plot".  No herbicides, fungicides (other than one single application  yellow rust specific spray), growth regulators or insecticides have been applied. 

 These have been replaced with a combination of "Bioscience" products together with Companion Plants.  

A proportion of Bagged N has also been replaced with a foliar applied product massively reducing the crops Carbon footprint. 

 It will be really interesting comparing this plots performance once harvested.

David Purdy.

David Purdy , John Deere Territory Manager and PHD Student, talks through his key findings to date. 

David is now in his third year of his PHD.  

 David has now carried out over 1 million samples on site !!! 

 The key message is that less is more when it comes to cultivations. Roots are outperforming metal.  

 Worm populations will do the work, in particular Anecic, the deep burrowers. Deep cultivations are very much detrimental to worm populations and any natural restructuring that has taken place. 

 Covers should be established as soon as possible and destruction should take place a minimum of 8 -10 wks before planting the spring cash crop, particularly on the more challenging soils.

Craig Morgan, Agrovista's Head of Research and Development explains some of the thinking behind the R & D taking place on site and throughout the UK.  

Mark Hemmant with the afternoon group.

David Purdy with the last group of the day.

Thanks to Niall Atkinson for his photographs and descriptions.  We look forward to hearing how the trials harvested and hope to visit again later in the year.