With the Cereals Event often a stage for launches and debuts, visitors to this year’s show will once again be treated to a myriad of new technology.

From virtual reality to cutting edge crop nutrition, this year’s Cereals Event (11-12 June 2024) is set to be a hub for the latest and greatest in farm innovation. “Never before has technology played such a huge role in profitable farming – growers are under constant pressure to make more from less and new innovation certainly helps enable that,” says event director, Alli McEntyre.

“While technology has always been a big part of the Cereals offering, the launches this year are going to make the 2024 event a particularly exciting one.”

Ahead of the event, here’s a look at just some of the technology at this year’s Cereals.

Crop nutrition

Omex Agriculture is launching its new M36+ system at this year’s Cereals Event, based on the company’s new range of Multiflo compound NPK+S liquid fertilisers.

The M36+ is a system which accurately applies phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilisers along with the first nitrogen (N) and sulphur application on cereals – offering precision accuracy on tramlines of 36m and wider.

 Each droplet contains fully soluble forms of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur for enhanced efficiency and uptake by the cereal crop, says Omex agronomist Andy Eccles.

“The Multiflo range offers accurate, easy application with a choice of formulations for precision nutrition to work in multiple farming systems.

“The M36+ system also brings additional agronomic and economic benefits. Phosphate plays a pivotal role in boosting root development and fuelling plants – essential during the early stages of the spring growth – which in turn drives plant health and ultimately yield and quality. Unlike traditional granular forms of P, the Multiflo range is 100% water soluble, which means it’s instantly available for crop growth.”

Multiflo liquid NPK+S fertilisers can be applied through any sprayer, utilising streambars or standard fertiliser top-dressing nozzles to stream it onto the crop for first nitrogen top-dressing timing.

Any unused fertiliser can be simply returned to the storage tank, ensuring no wastage, and there are no bags to empty and recycle and no field margin pollution – all helping to promote a more sustainable fertiliser operation.

Also joining the crop nutrition line up is QLF Agronomy with its new range of foliar applied products.

Building on the success of its well-known L-CFB Boost range, the firm is launching three new products at this year’s event; TL 17 – a foliar urea with L-CBF Boost for cereals, oilseed rape, potatoes and grassland; TL 30 – a foliar urea with higher levels of L-CBF Boost; and Amino 15 which boasts all the benefits of TL 30 as well as added amino acids.

“We have been developing, trialling and marketing L-CBF Boost for many years now, and we’ve found that adding carbon to foliar nitrogen – not just soil applied fertiliser – has many benefits,” explains the firm’s David Maxwell.

“Firstly, it improves absorption as the carbon helps chelate the urea, giving it a neutral charge and therefore helping it better ‘stick’ to the leaf,” he continues.

“Secondly, when converting urea into amino acids – the building blocks of protein – additional carbon is normally required. Without adding carbon to the foliar nitrogen, the plant would have to recover this carbon from the sugars produced from photosynthesis. By adding the carbon to the urea, it quickly becomes amino acids, therefore reducing scorch risk, and the plant doesn’t have to run down its own stocks of carbon.

“We have been trialling this new range with farmers in the UK for the last year and we’re looking forward to showcasing it at this year’s event.”

Management software

Building on the success of the initial Omnia system, Hutchinsons is launching a major upgrade to the software at this year’s Cereals – with the firm calling it the next generation in farm management software.

Among the new features – which include a new spray plan module and enhanced data security – is the capability to enable completely paperless record keeping and work management which Hutchinsons’ Oliver Wood says sets a new standard for farm management technology in the UK.

“Since its launch as a precision mapping system eight years ago, the platform has evolved into a broader digital farming system offering a range of valuable and user-friendly business modules like cost of production, yield mapping, rotation planning and carbon mapping tools,” he explains.

“With its user-friendly interface and unparalleled functionality, the EasyPlan upgrade takes this one step further and underlines Hutchinsons’ focus on innovation and excellence and unwavering commitment and vision for Omnia.

“It’s a British system for British farmers and one not currently offered by any other precision software provider – it will be launched to growers at this year’s Cereals Event.”

Farm safety

Also making its debut at Cereals is a virtual reality hazard perception test, designed by a group of traffic and transport psychologists from Nottingham Trent University (NTU), specialising in hazard perception.

“Farming is one of the most dangerous professions, with 22 fatalities on farms reported in 2022,” explains the university’s Professor David Crundall. “However, in the same period there were a further 20 fatalities involving agricultural machinery on roads. Tractor driver training tends not to include on-road training, instead focusing on farm work activities.

“Therefore, we wanted to create a training and assessment tool that will help young tractor drivers to develop their on-road skills to help decrease road collisions with tractors.”

Combining their collective knowledge of hazard perception with use of virtual reality, Mr Crundall says the team at NTU are developing a 360-degree tractor hazard perception test – with the first version live at this year’s event. “This is much more than a typical hazard test,” he explains. “The VR environment allows a wider field of view around the vehicle, while the test itself will measure hazard perception, hazard prediction, and decision making when faced with potential danger in the road.

“We know that many tractor drivers report that the cause of collisions lies with the actions of other road users, but regardless of who is to blame for any particular incident, tractor drivers’ timely perception of impending hazards and the right choice of actions can mitigate or avoid serious collisions.”

The team are inviting growers to trial the technology at this year’s Cereals Event to glean feedback on the first version of the test., “Come to our stand, have a go, and tell us what you think. If you are a tractor driver and have time to sit through the whole test – about 20 minutes – we will thank you with a £10 Amazon voucher.”

Sustainability

Healthy soils are at the heart of sustainable farming.To help growers get a better handle on managing their most important asset, AHDB will have a new Planning Soil Management pack available for growers on its stand as part of the GREATsoil initiative, which has been designed to help protect soils and improve productivity.

Inside the pack is a soil health scorecard, which provides a way to monitor soil health based on key chemical, biological and physical indicators, as well as information to help growers get started with the scorecard approach on their farm.

And when it comes to sustainable kit, as manufacturers across the industry seek to design technology that helps agriculture lower its carbon footprint, Rex Nordic is debuting what it claims to be the first environmentally friendly mobile heat pump. The HP-19 can heat, cool, dehumidify and air purify spaces up to 550m3, explains the firm’s Jason Billingsley.

“The benefits of heat pump technology are that it uses low amounts of energy to create high amounts of output which keeps the carbon footprint down – something which is becoming increasingly important in the industry.”

 

Editors’ Notes

Cereals Event

The Cereals Event is the leading technical event for the UK arable industry, with live demonstrations and areas dedicated to agronomy, technology, machinery, business, education, environment, and renewable energy. Sister event to Fruit Focus & SIMA, over 450 leading suppliers exhibit at Cereals with the very latest products, advice and information. It provides visitors with a complete one-stop service from seeds to sprayers, crop varieties to cultivation equipment, and fertiliser to finance.

Cereals Event: 11-12 June 2024 at Bygrave Woods, Newnham Farm, Hertfordshire, SG7 5JX.

www.cerealsevent.co.uk

 

DirectDriller@Cereals

New to 2024 is the co-located event - DirectDriller@Cereals. Co-hosted by Cereals and Direct Driller Magazine, its theme is ‘Regenerating farm profit’, and it will focus on how regenerative agriculture can make large-scale arable farms more commercially successful. It will comprise a full conference programme including seminars curated by BASE UK, and a schedule of demonstrations - which are soon to be announced.

Being co-located, DirectDriller@Cereals offers visitors convenience and combined ticketing options, giving them access to a much wider range of farming focuses.

Contact:

Natalie Noble: Telephone 07776234994 or email natalie@agri-hub.co.uk