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As our research and development journey continues, 2024 marks a special milestone. For the first time ever, Premium Crops have commissioned over one thousand agronomy trial plots in a single year!

The expansion of our technical team, to four Company Agronomists, has increased our capability to investigate optimum growing practices, varieties and treatments. Hannah Foxall and Fraser Hill are renowned finalists of the “Young Agronomist of the Year” award from the National Arable & Grassland Awards, with Tom Oates and Alex Bull looking to follow in their path.

Look no further than the ‘Alternate Oilseeds for Scotland’ event to see how our efforts can benefit British agriculture. Through rigorous experimentation we have discovered how to successfully grow viable Winter Linseed crops in Scotland, providing another vital break crop option for farmers.

Here’s what Scottish Agronomy’s Managing Director Adam Christie had to say:

“Scottish Agronomy have been trialing Winter Linseed on our site in Fife for the last 8 years. In that time, we have learned much about the crop; the importance of seed rate and sowing date; the key influence that the use of a pre-emergence herbicide in weed control; pre-harvest desiccation with glyphosate and how harvest can be relatively painless if managed correctly. While oilseed rape faces many challenges in Scotland it is not yet at the existential level of challenge that can face Southern growers. As such, many growers can still successfully use oilseed rape as a break crop. However, for those growers who struggle to consistently produce a financially viable rape crop, Winter Linseed could provide a viable alternative in Scotland. We have proven that the crop can be grown successfully in Scottish conditions with little in the way of winter kill and yields now consistently over 3 tonnes per hectare. In Scotland, we are always short of break crop options, and it is always welcome to have an option in addition to the limited break crops currently available.”

Another important venture is our commitment to unearthing new crops and testing their viability. One example of this is Project Cicero, in junction with NIAB, where UK grown chickpea crops are being trialled.

With the advent of new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) schemes, the agronomy team have been looking at how our crops fit into these options, with bi-cropping being a particular interest.  We already know from our extensive research that Linseed has huge benefits to the subsequent wheat crop, due to it acting as a fantastic soil conditioner. Spring and Winter Wheat are being trialled with Linseed bi-crops, and at different rates.

We continue to fund Linseed related PhD’s at the University of Cranfield and University of Lincoln, investigating greenhouse gas emissions and crop potential in arable systems respectively.

In addition, we commissioned a trial with JIC (John Innes Centre) to look into the life cycle of the Flax flea beetle. We hope to use this information to inform growers of practical ways of establishing Spring Linseed more effectively and what integrated pest management (IPM) measures they can take.

We sponsor the Oilseeds Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) and are use it to generate data to create best growing practice for Linseed crops. The YEN functions to benchmark growers against each other and highlights what can be done to improve their business.

A monumental undertaking from our technical team this year, with much more to follow for Harvest 2025!