W ith around 20,000 visitors from the agricultural industry attending the show – held at Chrishall Grange in Duxford , Cambridgeshire , an expert team was on hand to assist farmers and agronomists with their post-harvest crop-conditioning requirements . The Gibbons stand included energy-efficient 0.13-2.2kW steel and aluminium grain-drying fans , hotspot Airspear ® fans and pedestals for visitors to peruse , along with the rest of the company ’ s Agricultural Fans range . Newly-launched in time for Cereals was a wireless temperature and humidity control system courtesy of Robydome , which enables farmers to automatically manage grain store conditions . Robust , reliable and easy to use , the system saves time
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and energy and helps to maintain crop quality while minimising the use of pesticides .
Visitors were drawn to Gibbons ’ Plug & Dry™ display , which showcased a range of energysaving grain fan accessories . This selection of easy-to-use plug-andplay add-ons includes fan starters , thermostats and extension leads and is fully compatible with the Gibbons Agricultural Fans range .
There was also a chance for visitors to experience Gibbons ’ money-saving grain store fan calculator for themselves . This ingenious tool allows users to discover the optimum number of fans required for their grain store by entering just a few key pieces of information , and farmers were impressed by its ease of use .
A sun-drenched first day saw a raft of visitors to the Gibbons stand , and while weather on the second day wasn ’ t as kind , the attractive , welcoming display
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ensured the team were kept busy with a steady stream of enquiries from current and future clients .
Gibbons Agricultural Fans Manager Josie Knight said : “ Cereals offered us a great opportunity to engage with farmers and for them to see our entire range of crop-conditioning equipment prior to harvest . It was a vibrant , positive event and we ’ re delighted with the number of enquiries we received .
“ After engaging with farmers from Britain and abroad , it ’ s clear
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to us that with Brexit on the horizon there ’ s still plenty of concern over energy costs during the post-harvest period . We hope that our energy-efficient fans and automatic wireless control equipment gives farmers one less thing to worry about this year .”
As harvest draws ever closer , get more information and prices on the entire Gibbons Agricultural Fans range by calling Josie Knight on 01621 868 138 or email fans @ gibbonsgroup . co . uk
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T he Big Soil Community , which has been launched by Fera , aims to break down the complexity of soil biology and develop an applied knowledgebase which will support farmers in unlocking the potential of soil health . Fera is extending an open invitation to farms across the UK , inviting them to join the Big Soil Community and participate in a coordinated sampling programme for analysis of soil microbial communities . This programme will provide a rich benchmark of soil biodiversity at scale – something which has never before been available . The results will provide participating farmers with valuable information and a rich picture of their microbiological diversity as well as the tools to benchmark their results against the wider Big
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Soil Community ; providing insight into the impact of soil management , crop rotations and farm system dynamics .
Based near York , UK , Fera works with UK and international partners , governments and other public bodies to innovate and deliver translational science that will protect and enhance food , plants , animals and the environment .
Fera employs more than 300 scientists at the National Agri-food Innovation Campus near York .
There is growing recognition of the importance of understanding soil health beyond that of the traditional physical and chemical properties . To date , there has been no unified metric of soil health and limited availability or uptake of commercial soil biology measures . Fera has recognised that due to the complexity of analysing soil biology , a collaborative effort is required to drive a coordinated
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approach to understanding the role of soil microbial communities .
As part of the Big Soil Community project , metagenomics will provide a census of these communities and will barcode populations across different farms and systems . This will give farmers the ability to identify similarities and differences which associate with healthy soil conditions and enable them to review their farming practices and potentially take measures to improve the overall health of their soils .
Fera will use high throughput sequencing , metagenomics and metabarcoding to analyse soil samples to describe the diversity of microbial populations .
Farmers are being invited to join the community from June until September . They will be asked to collect and submit their soil samples for analysis as well as information on where the sample
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was taken from . Results will be returned to participants as an individual report alongside the anonymised Big Soil Community benchmarking report of all results which provides meta-analysis and system specific descriptions of differences in microbial populations ( e . g . standard versus low-tillage systems ).
“ The soil microbial communities in our agricultural systems are incredibly rich and complex but hold great promise for sustainable agriculture ”
The cost to the farmer to have a sample analysed is expected to be £ 250 , though the price model is tiered to drive participation . As the number of farms that take part increases the cost for all participants will decrease . In
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