This issue contains information about:

-    Mailout of Recommended Lists and Crop Oracle CD
-    New milling wheat section on the HGCA website
-    Grain moisture - guidelines for measurement
-    Detecting soil nitrogen supplies by canopy sensing
-    Proceedings and presentations from "Arable Crops in a changing climate"
-    2008 Student bursary funding
-    Mycotoxin and Grain Storage workshops

The Recommended Lists for Cereals and Oilseeds booklet is currently being posted out together with the Crop Oracle CD, which is an off-line resource which includes all the Recommended List tables, plus the RLPlus interactive tool.  It contains PDF versions of many of HGCA's research publications, plus some of the tools from the website, including GrainPlan and RLPlus. New this year is also an introduction to Business Management.

Also, for those people on the Topic Sheet Mailing List, two new publications are enclosed (see below), Producing and marketing milling wheat and Grain moisture - guidelines for measurement.

To request a hard copy of any of these publications, e-mail publications@hgca.com.

This new section on the website aims to provide farmers with an update on producing and marketing milling wheat and gives references to a wide range of publications and websites where further information can be found.

A hard copy of the information is also available.

Grain moisture content is critical from harvest, through storage, to final sale of cereals and oilseeds. There are risks involved if grain moisture is too high or too low and balancing these risks is not easy given the inherent difficulties of measuring grain moisture accurately. This publication is based on research to ensure moisture meters are used effectively and provides practical pointers.

PR426 Research to develop practical user guidelines to maximise the accuracy of moisture meters
http://www.hgca.com/publink.aspx?id=4297
This is the project report behind the new publication Grain moisture - guidelines for measurement. The abstract can be seen below.

PR427 Detecting soil nitrogen supplies by canopy sensing, proof of concept
http://www.hgca.com/publink.aspx?id=4299
See the abstract from this report below.

The 2008 HGCA R&D Conference covered the potential impacts climate change will have on UK agriculture, how growers can adapt and the opportunities that may be presented. The papers from the Conference have been put on the website together with copies of some of the presentations and posters.

Link to this section of the website: http://www.hgca.com/events.past_events/32/32/Events/Events/press%20releases.mspx?fn=showRelease&menuId=2904

The HGCA R&D Advisory Committee has approved funding for 5 student bursaries for summer 2008.  Funds have been provided for this scheme in the hope that it will encourage young scientists into research areas which will benefit the cereals and oilseeds industry.  The scheme has now been running for eight years, and it has already been successful in this respect, with a number of graduates proceeding to undertake PhDs. 

For further information click on the link below:
http://www.hgca.com/content.output/287/287/Funding%20and%20Awards/Funding%20and%20Awards/Undergraduate%20Bursaries%20and%20Studentships.mspx

HGCA, in conjunction with ACCS, are holding a series of workshops exploring the steps you can take to meet assurance scheme requirements. Presentations will cover:

-   Assessing Fusarium mycotoxin risk - now a requirement on your grain passport
-   Minimising pesticide residues in grain
-   Cooling your grain cost-effectively, with results of cooing using a differential thermostat on a farm near you.

200 growers have attended the events held to date and feedback has been very positive.

For more details of an event being held near you, visit www.hgca.com/events

PR426 Research to develop practical user guidelines to maximise the accuracy of moisture meters by T Wontner-Smith and R Wilkin. HGCA Project Number: 3232. Price: £4.50

Accurate and reliable moisture measurement is essential for drying calculations, as well as for safe storage and marketing of grain and oilseeds. Most farmers rely on capacitance or resistance moisture meters for this task. These have limitations of accuracy: usually in the range ± 0.5%. This has implications for quality loss during storage as well as sale to end-users with added costs of rejections or claims.

The aim of this project was to assess problems that might occur under practical conditions and develop end-user recommendations to improve the accuracy of moisture measurement on farms. A review of factors most likely to cause variation in use was undertaken, in co-operation with meter manufacturers and selected farmers. This was followed by a survey of farmers and meter use on a number of farms to assess the variations under practical conditions.

Laboratory experiments were devised to compare readings from meters with the oven method (ISO 712:1998). No difference between the performance of capacitance and resistance meters was shown. Moisture content readings were repeatable for homogenous samples but readings from variable, but well-mixed, samples gave variable results even with the meter that used the largest sample.

The effect of variety on the results given by several different meters was assessed during both laboratory and field testing. A number of hard and soft endosperm varieties of wheat were compared in laboratory tests but no consistent effect on meter reading was found. No differences were detected in response of meters when testing different varieties of barley.
Resistance meters were inaccurate when the sample was under-compressed and the need for regular servicing of grinders was identified. Capacitance meters should only be used on a level surface.

Samples were taken from the output of a high temperature dryer. Readings taken using a capacitance meter were higher on average by 0.4% after six days when compared with readings taken immediately ex drier. No such difference was observed using a resistance meter.

An assessment of moisture probes showed their value in obtaining in-situ data from grain bulks. However, results were more variable than those of conventional meters and there was often a significant difference between moisture contents determined by probes and oven tests on samples removed close to the probe sensor.

On-farm assessments indicated that some farm meters gave markedly different results from manufacturer supplied test meters used in the work or oven tests. In several cases poorly maintained grinders were the source of error. Meters tended to under-read moisture at values above about 17%, often by more than 1%. This error was not seen during laboratory testing of samples.

A survey showed that most farmers had a realistic view of the accuracy of their meter, but were often more concerned with their meters agreeing with those of the merchant or end-user than with accuracy. This could have serious implications for quality and food safety, as accurate moisture content measurements are important when deciding on the need for drying to the correct moisture content and preventing ochratoxin A formation during storage.

PR427 Detecting soil nitrogen supplies by canopy sensing, proof of concept by R. Sylvester-Bradley, J.J.J. Wiltshire, D.R. Kindred, D.L.J. Hatley and J. Wilson.
HGCA Project Number: 3285 Price: £6.00

This research tested whether sensing the crop can indicate soil nitrogen supplies.
Nitrogen fertiliser experiments on cereals were established at four sites in 2005-6. In the following year, commercial cereal crops were grown. In 2006-7 at each site, the plot positions as used in the previous year were marked out once again for crop testing using a sensor.
Reflectance was measured monthly, December to March, during tillering using a Crop Circle instrument (provided by Soil Essentials Ltd) in the 2006-7 plots relating to the 2005-6 experiments. This comprised two sensors to measure reflectance at 880 nm (near-infrared, NIR) and 590 nm (orange). A Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated to give a measure of vegetation cover. Soil mineral N data were obtained from another study at the same sites. Yields of grain and straw and their N concentrations were measured to give total N uptake. Data were interpreted for relationships between canopy reflectance and soil N.
Establishment and tillering were early and rapid at Boxworth and Rosemaund, but later and slower at Terrington and High Mowthorpe. The highest level of N applied in 2006 had a small effect on soil mineral N at Terrington and Rosemaund, but a large effect at Boxworth. Using total N uptake at harvest as an estimate of soil N supply, the largest response to N supply was also at Boxworth.

Over-fertilisation only led to high SMN residues at Boxworth, which had the lowest optimum N requirement in 2005-6 : 117 kg/ha, compared to, 220 to 237 kg/ha at other sites). Use of the sensor successfully detected the high SMN residue at Boxworth using the relationship between NDVI and soil N supply, especially at soil mineral N values below 150 kg/ha. This relationship was less variable and more useful (shallower slope) when N uptake (rather than soil mineral N) was used to estimate soil N supply. The relationships improved with later assessment of NDVI. Change in NDVI between assessment dates showed that canopies sometimes declined and sometimes grew during winter. However, change in NDVI was less useful for predicting soil N supply than absolute values of NDVI.

In conclusion at Boxworth, but not at three other sites, NDVI differentiated plots in need of fertiliser (soil mineral N up to around 150 kg/ha N) from those with ample soil N supplies.