Clarkson hosts 25,000 farmers and a robot dog

Some 25,000 farmers descended on Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm this week for the Cereals event.

The annual show focuses on crop production and tillage and many Irish farmers and agronomists made the trip over.

One of the highlights of day one on Wednesday was the Diddly Squat Farm trials run by Ceres Rural. Wheat varieties were tested under high-input (£107/ha), low-input (£60/ha) and untreated programmes to see how they performed in the same conditions.

Ceres Rural partner George Badger said the aim was to make the trials as relevant and useful as possible for farmers dealing with tight margins and difficult decisions around input spend.

“Margins are under huge pressure, so the question is not simply whether a crop looks better after a treatment, but whether that treatment has paid for itself,” said Badger.

Ahead of the event Clarkson said: “Every day is a learning day for me.” He added that he learned from the people around him and was “going to learn a lot” at the event.

New techniques

Clarkson’s agronomist Charlie Ireland encouraged people to keep their eyes and ears open at Cereals.

“Look at what is going on – what new techniques are out there, what opportunities to mitigate the need for as much fertiliser use, what technology can be used and there’s lots of that about.”

Robodog

Syngenta also demonstrated its new Robodog at the event.

The robot was described as an agronomist’s new best friend. The dog has sensors and cameras to examine crops, map fields and find weeds, pests and diseases.