News article

Invitation day is postponed to 30 July 2010

Professor John Macleod, Chairman of the NIAB Trust and former NIAB Director, passed away on Saturday 19 June after a long illness.

NIAB Director Dr Tina Barsby said:

“Everyone at NIAB is deeply saddened at the loss of such an outstanding man, whose boundless enthusiasm, knowledge and infectious sense of humour will be greatly missed. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to John’s family.”

The annual Open Day at the NIAB TAG Morley Centre was another success with hundreds of farmers from all over the country shown the wide range of research projects ongoing at the Centre. The event started with a welcome hog roast, followed by a welcoming speech from NIAB Chairman Tony Pexton. Visitors were then bussed around the field trials to see around 20 ongoing projects in the flesh.

A busy Cereals event saw lots of growers visiting the NIAB TAG stand, looking at plots demonstrating varietal disease susceptibility and fungicide input, with the added bonus of seeing some old wheat varieties in a demonstration of wheat breeding through the 20th century. Also, members had the opportunity to discuss the new NIAB TAG Network membership packages with staff.

NIAB TAG invite you to the NATIONAL AGRONOMY CENTRE Research into Practice, Morley Open Day Thursday 17th June 2010 at 12.00pm

Please see the flyer for more information

The views of farmers and agronomists have been central to the development of NIAB TAG’s new membership scheme, launched at Cereals 2010.

NIAB TAG Network combines NIAB’s expertise in varieties and seeds with the comprehensive combinable crop management and agronomy information delivered by TAG, into a single set of new, innovative and dynamic membership packages.

NIAB TAG Network replaces the NIAB Association and TAG Direct brands from October 2010.

Our summary table returns to the website to show Members where and how many blossom midges are caught in pheromone traps at a large network of NIAB TAG sites. Current TAG Members can access further information.

NIAB TAG will be out in force at Cereals 2010, on June 9th and 10th at Royston.

NIAB Tag will be unveiling its plans for the future at Cereals 2010. All visitors to the event are welcome to call in and see us, at the first Cereals event since the merger between NIAB and TAG.

Temperatures in the high twenties have encouraged crop and weed growth after a long cool spring. Flag leaves are out in most winter wheat crops, with reports from the south of boots splitting and wheat orange blossom midge taking advantage. Many oilseed rape crops are setting pods as the flowering phase passes. Lack of rain is the new problem, however, with many crops still waiting to take up significant amounts of applied fertilisers.

Late frosts, which normally rape crops can recover from, appear to have had a more severe effect this year. Crop effects are variable but there have been many reports of flower buds being completely killed and pod set drastically reduced. TAG is surveying such crops in an effort to determine any causal trends.