Cymraeg These resources look at how integrated pest management systems limit pesticide use, helping to improve soil health, mitigate climate change and ultimately contributing to overall farm resilience.
Andy Dibben farmer profile
Abbey Home Farm is a diverse mixed, family owned 1,600 acre farm near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, that has been organic for 30 years. John Newman is farm manager for the arable, livestock and estate enterprises. Andy is head grower of the fruit and veg and make all the decisions within the 15-acre horticulture holding.
Sustainable Control of Crop Pests – guide with link to larger report
This PDF is a succinct 5-page summary of a 125-page report on biological control methods for major UK crop pests. The review was carried out by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust with support from the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust.
Information is based on novel and age-old techniques to sustainably manage crop pests, including manipulation of farm ecological infrastructure and modification of tillage regimes.
AHDB Encyclopaedia of pests and natural enemies in field crops
This encyclopaedia details the major and minor pests and natural enemies commonly associated with cropping rotations. Use it help prevent, detect and control pest populations in field crops, as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy.
CROPROTECT Information Database (interactive tool Rothamsted Research)
CROPROTECT is a web-based knowledge exchange system to provide farmers and agronomists with guidance on pest, weed and disease management, especially in situations where effective pesticides are not available and alternative approaches are required.
Encouraging natural predators (outdoors) – pdf
This abstract was composed as part of a Defra-funded project looking at organic management techniques that could be applied on non-organic farms and help improve sustainability. It describes information on encouraging natural predators to help control crop pests, and lists the main agronomic, economic, social and/or ecological value you can expect to gain from applying the method. It includes practical recommendations that will help you implement the method on your farm and other useful information such as the time of year you could apply the method, suitability according to your farming system, and equipment required. It also includes a case study of a farmer who is applying the practice. Potential benefits and potential barriers you would need to consider, financial implications, and how it relates to legislation are also listed.
Andrew Burgess farmer profile
The RBOrganic Ltd team grow carrots, onions, leeks, potatoes, parsnips, beetroots and courgettes. They are a LEAF Marque certified business.
They work as an integrated part of Houghton Estate, which also has chickens, pigs, English Longhorn beef, and sheep in rotation as well as a large area of permanent parkland with a deer herd. In addition to growing vegetables within the rotation of the estate, we are the contractor on the arable crops and rotational leys.
Biopesticides – pros and cons (Warwick Crop Centre)
Biopesticides have a range of attractive properties for IPM. We list the main benefits here, and we also look at some of the challenges of working with biopesticides.
Georgie Bray farmer profile
The RSPB bought Hope Farm, a conventional arable farm in Cambridgeshire, in 2000, with the aim of developing and trialling farming techniques which produce food cost effectively and benefit wildlife at the same time. The aim was to monitor the biodiversity change as a result of integrating biodiversity conservation into a conventional profitable farmed system. By creating key habitats such as skylark plots, wild bird cover, nectar flower mixtures and floristic grass margins and implementing true integrated pest management (IPM), they want to demonstrate a working conventional arable farm with diversity, and without effecting the profitability of the site.
Martin Lines farmer profile
Martin a third-generation farmer and contractor and grow mainly arable crops on the family farm and rented land. The farm is just over 400 acres. Their rented land and contract farm agreements bring the farm area up to 1334 acres. He is chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) and have a particular interest in farm conservation management.
They mainly do combinable cropping growing commodity crops of winter wheat, winter and spring barley, winter beans and oil seed rape (OSR), and always try and find a human food home for the products or, as with beans, they go to an animal feed home to replace imported feed.
Can a neonic-free future be good for farming and nature? – blog article by Sandra Bell (Nature Campaigner for Friends of the Earth)
The European Commission is considering whether to extend the current partial ban on neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics) – introduced to protect bees – to cover most other crops including wheat. The UK is party to these discussions and the position they take in the EU will give us a good idea of what to expect in the UK after Brexit.
So, should farmers be worried? Of course there will be farmers wondering how to replace neonic treated seeds should the ban be extended. After all one neonic, clothianidin, was used on over 700,000 hectares of wheat in the UK in 2014. The good news is that some farmers are already ahead of the game. Friends of the Earth’s new report ‘Farming wheat without neonicotinoids’ reveals how farmers are already adopting innovative ways of growing wheat without bee-harming pesticides.
Cover, Catch and Companion Crops Benefits, Challenges and Economics for UK Growers (pdf – includes impacts in IPM)
Agricultural policy and legislation allow use of cover crops in the ‘greening’ elements of cross-compliance and agri-environment scheme management options. This report by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), with support from the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust, highlights potential benefits of cover cropping; from improving soil health, structure, nutrient recycling, and reducing nutrient leaching, to helping reduce soil erosion and improve water quality. It outlines how cover cropping can help with weed, disease and pest management, some of which rely on natural processes such as bio fumigation, allelopathy and increasing numbers of ‘crop pest’ predators.
Joe Rolfe Farmer Profile
RBOrganic is a vegetable growing business that forms part of Houghton Hall Estate in Norfolk. They have a long-term relationship with Houghton and are a tenant farming business that work within their farming system, running the vegetable part of the farm. The mixed farming enterprise (dairy farm, beef, pig, sheep, deer, poultry and vegetables) is all organic and includes 1000 acres of cereals, 100 acres of green manure, 500 acres of forage, an autumn calving jersey herd, longhorn cows, Norfolk horn sheep, commercial ewes, pigs, chickens and a deer park.
Houghton Hall estate was converted to organic production in 1998, RBOrganic Farm was formed in 2004 and farms 450 acres of organic vegetables.
Cover Crops – A Practical Guide to Soil and System Improvement
This NIAB TAG and Kellogg’s OriginsTM guide provides lots of practical information on using cover crops to improve soil and cropping systems that you can apply in the field.
Andy Barr Farmer Profile
East Lenham Farm is a mixed farm in the heart of Kent, covering about 1,200 acres, the majority of which is in arable rotation, the rest is grassland (with Romney sheep).
They produce mainly milling wheat, malting barley, oilseed rape (OSR), beans, grass seed, and lamb. As they farm a wide variety of soil types, yields do vary substantially – they have land that rarely yields under 10 tonnes of wheat (famous last words!), but also land that has never yielded over 10 tonnes. The sandier land, although easy to plant in the spring, is highly vulnerable to the increasing years of spring drought we are experiencing. All grain is stored and sold through our local co-operative, Weald Granary.
Perennial Flower Strips for Pest Control in Fruit Orchards – The Organic Grower mag article
The perennial character and diversified structure of orchards make them interesting habitats for biodiversity and potentially attractive for both pollinators and natural enemies of pests. Diversifying orchards with non-crop vegetation such as flowering strips can provide additional opportunities to maintain and develop these insect populations and by so doing optimise ecosystem services. This article, adapted from the technical guide ‘Perennial flower strips in fruit orchards’ published by the EcoOrchard project (ERA-Net CORE Organic Plus), looks at advantages of sown flower strips, species selection and plant attributes, soil preparation, sowing, cutting and mulching, establishment costs, potential drawbacks, and benefits of particular groups of natural enemies promoted by flower strips.
Simply Sustainable – Integrated Pest Management (LEAF guide)
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, used as part of an ecosystem-based approach, include a combination of techniques such as biological control, rotations, selection of pest resistant crop varieties, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices and ensuring pesticide use is economically and ecologically justified. IPM forms a core part of the broader Integrated Farm Management (IFM) framework, creating a pathway for farmers to plan their approach to robust, resilient, and healthy crops. LEAF and its members have been at the frontline of driving change, creating solutions, and supporting farmers in effective decision making for nearly thirty years.
Integrated pest management (IPM) – AHDB webpages
Integrated pest management (IPM) is a coordinated and planned strategy for the prevention, detection and control of pests, weeds, and diseases.
The continuing loss of plant protection products and rising levels of resistance means that the conventional crop protection toolbox is shrinking. At the same time, many policy drivers emphasise a need for reduced reliance on pesticides.
They aim to establish IPM practice as the ‘new normal’, and to that end, we are adopting a prevent, detect, control mantra.
With a focus on cereal and oilseed crops, IPM hub features information on pest management strategies, providing easy access to the latest research results and resources.
Review of Evidence on Integrated Pest Management – Defra
The Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan puts Integrated Pest Management (IPM) at the centre of the future approach to crop protection. The aim is to create policies which focus on minimising pesticide use and making the greatest possible use of alternatives, such as improved crop husbandry and the use of natural predators.
