Industry Spotlight: Agriculture

Challenges in agriculture in 2023 and 2024 continue to reflect major trends we have observed in the industry over the last several years, with arable farms continuing to focus on sustainable practices, especially the massive challenge of how to minimise losses to pests and disease while also reducing the use of chemical treatments. Many of our most innovative farmers are experimenting with mixed-crop agriculture, either using different varieties of the same grain crop, or co-cropping to increase barriers to disease spread. These approaches often see the most success when used with oil seed rape crops, but developing new methods for grains and legumes is also ongoing.

On the livestock side, sustainability is also a major theme, either in the increased use of manure as inputs for compost, biofuel or anaerobic digestion processes. As ever when working with a natural product, uncertainty often lies in how to develop an optimal input blend while relying on the absolute minimum use of additives. Beyond this, more conventional experiments with different feed and supplement blends to maximise animal health and weight gain.