In my role as MySOYL Business Lead, I regularly talk to customers who are looking to find new technology to make their farms more efficient and profitable. In these conversations, one of the most common questions I get asked is "What is MySOYL and how can it help me?" For those of you wondering the same, I thought I'd use this blog to answer this q...

Australian drought continues while China offers US soy quota As Australia nears harvest, its market hit seven-week lows yesterday but there is zero export potential at this stage. On Friday, the National Australia Bank reported that the wheat crop could be capped at 15.5 million tonnes due to extreme dryness. US markets fell slightly as the EU and ...

In the UK, we don't have a domestic supply of artificial phosphorous fertiliser and so are therefore reliant on imported sources of nutrient phosphorus. Part of this means that we often experience some volatility in pricing, usually influenced by fluctuations in currency, available volume, country of origin and – more recently – political developme...

​While some of our customers are already familiar with our farm management platform, MyFarm, a recent upgrade has led to some exciting developments to its applications and overall functionality. Free to all Frontier customers, the latest version has been designed as a result of farmer-feedback. The platform now provides a one-stop shop to manage ev...

 Choosing the seed rate is a crucial decision that every grower has to make before drilling, but how can you ensure you're using the optimum rate for your field? As well as the usual calculation, SOYL's MySOYL application – available as part of Frontier's MyFarm farm management platform - can help you to conduct specific trials to gain a bette...

Using satellites to get a different perspective of your farm really can open up a wealth of opportunities. Of course, we all know that satellite imagery isn't a new thing – people have been using it to take images of crops since 1995. However, the accuracy, resolution, frequency and our overall understanding of the technology has drastically improv...

​Markets fall following USDA corn and wheat predictions Another USDA report has been and gone without providing any fodder for the bulls. Instead, the report shocked the market by increasing the US corn and wheat output and markets tumbled to lower limits by close of play on Monday. The biggest surprises were the acreage and yields for corn. The ac...

Harvest halted by poor weather as markets react to fluctuating currency With the UK wheat harvest underway, our domestic market this week has been dominated by sterling volatility and patchy weather. At the weekend, the new UK Prime Minister signalled the real possibility of a no-deal Brexit which rattled currency markets and caused sterling to dro...

Of late, the primary wheat market driver has been the delayed US corn planting. Earlier this week, the trade patiently waited for two sets of data about the situation to help gain a steer on the next likely wheat price movements. The first of these data sets came on Monday evening in the form of the latest weekly US crop report. It put the drilled ...

Much of the grass in Herefordshire, where I am based, suffered during the difficult weather conditions of 2018 and consequently producers should focus on optimising nutrition to restore both quality and yield potential to former levels, with K and S being essential in this process. This season NKS fertilisers containing potash and sulphur alongside...

Disastrous planting conditions in the US continue to hamper progress. As of Monday, the reports were of 69% planted compared to the 96% average. It is difficult to quantify total crop losses until the final drilling dates and these vary in each state, however, there is already talk of 8 million acres of Prevented Planting insurance already claimed....

Globally, wheat prices have continued to rise on the back of the US corn planting pace. Currently the single market driver, corn planting progress is now at a record low following adverse wet weather. Crops planted at this late stage lose yield potential, with some at risk of not being planted at all. Last night, the United States Department of Agr...

Remote sensing in agriculture is nothing new. However, with drones gaining more publicity over the last few years, some would argue it has felt somewhat revolutionary all over again. Rather than new sensors, what actually came along were new platforms and all too often it is only these that get the attention. We're all made aware when the latest se...

Tomorrow marks the last trading day for May London futures and, over the last few weeks, we've seen a large volume of futures tendered right the way from Edinburgh to Kent. As such, the added weight of physical grain has pushed prices around £10 lower since the start of the month. Consumers are well aware of this and are therefore in no rush to cov...

It has been somewhat of a harrowing year for the OSR crop, with wide spread establishment issues followed by flea beetle larval damage leading to a number of crops unfortunately being ripped up.The remaining crops have gone on to endure some late frosts during flowering but, thanks to recent rainfall and warm weather, the good crops are now coming ...

It isn't news to emphasise that one of our key current challenges is the well publicised yield plateau. Whenever the next thumping crop yield is announced we all want to know how it was grown and then, when we do know, we sit back and assume we could never achieve it. Often the soil type was better than ours or the nitrogen rate was extraordinarily...

The USDA's first stab at 2019/20 world wheat and corn balance sheets last Friday indicated a boost of supplies and extended the recent weak price trend. Early this week, French and London wheat futures hit new contract lows as markets reacted to the USDA forecasts for record world wheat and corn crops next season; put at 777 million tonnes and 1,17...

UK feed wheat markets remain under pressure after Friday's sharp £3.80 futures sell-off. May LIFFE hasn't traded since then and open volume sitting on the exchange is around 60,000t, which could add further pressure to old crop prices if tendered. Consumer demand is understandably quiet as markets have a decidedly bearish feel to them and, for any ...

While many of us enjoyed the Easter weekend weather, both winter and spring crops were looking very thirsty as the British Isles broke temperature records. However, with rain now in the forecast and the weather pattern changing both here and in much of Western Europe, wheat futures markets started the working week with a bump lower. Concerns that t...

The USDA published their April World Supply and Demand report yesterday and, as expected, it held bearish data – particularly for corn. World wheat production was put marginally lower at 732.87 million tonnes but falls in consumption saw year end stocks increase by five million to 275.61 million tonnes. This is just six million tonnes down on the y...