Velcourt Limited

BioStim Review is a farmer-led research project delivering the UK's first comprehensive, independent evaluation of biostimulant products for wheat and potato crops. With dozens of products on the market, each claiming to improve resilience, nutrient uptake, and yield, growers face uncertainty in selecting inputs that deliver real value. This project will ...

Mercury Environmental Systems Ltd. have developed an innovative and pioneering crop yield and carbon forecasting system in partnership with the University of Edinburgh. In trials conducted with wheat and barley growers in the UK, the system has enabled yield predictions 4-5 months prior to harvest within 10% of output yields, providing a data driven appro...

UK agriculture is responsible for 10% of the UK's emissions, where the 967K tonnes of Nitrate fertilisers the UK uses annually release around 5.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG). Farmers are advised to follow AHDB guidance to plan their fertiliser practices for mitigating GHG emissions. As rising cost of fertilisers and restrictions on fertiliser...

By using plants as sensors this project will provide farmers with a Framework for improving Nitrogen efficiency (FINE) a management tool to support better nitrogen utilisation, management input decisions and Nitrogen use efficiency reporting. Nitrogen uptake data measurements will taken form plants through the season, through remote sensing, sensors, and ...

Agriculture provides 61% of the raw materials for the wider UK agri-food industry which is worth ~£108bn of GVA to the national economy and provides \>3.7 million jobs. The agri-food sector generates ~£18bn of gross export earnings for the UK per year (NFU,2017). Agriculture accounts for 10% of total GHG emissions in the UK (CCC,2020). Globally, agricultu...

Oilseed rape, the bright yellow flowering crop seen up and down the UK is under sustained pressure from a pest, cabbage stem flea beetle, which has the ability to decimate crops. A viable alternative to oilseed rape which isn't susceptible to this pest is critical for supporting farm businesses but also the wider environment, safeguarding a break crop for...

"Today, the majority of farmers spray fungicides prophylactically on crops to minimise risk and insure against disease ingress. Most farmers, or their consultants, spend hours inspecting crops but can't easily predict what incubating (invisible) infection is already in the crop or what may start to develop as a result of increasing pathogen presence in th...

The project will develop cost competitive agricultural mulch films for arable crops that will perform during use but degrade thereafter with no negative impact in terms of producing micro-plastics/ or leaving un-degraded plastics in soil. Agricultural mulch films have been introduced in semi-arid zones in China to make efficient use of limited water suppl...

Controlling weeds in crops is one of the greatest challenges to global agriculture, responsible for higher yield losses and greater input costs than all other biological constraints such as pests and diseases. Achieving this critical aim has become particularly problematic in UK arable agriculture, due largely to the evolution of herbicide resistance whic...

Oilseed rape is the UK’s third largest crop. As well as being edible, rapeseed oil is used extensively in biodiesel. There is potential for higher-value industrial uses, for example in applications such as lubricants and hydraulic fluids, to which it brings advantages of low toxicity and biodegradability. However, rapeseed oil is thermally unstable, due t...

The maintenance of global food security, mediated by sustainable intensification of agriculture, is a recognised global issue and the effective management of plant disease is critical to productive cropping of agricultural land. Potato is the third most important food crop globally, with late blight control being a major challenge estimated to cost £3.5bi...

The project will deliver a low-cost, wireless, in-soil sensor system for monitoring available moisture, pH and nutrients continuously and at multiple depths in ‘indicator’ sections of fields. Early adoption will be against labile N for Velcourt's arable wheat production. This will be extended to potatoes, OSR & livestock forage, including the technically-...