ONE of the most informative open days for Herefordshire farmers will be staged at ADAS Rosemaund, Preston Wynne, next Thursday.

The day concentrates on both livestock and arable farming, with a range of HGCA-funded projects on show of seed rates, winter barley, fungicide resistance, wheat blossom midge and N strategies for milling wheat.

The event showing research in action starts at midday and runs until 6pm. It will be attended by some of the best-known researchers in Britain who will be passing on their valuable experience and knowledge to local farmers.

ADAS weed expert Lynn Collings will be talking on computer-aided weed management. She reckons that although Italian rye-grass is still the main driver for grass weed control in the west, black-grass and bromes are now increasingly becoming an issue.

Lynn will be running a live demonstration of a weed management support system and will be available to answer questions.

A feature of the day will undoubtedly be the full range of HGCA recommended winter wheat varieties. Also, to allow growers to examine the degree varietal disease resistance, a duplicate set of plots will be displayed where no disease control has been applied. In addition, nearly all the major wheat breeders will be attending, showing off the current market leaders against those that are up and coming.

Turning to cultivation, growers in the region continue to seek ways to minimise the costs of production, minimum tillage or non-plough systems of cultivation. Several leading firms will be demonstrating the latest machinery.

On the livestock front, the new CAP framework should encourage sheep producers in the Marches to get closer to their markets and ensure that they meet lamb quality standards required. Livestock expert Mervyn Davies will be showing how this can be addressed through exploitation of genetic improvement programmes.

Crossbred lambs sired by high-index Leicester rams grow quicker and have higher carcass quality. That is an important finding of a major research project - the Longwool Project - that has focused on developing a selection index to improve carcass merit in the crossing sire breeds without compromising their good mothering ability, litter size or hardiness.

Around double the average rainfall (100mm) in April and 35mm in the first week of May have had a massive impact on potato planting. Growers will need to take this into account when looking for good skin finish this season.

Quality and appearance is vital for bakers and pre-pack production and has an important impact on crop saleability, says ADAS potato researcher Jeremy Wiltshire. As part of an initiative to improve quality, ADAS is involved in several projects funded by the British Potato Council, Defra and other organisations.

Bill Clark, ADAS national cereal disease expert, says recent testing of Septoria isolates over the winter and spring has shown that resistance levels in the UK have remained very high. At the open day there will be demonstrations of how to achieve effective control of Septoria in the presence of high levels of resistance.

It has also been a challenging year for making decision on fungicide applications on oilseed rape and getting them applied to the crop. National expert Peter Gladders will be discussing how the timing of fungicides is critical.

For further information on the open day call Isabel McShane on 01432 820444.