New spore traps can use modern DNA-based methods to identify and quantify threats to crops and send out warnings to growers within minutes.

Wheat is 21.2% dearer, barley is 27.8% dearer, and use of concentrate feeds for beef cattle has increased by as much as 41.2%, according to Northern Ireland figures for this year’s increased cost of beef production.

PRICES of €225 per tonne for the 2006 oilseed rape crop in the South East and €205 in the North East have encouraged tillage farmers searching for guaranteed returns over and above production costs.

THE size of the American maize crop and world weather patterns will dictate EU grain prices in 2003, a British economist told the Teagasc national tillage conference in Carlow yesterday.