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Berwick-upon-Tweed
15°C
22:11
- 14 July 2026
Biodiversity plots debut at Northern Cereal Development Open Days
Over the past three years, in addition to our long-standing spring barley variety trials site at Beal Farm in Northumberland, we've established a network of trials throughout Scotland.
Last week, we welcomed growers to our annual Northern Cereal Development Site Open Days at sites near Portsoy and Laurencekirk.
For the first time, biodiversity plots were established on the headlands of each of these sites, showing how environmental measures can sit alongside productive arable farming.
Why have we introduced biodiversity plots?
As environmental schemes and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) become a greater part of commercial farming, biodiversity mixtures are offering growers options to deliver more than one benefit from the same area of land.
Biodiversity mixtures provide more benefits than solely supporting wildlife, including improving soil health, retaining nutrients, enhancing soil structure and encouraging beneficial insects, helping growers meet both agronomic and environmental objectives.
At our sites, the biodiversity plots have been established on the headland of the field, which is often the least productive area and is traditionally left as stubble over winter. By putting these areas to work, growers can improve biodiversity and soil function without taking significant areas of productive land out of food production.
Choosing the right mixture
By operating our own on-site grass seed blending plant at our Tweed Valley Maltings headquarters in Berwick-upon-Tweed, we can tailor biodiversity mixtures to each grower's rotations and objectives.
Many of the mixtures encourage and provide habitats for pollinators and beneficial insects including ladybirds, lacewings and parasitic wasps. These naturally prey on cereal pests, including aphids, so supporting these natural predators forms an important part of IPM.
Our EFA Green Cover Mix, for example, contains phacelia – one of the world's best pollen and nectar-producing species – and also produces useful green biomass.
Others, such as our AECS Spring Green Cover Mix, are designed to capture and recycle nutrients over winter, reducing leaching before releasing them back to the following crop.
Meanwhile, our Black Oats & Legume Mix improves soil structure through its extensive rooting system and aids drainage for the following crop, while our EFA Legume & Herb Rich Mixture provides a productive grazing option for sheep and cattle with the added benefit of mineral-rich herbs.
Why do we run these trials?
The introduction of biodiversity mixes doesn't change the primary purpose of our Cereal Development Sites and the main focus still remains on evaluating the regional performance of spring and winter barleys, winter wheats and seed treatments, in order to help us help us understand how varieties perform across different regions before making more informed recommendations to growers.
Samples of the barley varieties from our trials are later micromalted in our on-site lab to assess their distilling characteristics well ahead of official data being released, giving us a technical and commercial edge.
Get in touch today
If you are interested in growing biodiversity mixes, contact Small Seeds Manager Alasdair Ralston on alasdairralston@mspagriculture.co.uk
