The Scottish Farmer is delighted to be once again on board with the organisers of the Arable Scotland event, which will again take place in a virtual sense on June 29.
Now in its third year, Arable Scotland aims to bring together the key players in food production from farmers to distillers and exporters to demonstrate and discuss key industry issues such as innovative and sustainable farming. This year’s event will again take place online following on from the successful virtual event held last year.
A core part of Arable Scotland is the series of Arable Conversations that will take place as part of the on-line event and in our third look ahead at what will be on offer, we preview the latest topic: Sustainable rotations – soils, integrating legumes, cover crops and cash crops. The webinar will run from 4-5 pm and will be led by Tracy Valentine, of the James Hutton Institute. 
This virtual Arable Conversation will feature Pete Iannetta (James Hutton Institute), Ed Brown (Hutchinsons), Dick Neale (Hutchinsons), Christine Watson (SRUC) and Paul Hargreaves (SRUC), and will look at the topic of rotations in sustainable production. The panellists will discuss how soil health and soil function are impacted in positive and negative way by the choice of crop, and how that crop fits within a sustainable rotation.
Arable rotations are changing. The push to reduce farm traffic, reduce inputs of nutrients and pesticides, reduce greenhouse gas outputs, diversify the landscape, and protect and improve the status of our soil for the future are having an impact on the way we farm. 
The panellist hope to answer important questions like: How can we sustain or increase the value of our farming outputs, while achieving these goals? What do we need to measure to understand if a rotation is sustainable, particularly in terms of cropping, soil, and climate change? What are the barriers and benefits to increasing diversity, and introducing legumes and cover crops within rotations and grassland systems, particularly in Scottish contexts?  
Adaptation can take time and integrating a wide variety of changes can have variable results depending on geographical location, as well as knock-on effects on soil, weeds, and yields.
This Arable Conversation session will explore the development of sustainable rotations within this context. Experts in developing sustainable practices and rotations in both arable, and grassland pasture systems, will discuss the challenges and benefits of implementing sustainable rotations, including options for diversification, and implementing different sustainable soil management systems.  

Panellists taking part include: 
Christine Watson, Professor for Agricultural Systems at SRUC Scotland’s Rural College.  Her interests focus on nutrient management in agricultural systems, and she has experience in a wide range of systems from arable through to pig and dairy systems.
Dick Neale is technical manager at Hutchinsons crop protection with expertise in soils, weed management and cover crops. 
Ed Brown is head of agro-ecology at Hutchinsons and a consultant specialising in that plus soil health and crop nutrition. He also heads up the HLH Cover Crop range, helping farmers and agronomists successfully implement cover crops in a range of systems.
Pete Iannetta is a biologist and ecologist based at the James Hutton Institute. He studies the design of sustainable systems, with a special focus on legumes and biological fixation of nitrogen, by rhizobia and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria.  
Based at the SRUC Dairy Research and Innovation Centre in Dumfries Paul Hargreaves is a soil scientist specialising in research into grasslands and forages.  He specialises in maintaining and enhancing soil quality, and how to reduce soil structural damage from the impact of farm traffic and livestock. 
He is exploring their effect on the compaction levels in soil and how they impact on crop yield and quality. He has recently been investigating the use of controlled traffic and wheelings on crop yield and soil loss. Other  work involves EU projects in the use of novel legume mixtures and greenhouse gas emissions.
Delegates can take part in the Arable Conversations by using the hashtag #ArableScotland on Twitter to submit questions during the sessions.

Arable Scotland is delivered in partnership by the James Hutton Institute, Scotland’s Rural College and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), with support from the Farm Advisory Service, SEFARI, The Scottish Farmer, Hutchinsons and the Scottish Society for Crop Research. Commercial exhibitors present at the event include Yara, CHAP Solutions, SoilEssentials, Corteva and Smart Rural.

The event is free to attend, and visitor registration is open at https://hopin.com/events/arable-scotland. More information about the event is available at www.arablescotland.org.uk. Five BASIS points will be available to delegates.