A network of farmers who carry out their own on-farm trials
What’s next for Slug-Resistant Wheat?
SRW What’s Next?
What’s next for The Slug Circle?
Following on from the success of this project, BOFIN is leading a brand-new three-year project that starts at the end of 2023. Strategies Leading to Improved Management and Enhanced Resilience against Slugs (SLIMERS) aims to address arable farming’s biggest pest issue that causes £43.5M crop damage/annum for wheat and oilseed rape in the UK and for which there is one form of control – ferric phosphate pellets.
The aim is to develop two commercial services from current proof-of-concept:
– Patch prediction and precision mapping
– Autonomous slug treatment using nematodes.
BOFIN will be looking to work with up to 30 Slug Sleuths in the first year to monitor traps and record their data to help better understand slug behaviour. This will then help to train the robot AI. The Slug Circle will be the community we establish, involving scientists, project partners and others with an interest or experience in slug behaviour. This will be the forum through which to trade knowledge and experience. It will be hosted in the Knowledge in Farming section of The Farming Forum.
