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After a slow and frustrating start to harvest, Íæż½ã½ã finds out how crops are faring from three growers across the UK.

With many farmers experiencing a rebound in grass-weed numbers this year, stubble management will be key to reducing viable seed levels.

As fertiliser prices hit record highs last year, many farmers were forced to rethink their crop nutrition programmes.

Phil Warham has been an agronomist with Agrovista for six years. He gained a degree in Land and Farm Management at Harper Adams and managed farms for several years afterwards. He now advises on combinable crops, cereals, maize and vining peas in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and into Leicestershire. Key interests include direct drilling and soil health, as well as making farms profitable. In his spare time he is a keen runner, cyclist and horseman.

NFU crops board chairman Matt Culley is a fourth-generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother.

Darryl Shailes is root crop technical manager for Hutchinsons, with a nationwide remit. He has been working in potato agronomy for more than 20 years.

Promoting diverse colonies of soil biology to improve plant health is something most regenerative farming systems are based around. And while biology cannot offer consistent control of pests or disease like an agrochemical might, its use is an important piece of the integrated crop management puzzle.

Alex and Joanna Wilcox live and farm with their three sons at Hill Farm near Downham Market on the Norfolk County Council Stow Estate. Covering 240 hectares of Fen silty clay loam, they grow winter milling wheat, winter feed barley, spring malting barley, spring beans and sugar beet.