Author: Will English

ÄDELHOLM 2023: ESTABLISHMENT

EARLY CHECK (2023-04-14, sow +7 days, 30 degree-days_base3, 15mm rain) Some signs of life. Unfortunately, some of that life is mice. The further “up the hill” (i.e to the west/ towards the trial site) I went, the more life there was. I would guess that the median growth stage was BBCH02-03 (pellet swollen, on the…
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ÄDELHOLM 2023: SOWING

SUMMARY: SOIL PREPARATION: The field was ploughed in Autumn 2022, and harrowed twice prior to sowing (5 and 6 April). No autumn 2022 harrowing was done as by the time I realised that this was something that I should ask for, it was way too wet. FERTILISATION: ProBeta (15-3.6-8-+), broadcast 5 April 2023. The actual…
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FARMERS ARE SO DAMN INVENTIVE

The Pavitt taxonomy of invention in industry places agriculture is the bucket of “supplier dominated”. That is, most of the technological improvements in the sector come from the suppliers of the inputs (seed firms, fert firms, machinery firms, etc). This seems reasonable, given R&D is an expensive and risky game. Most farmers can neither afford…
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ÄDELHOLM: PLANNING 2023

The 2023 sugar beet crop will be in the middle field on the southern block. It is ca 6.7 ha. Our goal with the crop at Ädelholm is to produce something very ‘standard’. There are always experiments in these fields, so we need to think of that first. All the agricultural activity on Ädelholm is…
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WHY MY FINAL DOCTORAL THESIS TITLE WONT INCLUDE “BEST PRACTICE”.

“Best practice” is an appealing concept. It suggests a solution to the question of how something should be done, based on results of research and experience (Bardach and Patashnik, 2016, Part IV). This appeal means it is also a commonly heard term. But it is not without criticism. There is ambiguity in the term. To…
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IIRB 2022: HIGHLIGHTS

The major highlight is, as always, the ability to meet with ones peers. Even if the cost of travel to Mons skyrocketed as a result of the issues in the airline industry, just having the chance to meet the people who share your passion is worth its weight in gold alone. Of the more innovative…
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IIRB 2022: NBR’S CONTRIBUTION

The 78th IIRB Congress was held 21 to 23 June 2022, in Mons, Belgium, at the the Wallonia Conference Center. This is a summary of the contributions NBR made to the Congress. First and foremost, the Chair of the entire IIRB organisation in 2022 was none other than the NBR Managing Director, Desirée Börjesdotter. That…
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SUGAR BEET CLAMP CFD MODELLING: GENERAL REFINEMENTS

OpenFOAM version: 9 Solvers: pimpleFoam and clampPimpleFoam v6 Case: clamp_22 GENERALLY QUITE WELL = NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Now that the model seems to work generally quite well, it’s time to start improving it. Here are some issues and fixes implemented in this step in the process. Deal with conduction at the boundary of the clamp.…
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SUGAR BEET CLAMP CFD MODELLING: SWAPPING INLET AND OUTLET

OpenFoam version: 9 Solvers: clampPimpleFoam (v5), pimpleFoam Case: clamp_16 IT’S ALIVE I’m not sure if this is the most elegant solution available within the OpenFoam environment, but to swap the inlet and outlet, simply, two different geometries are used. When the air is flowing left-to-right (ltr), the geometry with the inlet on the left is…
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