Responsibilities
Stuart is a research agronomist with experience in applied crops research, combinable crop trials and field experimentation, knowledge exchange, and providing technical advice to farmers and agronomists. He has broad expertise in combinable crop agronomy and its impact on crop yield, quality, resource efficiency and profitability, including: management of soil / fertiliser nitrogen and phosphorus in combinable crop rotations; monitoring and control of cereal fungal diseases; evaluation of new crop protection chemicals; managing within-field variation and decision support. He has recently worked on the impact of farming systems and management practices on the economic, environmental and social performance of farms, and from 2014 to 2018 led a multi-partner, interdisciplinary project focused on ‘Integrated Farm Management’, funded by Defra and Welsh Government as part of the 'Sustainable Intensification Research Platform' (SIP).
Research projects
Fungicide performance on wheat, barley and oilseed rape; Duration: June 2018-March 2022; Partners: ADAS, NIAB, SRUC, Harper Adams University, TEAGASC; Funding: AHDB
Combining agronomy, variety and chemistry to maintain control of septoria tritici in wheat; Duration: August 2015-March 2021; Partners: ADAS, NIAB, SRUC, TEAGASC; Funding: AHDB, BASF, Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (Ireland)
Publications
Recent publications
Bounds P, Blake J, Paine F, Knight S, Burnett F, Kildea S, Gosling P. 2016. Fungicide performance on winter wheat AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Project Report No. 550
Blake J J, Gosling P, Fraaije B A, Burnett F J, Knight S M, Kildea S and Paveley N D. 2018. Changes in field dose-response curves for DMI and QoI fungicides against Zymoseptoria tritici, related to laboratory sensitivity phenotyping and genotyping assays. Pest Management Science; 74(2)
Sylvester-Bradley R, Rollett A, Downing E, Dudman S, Slater M, Morris N, Knight S, Withers P. 2019. Cost-effective phosphorus management on UK arable farms: report on Work-Package 3: Improving the efficiency of fresh P applications. AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Project Report No. 570
Morris N, Knight S, Philpott H, Blackwell M. 2017. Cost-effective phosphorus management on UK arable farms: Report on Work-Package 2: Critical levels of soil P. AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds Project Report No. 570
Morris N, Knight S, Poulton P, Johnston J, Goulding K. 2014. Critical soil phosphate for combinable crops in Southern Britain. Aspects of Applied Biology 127, Crop Production in Southern Britain: Precision Decisions for Profitable Cropping, pp. 181–187