We struggle as humans to understand our own actions. How can we begin to understand and provide possible interpretations for the actions of other species?

A French farmer’s ‘weed harvester’, designed to minimise seed return from survivors of mechanical or herbicide treatments by trimming off the seed heads, has been developed into a commercial product.

Irina Shtangeeva is a researcher at the Department of Soil Science and Soil Ecology, St Petersburg University.

Most observers of the global agricultural market were focusing on the Black Sea at the weekend where UN representatives and the Turkish government engaged with the Russian and Ukrainian governments in an effort to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which has just expired.

Lely’s Exos, a system for the fully autonomous harvesting and feeding of fresh grass, will be commercially available from mid-2024. The system allows dairy farmers to use a large part of their grassland production as fresh feed.

Grasslands might not capture the imagination of the public like the Rocky Mountains, the lakes of Manitoba or the rugged terrain of the Canadian Shield but efforts are underway to acknowledge the native prairie’s role in preventing climate change.

For 75 years, grasslands research conducted just outside Pietermaritzburg, South Africa has informed policy makers and farmers about sustainable management, while training generations of students.

Plants use carbon dioxide (CO₂) in photosynthesis to make the carbohydrates they need to grow. As the CO₂ in the atmosphere rises, mainly because humans are burning fossil fuels, many plants can photosynthesise more or use water more efficiently. This is known as “CO₂ fertilisation”.