Welcoming the New Year – looking ahead to the 2026 season.

We hope all our customers had a great Christmas and an excellent start to the New Year. We wish you all continued farming success throughout 2026 and beyond.

Reflecting on 2025

As we move into 2026, it’s a natural time to reflect on the season just gone and look forward to the opportunities of the year ahead.

2025 brought another challenging year for Agriculture, with reduced yields for many crops following the prolonged dry weather and drought conditions through the spring and summer, which tested the resilience of many crops across the UK, ultimately impacting returns and profitability on farm.

Despite these challenges, favourable conditions in early autumn led to forward growth in winter cereals and winter oilseed rape crops. Relatively warm temperatures through October and the start of November gave winter crops a great start with good establishment and rapid growth, following ideal drilling conditions and seedbeds in many areas across the UK. The weather changed from mid-November when it became much wetter in most areas with persistent rainfall affecting large parts of the country right through mid-December.

Careful planning for the spring

With crops looking reasonably good, there is a sense of optimism for the coming spring. As we head further into winter, growers are currently assessing winter crops and starting planning preparations for early spring. Early spring weed control, growth regulators and early fungicide timings, field by field, may be vital given many of the crops are more advanced than we have seen for several years and rust was spotted in some crops before Christmas.

Highlights of 2025: A year of engagement and expanding growth in key European markets.

Over the past year, Clayton has invested significant time and resources in building its European business base, strengthening its team with new personnel who bring local market knowledge and expertise across Europe. The regulatory team has also been hard at work registering more products in key markets, including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain & Portugal, to provide more solutions for our customers across many parts of Europe.

What to look out for this spring: this spring, we will be highlighting…

• Newly launched early-spring cereal herbicides such as Clayton Rockstar and Clayton Aintree
• Reliable, cost-effective cereal fungicides, including Clayton Navaro, Clayton Tuskar and Clayton Canyon SC
• Early PGR options for stem shortening and canopy management, such as Clayton Squat and Clayton Nascar, which are likely to be especially important given the forward nature of many crops this season
• Our expanding potato portfolio, including new blight fungicides Clayton TopGun and Clayton Linaxo, which will also feature at the upcoming AICC Conference
• Grassland focus for 2026: Grassland weed control solutions, for both established grassland and newly sown leys. Take a look at our newly updated 2026 Grassland brochure to support your planning herbicide options and weed-control strategies.

For any specific advice required about Clayton product solutions for early spring use in Cereals, Oilseeds, Grassland, Potatoes and other crops, don’t hesitate to contact the Clayton team directly: Will Ridgwell (Will@claytonpp.com) or Jessie Boden (Jessie@claytonpp.com).

Keep an eye out for information on any field days or events, such as the AICC Winter Conference next week and The Cereals Event in June 2026.