Over the Hedge - Arable Barometer farmers' diary

June 2008 - Posts

• Cereals 2008 gives Andy Barr plenty to think about

  A noisy night in a Travelodge only 10m from the A1 on the way to Cereals 2008 further confirmed to me how lucky I am to live in a rural setting - well rural for Kent anyway. At the event I was fascinated by a visit to the Soil Solutions stand. Here they had plots showing how their ‘prescription nutrition' programme of fertilisers and micronutrients could help crops. I've recently started down this track and was pleased, and in fact amazed, to see that a plot of wheat with no nitrogen applied at all but given this programme still looked relatively green next to its completely unfertilised and yellow neighbour. There were also a number of products in the pipeline such as a phosphite seed treatment and a foliar nitrogen. This ‘not quite there' scenario was echoed at the Speciality Fertilizer Products stand where products to enhance nitrogen and phosphate availability were just around the corner, and at Martin Lishman's display which promoted a brewing system for making a compost ‘tea', the potential great benefits of which were as yet unquantified in the UK. I felt as though a barman had just poured me a pint and then walked off leaving it just out of reach behind the bar. Amongst a million other things the new Vaderstad Seed Hawk drill really stood out. It looks a very decent tool to me for the direct drilling (sorry Mr Reynolds I mean no-till!), route I would ideally follow. The salesman even told me I could pull a 6m version with 150hp, so I was just getting out my cheque-book when he mentioned the retail price of £53,000 - I settled for a coffee and a sit down instead. Back on the farm we are making hay, which is a relief after last year when the weather forced production into the middle of harvest, which rather stretched our slimline workforce. Nufol should also go on the milling wheat one evening this week. I'm still not convinced the world is going to harvest a massive crop this year - something is bound to go wrong somewhere. Let's just hope it isn't here! To comment you must first log in (top left hand corner of the screen). More diary entries in our Barometers' Over the Hedge series   Posted Jun 24 2008, 03:46 PM by flutefriend with no comments Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: andy barr, Barometer, south [Edit Tags]

• Spring toll evident in North

  Ian Bird's T2 fungicide treatments at Catchgate Farm, Castle Eden near Hartlepool have just been completed on time, despite 64mm (2.5in) of rain in the past week. But the cold wet April has taken a toll on potential yields, he believes. "Our first wheats look OK, but the second crops are a bit thin." Winter barley, which received the same T2 treatment - "a nice and simple" 1litre/ha each of Gemstone (epoxiconazole + pyraclostrobin) plus Laminator (mancozeb) appears more promising, especially the hybrid Bronx (see picture), reports Mr Bird.   Bronx barley has come on well since this picture was taken at the end of January. His oilseed rape varieties Excalibur and Ovation, both still in full flower and having had a sclerotinia spray only a week ago, are due for a late N dressing in about a week's time. "It'll be the first time we've done it and we'll use about 35 units/acre. "There are 220 acres in all, but about 60 look a bit poor. It never really got away in the autumn and simply hasn't caught up." Given his experience of the coastal area's weather, T3 wheat fungicide treatments are routine. "We'll definitely be using them. We shan't cut any wheat until the third week in August and that's a long way off." After earlier rocketing grain prices the recent slip back has been especially unwelcome, says Mr Bird. "I can't sell at £130/t when potash is £520. All the big price rises do is create cash flow problems. We'd be better off with wheat at £100/t and without the diesel and fertiliser price increases." Posted Jun 06 2008, 11:37 AM by flutefriend with no comments Filed under: Wheat, Oilseed rape, fungicide, North, Barometer farm, Ian Bird, barley, Bronx [Edit Tags]

• Blossom midge watch underway in Dorset

  I've just been out again looking for orange blossom midge, writes Peter Snell from North Farm, Horton, Dorset. It was a calm, dry and cool evening and there were a few about but nowhere near the one in three threshold our feed wheats require to justify treatment. Anyway I'm reluctant to spray chlorpyrifos, and would need to be convinced by spider webs covered in midges and clouds of them rising from the wheat as you walk through. Meanwhile our Timber is already in flower and now safe. We've started spraying T3s, and this year we're using Firefly (fluoxastrobin and prothioconazole) at 0.75 litre/ha. This will be three weeks since the T2s - Gemstone (epoxiconazole and pyraclostrobin) plus extra epoxiconazole (as Opus) at 0.8 and 0.4 litres/ha respectively. Around some of the wheat headlands we've used Atlantis (iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium + mesosulfuron-methyl) and Biopower to control grassweeds - with mixed results. Tipple spring barley has also recently had its T2 consisting of 0.25 litre/ha of Proline (prothioconazole) and 0.32 litre/ha of Comet 200 (pyraclostrobin). We would probably have used Fandango (fluoxastrobin and prothioconazole) again but it was all sold out. The Tipple looks good, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it yields and finding out the grain nitrogen, as two-thirds of its N has been supplied from compost. That's particularly topical given current fertiliser prices and availability! Meanwhile the new grain store is coming on apace and we've also had one of the farm tracks rejuvenated with 750t of crushed concrete rolled down tightly.   North Farm's new grain store is coming on well.  We've just purchased our third second-hand Howard big baler which we will use for the wheat thatching straw and the new Amazone sprayer and fertiliser spreader should be with us soon for the new season. Also, ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphate for next year is starting to be delivered and sewage sludge is arriving for spreading on first wheat ground post harvest. I'm looking forward to attending the Cereals event, where I want to catch up on new varieties, see some old friends, and investigate (well probably purchase) parallel guidance systems. Recent rain has left the ground saturated. Until 25 May we had only 7mm in the month and were just beginning to think some moisture would be useful. In the next five days we had 78mm and four days later another 25mm! The chart below highlights the costly dry April of 2007 and the wet harvest that followed. Posted Jun 05 2008, 09:53 AM by flutefriend with no comments Filed under: Wheat, Barometer, Peter Snell, South-west, barley, blossom midge, Tipple, Timber [Edit Tags]

• Western wheat grows apace

  Winter wheats at Chillington Farm, Codsall Wood near Wolverhampton are roaring ahead, writes Andrew Blenkiron. The fields of Soissons and Humber are now all in ear and due to receive a T3 of 0.33litres/ha of Prosaro (prothioconazole + tebuconazole) and 1.5l/ha magnesium early this week, probably Tuesday if the weather forecast is correct. The decision to apply a T3 would have been a close call if we hadn't had the 50mm of rain in the past week - things were getting a bit dry. After the rain the decision wasn't that difficult given the septoria knocking around in the bottom of the crop and the prevailing weather. T3s are planned for the rest of the wheat. Early drilled Claire and Alchemy should be in ear by mid week, with Oakley, being somewhat slower, probably a week behind. Still that should help with combine sequencing! The late evening white shirt hunt will be on for the orange blossom midge, just in case! Spring barley is due to receive 0.25l/ha of Fandango (fluoxastrobin + prothioconazole) when the awns appear, which should be soon. Fodder beet is now up and away and after careful sprayer washing will receive its herbicide. To comment you must first log in (top left hand corner of the screen). More diary entries in our Barometers' Over the Hedge series   Posted Jun 02 2008, 09:30 AM by flutefriend with no comments Filed under: Alchemy, Andrew Blenkiron, Barometer farm, Soisson, Claire, Humber [Edit Tags]