Farmer Focus: Maybe it’s time to give sap testing a go
Richard Harris © Emily Fleur The current state of weather means there is very little to be excited about.
With 250mm of rain during January, and February trying its hardest to keep up that pace, it’s pretty damp out.
Crops are starting to look a little peaky in the wet spots, with not much fertility left.
See also: Cornish farmer puts variable-rate nitrogen tech to the test
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The drainage we’ve done over previous years looks to be valuable.
So like most, we’ll be looking to get about 40kg N/ha on as soon as conditions allow.
Like the last few seasons, we’ll be using a 24N + 14S compound called DS+.
It has a polymer coating restricting volatisation and leaching.
In principle, I will be happy to put it on early when it’s wet and later when it’s dry during the season, hoping to increase our nitrogen use efficiency by up to 70%.
Interestingly/frustratingly, last year some of our tissue test results were still coming back low in sulphur even though it had been supplied throughout the growing season.
I’ve not tried sap testing for micronutrient levels, but this kind of thing makes me think I should.
Both first and second wheats have established very well this year, with enough plants and tillers per square metre for a decent potential.
Our fertiliser programme will be based on maintaining current tiller population with a little and often approach.
The sheep have arrived and are grazing the cover crops. As ever, it’s only really the turnips left with any kind of feed value.
The vetch, clover, phacelia and buckwheat have been knocked back by the winter.
The vetch and clover had pink nodules on before the frost, so hoping there’s some plant available nitrogen released into the soil for the coming spring linseed.
It’s always hard to quantify how much and, therefore, its value.
Along with the fertility out the back end of the sheep from the grazing.
It feels like the right thing to do and we’d be doing it with or without the subsidy payment.