Farmer Focus: N-fixing bacteria provides good gut feel
Richard Harris © Emily Fleur We’ve had a great spell of weather in south Devon.
We caught an accumulation of 20mm of rain, which washed in the second dose of nitrogen plus sulphur fertiliser.
The wheat is looking a proper shade of green.
After a few seasons of trials with no concrete evidence, but a good “gut feel” it works, we’ve applied a biological nitrogen bacteria as a separate, single application, hoping to get another 30kg/ha of nitrogen into the plant over the next 10 weeks.
See also: N-fixing bacteria cuts cost and lifts yield for Cambs growers
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At a cost of £18/ha it could be a very cheap nitrogen source at current market prices. It’s worth considering if you’ve got low stocks of nitrogen in the shed and good potential crops in the field.
Tissue test results show healthy crops. There is low magnesium, sodium, zinc and boron levels. So, at the T1 spray timing we will be addressing the magnesium and zinc.
I’m still on the fence if boron is worth chasing in cereals. It’s something I wouldn’t usually look to correct until the T2 stage before the wheat begins to flower.
All in all, the wheats look as promising as ever. They have just received their T1, focusing on septoria and should be on track for the 9-10t/ha minimum yield target.
The linseed was drilled into great conditions in early April and is coming out of the ground now. In hindsight I’ve drilled it too deep and it feels like it’s taking an age to establish.
Another nice surprise was the recent water meter bill reading… usually about £200/month it rocketed to £7,000, with a forecast of £1,500/month.
Thinking, surely, I would have seen a £7,000 leak over the past nine months…it turns out I was wrong.
Typically, and somewhat unusually, our mains feed comes directly underneath a large pylon, which has a ditch either side of it. So of course, the leak had sprung underneath it.
After a few calls with our insurance company, National Grid and South West Water, the matter will be resolved without too much cost to us.
But a decent amount of faff all the same. I guess that’s farming for you.
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