Farmer Focus: Pests devour OSR and SFI day

Fuel prices have gone through the roof again and, locally, we are waiting to see who will be the first forecourt through the £2/litre barrier. The only upside of this is that OSR prices are firming.

On the farm, we have done very little fieldwork. We planted our winter cover crops and they have established well.

See also: Farmer Focus: Watching crops melt away was heartbreaking

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the OSR we have planted on a new contract farm we are doing with our neighbour. I had forgotten what a hateful crop oilseed rape can be.

About the author

Robin Aird

Arable Farmer Focus writer Robin Aird manages 1,500ha on the north Wiltshire and Gloucestershire border, with a further 160ha on a contract farming agreement. Soils vary from gravel to clay with the majority silty clay loams. The diverse estate has Residential, commercial and events enterprises. He is Basis qualified and advises on other farming businesses.

Contact:

Email: robin.aird@charltonpark.estate

Read more articles by Robin Aird

Slugs and flea beetle are enjoying the tasty new plants at an alarming rate. Even a good slug of digestate doesn’t seem to have had the desired effect this year.

The stubbles have been sprayed off and the plan is to start planting the hybrid rye and winter barley this week.

The winter barley is going on the blackgrass land, with the rye going on the rest of the block, as we know we can control the blackgrass in the barley.

The winter barley will receive a pre-emergence spray of Proclus (aclonifen) and Liberator (diflufenican + flufenacet), while the hybrid rye is going to have a post-emergence spray of Liberator only.

Hopefully, this will do enough if any blackgrass does come through.

We have also been busy giving the Vaderstad Rapid a new lease of life, as it is now eight years old.

The plan was to do it in the winter, but with time on our hands and some nice warm days, we decided to crack on.

It has now got new coulters and pipework all the way around, so hopefully it should be good for another few years yet.

Today is National SFI Day. I have all the paperwork lined up to get the job done as smoothly as possible, Starlink on standby in case the fibre fails, and fingers crossed that the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) website doesn’t crash.

I’m also praying that we can get ours submitted before the pot runs dry, which, if I am a guessing man, will be about a day. 

As ever, the theory is that everything is planned and organised. Now we just need the technology, the weather and the RPA to play ball.

Since writing his column, Robin confirmed that he managed to get his three applications submitted