Farmer Focus: Prime example of why we must walk crops
Mark Stubbs © Phil Weedon A very dry end of March and April has enabled an easy spring drilling and spraying period.
A year ago, this land spent six months under 3m of water. We ploughed the land – something I’m not a fan of – but it was the only way to put air back into a very sad soil and help dry it out.
Within a week we planted spring barley into a dry seed-bed and rolled it. What a difference a year makes.
See also: 5 key factors for maximising pea yields
About the author
Myself and my agronomist were working out if a T0 septoria spray was needed in the wheats as the varieties were more prone to septoria than yellow rust.
On 2 April, we came up with four different programmes at T0 with different costings.
On 4 April, when I was applying my second application of liquid nitrogen (70kg/ha), sulphur (30kg/ha), molasses (10kg/ha) and Nitroshield, I was starting to wonder whether it was actually necessary to apply a T0 at all.
The weather forecast was dry for the next two weeks.
After all, this was more of a yellow-rust climate than septoria and my varieties have scores of 8 and above for yellow rust.
With this in my head I rang my agronomist. We agreed to do a crop walk on 9 April to make a final decision.
My agronomist being young was keen to do a T0 as an insurance policy, but he is also a farmer’s son so very aware of cost implications.
We found little septoria, but to our surprise a lot of yellow rust. So much so, I was concerned about the level of rust breaking out in Dawsum and Champion, which score 8 and 9 on Niab ratings.
That was it. The decision was made.
We were going to spray a T0 application of Turbosan (tebuconazole) at 0.8 litres/ha to clean up the yellow rust and we also added 0.08 litres/ha of Moddus (trinexapac-ethyl) to encourage tillering and strengthen the plant.
This is a prime example of why as a farmer, you have to regularly walk your crops and be proactive in your decision-making.
I am lucky that I have a young agronomist who is a farmer’s son, so thinks like a farmer and is very proactive.
