Soya is now a key part of the rotation on one Cambridgeshire farm, with its attractive margins and later drilling date helping in the battle against blackgrass.

The result is a 56ha block of healthy, well-podded soya plants in north Cambridgeshire, which would not look out of place in the Midwest USA.

Will Aldwinckle recalls two years ago exploring with his father, Bill, what break crop to grow instead of linseed on their farm near Stamford.

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“Linseed was our main spring break crop and we were achieving a respectable yield of 1t/acre [2.47/ha],” he says.

“However, yields started to decline and the ban on neonicotinoid seed treatments meant the crop was no longer an option.”

Cropping on the 220ha farm includes Hereward milling wheat, beans and spring oats.

“We are on predominantly light land, so we are not going to get huge crops. Oilseed rape also doesn’t yield well and it is now an expensive crop to grow,” says Will.

They saw a flyer on growing soya in Crops magazine and also watched videos on YouTube of US farmers sharing their experiences of growing the crop.

He was attracted by its later drilling spring crop for blackgrass control. “We have a couple of fields that are particularly infested with blackgrass.”

And they decided to give it a try with a contract with UK Soya, drilling 28ha with a John Deere 750a on lighter land.

They grew Elena, a Ukrainian variety that is better suited to UK conditions. The crop yielded 0.5t/acre (1.2/ha) and seeing the potential to improve performance, he doubled the area this season.

Drilling and nutrition

This year’s crop was drilled in the second week of May.

“Soil temperature is key and farmers are advised against drilling before 24 April,” says Bill.

He explains that a minimum soil temperature of 10C is crucial for germination, as well as drilling depth, as going too deep can lead to failure. The ideal depth is 33mm.

However, the bean seed fly can be a problem if crop are drilled later than 15 May, adds Will.

“In the second year, we subsoiled in the autumn as we discovered in the first season that soya does not like any compaction. We have seen a real benefit this year.”

After sub-soiling, a Horsch Joker high speed cultivator creates a stale seed-bed. Then in spring, the ground is levelled with a power harrow before being drilled.

The crop was drilled at a rate of 150kg/ha with the aim of establishing no more than 60 plants/sq m.

Even though soya is a legume and fixes nitrogen, it does need some help in its first few weeks to get going. “It received 4cwt/acre (203kg) of a 3.7:11:11 NPK liquid before drilling,” says Bill.

Seed comes ready inoculated with rhizobium bacteria to aid nodule formation.

Pests, weeds and diseases

Pigeon control is key so avoid growing in an isolated location near a wood, advises Will. Once you get to the two-leaf stage, they are no longer a problem. The leaves are hairy and pigeons don’t like that.

“It just needs an intense two week period to keep on top of pigeons.” He adds that there is no problem with slugs.

Weed control started with a stale seed-bed followed by a pre-emergence Stomp Aqua (pendimethalin) + Gamit (clomazone).

Post emergence, it received Pinnacle (thifensulfuron) to hit broadleaved weeds and it only needed one application this year, says Bill.

Disease wise, it doesn’t need any fungicides, but the Aldwinckle’s went with a precautionary application of prothioconazole against sclerotinia. “It was following oilseed rape which increases the risk,” he explains.

The crop is cut in the second or third week of September, after being desiccated with Reglone. This year, he is hoping to get 2.5t/ha up on last year.

“Last year’s crop was on the driest land and I hadn’t sub-soiled so am hopeful of hitting the yield,” says Will.

In addition to the blackgrass benefit, Soya UK’s David McNaughton says it is a better fixer of nitrogen than peas or beans, offering 70kg/ha of nitrogen to the following crop.

Will Aldwinckle. © RBI

Greening

Soya also counts as part of the 5% ecological focus area under the CAP greening requirements of the Basic Payment Scheme.

However, he adds that it not for everyone. Mr McNaughton advises not to grow it on the real heavy clays such as the Essex blue clay, because if it dries out and bakes, it will lead to poor performance.

It is best not to drill if there is a risk of dry, baking seed-beds on very heavy land.

Looking to the future, both Bill and Will believe the crop has a secure future in their rotation, being one of the main crops alongside wheat.

Breakthrough break crop

Soya could become a key break crop, with its armoury of weed control chemistry and a ready market, currently being met by imports.

Soya UK’s David McNaughton believes the crop has much going for it and with low wheat and oilseed rape prices coupled with interest in spring cropping to control blackgrass.

“Therefore, there is a greater emphasis on spring break crops,” he says.

With the inseed area dwindling because of the neonicotinoid seed treatment ban and a lack of post-emergence weed chemistry in beans, soya could be about to make a breakthrough and he anticipates the area to increase six fold next season.

Herbicide choice

Weed control has gone from famine to feast over recent years, with many more herbicide choices than with peas and beans.

Pre-emergence options are Stomp and Gamit with an extension of authorisation for minor use in the pipeline for Nirvana (imazamox + pendimethalin), says Mr McNaughton.

Post-emergence, there is Aramo (tepraloxydim) for grassweeds plus either Basagran (bentazone) or Pinnacle (thifensulfuron) for broad-leaved weeds.

Pinnacle, a sulfonylurea, is a useful tool for controlling broad-leaved weeds and is something that bean growers do not have.

There are three key varieties, Elena, Pripyat and the more recent introduction, Siverka.

Bred in Eastern Europe, they are bred specifically for northern latitudes, as flowering and maturity is tied to photoperiod. “Use an older variety and it will not flower,” Mr McNaughton.

Growth habit

New varieties are also earlier maturing and have a different growth habit and canopy architecture. Older varieties have more adventitious growth where plants climb and create a matted canopy. “This was more prone to lodging and disease.”

These new varieties have a thick stem with each plant growing as an individual plant and have a semi determinate growth habit, reducing the amount of branching. The result is that most of the yield is at the top, with the cluster of pods, he says.

Contracts and markets

Demand is huge with 2m tonnes imported as meal and another 1m tonnes as beans mostly for the animal feed market. “We could fill East Anglia and there would still be sufficient market. It is a high volume, high value market.”

Being non-GM, there is a premium of £30/t this year and this is expected to rise to £50/t next year.

Given a yield of 1t/ha and a base price of £325/t, it offers a good margin. It isn’t a fussy market either, with no challenging specifications to meet, with the risk of rejections.

There are still contracts available and plenty of seed for drilling this autumn, says Mr McNaughton.