Rocky end to the season for some Barometer farmers
The autumn campaign has gone relatively smoothly for our Barometer farmers but, as the weather starts to close in, it could be a rocky finish for some. James Andrews reports
MIDLANDS
On Tuesday it looked like Tony Reynolds would finish drilling at least a week later than his end-of-September target at Thurlby Grange near Melton Mowbray. “Our drilling man has been off sick and now that we’re ready to go the weather has turned.”
But half his wheat was in ground and he reckoned a week of fair weather would allow him to finished the remaining 60ha. He opted for Alchemy, Scout, Glasgow and Invicta and all were planted with his Bertini no-till drill.
He was also experimenting with a custom disc drill from Weaving Machinery that uses just one pair of discs, doing away with the single leading rotor. “It means it is cleaner underneath, which will be important as the layer of mulch created by our no-till system builds up.”
Most stubbles had been sprayed with glyphosate prior to drilling the wheat, but no other herbicides had been applied. All his Autocast oilseed rape received a post-emergence herbicide targeting cereal volunteers in particular, and he broadcast 20kg nitrogen/ha to get it going.
WEST
Drilling was making good progress at Ivy Dene, Brewood, Staffordshire, but some heavy bursts of rain were causing concern, said western Barometer Peter Sands.
One wheat field was puddled with water and was in danger of capping after it was hit by a localised storm. Blackgrass was starting to creep into this field and would be treated with Crystal (flufenacet + pendimethalin) once it dried out.
All 385ha of oilseed rape had emerged and been treated with Novall (metazachlor and quinmerac) pre-emergence or early post-emergence. Some received a dose of Falcon (propaquizafop) to take out volunteer cereals.
Grafton and Humber made up his first wheat area and both had Redigo Deter (prothioconazole + clothianidin) seed treatments applied. “I had both in last season and they performed well, but I’ve upped the seed rate slightly to 120kg/ha as some crops were a bit thin.”
JB Diego was planted in the second wheat position and was planted with a latitude seed dressing to reduce take-all risk. All were treated pre-emergence with Crystal and Graduate (diflufenican + flurtamone).
He had finished drilling 50ha Cassia and 12ha Volume feed barley and was edging into a 60ha block of Dalguise conventional oats destined for Morning Foods. “Hopefully we’ll be able to start planting the naked oats next week.”
SOUTH
Increasing his spring cropping area meant southern Barometer Andy Barr was making good progress at East Lenham Farm near Maidstone, Kent.
He didn’t finish drilling his 135ha oilseed rape until 15 September, but since then had made good progress, leaving just 22ha winter wheat to establish after maize. Mr Barr hoped to harvest the maize later this week and with 32mm of rain on Sunday (26 September), he was glad it was on sandy ground.
Improved weed control, spring barley prices and his crop rotation were the primary reasons for upping spring cropping. “We are also on the look out for alternative spring break crops and will try and make a better fist of some forage maize next year plus possibly some hemp.”
All wheat and winter barley had been established using minimum tillage or direct drilling into oilseed rape stubbles. “By and large seed-beds were good with a dry surface and plenty of moisture and warmth underneath, causing wheat and oilseed rape to chit very quickly.”
SCOTLAND
Soggy soils were starting to become challenging at Trinlaymire Farm, Linlithgow, but planting had generally gone well, said Scottish Barometer Mike Eagers.
“Up until 10 days ago we were running the cultivator 24 hours a day to keep ahead of the drill and we have made pretty good progress.”
But 5cm rainfall in the past two weeks had made soils difficult to manage had he was keen to get drilling wrapped up as soon as possible. “We’ve got 141 acres of Robigus second wheat to plant and I want to finish this by 1 October. Our land reaches field capacity very quickly and at the moment there is no wind to dry it out.”
On Tuesday he had planted 180ha of first wheats, mainly Alchemy with some Robigus, and 140ha second wheat. “Wheats look good and some fields with sterile brome problems have been treated with Trooper (flufenacet + pendimethalin.) We had some problems with herbicide supply, but managed to scrape by.”
NORTH
Planting got off to a steady start on the Chipchase Estate, Hexham, Northumberland, and was being hampered by patchy weather, said northern Barometer David Hall. “It’s been ploughing up quite wet, so we’ve had to watch where we go. Wet conditions over the past few harvests are starting to take their toll on soil structure.”
He was now following directly behind the plough with his 3m Vaderstad Rapid drill and front-mounted press. “At the moment it’s just about passable, but we might have to leave some of the ground to dry out before drilling.”
By Tuesday (28 September) he had planted 80ha of Claire and 34ha of Cordiale as first wheats and 125ha of oilseed rape. “We’re on winter barley at the moment with 110 acres of Carat already in the ground and we’ve got 147 acres left to do.”
All his Catana and Excalibur oilseed rape had been treated with metazachlor and looked clean, he said.
HUMBERSIDE
Jonathan Fenwick was considering changing his drilling tactics after the rain came in last Thursday (16 September).
Until then, he was using his Opico He-va Combi Lift subsoiler and Disc Roller to create the initial seed-bed ahead of a Vaderstad Rexius Twin cultivator and Vaderstad Rapid drill. “It looks like min-till is out of the window now and we’ll have to switch to the plough. It does a good job, but it’s slower and more expensive.”
On Tuesday (28 September) he had finished 70% of his first wheat drilling, but still had over 600ha including his own and contracted ground to plant. A few of his contracting customers were upping their second wheat area, so this could increase, he said. “I’m not a second wheat grower, but the way the prices are at the moment I’ll be putting some in and selling it forward.”
Oilseed rape established with his Variocast subsoiler-seeder unit and Nitrojet fertiliser applicator looked well. “We put in 1100 acres with the one 4m machine and it looks well. There have been very few slug problems, too.”
EAST
Delaying drilling cereals has allowed eastern Barometer Edd Banks to achieve two stale seed-beds on his problem blackgrass fields.
“On two-thirds of my second wheat I’m waiting as late as possible before drilling. Ideally I will plant these at the end of October or early November.”
Since starting on 14 September he had planted 143ha of Alchemy, leaving half the first wheats to do. “If there was no blackgrass I’d drill as early as possible, but I’ve already sprayed off one carpet of blackgrass and I’m hoping to get another spray onto the worst fields.”
His chemical store was well stocked with pre-emergence herbicide, which he hoped to apply as soon as possible after drilling to give the blackgrass another hit.
After the sugar factory opened at Bury St Edmunds on 7 October he planned to lift two beet crops on the heavier ground and get a wheat crop in before the end of the month.
The remaining sugar-beet ground would be followed with spring beans and spring barley.
SOUTH WEST
A new 6m Vaderstad Rapid drill was planting crops in good conditions at North Farm near Wimborne, Dorset, said south-west Barometer Peter Snell.
Lighter ground after oilseed rape and fields that had been in continuous cereals were ploughed, but most seed-beds were prepared using the farm’s Cousins V-form cultivator followed by a Vaderstad Rexuis Twin.
By Tuesday, he had drilled all oilseed rape, first wheats and winter barley and was thundering into a 53ha block of Mascani oats. “Once we’ve finished the oats, we will have 21ha Maris Widgeon thatching straw wheat and 44ha Cordaile second wheats left to do.”
All was planted using farm-saved seed, bar the Maris Widgeon, and was treated with a suitable seed-dressing. “We used Redigo Deter on ground after oilseed rape and Cruiser on all oilseed rape.”
First wheat area was split between 44ha of Scout and 26ha of Gallant milling wheat and his 8ha block of winter barley was Cassia. DK Cabernet formed the bulk of the 110ha of oilseed rape area along with 39ha of Sesame.
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