Arable Event 2004

 
VELCOURT
Arable Event
 

Welcome to the Arable Farming Event on Farmers Weekly Interactive, a 1.1ha trial plot managed by Velcourt as part of Cereals and Sprays and Sprayers 2004.

Work to establish the site, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, began in July 2003 and is progressing very well.

1) Herbicides
• Effective chemical control programmes for the key grass weeds problems in wheat:-blackgrass, Italian ryegrass, perennial ryegrass and annual meadow grass.
• NEW! Programmes to target blackgrass and Italian ryegrass in barley.
• Atlantis (mesosulfuron-methyl + iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium) and Lexus (flupyrsulfuron-methyl) programmes for tackling wild oats and canary grass in wheat are also compared.

2) NEW! Septoria Resistance Management
• a demonstration of resistance management strategies.
• The importance of variety and drilling dates will be explored.
• Using the appropriate spray programme, which will include a look at Bayer’s JAU and UK187 used at T1 and T2 respectively.

3) NEW! Seed treatments
• Syngenta’s thimethoxam-based seed treatment, Cruiser, on oilseed rape and barley
• Bayer’s TI435 in barley.

4) Hybrid barley
• Five different approaches to growth regulation in hybrid barley are on trial, comprising a variety of one, two and three-hit programmes.
• Each of these are trialled in both low and high nitrogen situations.
• The benefits of a GS 39 application will also be considered, to demonstrate how to derive maximum gains from 6-row barley.

5) New wheat varieties
• 12 varieties are on show, each demonstrated with and without full foliar disease control and growth regulator programmes.
• New varieties that Banks-Cargill are recommending are pitched against benchmark wheat varieties from Groups 1-4.

6) Establishment
• A demonstration of the versatility of Väderstad’s Rapid Super cultivator drill on a range of seedbed types.
• Included are plots direct-drilled into stubble
• NEW! The effect of forwards speed on the drill‘s performance, with plots established at speeds of up to 25km/h.

7) NEW! Nitrogen
• A comparison of nitrogen products and application rates
• A demonstration of the software programme N-Plan from Yara, to recommend application rates and timings.
• A demonstration of the antagonism between sulphur and selenium uptake by plants.

More information about the new and emerging agronomic technologies demonstrated in the plots will be made available as the season progresses and will be available at the Arable Event stand at Cereals 2004 .