Archive Article: 2000/08/18
Stephen Bumstead
Stephen Bumstead farms
148ha (365 acre) from Ouse
Bank Farm, Great Barford,
Beds. He is a first
generation farmer and
council tenant, growing
combinable crops on three
blocks of land. He supports
LEAF and is the FWAG
county treasurer
BARLEY harvest here was a non-event. Both Heligan and Regina produced disappointing samples and yield. Everything has been delivered for feed with a few deductions for low specific weight. Those hits are hard to bear but I have to accept they are reasonable given such indifferent quality.
What went wrong? Both crops looked so well through the growing season and the only explanation so far is lack of sunshine at flowering and grain fill. There are good barley years and not so good, but this one was just dreadful.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. Abbot wheat at Ouse Bank farm seems to be quite a success running at 8-8.7t/ha (3.2-3.5t/acre), 78-80kg/hl and 14.8% moisture. The sample looks nice but it has yet to be tested. We have made a start on some Charger drilled at a lower seed rate. It was a fairly open crop with large ears and some late lodging in places. Budget yield is 7t/ha (2.8t/acre) and so far we seem set to top that by at least 0.5t/ha.
Late last week I lost patience with the slow ripening of the Tetradur durum wheat. I went through with a pre-harvest application of glyphosate at 1 litre/ha, increasing the dose to 3 litres/ha on patches of couch grass. Hopefully we will harvest it before any more rain as Hagberg is a here today, gone tomorrow affair with durum wheat. I think my neighbours reckon I get a kick out of walking this particular tightrope!
Last month I took the persuasive advice of Sherriff Crop Cares David Sheldon and booked the best part of next seasons AN. Looking at todays and predicted prices, that seems a prudent decision but only time will tell.
Budgets are a high priority at this time of year and "what if questions abound. In the past year the cropping budget was revised downwards twice and upwards once.
However, cashflow seems to be running to forecast thanks to pool marketing on the bulk of crop. *
Both budgets and yields have been an up and down affair at Ouse Bank Farm, says Beds grower Stephen Bumstead.