Archive Article: 2000/09/29
Peter Hogg
Peter Hogg farms in
partnership with his brother
at Causey Park Farm, near
Morpeth, Northumberland.
Half the 450ha (1100 acre)
heavyland farm is in crops,
mainly winter wheat, barley
and oilseed rape, plus a few
potatoes
LAST month, you may remember, I asked for three damp days to get the newly sown oilseed rape off to a good start. Well, now it is definitely damp enough. Could it stop raining now? Please!
Harvest in Northumberland has become a source of pleasure only to those with masochistic tendencies. Hagbergs in the milling wheat have all but disappeared and trailers only half full of grain at 26% moisture are getting stuck in the mud. As of last weekend, we were about three-quarters of the way through the wheat, which is averaging 7.5t/ha (3t/acre).
It was grown from home-saved and home-dressed seed with varieties, Herewerd and Riband, that attract no royalties. The only purchased input applied in the autumn was a half dose of ipu and as all the fields had either received a covering of muck from the cattle sheds or had the previous harvests straw incorporated no P and K was applied either.
Spring nitrogen was spread as needed up to a maximum of 200kg/ha (160 units/acre) and a full rate of Duplosan (mecoprop-P) applied to complete the weed control. A half dose of chlormequat and one and a half doses of the better triazoles completed the programme. No expensive strobs were used.
Have I got it right? I am not sure, but with wheat at £60/t I am going to have to wait a bit longer for that new Alfa-Romeo.
The rain has done the trick on the min-till sown oilseed rape, which is up and growing without the need for slug pellets or an insecticide so far. I can only think that the large number of spiders surviving the min-till system have eaten all the flea beetles. Maybe there is a middle way between the blanket chemical treadmill and the silly extremes of the Soil Association.
At the two-leaf stage the crop was sprayed with a quarter rate of Falcon (propaquizafop) to take out cereal volunteers, but I have just spied cleavers in one field. Oh dear, more expense. *
"You know that rain I ordered… Well, could you turn the taps off now please?" says Northumberland grower Peter Hogg.