Archive Article: 2000/09/29
James Moldon
James Moldon manages the
220ha (550 acres) heavy
land Stanaway Farm, Otley,
Suffolk, for the Felix Thornley
Cobbold Agricultural Trust.
Crops include winter wheat,
barley, OSR, beans and
sugar beet
RAIN has finally fallen on this part of Suffolk allowing cultivation work to resume.
It is a difficult and stressful time of year here, as anyone who is experienced with trials work will understand. Not only are we trying to drill trials and commercial crops at the same time, but have to control the vermin and slugs which seem to home in on the trials area.
I am constantly aware that hundreds of farmers will walk the fields during the year, so there must be no mistakes. The wait for crops to emerge is agonising; Did the tramlining mechanism stick? Did a drill coulter block? Only time will tell.
After a slow start, Aug 30-sown wheat has started to move and should reach two leaves by the weekend. Increased management is essential on these crops as aphids are a problem and the volunteer oilseed rape is harbouring flea beetle, which is not good as the fields are surrounded by newly sown oilseed rape.
The positive side of early-sown wheat is the speed at which it can grow out of danger, but then so can the blackgrass. So far it has had 15kg/ha of Avadex Excel (tri-allate). Panther (ipu + dff) at 0.8 litres/ha and cypermethrin at 0.25 litres/ha with 2.5 litres/ha of liquid manganese will be next, followed by Hawk (clodinafop-propargyl + trifluralin) plus ipu once the blackgrass has emerged.
All oilseed rape established into stubble has received 30kg/ha of fertiliser and the Autocast looks promising, though a bit patchy in places. Fingers crossed it should be better than last year. Slug pellets continue to be applied where necessary, the problem is knowing when to stop.
Our first year of cultivation trials (Arable, Oct 29, May 12) is complete and we have some interesting results. Those will be reported in detail in FW later this autumn, but one message is clear: Your own farms costs and yield potential must be taken into account before considering changing your cultivation system. *
Drilling trials and crops that will be seen by hundreds of farmers is a stressful operation, says Stanaway Farm manager James Moldon (left).