Archive Article: 2001/02/23
Ian Pigott
Ian Pigott farms 690ha
(1700 acres) of owned,
rented, share-farmed and
contract-farmed land in
partnership with his father
from Thrales End,
Harpenden, Herts. Wheat,
oilseed rape, spring barley,
beans and peas are the main
crops on the flinty,
medium clay soils
LATE last week we were top-dressing oilseed rape in the morning sunshine and my frustrations over the weather earlier in the week seemed unfounded.
It had started raining at 7am on the Monday and by lunchtime the gauge was over the inch mark. Main roads that run either side of the farm were impassable, flooded with murky brown water resembling the Mississippi Delta, and to add insult to injury the murkiness was caused by topsoil washed off land I had drilled in the frost a fortnight earlier.
The top dressing was on an oilseed rape establishment trial. Lightly disced stubble had Escort spun on with the ATV and slug pelleter at 5kg/ha, then we consolidated with a set of rolls. But for the fact that ploughed and combination-drilled oilseed rape looks worse, we might be rather disheartened by the trial. However, there are adequate plants a sq m and to date it has cost us very little. A bonus is that the land will travel a day or two earlier than any of the other oilseed rape.
Most forward wheat was sprayed prior to the latest deluge of rain with either ipu plus trifluralin or a Hawk plus Lexus (clodinafop-propargyl + trifluralin plus flupyrsulfuron) tank-mix, depending on incidence of blackgrass. Of the remaining land, 15ha (40 acres) of unsprayed second wheat Malacca is rather backward. The seed was Jockey-dressed (fluquinconazole and prochloraz), which I estimate held the crop back two to three weeks, and rabbits have been very active in the field which butts up to the M1.
That makes the rabbits the responsibility of the highways department but experience tells me their response time is somewhat slower than a rabbits breeding and feeding routine. My own conventional control efforts havent got on top of the problem so, somewhat sceptically, I have sprayed a 5m strip around the headland with Grazers (calcium chloride solution). The theory is that the pungent odour deters the rabbits. With luck it will deter uninvited dog coursers too.
• More from Thrales End – p68.
Broadcast oilseed rape has the edge on ploughed and combination drilled crops on new Farmer Focus writer Ian Pigotts Herts-based Farm.