Drilling under way but seed-beds are variable
Drilling under way but seed-beds are variable
Drilling is in full swing at
Conyboro Farms, though
early seed-bed preparation
has been proving tricky.
Suzie Horne reports
ARABLE land at Conyboro Farms got some welcome rain this week, helping to ease cultivations and kick-start germination.
Linseed stubbles are proving the biggest challenge, says manager Duncan Rawson. Some of the ground worked for winter wheat before the rain, was disced and rolled three times and was still far from ideal.
"Theres the cost of working the land down with that extra pass, but on the other hand if we wait for the weather we could get caught, and its going in OK."
Drilling started on Sept 9, but seed-beds have varied from powder to clods even within the same field. "Where conditions were good we were going in at 250 seeds, but where they were poor we upped this to 300 seeds."
All varieties apart from Claire are farm-saved this season, using Dalgetys seed cleaning and dressing service. The bought-in Claire is being grown for seed for next year.
All seed has been dressed with Sibutol (bitertanol + fuberidazole). Consort also received Secur aphid dressing as a precaution against BYDV which hit early sown stands last year.
"It will give us eight weeks protection at a similar cost to spraying, but without the weather risk," says Mr Rawson.
As planned, rape has been dropped and winter oats introduced. Cropping is split between 149ha (368 acres) of winter wheat, 39ha (96 acres) of Gerald oats, 34ha (84 acres) of winter beans, and 12.5ha (31 acres) of peas. Uncropped set-aside will take 26ha (64 acres).
Germination test results on home-saved samples were promising, with Malacca at 95%, Abbot 97% and Consort 99%. Rialto is being dropped and replaced with Abbot apart from one field to use up surplus seed.
"I know its been a good wheat year, but the Abbot did 4t/acre in places," says Mr Rawson. Combining was a long process, starting two weeks earlier than last year and finishing a week later.
"As long as grain was below 20%, we cut it. It means we will incur extra drying charges, but our combine isnt huge for the acreage, and so we cant afford to sit back and wait."
In the dairy, August milk production fell below expectations for the first month since Mr Rawson came to the farm.
He hopes this is temporary, as the cows had been progressing well, with the rolling yield reaching 7469 litres in the year to the end of July, over 1000 litres more than the same time last year.
Not only does the dip have worrying financial implications for milk sales, it also complicates quota calculations.
"If we meet our predictions for milk production, then we need to lease in another 60,000 litres, but if the cows maintain the yield increases – currently running at 7% over prediction – then well need another 160,000 litres."
Dairy costings are now provided by SCATS and show rolling margin over purchased feed at £1255 a cow in the year to the end of July, compared with £1147 a year earlier. On a per litre basis it was 16.8p/litre against 17.76p/litre to July 1998.
Milk price at 20.015p/litre was more than 0.5p/litre lower this year, but the higher yields more than offset this, pushing output a cow from £1334 to £1495.
Mr Rawson is desperate to get maize into the cows diets now, but his silage plans have been put on hold by a complication in building work on three new silage pits.
This is particularly frustrating since he likes to cut maize by Sep 20 to ensure top quality and to limit damage to the farms heavy soils.
The straw shed promised for mid July has yet to materialise. Staff will have to haul straw from other yards yet again, pushing labour costs higher than expected.
The possibility of installing automatic scrapers has also had a setback. The profile of concrete in the passages at Conyboro means scrapers can only be fitted in three of the six passages.
FARM FACTS
• Conyboro Farms, in East Sussex, a 405ha (1002-acre) arable and dairy unit, farmed on five year contract by Sentry Farming.
• Land is mainly weald clay with a small strip of greensand.
• Arable crops -all first wheats this season, also winter beans, peas, oats.
• 230-cow dairy, yielding 7400 litres a cow in year to July 1999.
• Calving mainly June to September. Total dairy forage area of 122ha (302 acres).
• Five full-time staff, including manager.
Conyboro Farms yields 99
(t/ha)
Wheat
Consort 8.65
Malacca 8.50
Rialto 7.51
Abbot 8.97
Linseed 1.19
Peas 4.00
Beans 3.21
Oilseed rape 2.62