FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Ian Crawford
Ian Crawford farms 570ha
(1425 acres) of rented
ground from Ashley Hall,
Altrincham, Cheshire,
growing crisping and
pre-pack potatoes, milling
wheat, oilseed rape and
beans. He also owns and
manages 2000ha (5000
acres) of mainly arable
land in Australia
HARVEST is well underway here in Cheshire and it looks like we could be in for a long campaign. The last wheats will not be fit before the second week of September even with glyphosate.
Oilseed rape yield was the worst ever, yielding less than 1.9t/ha (15cwt/acre), but so far winter wheat is a whole lot better. Today Shamrock was yielding 9.3t/ha (3.75t/acre) but with slight sprouting in the ear it could be downgraded to feed. The straw is making £35/acre in the swath behind the combine.
Field conditions are moist to say the least so the irrigators have been brought home and we have had to replace the row crop wheels on the back of the Fastrac sprayer with 16in wide tyres to stay afloat on the moss land potatoes. The crop is thankfully blight free except for a trial area of Saxon which has had to have special attention where traces of blight were found on leaf tips.
I look forward to the BPC potato event early next month, to talk in more detail about its future. I believe if growers cant vote to get it scrapped then growers must get involved.
Our local BPC council member has been a great instigator in getting change within the organisation. Growers must be in the driving seat and demand how their money is spent.
We have now applied to join FABBL for our crop assurance. I was very impressed by their helpfulness, realism and reduced charges. Now, I dont feel we have been ripped off like we were with the other lot.
The canola and lupins are in full flower over in Australia. It is still some time to harvest but all the signs are looking good. Rain has fallen gently and at the right time, pests and diseases are absent so far and commodity prices look good. Fingers crossed!
Its right what they say about optimism – its infectious, a quick phone call to Oz most mornings does wonders for my mood. *
John Jeffrey
John Jeffrey runs two
tenanted farms in
partnership with his father
from Kersknowe, near Kelso
in the Scottish Borders.
Two-thirds of the 730ha
(1800 acres) is arable,
growing seed potatoes, oilseed rape, wheat and
winter and spring barley
ITS called Sods Law. As soon as the combine gets to the gate of the first field we get 30mm (1.2in) of rain.
Despite these irregular downpours, harvest is now well under way and even some of next years crop is already in the ground. Winter oilseed rape looked well all year and achieved a pleasing 3.75t/ha (30 cwt/acre), although the winter barley disappointed at about 6.8t/ha (2.7t/acre). Straw was almost non-existent and the bales were shifted off the field pronto before anybody could count them. Im obviously doing something wrong as one of my neighbours reported an average winter barley yield of 10t/ha (4t/acre) in this publication.
Spring barley on the lighter farm is finished and yielded similar to the winter barley with nitrogen about 1.6%. Moisture was 15-18%, low for us, and the merchant didnt mention screenings which is always a good sign. Quality samples deserve quality premiums but Im not holding my breath.
Wheat will be next on this farm before coming back to the home farm and larger areas of barley and wheat. Spring oilseed rape will follow, but gallons of glyphosate will be needed if it is to be combined before Christmas.
I have told the local machinery dealers that I intend to change combines this back end. The bait has been laid and I now await a flood of huge demonstrators.
During the wet weather I decided to take in some culture with an evening at the Edinburgh Festival and Fringe. At the end of a thoroughly enjoyable night out an advert for bus drivers on the back of a bus caught my eye. They were offering a £500 signing-on fee, £7.20/hr wages for a 35hour week and a further £500 loyalty bonus after one year. Even at 2am I worked out that was £14,000/year for a four-and-a-half day week with six weeks paid holiday. No weekend work, no worries to take home, a good wage and a pension. Why do I still want to farm? *
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
COMBINING is much more enjoyable when a test match makes it into the fifth day and it was great to see or rather hear Mark Butcher put them, the Aussies, to the sword at Headingly. However, with the Ashes still tightly held by the Australians no doubt several of Englands players will be discarded after this summers series with new blood being drafted in for next year.
Similarly some varieties have justified their selection this season and others have failed to impress. With harvest at a watershed – only January-sown or spring crops remain to be cut – there seems little correlation between planting date, condition and yield. Some of the wheat drilled in the best conditions proved the most disappointing and variety seems to have been the dominant factor in coping with the dreadful autumn.
The worst player on our team was Claire, averaging only 8.75t/ha (3.5t/acre). The surprise was that first and second wheat performed almost identically. Savannah also disappointed and certainly didnt live up to its "barn-filling" reputation doing only 9t/ha (3.6t/acre).
I have mentioned before my disappointment with the lackadaisical establishment of Jockey-treated Malacca. That concern has been justified. The sample looks pinched so I suspect quality will not compensate for a yield of about 8t/ha (3.2t/acre).
Consort has once again been the leading variety and, thankfully, the most widely grown. I have had several fields yield over 10.7t/ha (4.4t/acre) with a clean, bold sample.
In light of this seasons performance Claire and Malacca drop down the batting order while Xi19 and Deben will make their debuts. Consort will again be the mainstay.
Rain last night may delay the start of play at the Oval and combining at Thrales End Farm, but it was welcome for our oilseed rape, all of which is now drilled. The plough was left on the substitutes bench for that particular match and we used a disc, roll and drill pace attack. Escort is being grown throughout bar a 10ha (24 acre) trial of Royal. *
Jim Bullock
Jim Bullock farms 283ha
(700 acres) in partnership
with his parents and brother
at Mill Farm, Guarlford,
Malvern, Worcs. Two-thirds
is rented or contract farmed,
the rest owned. Cropping is
winter wheat, winter oilseed
rape and winter beans
IF we used yield-mapping systems, this years harvest would be throwing up all sorts of inconsistencies. Our yields are literally all over the place.
Well-drained land with a good soil structure has yielded on a par with the long-term farm average at about 8.1t/ha (3.2t/acre) but in poorer areas yields are below 6.2t/ha (2.5t/acre) reducing the years average to about 6.9t/ha (2.75t/acre).
To put a bit of joy into what would otherwise be a pretty dismal harvest the quality so far has been very good. Hereward has Hagbergs of 300, protein 14.5% and specific weight of 81kg/hl. We will need a good premium to make up for the poor yields.
Spring barley yields are up 100% this year. That is a bit of New Labour spin as it is the first time for donkeys years we have grown it! Actually average yield is about 5t/ha (2t/acre) so it will add a margin of about £125/ha (£50/acre) to land that would have otherwise been in "flooded" set-aside.
To-date all but 60t of wheat has had to be dried but only from 16-17% moisture. Had we not made the decision to desiccate everything with glyphosate we would still be waiting for some crops to mature and no doubt drying from up to 20%. With luck we should have wheat and the remaining spring barley finished by the end of the bank holiday weekend.
With the prospect of so much wheat being grown next year we made the decision to drill our land coming out of set-aside with oilseed rape. It was sown on Aug 20 into ideal conditions, germinated rapidly and is up in rows now. More will be sown into disced and rolled wheat stubbles this week with 30-40kg/ha of nitrogen to get it off to a flying start.
Lord Haskins remarks about day and night jobs caused much amusement in the locality. As arable farmers who really do need daylight, we will be seeking night-work to supplement our incomes. *