FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
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, linseed
and sugar beet
BEET contractors R & J Self arrived in the yard on Nov 6, and despite difficult conditions I was pleased to see them. A week later, after a further 37mm (1.5in) of rain I was not so sure.
Barry was left the unenviable task of tackling the resulting battle zone and with the help of several frosts, the ground is now ploughed and drilled with Charger wheat. Winter beans are also in, spinning on Target at 150kg/ha (1.2cwt/acre) before ploughing them down. A pass with the power-harrow, again in frosty conditions, has left the ground ready for simazine.
The beet yielded 75.6t/ha (30.6 t/acre) of adjusted tonnage, just down on last years 76.8t/ha (31.1 t/acre), despite sugars being a shade up at 18.2% to last years 18.1%.
Virtually all Avadex (tri-allate) and autumn spraying is complete, and it has been a season to be grateful for having wide low ground pressure tyres. Despite the ground being very tacky in places the wide footprint has left little damage.
As practical work draws to a close for the autumn, more time is dedicated to farm talks. These started with the Environment Agency visit at the beginning of November, followed by Strutt & Parkers technical day which was a success despite bitter weather.
Most recently I spoke to fifty French farmers on behalf of LEAF. They were visiting with a French agricultural co-operative called CAPS and had surprising knowledge of up to date precision farming techniques. I think we achieved a good level of understanding, albeit with some interesting hand signals.
In an interesting first autumn at Stanaway Farm, I rapidly learned how quickly heavy land can turn to porridge. Some 200mm (7.9in) of rain has fallen between August and the end of November. Now that all the crops are in and Morleys trials look well, along with Simba and Monsantos Eco-Tillage trials I can look forward to 1999. It is a long way to harvest, but it promises some interesting results.
Bill Harbour
Bill Harbour, last years
southern barometer farmer,
is manager for Gosmere
Farm Partners at 448ha
(1107-acre) Gosmere Farm,
Sheldwich, Faversham,
Kent. Crops include wheat,
barley, oilseed rape, peas
and beans plus
cherries under Countryside
Steward scheme
WHEAT drilling finished on the weekend of Nov 21/22, into some of the best seedbeds of the season with blue sky, sunshine and a bitterly cold wind.
Beans have been metered on with an old drill box and ploughed down. The field will be levelled off before spraying, possibly with a return to Carbetamex (carbetamide) instead of a simazine/bentazone (Basagran) sequence. That has such a narrow window in the spring and the Carbetamex does have some cleaver control.
At last the problems with the new Case MX135 tractor seem to be sorted out, thanks to our dealers Agwood and a couple of visits from Case themselves. It was a shame that this latest tractor should have had faults when the previous three have been so good. We even have a 1973 IH454 in everyday use by the gamekeeper.
I fear that our problems with electrical bits on the Case are to be found on most new bits of kit.
Although we like some of the advantages, the fact is the dust – especially fertiliser dust – chemicals and vibrations of agricultural use do not go well with delicate electrical installations.
The possible downgrading of milling wheat Abbot is a blow, especially as only one miller seems to be having trouble with it. It is notable how quickly they all discounted it by £3 to other Group I varieties. Another rip-off I fear, as we all know that Group I wheats are mixed with hard feed. I am glad that ours is on contract and so is the 60ha (148 acres) for next harvest.
After over a years work, I am pleased to say I have passed my National Vocational Qualification. Along with 18 farmers and managers I have gained a Management Charter Initiative NVQ level 4 in Land Based Management. Many thanks to our tutor, Nick, who has been only an e-mail away in Suffolk throughout the course.
Last week 13 of us started a Fertiliser Advisers Certification and Training Scheme (FACTS) course. We do love training here in Kent!
Mike Cumming
Mike Cumming is manager at
Lour Farms, Ladenford Forfar,
Angus, where spring
malting barley and seed
potatoes occupy about half
the 749ha (1850 acres).
Other crops include winter
wheat, barley and oats,
oilseed rape, swedes and
grass
POTATO lifting was finally completed Nov 7, the last 13ha (32 acres) taking 18 days to complete. As the campaign progressed rules gained through experience about when conditions were acceptable to lift were gradually abandoned one by one. By the last week we had two tractors pulling the harvester, trailers fighting to stay alongside and work rates down to 0.8ha/day (2 acres/day).
With potatoes lifting is only half the battle. The storage period is just beginning and I am sure the effects of the long wet season will inevitably show up in the months ahead. Still, I must not grumble; 80% of the stocks were lifted before the worst of the weather and the seed price is for once reflecting the efforts of growers.
Sharp frosts in late October did damage any tubers on the surface but those in the drill seem to have come through remarkably well. Drying the crop was the biggest problem and in an effort to aid the process we bought a Pirie box drying system. That sucks air through a stack of up to seventy boxes and left running for three days per batch makes a noticeable difference to stocks. I grudged the purchase price at the time but not now as it will aid storage without a doubt.
At the end of the day some 2678t were lifted, at an average 45t/ha (18.2t/acre) which was better than expected.
In the last week of November we actually managed to drill 40ha (100 acres) of wheat after early lifted spuds. That takes the total up to 81ha (200 acres), only 16ha (40 acres) less than intended. The Amazone RPD tyre-packer drill worked well in sticky conditions direct behind the plough. But we have never drilled this late before and I do wonder if I should have left the seed in the bag.
As for spraying, no cereal herbicides have been applied to date and the conditions mean we shall have to go with a spring programme now.
Leonard Morris
Leonard Morris is tenant at
206ha (510-acre) White
House Farm, South Kyme
Fen, Lincoln. His heavy land
grows winter wheat and
oilseed rape and spring peas
and linseed. Lighter ground
is cropped with potatoes,
spring rape and linseed
WE HAVE had a drier month, recording no rain on six days and only 48mm (1.9 in) in total. Despite that, ground conditions have not improved enough for any more drilling and only one field of wheat has been sprayed.
That was on Nov 23, with a tank-mix of 2.5 litres/ha Hawk (clodinafop-propargyl + trifluralin), 20g/ha Lexus (carfentrazone-ethyl), mineral oil and 0.25 litres/ha of cypermethrin. The main target is blackgrass which is developing rapidly, combined with control of chickweed, speedwells, deadnettle and cleavers. Spraying conditions were ideal for a change, although it was wetter underfoot than I would normally like. However, blackgrass control must take priority at present.
Draza (methiocarb) at 5.5kg/ha (4.9 lb/acre) was applied to part of the oilseed rape field at the beginning of November to try to control a rampaging slug population. The hybrid variety seems to be suffering a lot more than the conventional type, but it is difficult to say whether this is due to the lower plant population showing the damage more, or whether the slugs actually prefer it.
November brought all sorts of weather, from gales that blew the anemometer apart, to the first frosts of the season, and even an occasional thunderstorm.
During one of these, our Australian trainee Jason and myself were checking an oil leak at the back of the tractor. As I stood on the rear linkage arms with my arm under the back plate checking a ram I received a hefty electric shock along my arm. I could both hear and feel the sparks jumping from the machine to my hand but my exclamation that accompanied this sensation was lost in a clap of thunder. Jason, who was stood next to the tractor, said that he had seen the lightning strike the machine.
I have never experienced anything quite like that before, and it makes you wonder what would have happened if I had been stood directly on the ground. Fortunately I wasnt, and Jason, myself and the tractor dont seem to have suffered unduly from our shocking experience.