Into the lions den…
No till, no delay
No-till drilling is an effective way to get the crop in early, according to one Lincolnshire grower. Tom Allen-Stevens finds out.
WHILE most growers spent the latter half of September cursing the weather, Lincoln-shire farmer and no-till drill enthusiast Paul Sheardown was sitting back watching the warm wet weather bring his crops through. For him, early drilling is the main driving force behind going down the no-till drill route.
"We wanted to get reliable seedbeds in early September, and the best way to ensure adequate moisture is not to disturb the soil more than you have to," maintains Mr Sheardown, who farms 330ha of arable land with his father on the Duke of Rutlands Belvoir estate near Grantham, along with a further 50ha owned by the family.
They have been following minimal tillage systems for 10 years, finding they can produce perfectly adequate seedbeds for their early-drilling system with fewer passes preceding a Moore drill. Three years ago the first oilseed rape crop was direct drilled into stubble on their blue lias clay. Now everything is no-till drilled with a Kuhn SD4000 pneumatic, except 50-60ha of rotational mole-ploughing.
Mr Sheardown is clear on what the issues are: "There are three key factors you have to master if this system is to work for you: compaction, trash and weeds."
They are almost obsessive when it comes to compaction. Every machine runs at below 10psi ground pressure, excepting the row-crop wheels on the sprayer. The ground pressure rules even include the combine, while grain trailers are excluded from entering the field. At harvest time, a home-made chaser bin (with Terra tyres, of course) ferries the grain from combine to grain cart, without the need for downtime during emptying.
The emphasis is on preserving the precious soil structure, which lies at the heart of a successful no-till drill system. "If you dont disturb the soil, you maintain the cracks – its natural drainage channels – so it can handle the rain much better. Were hoping the direct drilling is creating a soil structure that will encourage root growth, with the eventual aim being to reduce the need to subsoil."
Soil management, as well as yield improvement, is also behind their early drilling date. "If the soil surface is wet, there could be a real danger of compaction. We aim to drill 30-40ha/day when conditions are perfect; once you get into October, you cant be sure that youre actually going to get the right conditions. Thats why were keen to get the job done in the first two weeks of September."
Trash control is the second key feature of Mr Sheardowns system. It starts with variety choice for the preceding crop favouring short, stiff-strawed varieties. Growth regulator is used on both the wheat and rape crops to ensure lodging is kept to a minimum and the crop grows no longer than is necessary.
Reduced trash
Mr Sheardown believes the combination of applying Folicur and 5C Cycocel on the rape knocks the height down by as much as a foot. He follows a simple 50:50 wheat/rape rotation. "Its dead easy to drill rape into the wheat stubble and wheat after the rape," he states.
The type of combine also ties in with the need to reduce trash. "We have a Case axial flow combine that spreads the straw and chaff very well. The trash has to lie very evenly, otherwise the crop simply wont come through. Just a little bit of wind at harvest can affect the distribution."
The Sheardowns have made very careful choices of drill over the last few years. Once they established that they wanted to direct drill early, they considered making their own drill with a metering system based a Herriau precision drill, in order to drill accurately at a low seed rate. They settled in the end on the Kuhn because of its ability to handle trash.
"Theres nothing that can block with this drill: with 18cm row spacing, itll virtually pass through a hedge. You get good results as long as you start off with a firm, even seedbed; the drill wont do any levelling of soil, so if required, this must be done beforehand," advises Mr Sheardown.
Slugs are a major problem with no-till drilling, and Mr Sheardown has quite a comprehensive strategy to tackle them. A half rate of mini-pellets are applied shortly after harvest, with another half rate following the drill. This is topped up as and where required, so that some areas will receive as many as four half doses of mini-pellets.
Keeping a lid on weeds is the third key feature of Mr Sheardowns system. Again, he and his father are almost obsessive about keeping grass weeds off the farm. "Grass weeds frighten us. Weve had no incidents of herbicide resistance and certainly dont want any."
The strategy they follow is to clobber the grass weeds in the oilseed rape with Falcon (propaquizafop) followed by Carbetamex (carbetamide), which takes the pressure off control in the cereal crop. A standard autumn programme of IPU and Trifluralin is used in the wheat, with Quantum (tribenuron-methyl) sometimes mixed in for rape volunteers and chickweed.
In the spring, Ally (metsulfuron-methyl) and Starane (fluroxypyr) take out any remaining broadleaved weeds and cleavers, but no graminicides are used. Mr Sheardown points to the fact that the widespread use of graminicides has brought about resistance. Instead, he and his father walk the fields with a knapsack sprayer full of glyphosate.
"We make three trips in the spring. On the first we use the knapsack to spot-treat patches of blackgrass. Second time round we rogue wild oats and any blackgrass we missed first time round. Finally, shortly before harvest, we come through pulling the last of the wild oats."
Out of crop, a pre-drilling application of glyphosate is essential, and Mr Sheardown aims to put it on no more than a week prior to drilling. "At £2/litre glyphosate does a better job of controlling weeds and costs less than a pass with the power-harrow," he claims.
The result of no-till drilling, Mr Sheardown believes, is greater yields, as well as lower costs. They have had the chance to compare the system on a part of the farm where sandy loam overlies the blue clay. "Two of three fields were direct-drilled, while the third was conventionally cultivated into wheat after linseed. The conventional field looked beautiful all the way through, but yielded half a tonne less." He admits this could be down to any number of factors, but is certain that the structure of these soils has improved since adopting no-till drilling.
The practice has earned him a reputation as a bit of an innovator among the other more traditional growers in the area. Although his results speak for themselves, Mr Sheardown has occasionally been ribbed by others comparing his stubble-ridden crops to their neat-and-tidy lines of green on brown. "But it spurs me on: you know everyones looking on, so you cant afford to make mistakes."
Trash: the stubble is kept as long as possible, which helps to keep pigeons off the rape but attracts nuisance of a diferent kind; horse and motorcycle riders dont realise that the field has to be drilled and can do a tremendous amount of damage.
Weeds: rape volunteers are burned off before the drill goes in.
System Details Cost (/ha)
Conventional Plough & press, power-harrow, roll, drill, roll £130
Minimal Disc x2, straight-tined harrow, roll,
spray, drill, roll £115-130
No-till drill Spray, drill, roll £50-60
NB. cost of chemical (glyphosate) included
Winter wheat weed control
Pre-drilling: glyphosate + wetter £5/ha
Autumn: IPU + Trifluralin £15-16/ha
or: Ditto + Quantum £21-22/ha
Spring: Starane + Ally £14.50/ha
GM crops take the limelight
RECOGNISE this crop? Ten marks for recognising soybean – with a bonus point if you said its a GM variety. Not that its GM parentage can be distinguished by eye.
This soybean variety happens to be GM Roundup Ready, so is tolerant of glyphosate, but it looks exactly the same as any other conventional variety. It also has exactly the same feed qualities and composition, in both oil and meal, according to a long line-up of US government testing agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture. Thats why GM soya has been readily accepted, without a murmur, by US consumers. But the US endorsement doesnt convince all those in the EU.
Into the lions den…
So it takes a brave man to admit to growing GM crops these days. But US soybean grower Jerry Slocum is undeterred. Hes coming to speak at the Crops Conference, Chilford Halls, Cambridge on 23 November in his official role with the US United Soybean Board.
Hell be talking about why US consumers are happy with GM crops, and about the scale of the uptake of new technology. Hell also comment on the role of the next generation of biotech crops, which will offer enhanced output traits – such as better nutritional profiles.
• For conference registration details, see the back cover of this issue.
US soya facts
• Its a major crop, grown on a quarter of the US arable area
• More than half is in the GM variety Roundup Ready
• Half the US soybean is exported, either as raw beans or processed meal and oil
• Prices are at an all time low. US growers can expect about $4.50/bushel, which at a yield of 40 bushels/acre (2.7t/ha) generates the equivalent of just £268/ha in crop sales