Jean-Charles Renaudat
Jean-Charles Renaudat
Jean-Charles Renaudat
farms 560ha (1384 acres)
of brash land 300km south
of Paris. Continuous wheat
has recently been replaced
by a wide range of
combinable crops
COMBINES are back in our area. Temperatures up to 38C (100F) during the second half of June and no rain since the beginning of the month made for an early start to harvest.
The first winter barley results I have heard are good, from 7t/ha to 8.8t/ha (2.8-3.6t/acre) with 70% above the 2.5mm sieve.
First yield reports for oilseed rape are disappointing, with some as low as 0.8-2t/ha (6-16cwt/acre) due to strong phoma attacks.
Co-operatives are paying an initial k73/t for barley delivered to store, k80/t for wheat and k183/t for oilseed rape. For the cereals, little top-up payment can be expected. Generally local grain merchants are bullish about oilseed rape but bearish about cereals, at least up to October/November. After that much will depend on Ukrainian and Russian crops.
I wonder if spraying expensive fungicides on such low priced crops is still economical. And is it is still an economical decision to spray against fusarium and mycotoxins? The danger is that this market with its excessively low prices will lead to the next food scandal.
Our own oilseed rape was not yet fully ripe at the end of June. Winter rye is still standing and seems promising but this kind of crop is difficult to evaluate because of its height. Straw quantity is not always proportional to grain quantity.
On the second farm, Apache continuous winter wheat will be ready by mid-July with an expected yield of 7-7.5t/ha.
In June, my partner and I went to Regina in Canada for a farm show and to visit some suppliers for our machinery business. It is almost an annual trip so we have seen agriculture there evolve in a farm subsidy-free environment.
Compared with 1977, when I first travelled there as an agricultural college trainee, the number of farms in the region has decreased by about 75%. All those still in business have a similar survival recipe: No borrowing, no till or low till and lots of hard work on a flexible rotation. *