Milling:feeding ratio stays
Milling:feeding ratio stays
WITH 150mm (6in) of rain in one week in July wrecking seed and milling wheat quality, Mr Payne has been reluctant to increase his area of breadmaking types.
"We are sticking to about one-third milling, two-thirds feed."
Main change, apart from having to buy in all the wheat seed, is a switch from Hereward to potentially higher yielding Abbot. "I know it did not have a very good year, but it is being recommended as a replacement."
Reaper, possibly cheaper to grow, joins Brigadier on half the feed area, Hunter being dropped. "We grew one field of Reaper last year. It never looked very good but it still did 4t/acre." Effective fungicides and the absence of rust in the region mean Brigadier, with similar yield potential, retains its place.
"We have saved none of our own wheat seed this year. After hunting around we managed to buy it all guaranteed as coming from East Anglia, where they had some very good quality."
Only the barley, all Gaelic once again and combined before the downpour, is home-saved. Other high-yielding and possibly malting varieties will be considered next year, he says. "But it is going into a field with a lot of blackgrass and there seemed little point in putting C1 seed for home-saving the following year into a dirty field."
After several years, winter beans, Target, are being brought back to join spring type Victor. "They help spread the workload and are less drought-prone."
Apex remains his oilseed rape of choice for the industrial set-aside crop. But Contact, which merits similar husbandry but may yield slightly more, is being tried on the commercial area.
Plenty of moisture means both crops, sown at 6.2kg/ha (5.5lb/ acre), have established well and herbicide tactics are on hold. "Last years Apex had no fungicide or herbicide, apart from a desiccant, and still gave 26cwt/acre."
he notes.
Last seasons wheat trial, testing sowing rates of 250, 300 and 375 seeds a sq m, was inconclusive. "There was no difference in disease or yield. But I am still not tempted to drop too low."
This years rate is about 400/sq m. "Our aim is to get slightly more plants with fewer tillers to offset spring droughts. Seed is one of our cheapest inputs, and I am prepared to risk a bit of mildew to help counter slugs and frost heave."
Easily achieved seed-beds have offset some of the harvest gloom for Richard Payne.