Scot to play it safe with N for Siberia
Scot to play it safe with N for Siberia
IN Scotland, experience suggests Siberia could make good use of up to 240kg/ha of N, says Mr Ramsay.
"But I am playing safe with 220 after white straw crops and 200 behind peas. I just dont want to give it the chance to go down."
Technical problems mean the Normalised Differential Vegetative Index aerial photography technique will not be available until after final top dressing for winter barley this season.
"It is disappointing, but we are still adjusting our latest dressings by eye through our GPS system." Well-tillered thin crops on potentially productive soil will probably get up to 40kg/ha extra. Very light land crops are unlikely to receive that boost.
In Ulster, where Mr Craig has switched to urea for top-dressing in the past three years, up to 138kg/ha (110 units/acre) is the plan for spring barley. "I am pushing it for 3t/acre."
Two-row winter barley on the home farm will receive only slightly more, say 156kg/ha (125 units/acre), to allow for a steady build up in soil fertility through use of FYM over the years, he says. "But we will probably go up to 160 units for the six-rows."
The NDVI survey will come too late to permit adjustments this season, he notes. "But I am still interested in it as a management back-up idea to inform me whether what I am doing is right."
Minor crop
Barley is a relatively minor crop on most of our other barometer farms. In the south, Simon Porter grows winter varieties mainly as an entry for oilseed rape. Poor contracts make spring types unattractive, says nephew Giles.