Speedy dressing guide
Speedy dressing guide
A SCOTTISH farmer hopes a new French test kit will help him assess winter oilseed rape nitrogen needs more accurately this season.
Gordon Rennie plans to use the Reglette Azote Colza, developed by Cetiom, Frances national agency for the crop. It was produced to help stave off nitrogen quotas as imposed in the Netherlands and Denmark by showing government how farmers target N applications.
Using the £10 kit involves an early inspection to see how closely the crop matches four representative pictures or weighing foliage samples from one square metre. The assessments are then matched to application rates on a slide rule.
"I appreciate the tool has been developed and calibrated in France for French farmers," says Mr Rennie. "However, the same basic principles apply in Scotland and I intend to make revisions, if necessary, for Fife growers.
"Ill be using the Cetiom tool to determine nitrogen requirements and make adjustments on a varietal and field basis. It will even give me the opportunity to spatially vary nitrogen application rates, without a satellite, simply because it requires that ultimate tool, the farmers foot."
Nitrogen is oilseed rapes most important input, he believes. "Ive had crops which received sufficient N go on to yield 5t/ha."
With broad brush RB209 and similar advice there is a risk that crops with that potential may not get enough N, while those with lower prospects will receive over-doses, he maintains.
The regions varied soils and climate mean soil N testing is little help, he adds.
Could a French guide to fertilising oilseed rape improve nitrogen usage?Scottish farmer and adviser Gordon Rennie believes it could.