WHEAT GROWER CHALLENGE
WHEAT GROWER CHALLENGE
Two difficult seasons in
succession have tested cereal
growers resources to the
extreme. Peter Grimshaw
reports on the winner of the
farmers weekly/PBIC Wheat
Grower Challenge 2001
RAPID and deft response to crop needs and maximising every input pays for David and James Hinchliffe, whose family farming partnership at Hinchliffe Farms, Rawcliffe Bridge, East Yorks totals 475ha (1174 acres).
Each field is treated individually, based on constant observation. Both brothers are FACTS qualified, members of the BASIS Professional Register and former qualified seed crop inspectors and licensed seed samplers, as well as Arable Research Centre members.
They are their own agronomists, and buy inputs on tender. The farm also hosts trial sites for BASF, Cropwise and Woodhead Seeds. It gained BASIS/LEAF certification for integrated crop management in 1998, and that is the approach underpinning environmental policy.
David Hinchliffe, the winner of the FW/PBIC Wheat Grower Challenge 2001, sees it as his job to ensure harvest fulfills the innate promise of the original seed. "It has its full potential when sown. Everything happening after that reduces potential yield."
Canopy control
The aim is 600 fertile tillers/sq m and a disease-free crop canopy. Heavier land must be drilled by mid-September, starting with first wheats at 200 seeds/sq m (based on 1000 grain weight), or possibly fewer in particularly favourable conditions. Canopy management starts at drilling, says Mr Hinchliffe. "What you have got in spring is what you are stuck with."
Weather is the most potent subsequent factor, he believes, although delayed N may help. PGR is used with caution. "If its cold, you have wasted your time."
Moddus (trinexapac-ethyl + chlormequat) may be used at low dose, later rather than earlier, to shorten straw and reduce the leverage effect of a filling head under wet, windy conditions.
The water-retentive, low-lying, level farm at Rawcliffe Bridge is in a single 325ha (803-acre) block and mainly Grade 1 warp. About five miles away, the rest is Grade 2 heavy clay.
Average rainfall is 570mm (22.5in) and the exposed area notches up some of Englands highest wind speeds, so transpiration rates are high.
Three generations of the family have established a reputation for cereal seed production. Commercial and seed wheat cropping accounts for around half a rotation, consisting typically of one or two wheats, followed by oilseed rape on the heavier land or spring breaks of peas, beans, linseed, linola or borage.
Mainstay variety for 2001 harvest is Consort, chosen for reliability and marketability. Charger does well in the second wheat slot, and because it stands best when sown later it fits the autumn workload. Claire is grown as a companion variety to Consort.
Target yields are 11t/ha (4.5t/acre) for first wheats – although 12t/ha (4.9t/acre) has been recorded in recent harvests – and 10t/ha (4t/acre) for second wheats.
The need to incorporate straw before second wheats means ploughing is most likely on the heaviest land, although different drilling systems are being compared in pursuit of reduced tillage wherever possible.
Indices of 2-3 for P & K mean top-up applications, based on an offtake/input balance sheet, can go on when convenient rather than to meet immediate crop needs. RB209 guidelines are followed throughout, with a four-yearly soil sample. High pH results in some P lock-up.
Nitrogen applications are based on position in the rotation, estimated crop potential equated with lodging risk, and an assessment of the impact of winter rainfall on residual soil nitrogen calculations. Typically, first wheats receive 200kg/ha, of nitrogen and second wheats 240kg/ha, timed to ensure benefits go to grain, not straw – mid-March for 30kg/ha on first wheats, perhaps double that on second crops. The 10-15 days in mid-April are judged the critical timing for the remaining N.
On a generally clean and pest-free farm, chemical savings can be made. Herbicide resistant blackgrass is the main weed on the heavy land. Standard approach is to use Avadex (tri-allate), followed by Hawk (clodinafop-propargyl + trifluralin) + Lexus (flupyrsulfuron-methyl), using fine spray nozzles, with care.
Few weed worries
The warpland has no major grass weed problem and no difficult broad-leaved weeds, cleavers in particular having been almost eliminated after many years of "zero tolerance" in seed crops.
A "totally reactive" approach to disease control is based on three-applications, at growth stages 31-32, 37-39 and 59, although each field is treated individually. The mix of products reflects crop variety and presumed need, with one eye constantly upon preventing resistance build-up by swapping tank mixed products.
From their own trials over the past four seasons, it appears that strobilurins may not always yield a profitable return on the warp land, provided crops have been kept clean by other means.
Pest control is generally confined to autumn aphid control and keeping on top of slugs with half-rate pellets applied to the stale seed-bed on the heaviest ground. *
Bank House Farm
Seed wheat gross (£/ha)
margin 2000
Basic seed 61.39
Fertiliser 74.63
Herbicide 19.54
Fungicide 48.54
Insecticide 3.20
Total costs 207.30
Output 10.5t/ha 756
C2 seed
Area aid 260
Gross return 1,016
Gross margin 808.70
Hinchliffe aims
A key goal is to develop systems of establishment that complement the farms soil type. Minimum tillage clearly resulted in drier over-winter and spring conditions than areas ploughed last autumn. The family plans to continue producing higher-yielding, highly marketable crops at least cost, but within best environmental practice. They are confident that can be achieved and that they will be able to compete with wheat growers anywhere in the world. A looming problem is mycotoxins in grain, says Mr Hinchliffe. "We need serious research on this. I am more worried about a public scare than by any EU limits."