Twitter: @russbmckenzie
Biog: Russ farms 750ha, spread over 17 miles and four units, between Cambs and Beds. He grows predominantly first wheats (mostly for seed) with winter barley, oilseed rape, spring beans and spring barley. He describes himself as not form a farming family, but as having loved everything about farming since a very young age, starting with a harvest job on a local farm when he was 13. He graduated from Writtle College with a BSc in Agriculture and then took on a trainee manager’s position with Albanwise Farming in Norfolk. Russ is BASIS and FACTS qualified and is a partner in his wife’s family farming business which he jointly manages along with John Sheard Farms. He has recently undertaken a Nuffield Farming scholarship, sponsored by AHDB, researching how the best no-till practitioners across the world manage to make the system work in both the wettest and driest of conditions which took him to Australia, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, USA, Brazil and Argentina. “I love being involved in such a fantastic industry and outside of work I am along suffering England Cricket fan, husband and father to two lovely (sometimes) children!” Oh and he’s an avid Tweeter!
No-till Nuffield study influences farming approach
Things have changed on the farm following my Nuffield, the market price situation and blackgrass.
Our oilseed rape area has been reduced for three reasons – the move to a more balanced rotation, because we felt it wasn’t helping with blackgrass control and because the current prices have resulted in diminishing returns for what is an expensive crop to grow. However, we have looked to increase premiums by growing HOLL rape for this coming autumn alongside some of our stable hybrid varieties like Extrovert & Harper.
There has been an increase in our milling wheat acreage with Skyfall bringing feed wheat performance along with full milling specification. When prices are lower, the added benefits of the milling premiums comes in to greater focus. The disease profile of our varieties is very much based on cleaner ratings to minimise the risk of delayed spray timings.
Our winter barley area has increased slightly. Hyvido Volume is taking up the area that was previously planted to second wheats – it has brought good crop competition against the blackgrass. We will also grow more spring barley this coming season in the more difficult situations following a solid spring performance this year.
Our use of cover crops will increase significantly this autumn, having seen the benefits of better over winter water management, crop structure and nutrient capture for the following spring crop. We still have areas where we have to be aggressive in our approach to reducing blackgrass and so ploughing and delayed drilling features for some of the areas. But for other parts of the farm, reducing the cultivation depth based purely based on soil condition has become important.
Certainly following my Nuffield travels it became increasingly apparent that no-tillage was potentially the most robust and reliable system for coping with both very dry and very wet conditions. Understanding the mind-set of some of the best no-tillers I met was very revealing and, although it might be easy to say, patience waiting for the right soil conditions, was one of the most critical factors between success and failure.
There were a whole series of different facets determining the success of using no-tillage, but everywhere I went, two factors were pivotal to it working – the retention and increase of organic matter; something that is almost impossible to achieve with intensive tillage. If the hype is to be believed that there are only 100 harvests left in our soils, then the momentum for adopting no-tillage in this country is leading us in the right direction.
Here is the link to download Russell McKenzie’s Nuffield Scholarship Report, Success with No-Till – Under any Conditions.
CropTec 2016:
Want to find out more about No-till, Black-grass and your cropping choices for 2017, make sure to visit CropTec 2016.
In addition to the free advice on offer in CropTec’s topical and technical seminars, there will be numerous exhibitors you can talk to find ideas, inspiration and answers on everything from crop protection and nutrition to plant breeding and soil management in one place, at one time.
CropTec is FREE for farmers and Agronomists to attend. You MUST pre-register here to ensure you receive your free ticket.
General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.
This young man has produced the kind of report that needs to be read ,studied & used by all forward-thinking farmers that consider the soil to be important to their food production.
ReplyDeleteNot only this it needs reading so as to change the mindset of ALL Agricultural Engineers because its implications about the kind of farm tractor & Ag-implement combinations [Trailed seeders,trailed spreaders,trailed sprayers and crop-trailing from the combine harvester] are very far reaching.
They reach too, the design of not only the change from "HEAVY & SLOW "tractors To "light & fast tractors" and ,for example Draught control is NOT now needed in no-till,the engine`s duty cycle is not similar to that created for the older ploughing -based structure,the entire transmission needs also to be very different with the skid-unit now unnecessary and a whole lot more.......such as the introduction of a chassis & suspension systems ......BECAUSE the no till farm work is much less and can ,because of its nature,,be conducted in-fields & out of fields much more quickly and therefore much more productively..!!
Whilst this very valuable INTERNATIONALLY focused report on CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE {CA} centres on farmers USING zero-tillage [ means no plowing,no secondary cultivation and ONLY sub-soiling when dry.....prior to introducing & preparing for Zero-Tillage [explained so well by Dr Vic Jordan of Long Ashton ],is quite excellent it ALSO covers resistance to change,soil biology and the importance of the " spade."......which Tony Reynolds & John Cherry demonstrate with in their two very interesting farms.[TR is at Thurlby Grange & John Cherry is at Weston Park in Herts.{ Reading University graduate } that demonstrates the excellence of the Reading University, 6th Hugh Bunting lecture,authored by ECAF-FAO-focused Professor Amir Kassam.
This farmer { RUSSELL} has produced a very well written report,published by the Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust and since Nuffield Farming Scholars are available to speak & present their work at NFU branches ,It will be interesting to see if the Cheshire-based NFU invites Russell to present in 2016??
Certainly our Universities at Cranfield Harper-Adams & Royal Ag. University will gain enormously from this valuable & progressive report but it is to be hoped that our Technical colleges will also invite Russell to speak and I shall be looking at Rycotewood,Askham Bryan, Reaseheath,Myerscough college and others in order for the Ag.& AG-Eng. lecturers to be brought within this very new kind of agriculture that our Ag.Engineers & BRITISH farmers have largely misunderstood......and particularly when mixing up Min-till with ZERO-tillage..!!!
One of the most useful parts of this report is its INTERNATIONAL focus and ,since the USA`s no-till newsletter is over 40 years old this year................it will be appreciated that there are over 25 serious FRENCH farming situations working hard in the direction of ZERO--Tillage , with APAD working toward CA-Zero-tillage as part of their affiliation to ECAF .....which has its administration at Cordoba University in Spain.
.
Thank you Russell Mckenzie for a most interesting report and,of course,congratulations to you......even if you left out all those vast changes we, IN UK , will have to learn about ,because of NO-Till,but which really does substantially affect John Deere,Agco,Fiat as well as a whole pile of DRILL designers [MINIMUM SOIL DISTURBANCE] like Amazone and,of course ,the important NEED to move AWAY from MOUNTING Ag-Implements on the Tractor and toward higher speed trailed & lightweight sprayers,spreaders..................for soil-compaction reasons but also to increase Labour & machinery productivity and reduce the amount of fossil-fuels used.......all key matters that follow from Russell`s report .
Graham A.B.Edwards.ECAF-Author & CEO & co-Founder Trantor Tractors.