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Biog:  Matt mostly works as a contractor. He was Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year in 2014. He owns a small amount of tenanted land on which he grows continuous cereals due to limiting size – winter and spring cereals in rotation along with introduction of cover crops ahead of spring crops in 2015 in mid- Bedfordshire. When possible he carries out all spraying and application record keeping for family farm, 210ha – wheat, OSR and Beans – also in mid-Bedfordshire. He has sent close to 24,000 tweets and has over 4,000 followers.

Title: Protect actives, broaden rotations and focus on soil health

Like everyone, I hope that my farmed area increases, and that we can extend our rotation to include more spring crops, or a more varied range of crops, so that we can move away from the standard wheat, wheat, rape sequence that has been so prevalent over the last decade.

I’m certain that wider rotation and range of crops will help to improve soil health, as well as spread the workload. I’m also really keen to explore more use of direct drilling/zero tillage to reduce establishment time and costs.

We currently use a wide mix of cultivations – the standard approach for the last seven years has been non-inversion tillage, with some use of the plough when we needed a boost to blackgrass control. The land ahead of winter beans is always ploughed and power harrowed early, to help us create a stale seedbed ahead of drilling. Oilseed rape is predominantly sub-casted, although I have used a John Deere 750a zero-tillage drill for half of the area this year.

This autumn I’m also trialling some zero-till direct drilled wheat to limit soil disturbance, as well as some single pass, non-inversion ahead of the zero-till drill.

Our variety choice for wheat is Skyfall as a second wheat – new this year in an attempt to move away from Group 3s and to grow a milling wheat in the second wheat slot to add some extra premium. We’re looking at KWS Lili as a replacement for Target which we’ve grown for the last few years.

Oilseed rape choice will be Elgar, because it’s second on the RL list, but 3 year average including 2015 will bring it to highest yielding conventional on RL list. We also grow winter beans – Tundra – grown on a seed contract, a change from growing Wizard for the last few years after advice from agronomist. Plus we will drill the spring wheat – Mulika – a new addition to rotation for 2016, to allow late autumn or spring planting depending on conditions. My plan is to direct drill it into a standing cover crop.

Looking ahead, I’ve got a few areas of real concern; the threats of losing the crop protection products we use mean that we as farmers need to constantly find better ways to utilise the products we have and reduce the risk of resistance to them building up. We also need to be mindful of increased regulation and the need for compliance – for example NVZs and water pollution – if we fail to address these issues, then we are even more likely to lose more products.

Added to this, the constant pressure to reduce cost of production means it is vital that we find ways to produce more from less, so industry R&D into improving yields is a very important focus over the coming years. Linked to R&D, farm trials are vital for developing practical ideas for use on farm.

In the contracting sector one of my biggest headaches is finding good seasonal staff – they seem to be impossible to find because they need to have certification like PA accreditation.

CropTec 2015:

Matt is also speaking at this year’s CropTec event in the Careers forum, held on day 2 of the show read more.

Want to find out more about No-till, Black-grass and your cropping choices for 2016? make sure to visit CropTec2015.

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.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Philip Meadley of Grange Farm, East Yorkshire farms 600 acres. For the first time in a number of years, he will be planting 90-acres of spring crops as one of the approaches to tackle the resistant black-grass on his farm.

In 2013, ADAS tested his black-grass for herbicide resistance; the tests were funded by BASF as part of the company’s research into the growing spread of resistance in the country’s populations.

The weeds on his farm showed three different – and commonly encountered – types of resistance, Enhanced Metabolism Resistance (EMR), ACCase target site resistance (ACCase-TSR) and ALS target site resistance (ALS-TSR).

“You need to know what type of resistance you’re dealing with, and its severity if you are going to tackle this weed properly,” explains Louis Wells, BASF’s Yorkshire Agronomy Manager.

“Philip Meadley’s results show that resistance levels are still manageable on his farm, unlike many growers further south; so the very pro-active changes he is making to tackle the problem, should help in preventing black-grass becoming a bigger headache for him.”

EMR, or non-target site resistance, is the most common resistance found in black-grass and this can affect all herbicides.

“EMR is normally a partial resistance and increases slowly. Target site, or ACCase resistance affects the herbicide group known as ‘fop, dims and den’ herbicides and results in very poor control and increases rapidly in a black-grass populations. It is the same for the ALS herbicides such as Atlantis and Broadway products.”

Resistance test results are recorded by severity, where ‘S’ signifies that the black-grass is still susceptible to the herbicide and should lead to effective control. Whilst ‘R’ or ‘RR’ indicates that there is some level of resistance and ‘RRR’ means that there is significant resistance which will cause poor control from the herbicide.”

The resistance types on Mr Meadley’s farm are ALS S, ACCAse RR and EMR RR.

“The results are heartening and mean that there is still some opportunity for control from the main autumn herbicides if used along with using cultural control measures such as implementing stale seedbeds, late sowing and direct drilling,” Mr Wells added. “I would also recommend a pre-emergence application of Avadex followed by a flufenacet + pendimethalin-based product like Crystal + DFF.”

Philip Meadley said that he has used a number of different recommended measures to combat black-grass. “I’m now drilling wheat much later, on around the 28th of October, which has resulted in much less emerging black-grass. I have also completely dropped winter barley from the rotation, because it wasn’t possible to achieve sufficient levels of black-grass control.”

Mr Meadley had intended to take the extreme measure of spraying off any black-grass in the standing crop with glyphosate, but it was too late in the season to prevent seed return from flowering black-grass, “but I am quite prepared to this next season if I need to,” he said.

This “zero tolerance” practice, advocated by BASF, has been widely adopted in parts of the UK such as East Anglia, where the resistant black-grass situation is “dire” according to Louis Wells.

Going forward, Mr Meadley’s strategy will be to increase his spring cropping area further still. “In the past we had no spring crops at all; now we will have 15% of the area in spring wheat and rising.” He has also trialled cover crops and plans to drill some ahead of cereals in the rotation. “I’m also trialling direct drilling of both wheat and rape to determine the impact of different cultivations on levels of control in my farm situation.”

For further comment and information please contact:

Mike Thurogood Tel: 0161 488 5805 Email: michael.thurogood@basf.com

Louis Wells Tel 07770 846889 Email: louis.wells@basf.com

Jane Craigie, Tel 01466 780078 Email: jane@janecraigie.com

Crystal is registered trademarks of BASF. Atlantis is a registered trademark of Bayer. Avadex is a registered trademark of Gowan. Broadway Star and Sunrise are registered trademark of Dow AgroSciences. Atlantis contains iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium + mesosulfuron-methyl. Broadway Star contains florasulam + pyroxsulam. Broadway Sunrise contains pendimethalin + pyroxsulam. Crystal contains flufenacet and pendimethalin. Liberator contains flufenacet + diflufenican. Avadex contains w/w tri-allate. Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. For further product information including warning phrases and symbols refer to www.agricentre.basf.co.uk

CropTec 2015:

BASF are this year’s sponsors of our Crop Protection seminar and will also be holding a business breakfast meeting each day before the event. As well a a presentation from BASF, there will also be a presentation by Mr Sebastien Mallet from the leading international agricultural market intelligence company Offre et Demande Agricole (ODA). Topics covered will include: UK crop out-turn prices, global out-turns, planting predictions for 2016 and the possible impact on prices and opportunities for the 2016 season.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

While there is growing concern on the reducing number of crop protection products, Dow AgroSciences is previewing an active ingredient that will power the next generation of broad-leaved weed herbicides.  Designed to specifically meet UK market needs, this new class of herbicides will be the first output of Dow’s strong development pipeline.

Dow AgroSciences has a long heritage in producing innovative breakthroughs for UK agriculture. The current catalogue includes iconic brand names that have stood the test of time over decades, such as Dow Shield®, Kerb® and Starane®. Now a new active ingredient – Arylex® Active – is set to revolutionize this market again. From a new class of chemistry Arylex Active will provide a backbone for future broad-leaved weed herbicide solutions meeting all the requirements of UK Agriculture.

“We are very proud of what Arylex Active will bring to farmers striving to meet the demands of operating in modern agriculture,” said Alex Nichols, cereal herbicides marketing manager for Dow AgroSciences UK. “With a wide spectrum of weeds controlled, no rotational implications, outstanding reliability in  the UK’s unpredictable weather conditions and no cross-resistance, it is easy to get excited by its strengths.”

Dow envisages Arylex® Active will be the basis for a new range of herbicides that will marketed in formulated mixtures which have been devised to meet the specific needs of UK cereal growers.

“Arylex® is one of the first active ingredients to progress completely through the new European registration system and this active ingredient will play a long term role in weed control within UK agriculture,” said Dr Nichols.

 “The first products containing Arylex® Active are expected to be available during 2016. They will offer three key benefits: First, a very wide spectrum of weed control. Second, effective control under a wide range of climatic conditions. Third, very high levels of crop safety to treated and following crops. All things considered we feel products based on Arylex® Active will provide simple, convenient and effective control to broad-leaved weed control in cereal crops.”

Also being developed for the UK market is a brand new insecticide active ingredient. Isoclast® Active is from a new class of insecticides and will offer control of sap sucking insects, such as aphids, in a wide range of crops. Key features will include no-known cross resistance to other insecticides together with a favourable profile on beneficial organisms.

“As with herbicides, we have a long tradition of dependable insecticides,” said Dr Nichols.

In 2014, Dow AgroSciences announced that globally it had the strongest pipeline of future products in the company’s history. Arylex® Active and Isoclast® Active are the first fruits emerging from this development pipeline for the UK market.

CropTec 2015:

If you would like to discuss these new active ingredients with Dow AgroSciences, please visit their stand at this year’s CropTec event on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th November, East of England Showground, Peterborough

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.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Chemicals business BASF has doubled the capacity of its UK biologicals production facility in response to growing global demand for biocontrol crop protection solutions for agriculture and horticulture.

CropTec 2015:

BASF are this year’s sponsors of our Crop Protection seminar and will also be holding a business breakfast meeting each day before the event. As well a a presentation from BASF, there will also be a presentation by Mr Sebastien Mallet from the leading international agricultural market intelligence company Offre et Demande Agricole (ODA). Topics covered will include: UK crop out-turn prices, global out-turns, planting predictions for 2016 and the possible impact on prices and opportunities for the 2016 season.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

General pre-registered admission: £12, all visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.

Steve Tuer’s bumper 7.2t/ha crop of oilseed rape may well be the highest yielding crop in the world ever recorded. The unofficial record attempt took place on 21 August at Mr Tuer’s Hutton Grange farm, near Northallerton. The national average oilseed rape yield consistently runs at under 4t/ha.

The restored hybrid variety, Incentive, is well suited to performance in the north, scoring 109% on the HGCA’s North Region Recommended List, but Mr Tuer said that the yield resulted from the farm’s soil and the attention to detail of the agronomy.

“This used to be a dairy farm, so there is a lot of inherent fertility in the soil, plus all the slurry from our 600-sow and pig fattening unit is spread back onto the 1000 acres of arable land,” he explained. “The soil is also very heavy, so crops do very well in a dry year like the one we’ve had.”

He added that his close working relationship with his agronomist, Chris Martin, of Agrovista, has allowed them to perfect the farm’s agronomy programmes to get the management “spot-on” in input choice and timings. The crop was sown at a very low seed rate, using simple cultivations but ensuring maximum attention to detail in achieving good seed to soil contact and post-sowing consolidation.

“I don’t believe in early sowing of oilseed rape,” Mr Tuer explained. “This crop wasn’t sown until the 6th September at a rate of 35 seed/m2 with a Vaderstad drill, after min-tilling with a Heva Combilift, followed by shallow discs and a packer.”

Following on-farm trials developed by Chris Martin, the fertiliser applied in four splits totalling 220kg of nitrogen as urea. The application dates were 10 March, 20 March + sulphur, 28 March and 12 April + sulphur. “We also applied foliar nitrogen in June with the second sclerotinia spray,” he noted.

Chris Martin took what he describes as a “conventional spray programme” of an autumn phoma and Light Leaf Spot spray of Frelizon (pentiopyrad + picoxystrobin), followed by an early spring application of Monkey (tebuconazole + Prochloraz), and combined with the nutrition product Headland Bo-La (boron + molybdenum). The scelertonia programme then consisted of Recital (Fluopyram + Protioconazole) at early flower, followed up three weeks later with Proline (prothioconazole) in tank mix with Nufol (foliar nitrogen), which Mr Tuer described as a “Rolls Royce Agrovista programme.”

“I’ve fallen in love with growing oilseed rape! But I invest to yield, make sure my soils are in good condition and keep everything simple – my rotation, cultivations and my agronomy,” Mr Tuer said. He also yielded 12.2t/ha from a crop of Glacier winter barley.  He has also registered with the ADAS Yield Enhancement Network project with a field of the variety, Kielder. “This field previously yielded 16t/ha in 2010,” so he is very hopeful that it should do very well this year.

Agrovista UK is totally committed to providing unrivalled value and innovative solutions for British farmers, both now and in the future. This commitment is focused on customer service, research driven advice and technical innovation. It relies strongly on the dedication, expertise and professionalism of all employees as well as the company’s many global and local suppliers. It also embraces care for the wider countryside with an understanding of the politically important environmental role now played by farmers. www.agrovista.co.uk

CropTec 2015

Agrovista are one of the many exhibitors at this year’s CropTec event.

Are you looking to new technology to reduce your unit cost of production, improve competitiveness and boost profitability? make sure you visit CropTec on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th November, East of England Showgorund, Peterborough.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

As year one of the zero metaldehyde pilot catchment projects draw to a close, Arable Farming Editor Teresa Rush caught up with one of the participating growers.

Harvest 2015 at Dyrham Park Farm, in Hertfordshire, marks the end of a cropping year in which no metaldehyde was used on the farm.

Andrew Gray is one of a number of growers participating in the first year of the four ‘zero metaldehyde’ catchment projects taking place across England. He and his family farm close to Barnet, just north of London, and within Affinity Water’s Mimmshall Brook catchment. He is no stranger to the challenges of balancing commercial farming with growing pressure to meet water quality standards; he exited dairying in 2002 when increasingly onerous water protection legislation restricted slurry spreading on the farm to the extent the dairy enterprise was no longer viable.

Mr Gray farms 122 hectares of arable on the mixed beef/arable unit. Cropping on predominantly London clay soils comprises winter wheat, winter oilseed rape and winter beans.
Mimmshall Brook and two of its tributaries run through the farm, which is one of 11 holdings with fields identified as being ‘high risk’ in terms of the potential for pesticides, including slug pellet active ingredient metaldehyde, to move into water. There are 55 holdings in total within the catchment.

Mapping exercise

Already involved with an existing Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) project, Mr Gray worked with Affinity Water and another local grower, Alastair White, on a mapping exercise to identify the highest risk fields across the Mimmshall Brook catchment. Some 85% of his fields are affected.
He says: “Only a couple of outlying fields are not within the [zero metaldehyde] catchment.”
The mapping process is to be further developed as the project enters its second year. Mr Gray believes it threw up a few anomalies this season; some fields which would appear to be obvious candidates for inclusion in the pilot on the grounds of their soil type, slope or proximity to a watercourse were omitted, for example.
He is also sceptical about the practical value of identifying a part-field for inclusion, and in addition feels the presence or absence of under-drainage should be included in the risk assessment criteria.

However, after seeing the results of the mapping for 2014-15 and with most of his arable land identified as high risk, he took the difficult decision not to use metaldehyde on the whole of the main farm.
“We are on heavy clay, a high risk soil type for slugs. Our biggest use of metaldehyde was in wheat after oilseed rape and sometimes in oilseed rape to get crops through the first few weeks.
“Our ‘best case’ scenario would be a standard dose just as wheat had germinated. As soon as it had chitted we would put bait on and follow up in high risk areas or the whole field if it was really bad.”

During 2014-15 Mr Gray has used ferric phosphate slug pellets Sluxx in place of metaldehyde. He has been a firm believer in using longer-lasting quality metaldehyde pellets – cheaper materials break down more quickly and so the cost/day can in fact be higher than that of materials which are more expensive in the first instance, he says – and so he found there was little difference between the cost of the metaldehyde pellets he had been using and the ferric phosphate pellets.
“It was a straightforward switch. It [Sluxx] is a good quality pellet. The only criticism I would have is the dye seems to fade quickly and so it can be hard to see if the bait is still there, or it is hard for your agronomist to tell if it has been applied.”

No subsidy

Mr Gray received no subsidy from Affinity Water to switch to ferric phosphate and purchased his supplies through his normal distributor, but the water company did pay for participating growers’ slug pellet applicators to be calibrated.
He reports no problems with slug control this year, although slug pressure has not been particularly high – it was rated low-average across the catchment.
Cultural control methods are also an important part of the slug control strategy, particularly rolling after drilling, he adds.
“I didn’t have to resort to metaldehyde anywhere. I’m not even sure if we applied [ferric phosphate] twice anywhere.”
He admits ferric phosphate’s mode of action takes a little getting used to – slugs will die within three to six days of ingesting the material but not on the soil surface, as is the case with metaldehyde.

“It is easier to go out and see dead slugs and a few blue pellets,” he says.

Good engagement between water companies and farmers has been identified as one of the key factors where the zero catchment projects have been successful and Mr Gray also believes this is vital.

“A big advantage is we all know each other. If there is to be legislation in the future it is better if we all know what is going on.
“Our biggest worry is there will be legislation to stop us using metaldehyde in this area and then we will be at a disadvantage and could even cease to be an arable catchment. Keeping it voluntary and keeping everyone talking is critical.”

The good working relationship farmers have developed with Affinity Water in the Mimmshall Brook catchment has also seen them providing extra information to the water company in terms of when they have applied slug pellets.
“The principle could be applied to other chemicals as well. It’s a bit retrospective at the moment but there is potential to do it in advance. But it has to be voluntary,” says Mr Gray.

He admits to being concerned about the potential impact of water quality legislation on the availability of other agrochemicals, particularly with several oilseed rape herbicides currently under the spotlight. Their loss could see oilseed rape going the way of the dairy cows, he says.

This could pose a serious threat to the long-term future of his arable business, as alternative crop options are limited and with spring beans, for example, a number of the herbicides used are the same as those used in oilseed rape.
An unintended consequence of spring cropping as part of an integrated black-grass control programme or to comply with the three crop rule, could be more herbicides finding their way into water, he adds.

Achievement

The commitment of the growers involved in the Mimmshall Brook zero metaldehyde pilot is underlined by the fact all of the growers affected have agreed in principle to participate in the project during
2015-16. And perhaps one of its most significant achievements is raising awareness of the risks associated with metaldehyde use, says Mr Gray.

However, he does not rule out using metaldehyde in seasons of high slug pressure. “It may be we have to use metaldehyde in a really bad year.”
“But I think the scheme has made people more aware of when and how they apply slug pellets; they might think a bit more about the weather and they might now consider delaying applications.”

Mimmshall Brook catchment project 2015-16
Affinity Water agricultural adviser Sarah Asberry is hopeful growers in the catchment will go into year two of the project with more confidence after their experiences and success in year one.
Extra sampling is being done during 2015-16 to build on the data generated this far and sampling will also be done in fields not within the risk map.

Mimmshall Brook catchment, Hertfordshire
• 57sq.km catchment area
• 18% of catchment area high risk from diffuse pesticides (arable fields only)
• One water treatment works supplying 250,000+ people
• Agriculture accounts for 64% of land use
• Established Catchment Sensitive Farming project and extensive water quality monitoring programme
• 11 holdings with high risk land in catchment
Source: Affinity Water/Water UK

First year of zero metaldehyde pilots delivers mixed results

Results from the first year of the industry-led Metaldehyde Stewardship Group’s zero metaldehyde pilot projects have highlighted the importance of farmer engagement in keeping the slug pellet active ingredient out of watercourses.
Water companies reported on results obtained from the four water catchments involved in the project at
Cereals.

Overall, autumn last year proved challenging in terms of managing metaldehyde exceedances, with the first spikes measured shortly after heavy October rainfall. More catchments were affected by metaldehyde losses than in previous years and there were record short-lived metaldehyde spikes in several catchments. There were, however, fewer regulatory sample failures.

The results reported from the pilot catchments ranged from no evidence of reductions to significant reductions in exceedances of metaldehyde in raw water compared to those seen in 2013. The first year findings come as metaldehyde continues to be subject to pressure as a result of its detection in water, threatening non-compliance with Water Framework Directive standards.

Speaking at Cereals, Affinity Water’s Alister Leggatt said: “These pilot projects trialled an approach where farmers with land located within a handful of high risk catchments were asked not to apply metaldehyde on selected fields.”
The level of engagement and dialogue with farmers is seen as a critical factor.
“The best results were achieved where farmers got actively involved and were engaged in the risk mapping process. Where they were not engaged, it was clear making a treatment decision according to field risk had not been happening.”

Essex farmer and NFU combinable crops board member Tom Bradshaw, who represents the NFU on the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group (MSG), said it was important farmers were proactive in the management of metaldehyde.
“We can make a difference by targeting applications in the right ground conditions and at the right timing,” he said.
Three of the four catchments involved with the pilot project are to continue with the same approach in 2015, reflecting a wider indication from Defra targeted legislative restrictions remain an option for policymakers.

But according to Simon McMunn, of the MSG, the door is still very much open for targeted voluntary restrictions, where the desired reductions in metaldehyde can be achieved.
He said: “If this field-targeted approach does become adopted on a more official basis in future years, it could allow for metaldehyde to continue to be available to farmers outside of the highest risk areas.”

Anglian Water, which saw disappointing results in its Pitsford reservoir catchment, in Northamptonshire, is developing a new strategy involving a dedicated catchment adviser and an incentivised metaldehyde substitution trial.

The company’s Slug it Out campaign aims to reduce the levels of metaldehyde in rivers and reservoirs.

Reservoirs

As part of the campaign the company is carrying out a trial project around six key reservoirs helping farmers to move away from metaldehyde and use an alternative chemical instead. Farmers will receive payments to cover their costs and for taking part.

In addition, a new team of five catchment advisers will be talking to farmers and agronomists about ways they can help reduce the amount of metaldehyde which finds its way into rivers and reservoirs.

Lucinda Gilfoyle, who is heading the campaign, said: “This is a whole new way of working for Anglian Water, so it’s exciting for us. Our aim is to work in partnership with the farming community to improve the region’s water quality.
“We have gathered a great team of experienced advisers and they will be talking to all the farmers in the target areas over the coming days and weeks. We will be watching the results of this trial closely to plan the way forward.”

Farmers eligible to take part in the trial project have land within the natural catchments of six reservoirs – Alton Water, Suffolk; Ardleigh Reservoir, near Colchester; Hollowell Reservoir, Ravensthorpe Reservoir and Pitsford Water, Northamptonshire, and Grafham Water, Cambridgeshire.

CropTec 2015

Want to find out more about the latest slug control and advice? make sure you visitCropTec on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th November, East of England Showgorund, Peterborough.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

Blog by David Lines

Twitter: @LinesDavid

Biog: An agronomist for 35 years, independent for nine years, a member of AICC, including on the council and AICC trials committee. Covering North Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Powys and Shropshire. Mainly advising mixed farms growing cereals, OSR, pulses, forage crops including maize, fodder beet and grassland. David worked for a distribution company until 2006. David is a member of Farmadvisors’ buying group, is married with three daughters and Max, a mad Cocker spaniel!

Western cropping choices and business outlook

The biggest single issue for my customers is making a profit from the current prices and from an agronomic point of view, black-grass is a growing headache. Both of these issues are driving a reduction in the oilseed rape area and a switch to more spring barley. The costs of production for spring barley are lower and it’s a very useful way to reduce blackgrass, as are stubble turnips on mixed farms. With the combined challenge of flea beetle and tight margins, oilseed rape is most definitely in question on a growing number of farms.

Variety choice over here in the west is driven by consistency in performance and the practicalities of the rotation, for example, Leeds is a very useful option for late drilled wheat after maize. JB Diego is popular because it ‘does’ well over here in the wetter west where good disease resistance – particularly Septoria – and consistent yields are crucial. Also popular wheat choices are Reflection, Skyfall, Costello and Lili. For winter barley, Glacier, Tower and Volume are by far the most popular.

Looking ahead to the coming years, cropping on mixed farms is likely to remain pretty much as it is, but there is a real drive to look for more profitable options and approaches. I fully envisage that arable ground may be let out, or cropped on a share-farming/contract basis as machinery costs continue to rise and skilled labour becomes in shorter supply.

Precision farming is certainly going to play an important part in the future, despite the challenges of our small field sizes and extensive applications of farm yard manure over here. Certainly variable rate seed and nitrogen applications are increasingly being used and will play a vital role in maximising margins as well as environmental compliance.

As pressure on farmers grows to produce more from less (land, water and profit), the investment in technology for the future of farming is vital. For me this needs to focus on no-til farming and a real concerted effort at ensuring a decent, workable broadband OR mobile service in rural areas.

Future R&D needs to focus on ALL aspects of production, not just the reliance on chemicals. The current blackgrass situation has brought it home to a lot of farmers that their current cropping approach is not sustainable. Also, we might all have to accept that countries like Ukraine has become more developed and that they can produce wheat more competitively than we can in the UK. If this is the case, farmers will need to 1) specialise in other crops/systems and 2) collaborate much more than they are. The move of some farmers into niche markets such as crisps, vodka, or herbs for the domestic Asian markets, will certainly increase in the quest for added value and better returns.

Over the coming decades the political and environmental pressure from Westminster and the EU will become tougher I’m sure – including restrictions on cropping and the use of chemistry. Added to this, some of these decisions will make the EU and the UK less competitive versus countries with less restriction.

One final thought on something that’s of fundamental importance to the future of British production agriculture – we all need to play our part in educating the public that food comes from farms, not the supermarkets, and that this is really important for the future of food supply.

CropTec 2015

Want to find out more about the latest technology & innovation, precision farming and research and development in the arable sector? make sure you visit CropTec on Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th November, East of England Showgorund, Peterborough.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers to attend. You MUST pre-register online to ensure you receive your free place.

Resistance is a familiar word in the arable farming lexicon, but its use in the same sentence as ‘glyphosate’ is not to be taken lightly.

Incidences of resistance to non-selective herbicide glyphosate have been recorded in other parts of the world, including Europe, but not yet in the UK.

Now new guidelines have been published aimed at preventing the development of resistance to the herbicide in UK weeds and significantly, they highlight the increased resistance threat posed by a number of recently-adopted practices, including multiple stale seedbeds and inter-row applications.

The guidelines have been produced by the Weed Research Action Group (WRAG) and are published by AHDB.

WRAG chairman and ADAS science and business development manager James Clarke says the publication of the guidelines is a proactive move ahead of there being any confirmed resistance in the UK.

“The aim is to ensure the efficacy of this important active in weed control is maintained when a number of practices are increasingly being deployed on-farm which could drive the evolution of glyphosate resistance in UK weeds – including multiple glyphosate applications, sub-lethal doses and suboptimal application timing – and we wanted to be proactive in highlighting the risks and promoting best practice.”

Stale seedbeds

One of the main concerns is the recent practice of using multiple stale seedbeds ahead of drilling in autumn in a bid to control large infestations of black-grass or black-grass resistant to selective herbicides.

“We know people are using multiple applications in this pre-drilling window. We also know they are using low rates [of glyphosate],” says Mr Clarke.

He underlines growers’ current reliance on glyphosate, particularly where they are faced with controlling herbicide-resistant black-grass.

David Ellerton, technical director with agchem distributor and agronomy advice business Hutchinsons, acknowledges the increasing use of multiple stale seedbeds. However, growers are being advised also to use other control methods, including cultivations, herbicides with different modes of action and competitive crops, he says.

Work at the company’s black-grass site at Brampton, Cambridgeshire, is enabling Hutchinsons to monitor the impact of glyphosate use over several years on the same field area, he adds.

“We are seeing zero failures, we aren’t picking up any changes,” says Dr Ellerton.

Monsanto, which supplies glyphosate under the Roundup brand, is supportive of the guidelines.

In a statement released at Cereals, the company said the new WRAG guidelines were ‘just what UK growers and agronomists need to safeguard the single most vital weapon in their grass-weed control armoury’.

The guidelines should form the basis for all glyphosate use from now on, says Monsanto northern European technical manager for Roundup Barrie Hunt, who highlights the pivotal value of glyphosate in the face of growing resistance to other herbicide chemistry.

Products

But the close-to 200 different glyphosate products currently approved for professional use in the UK, based on different salts, loadings and adjuvant mixtures and contents made less-than-ideal usage and less-than-effective treatment, which were key drivers of resistance development, more of a risk, he adds.

According to AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds, a potential loss of yield and quality would occur across all cropping systems without the use of glyphosate. In particular, it has been estimated a 20% yield loss would occur without the use of glyphosate pre-drilling.

Monitoring success

Reducing the risk of glyphosate resistance

Maximise efficacy

Use alternatives

Monitor success

Source: WRAG/AHDB

Glyphosate

Source: WRAG/AHDB

Maximising the efficacy of glyphosate

Spray at the right dose rate, at the right growth stage, in the right conditions

Source: WRAG/AHDB