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Biog: Independent agronomist, photographer and software developer. Rural Cambs-based vegan chap who doesn't hassle others. Martyn’s photography, which can be purchased online, can be found here: www.blackthornarable.co.uk

Herbicide Resistance

Harvest 2016 was a mixed bag. By far the worst for us was winter barley; after a good couple of years, yields were well down, but people are more or less sticking with the crop, but I do feel that another bad year could kill it though.

It performs very well for us in the second straw slot on the edge of the Brecks, these light sandy soils, with high organic matter are terrible for take all and winter barley fits well in these situations. I find the hybrids are more robust when we get a dry season and input costs are lower than wheat so it’s a lower risk option.

Potatoes have been variable in yield, black dot is a challenge for the packing sector, but for most it will be a decent year financially, so growers can replace kit where needed, but I raise a word of caution – just watch the rise in crop area, chaps.

Sugar beet is doing well in many fields and we have some excellent yields, a good harvest and fields already drilled with wheat.

Oilseed rape remains a challenge, the area well down on just three years ago and cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) is the deal breaker. Right now the crops sown on our light soils by the third week in August look great; frankly, though, it is not hard to keep crops like these intact.

I’m sensing with farmers a marked change in attitude, with a much more pragmatic approach and good adoption of ICM, although I suspect not many would say that is the reason.

As far as crop decisions are concerned, there is a noticeably greater uptake of varieties with better disease profiles. No longer are crop genetics chosen purely on yield.

Early harvest is now a key criterion for wheat growers and varieties like Graham, with a high score for tritici and early ripening should find favour. Another variety that is very popular this season is KWS Siskin.

The advice to growers to choose improved disease resistance seems to be working. No fields have been sprayed for phoma and DK Exalte in particular is looking stunning.

For those with blackgrass the switch to spring cropping has been marked, but we’ve found that spring beans do not have sufficient good chemistry to mop up surviving blackgrass plants, neither do they compete well allowing blackgrass to romp. Spring bean growers will be switched for winter beans for this reason.

Delaying drilling is also a common feature and where we have now had a long run of using soil amendments such as compost on our heavier soils, they generally allow us a few extra drilling days.

CropTec 2016

Herbicide resistance will be a big topic at this year's CropTec event, come and talk to our technical experts and listen to our seminars discussing how we can become more efficient.

We also have over 140 exhibitors at the event displaying the latest science and technology across the trade stands, while CropTec’s well established seminars and hubs will feature the latest thinking on a range of key arable topics delivered by leading specialists.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

Yorkshire precision farming specialist, Manterra Ltd will use the forthcoming CropTec show to share information about its TruNject project and to attract potential early adopters of its high resolution soil sensing technologies and liquid fertiliser point injection techniques.

TruNject is a three year project, funded by Innovate UK and led by Stockbridge Technology Centre in partnership with Manterra Ltd and Cranfield University. The project is researching unique fertiliser placement technology that will revolutionise the way that farmers apply nutrients to a range of field vegetables and combinable crops.

Manterra founder, Andrew Manfield is the applied technology partner who supplies precision farm technology and agronomic expertise to the project: “Tru-Nject uses a variety of tools including soil data, drone and satellite sensing data, RTK-GPS auto steering and revolutionary new proximal soil sensors to apply fertiliser below ground, thus creating that create a resource efficient way to apply nutrients whilst reducing the levels of nitrous oxide gas released from nitrogen fertilisers.

“It is a very exciting project to be involved with. We have the potential to vary the nutrients on crops metre by metre and bed by bed, with an accuracy that is previously unheard of on a commercial level of practice.”

Manterra Ltd was established by farmer and agronomist, Andrew Manfield in 2011 and has its foundations in a farming business that was established at the beginning of the last century. Manterra is also the sole UK distributor for Unia, an authorised reseller for Trimble precision agriculture products and Duport spoke wheel injectors.

CropTec 2016

Make sure to visit Manterra's stand M15 year's CropTec event.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

New trial results highlighting the importance of key nutrient application timing, the latest thinking on fertiliser use in a climate change future and the chance to win 10 tonnes of Sulphur product will be main features of the CF Fertilisers stand at CropTec 2016.

A full programme of trials from 2016 are currently being analysed and early indications are highlighting some important ways growers can improve Nitrogen utilisation, says CF Fertilisers arable agronomist Allison Grundy.

“Initial results are showing yields in wheat can be improved by up to 1.0t/ha by applying P and K alongside N and S in the spring rather a separate dressing in the autumn as is the conventional practice.

“There is strong evidence emerging that plants can more efficiently utilise Nitrogen to build yield when all these key nutrients are applied in a single spring NPKS granular product than separately and we will be explaining this approach in detail at CropTec.”

Other trials are showing how evaluating soil reserves of Nitrogen more accurately can reduce fertiliser costs by up to 20% whilst maintaining high output yields of 10.0t/ha plus, she adds.

“We’ve known for a long time how accurate assessment of Nitrogen in the soil and the plant through using our established N-Min analysis approach can help ascertain additional Nitrogen requirements more precisely, but 2016 seems to have been a year where this has been really important.

“Using this with N-Calc has produced some very significant results this year, especially in wheat but also in barley in what was a poor growing year for that crop, and we will be sharing these with visitors on our CropTec stand.”

CF Fertilisers is also the lead company in a consortium of businesses including Syngenta, Hill Court Farm Research, Patchwork and Precise Crop Nutrition, evaluating the ISARIA system - a new type of crop sensor developed by the German company Fritzmeier.

“Trials carried out in winter wheat in the first year of the project showed an average yield advantage of 0.4t/ha from the system and ADAS are now reviewing the second year of trial results in winter barley, winter wheat and oilseed rape and these will be available for review at CropTec.

“The project is now heading into its final year of assessment and we are hoping to develop real time application algorithms for both Nitrogen and PGRs in oilseed rape and Nitrogen in winter barley.”

A focus on the essential role of Nitrogen in achieving future environmental and sustainable production targets will also be a feature of the stand with CF Fertilisers having copies of its new ‘Our Actions Speak Louder than Words’ document available to growers for the first time.

The booklet examines the essential role of Nitrogen fertilisers in meeting rapidly growing food demand whilst delivering more sustainable and environmentally-focused production in the future, explains Sam Bell, head of sales and marketing for CF Fertilisers.

“Without fertiliser, we would need the manure from up to 7 billion more cattle globally to maintain soil fertility. Feeding those cattle would mean clearing nearly all our remaining forests to grow grass.

“Furthermore, a crop of wheat grown with the right amount of fertiliser will produce up to six times more energy and capture twelve times more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is required to produce, transport and apply the fertiliser in the first place.”

One million tonnes of Nitrogen fertiliser are now used in British agriculture every year, Sam Bell points out.

“We recognise we have an important role to play and over the last five years have reduced the carbon footprint of our Nitram Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser by 40%.

“We’ve also made numerous environmental improvements in other areas across the business as well as working with the Carbon Trust to develop carbon footprints for our entire range of fertilisers and the Ammonia and Nitric Acid used in their manufacturing.”

Highlighting the essential role of Sulphur in ensuring optimum plant growth, visitors to CropTec will also be able to enter a simple competition to win 10 tonnes off NK Sulphur, KayNitro® Sulphur, CropMaster® Sulphur, MultiCut® Sulphur or Heartland® Sulphur.

CropTec 2016

Entry forms for the competition, copies of the ‘Our Actions Speak Louder than Words’ booklet and full details of CF Fertiliser products, trials and support services for growers will be available on the CF Fertilisers stand no. 106.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

Agrii head of agronomy, Colin Lloyd who has run the Stow Longa programme since 2000 and trials manager, Steve Corbett will be manning the ‘Colin’s Corner’ clinic on Stand 120 to bring their wealth of practical understanding to bear on visitors’ particular black-grass problems.

"If our work has taught us one thing it’s that there are no simple solutions to bad black-grass,” stressed Mr Lloyd. “Instead, success depends on stacking the most appropriate cultural and chemical controls for the farm and season.”

Over the years, Stow Longa research has identified more than a dozen important fundamentals of effective black-grass control, including:

Using a rotational plough in the right way at the right time;
Delaying wheat drilling until late October where possible;
Moving to spring drilling if autumn conditions prevent late drilling;
Employing two (or more) spring crops in a row, if necessary;
Using cover crops to improve the chances of decent late autumn or spring seedbeds;
Sowing the most competitive wheat varieties;
Moving as little soil as possible at drilling to wake up the least amount of weed seed;
Using barley rather than wheat for early autumn sowing;
Sowing the most competitive barley varieties;
Making the best use of glyphosate to eliminate weed flushes ahead of drilling;
Creating firm and fine seedbeds that give the best pre-em herbicide activity;
Stacking and sequencing residual pre-em and early post-em herbicides carefully; and,
Maintaining the best possible weed control in all cereal breaks.

Even the worst infestations can be overcome with the correct management,” Colin Lloyd pointed out. “But only if the right techniques are applied in combinations matched to the individual farm challenge with enough flexibility to suit the conditions and, above all, sufficient patience and persistence.”

“Through our CropTec clinic we are setting out to help as many visitors as we can with individual guidance from our extensive cultivation systems, variety competitiveness, cover cropping, rotational and herbicide application research,” Steve Corbett explained.

“By bringing our Stow Longa research to Peterborough in this personal way, we look forward to sharing its findings directly with even more growers than we can accommodate at our extended series of Huntingdon open days.”

Win 10ha of New Very High Yielding Spring Barley in Agrii Stand Competition

Visitors to the Agrii stand at CropTec will have the opportunity to win two tonnes of seed of new, very high yielding malting barley, Laureate for 2017 planting courtesy of Syngenta and MasterSeeds.

Yielding only fractionally behind RGT Planet in the latest five-year AHDB Recommended List trial data, Laureate has the advantage of being non-GN for the widest market suitability.

The Syngenta variety is being registered across Europe for the broadest market appeal and is currently under test by IBD for both brewing and malt distilling to give it significantly greater marketability than current malting standard, Propino.

“As well as all the right quality and yield characteristics, Laureate has the highest untreated grain yield on the RL courtesy of its very strong across-the-board disease resistance as part of an excellent agronomic package,” noted Agrii national seeds manager, Barry Barker.

“The two tonnes of seed we are offering in our free-to-enter CropTec competition will be sufficient for just over 10 ha of planting at normal rates, making it a very attractive prize for anyone planning to grow spring barley in 2017.”

CropTec 2016

Visit Agrii on stand 120 at this year's CropTec event to discuss your Black-grass issues and also take part in their competition.

The event is free to attend for those visitors that pre-book their tickets. ALL visitors will be charged £15 on the day.

Biog: Conor Colgan farms at Lowick Hall Farm, near Berwick on Tweed. The farm is 700-acres, and the enterprises are an arable rotation of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, oats and beans. He also has an 80-cow suckler beef herd. Six years ago Conor completed an MBA at the Royal Agricultural University; his thesis was on Lean Management, a technique used extensively by efficiency-critical sectors like the car industry. As part of his study, he undertook a complete Lean audit of every process on the farm. He says that this has made him exceptionally judicious about what system changes he makes and whether the introduction of a new practice will improve the value it delivers to his end markets and business bottom-line. “If it doesn’t, I won’t do it.”

Title: Innovations must be farm-relevant

The innovations that have most benefited my farm all centre on GPS technologies and soil mapping.

I’ve used SOYL to map my fields with the dual aim of generating a more consistent yield from my lower indices fields and adopting a precision approach to applying P to the seedbed and K during the growing season. The net result has been a recovery of soil indices and an improvement in crop yields.

This approach works well for the scale of my operation and because I have a lot of variation in indices. For farms where soils are similar, I suspect that the returns may not be so good.

I feel that the environment for fostering innovation in the arable sector was hit badly when we lost our national advisory service. When ADAS in its old guise went, we lost the prism to assess innovation for our industry.

R&D is now in the hands of the supply chain and its results are used to sell products or kit. There are too few independent trials from the like of AHDB to assess how these new commercial introductions really perform on farm.

So it is beholden on farmers themselves to prove whether a new technology or innovation will actually deliver the purported returns in their own farm situation.

In the future, I think it is really important for organisations like AHDB, TEAGASC and SRUC to analyse the impact of new developments on a range of different farms, soil types and scale of operation. This work would give us the clarity we need to truly compare market introductions, and not take the manufacturer’s word for the projected improvements we’ll gain.

I foresee that investment into genetics and access to GM technologies will become the essential innovation for the coming decades, particularly if issues like Septoria resistance threaten the viability of wheat production in the UK.

CropTec 2016:

Want to find out more about R&D and the latest innovation and technology? make sure to visit CropTec 2016.

To encourage knowledge exchange among the British farming community further, this year’s event is FREE for farmers and agronomists 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.

New website launches to improve two-way relationship between farmers and beekeepers

The relationship between farmers and beekeepers is a vital one. In the UK around 70 of the crops grown are dependent on, or benefit from visits from bees, a value which is estimated at over £200 million per year.

While the importance of bees to UK agriculture is profound, it has not always been straightforward for farmers and beekeepers to communicate directly with each other. However, a new service – BeeConnected – launched nationwide on the 12th September aims to address this issue by digitalising the process of farmers informing beekeepers of their intention to spray an insecticide.

The project is being led by The Voluntary Initiative (VI) and Chairman Richard Butler says BeeConnected has been designed to work quickly and efficiently for farmers and beekeepers alike. He says:

“BeeConnected operates on a very simple, yet efficient, two-way process whereby farmers identify their fields and, in just a few clicks, are able to inform local beekeepers when they intend to spray an insecticide in particular fields. Beekeepers plot the location of their hives, and will then receive a notification ahead of when a farmer within their locality is planning to undertake a spray event.”

A two-way process
The launch of BeeConnected follows a successful pilot which took place in Hertfordshire during the spring spraying season. Andrew Watts, a farmer with 2250 hectares of combinable crops and grassland in North East Hertfordshire, was one of the participants in the trial. He emphasises that BeeConnected is a useful tool when it comes to improving how both farmers and beekeepers interact.

“The countryside is a shared place, and beekeepers need farmers as much as farmers need beekeepers. It’s a two-way process, and anything that improves the communication there – as BeeConnected does – is a good thing.”

Mr Watts has always had a good relationship with both his Spray Liaison Officer (SLO) and the local beekeepers, but emphasises that these relationships have been built on strong communication and mutual understanding:

“It doesn’t happen overnight; you have to work at it. And we do what we can to help. For example, bees are early risers, but they’re early to bed too. So when we spray our beans for bruchid beetle, we tend to spray late in the evening.”

Open communication
Improving communication is also a key benefit of BeeConnected for Mat Smith, a beekeeper based in Bishop’s Stortford. During the pilot he noted that the website was a big improvement on the SLO system of communication.

“The current SLO system isn’t always effective,” he says, “The BeeConnected website is an excellent tool that can improve both bee health and relations between beekeepers and farmers.

“Honey bees are hugely beneficial to both their keepers, farmers and the larger population as a whole, and open communication between farmers and beekeepers can only be a good thing.”

And for Mr Smith, who tends to three hives in his garden, the website proved to be a success in this regard.

“It was very easy to set up, and the alerts came through in time for me to take action to protect my bees,” he concludes, “I can’t think of any reason for beekeepers not to use this service!”

During the development of the project the VI worked closely with the National Farmers Union (NFU), the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) who were responsible for the initial BeeConnected proposal, and the Crop Protection Association (CPA), who funded the development of the site.

Mr Butler adds: “This is a great opportunity for all farmers and beekeepers nationwide to improve their communications, for a mutual benefit. We encourage all farmers and beekeepers to make full use of the site and register by visiting www.beeconnected.org.uk.”

CropTec 2016

The Voluntary Initiative will be exhibiting at CropTec and support our Spraying technology hub, if you're interested in talking to the about BeeConnected visit stand 169.

Book you ticket to CropTec 2016

Entrance is free for pre-registered Farmers & Agronomists

Online general admission: £12

ALL admission with be charged at £15 on the day

Cope Seeds are a sales and marketing company of agricultural seeds and grain, built on thirty eight years of experience within the UK seeds industry. We process a wide range of species both conventionally and organically, which are marketed to wholesale and farmer customers throughout the UK.

One of the key parts of our business is the development of new varieties that bring benefits to both the UK farmer and end user. To date we have successfully commercialised a number of varieties including Atego, Rozmar and Vok Spring Oats, Sokrates and Magister Winter Wheat, Amaretto Spring Wheat and Armada Spring Barley and we are constantly trialling new material each year in both AHDB Recommended List trials and independent trials.

This autumn we are marketing a number of winter wheat varieties including Costello, RGT Illustrious and our exclusive variety, Nelson. Costello has the highest untreated yields of any variety from our portfolio and also boasts the best grain specification of any feed wheat. Costello is a short, stiff variety which suits both heavy and light soils. RGT Illustrious is a group 1 milling wheat with the highest untreated yields of any of the group 1’s. This variety has long straw but with excellent standing power and fantastic all round disease resistance. Our own variety Nelson is a German Milling E quality. Nelson is a dual purpose variety which is useful for feed and milling and is currently being grown on a buyback into Heygates at a group 1 premium. Heygates love the variety so much; they are offering it on the old Hereward tolerance contract. Nelson is a tall, stiff variety which keeps its green retention well. In 2 years of National Agrii trials, Nelson has the best resistance to Septoria, even beating the variety Graham.

Nelson winter wheat

Our seed portfolio features the winter barleys Cassia and Talisman. Cassia is a popular high yielding, 2 row feed accounting for nearly a 3rd of the winter barley market. It has good specific weights and resistance to lodging. Cassia performed consistently over the last 3 years and is resistant to BaYMV but susceptible to Rhyncosporium and Mildew. Talisman is an early to mature 2 row malting barley with very good disease resistance, especially Rhynchosporium and has a moderate straw length with good resistance to lodging.

Our new winter oat Eagle, is now in recommended list trials and is looking like an extremely promising variety, offering both yield and quality. One of our seed growers in Scotland has reported that the crop harvested on 22 August 2016 were coming off the combine at a moisture of 13.4% and an estimated yield of 10.6t/ha, demonstrating the varieties earliness and yield potential.

Eagle winter oats

Cope Seeds are offering the winter bean varieties Tundra and Wizard to growers this autumn. Tundra is a popular variety with a sowing window running from October to December. Tundra is suitable and adaptable to a wide range of soil types. Wizard can help spread the workload and are more suitable to heavy soils where establishment of spring beans can be a problem. However due to their relatively short straw compared to other winter beans growers should ensure that seed beds are level to avoid harvesting problems. Wizard takes approximately 98% of the winter bean market as it suits both growers and end users for domestic and export use.

Should you be interested in hearing more information on any of the listed varieties, or would like to hear about our wider variety portfolio, please contact us on 01529 421081 or visit us at Croptec stand 151.

Weed wiping may offer a way to reduce black-grass seed returns by applying herbicide to the weed ahead of the following crop.

Mark Spicer, managing director of Norman and Spicer Agriculture, Hutchinsons Group, has been looking for alternative methods to control weeds including black-grass, rye-grass and wild oats.

Mr Spicer said: “I knew that American farmers were practising weed wiping which is exactly what the name implies, wiping weeds with herbicide from a boom on the back of a sprayer.

“So I spent some time looking at how this would work here on some of the more difficult to control weeds and this has led to a collaboration with Boston Crop Sprayers.”

A weed wiper is a kit attached to the back of the boom made up of a row of sponges that are gravity fed with herbicide.

“A farmer in Bedfordshire had a weep wiper retrofitted to his conventional sprayer to apply glyphosate at a concentrated rate to destroy wild oat and black-grass seeds ahead of the next crop, and there is no doubt that we have been able to kill off a large amount of the black-grass and prevent a huge seed bank being returned to the soil,” said Mr Spicer.

“We need to do some further work to quantify this, but the reduction is significant enough to warrant spending more time on the concept.

“Timing and speed of application of the glyphosate to the weed is critical; the black-grass has to be in flower and not yet filled and the weed really needs to be wetted so a higher speed works better.”

There are also crop factors to take into account, he added. “There needs to be a gap between the weed and the crop to ensure the herbicide is not wiping the crop at the same time as the weed, so a good PGR programme should be used when considering weed wiping.”

The weed wiping approach is in its second year of trials. As well as cereals, it may also have potential for use in weed control in sugar beet and brassica crops, according to Mr Spicer.

Article provided by Marianne Curtis, reporter for Arable Farming magazine. To view more stories like this why not subscribe to FGinsight.com

An enhanced version of Adama’s popular WaterAware app has been developed and is ready to launch for Autumn 2016. With 42 percent of the 486 drinking water protected areas in England at risk, the enhanced WaterAware application is essential in the coming months.

The original WaterAware app was designed to help farmers, agronomists and sprayer operators prevent key active ingredients from entering and polluting raw water supplies and to avoid further regulatory restrictions. Having taken feedback from users, the new phase of the app, which is launching in July 2016, makes the existing functions easier to navigate, allowing users to save and store data according to either the products being used, or the fields being risk assessed.

The latest phase also incorporates Adama’s new ‘#SlugAware’ feature which enables users to assess the risk of slug and snail activity on a field-by-field basis.

The WaterAware app spatially assimilates soil type and soil moisture deficit information along with forecasted weather conditions and uses a traffic light system to advise farmers and sprayer operators when it is safe or unsafe to make chemical or pellet applications.

“The original WaterAware app has been a huge success and has proved to be an effective and reliable way for growers to identify the potential risk of active ingredients being washed into watercourses,” explains Ali Bosher, Marketing Director at Adama.

“Our ongoing commitment to promoting the responsible use of agrochemicals meant we were keen to develop an updated version of the app with additional functions such as #SlugAware.”

#SlugAware is designed to protect the longevity of metaldehyde-based slug pellets such as Gusto 3 by ensuring that pellets are only applied when absolutely necessary. By considering factors such as soil type, humidity, soil moisture, temperature, cultivation method, wind and current and previous crops, #SlugAware gives growers a low, medium or high threat of slug activity warning based on their land’s specific conditions in a given 24 to 72 hour period.

“Whether it is metaldehyde from slug pellets or key weed control active ingredients such as metazachlor, more needs to be done to prevent these and other agrochemicals from entering fresh water supplies,” Ali continues.

“UK agriculture has already lost more than 70% of the active substances at its disposal since the early 1990s. Put simply, if we as an industry don’t do more to protect our natural water resources, regulatory pressures will result in farmers facing a future with even fewer active ingredients and significantly restricted weed and pest control options.

“The improvements to WaterAware and the introduction of #SlugAware are aimed at giving growers better advice and helping them to make more informed crop protection decisions by ensuring key active ingredients are only ever applied at the right time.”

The upgraded WaterAware app (which now includes the #SlugAware feature as standard) is FREE to download from Google Play for Android devices or the Apple Store for Apple devices.

BASIS and NRoSO points available for using the app.

For more information about WaterAware contact ukenquiries@adama.com or visit www.adama.com/uk/en/

CropTec 2016 proudly sponsored by Adama

Want to find out more information on the WaterAware app and other products and services from Adama? Make sure to visit their stand at CropTec 2016, 29 & 30th November, East of England Showground, Peterborough.

“We are proud to be associated with such a focused, professional and well-targeted event,” explained Ali Bosher, Marketing Director for Adama.

“With a breadth of industry-leading speakers covering a wide range of technical, practical and business issues, and an extensive seminar programme which provides various solutions to help increase yields and reduce costs of production, CropTec provides the perfect opportunity for farmers, agronomists and professional spray operators to learn more about the very latest developments in crop establishment, protection, nutrition, and yield enhancement.

“We look forward to another successful show in 2016 and are proud to be able to support such an influential event into 2017.”

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