Biog: Russ farms 995ha, spread over 17 miles and five 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. His recent Nuffield Farming scholarship, sponsored by AHDB, investigated 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. He is also an AHDB Monitor Farm.
Title: Harvest 2016 and industry innovation
It’s been an easy harvest, and whilst some performances have
been down. We’ve combined 5,000+ tonnes of grain and not had to dry any of it,
which means it’s been a welcome, cheap harvest.
Our break-even for wheat is £117/t; at market prices of
£120-130/t, there’s a bit of margin; at the current November futures price of £116/t,
there is none. Added to this, milling wheat supply is strong, because of the
large areas of Skyfall and the spec is good. Millers know this and it has
dented premiums.
In the immediate future, prices need to rise and the
industry needs to continue to innovate.
Farmers talk to each other and it fuels our hunger to learn
and to get more from the equipment we are using. In the UK we are living in an
innovative environment and seeing lots of farmers trying new ideas without the
help of a guide book. We’re seeing this particularly in direct drilling and the
use of cover crops.
The innovation that has most benefited my farming operation
is the introduction of variable seed rates. My catalyst was the variation I saw
in one field drilled at a uniform seed rate, where the soils were heavier, the
plant count was too low resulting in a 1.75t/ha yield penalty.
Since we’ve introduced Soilquest variable rate scanning and adapted seed
rates to field zones, our yields are higher and more consistent.
However, success can sometimes be hard won. I get frustrated
that different implements cannot talk to one another; it is always the fault of
the other manufacturer!
Crop varietal development is another innovation worthy of
mention. We’ve seen some remarkable yield jumps and improvements in disease
packages, particularly in oilseed rape. Plus, traits like pod shatter
resistance have delivered valuable risk mitigation, particularly when bad weather
hits nearly ripe crops.
R&D is vital for our future and here, large
organisations cannot be as nimble as farmers, nor is it easy for them to take
the trial and error approach possible on-farm; by the time their projects are
planned and budgets agreed, the findings are two years out of date.
Work conducted by organisations like AHDB as very valuable.
However, we could learn a lot from Brazil’s agricultural research body,
Embrapa, where there is no disconnect between them and farmers; they are right
on the pulse of what research is valuable and how its communicated.
Looking to the future, the primary focus for advancing
innovation needs to be in the understanding and management of soil health. A
lot of brilliant soil scientists have recently retired and it’s a huge loss
because we need to build a deeper understanding about our soils.
CropTec 2016:
Want to find out more about R&D, Innovation 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 those who pre-book tickets. You MUST pre-register here to ensure you receive your free ticket.
All visitors will charged £15 on the gate on the day of the event.
