Talking Agronomy

BEN Boothman

A large amount of my first winter wheat acreage is now in the ground

It is as if someone upstairs was listening, or my rain dances worked. The rain eventually arrived here in North Yorkshire two weeks ago. This was the much-needed booster shot that some of these oilseed rape crops needed. Apart from the odd monsoon it arrived in dribs and drabs with just over 50mm being accumulated so far (September 19).

As well as giving crops a new lease of life, soil conditions have eased up after some rain, allowing an army of cultivators and drills to race to fields and start their autumn campaign. Softer conditions underfoot are also a welcome relief to our soil sampling outfit; concrete fields were taking its toll and

I’m pretty sure if you melted down all the bent probes from this season you could rebuild the Titanic.

Early-sown oilseed rape crops are finally up and away from flea beetle threats, with the most advanced crops now reaching six leaves. I am sure, however, these critters are not going to starve, as they seem to be filling their bellies on the late-August-sown crops. These later-drilled crops paint a different picture as the voracious beetles refuse to stop and I fear may win on several fields.

Costs

I have applied very few pre-emergence herbicides to OSR crops this year due to dry conditions and the threat of not having a crop to protect from weed invasions.

Costs were kept to a minimum with just a low rate graminicide applied so far stopping volunteer cereals pilfering any early traces of moisture. Weed flushes have begun following the rain, so a single application of halauxifen-methyl + picloram is planned and this will be followed by another graminicide targeting black-grass and the secondary flush of volunteers.

Winter linseeds have gone into near perfect conditions and, with rain straight after drilling, jumped out of the ground within six days. First true leaves are unfolding so graminicide sheets are being left to tackle early cereal volunteer flushes. Pre-emergence sprays seem to be holding up to expectations on light land.

A large amount of my first winter wheat acreage is already in the ground with the exception of any bad black-grass situations

Agronomist facts

JBen Boothman is an independent agronomist and member of the Arable Advisor Group and the Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC), covering Yorkshire and the North East. He is BASIS, FACTS and BETA qualified and studied for a degree in agriculture and crop management at Harper Adams University. or where there was a lack of seed on-farm. Soil conditions are near perfect with some very good seedbeds being produced. Earliest sown wheats have all now emerged and it won’t be long before a green tinge can be seen across fields.

Slug activity has so far been low but as soon as they realise a smorgasbord of fresh food is available then the buffet table will be open. Where grass-weeds are not the main target an ever-reliable mix of pendimethalin and diflufenican will be my go-to choice pre-emergence. Unfortunately, many fields now have a wide range of grass-weeds, including the ever-present black-grass, bromes, ryegrass and Vulpia (rat’s tail fescue) to name but a few.

The base of my control in these situations remains flufenacet, with different modes of action included to match the major weed burden. I will be dipping my toes into newer chemistry and having a go with the newly approved cinmethylin (Luximo) and see what this combined with other actives brings to the never-ending war against black-grass.

Winter barleys have followed in the wheats’ footsteps and are now all safely in the ground and in most cases pre-emergence herbicides have been applied. I favour pre-emergence plans with barley to get on top of any grass-weed problems early as post-emergence options are very limited and prone to more variability.

GREG

Taylor

OSR crops that went in at the start of September are growing away strongly

The past month has quite literally been a watershed for us, with a couple of inches of early September rain proving transformational.

A flurry of drilling in the first 10 days of the month put both our winter oilseed rape and cover cropping plans back on track. And the moisture has made all the difference to drilling conditions for the first of our wheats, which should be in by the time you read this.

Thankfully, the OSR that sat in the ground from early August sowing is motoring now and crops that went in at the start of September are growing away strongly. Our latest plantings should be coming through imminently in warm soils.

With both daylight hours and temperatures declining noticeably, we are not out of the woods yet. However, flea beetle grazing remains minimal and, fingers crossed, we have yet to see any upturn in slug pressures. Providing everything doesn’t turn bone dry again in the next few weeks, we should be in a good place with the crop after all.

Winter covers

While catch cropping ahead of winter cereals has been completely scuppered by the drought, the recent rain has avoided us having to move to plan B on the winter cover cropping front.

It may have been on the late side for phacelia, buckwheat and vetch sowing but most of our planned covers are also now establishing. We don’t expect them to develop anywhere near last season’s levels of biomass, but they should have time to produce the rooting systems we have found surprisingly valuable under previous less-than-ideal sowing conditions.

The arrival of rain has left much of the wheat ground we are increasingly keen to sow in September following our black-grass management efforts in a much better state for direct drilling too, especially so where we have successfully built up soil health.

Paying dividends in both respects here have been more extensive rotations with two spring crops in a row and linseed as a low-trash entry as well as regular additions of organic matter, cover cropping and the least possible soil disturbance at every stage.

Having straw-raked or lightly tickled the stubble surface on all but our highest risk black-grass ground we are currently biding our time for the flush of grass-weed growth that we invariably see 14-21 days after decent rain. This means we should be able to spray it off with glyphosate and drill the wheat by the first week of October.

Where we have greater black-grass concerns, of course, we shall be holding off until mid-October for an even greater weed flush to take as much pressure as we can off the chemistry.

Robustness has been our key criterion in variety choice this season to reduce risk and, where possible, save on inputs. In the absence of sufficient seed of new, incredibly clean introductions KWS Dawsum and LG Typhoon, we are concentrating on other wheats with high Agrii sustainability ratings – most notably,KWS Extase and old favourites Graham and KWS Siskin.

With fertiliser costs continuing to escalate and AN supply tighter than ever, we are also looking at every opportunity available to minimise this input.

For one farm this means switching almost entirely to spring barley, while for others it means more pulses, better balanced overall crop nutrition, alternative nitrogen sources and careful field-by-field N targeting.

With very much higher input prices here to stay, we are also looking more strategically at the extra tools that stewardship offers – not least now the rule book has become less dictatorial. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but stewardship options do involve less investment and deliver a known income. Equally, though, they require careful planning and implementation if they are to be integrated into rotations for the greatest benefit and sufficient future flexibility.

Agronomist facts

JGreg Taylor has been an Agrii agronomist for more than a decade, servicing around 6,000 hectares of mainly combinable cropping across a broad range of soil types in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire.

As a Harper Adams graduate, he has worked on farms in New Zealand and the USA, and is now responsible for the trials and demonstration work on the Brackley i-Farm.

He is particularly engaged with direct drilling, soil improvement and regenerative agriculture and is an ardent rugby fan and marathon runner in his spare time.