Talking Policy

MATTCulley

We have no guarantees of AN production after the summer order book is completed

Last month, CF Fertilisers announced it would no longer be producing ammonia at its Billingham plant. The announcement, on top of the recent closure of the Ince factory, comes as a further hammer blow to domestic fertiliser production and to much needed CO2 supply. CF has cited the high

UK gas price as the reason for ceasing production of ammonia and stated it will import enough ammonia to fill current orders of AN. But we have no guarantees of levels of production after the summer order book has been completed, leaving yet another extremely uncertain market for growers to contend with this winter and into spring.

We now seem to be in the same place as last

October in terms of fertiliser and CO2, but this time with a new government in the mix, which is yet to get to grips with the situation. The NFU has increased its lobbying in this area – we need the Government to recognise the importance of domestic fertiliser production and our ask is for greater transparency, so growers can plan and prepare to maintain levels of food production and food security.

Competitive

The mix of fertilisers we use has evolved over decades, but the loss of sulphur products from CF Ince and reduced AN production domestically and across Europe will mean changes, at least temporarily, as farmers adapt to use other suitable products. One area where this is especially important is in relation to urea and UAN. Both of these have become more important as an economically competitive source of N and, when used in appropriate conditions, are very good fertilisers in agronomic, and environmental terms.

It is also worth noting that demand for organic manures has undoubtedly increased, but we all know there is a finite supply. This, coupled with increased diesel prices, has led to higher costs of purchase and spreading on-farm, so organic manures cannot be seen as the abundant and cheap replacement for synthetic fertilisers that Defra seems to have thought to be the case.

Now that the dust has settled from this year’s harvest, growers will be assessing the decisions that they made on crop inputs, the effects on yield and quality and how the results can inform cropping plans and input decisions going forward. For me, the focus will not only be on fertiliser decisions, but also on the establishment techniques that give crops the best possible ability to utilise increasingly expensive inputs. Results from this harvest have shown some differences on the various establishment methods I used for winter wheat – last year’s winter wheat was drilled with three different drills, a disc drill with 16.5cm row spacing and two different tine drills, one with 12.5cm row spacing and the other set at 25cm.

We used all three in a direct drill situation behind forage maize and oats and the tine drills were also used behind cultivated ground. The best results came from the 12.5cm row in the direct drill situation behind forage maize, while the worst yields were seen behind the disc drill direct into oat stubble, although where we cultivated oat stubbles we saw an uplift yield of more than 0.5 tonnes per hectare.

We need the ability to be flexible in different situations for different crops, especially where we use organic manures, which need incorporating before drilling. And we must ensure policy gives flexibility for growers – the drive towards direct drilling and cover cropping will work for some but not all. Sustainable Farming Incentive and future policy asks need to reflect this.

Soil health and raising organic matters are admirable goals but farm businesses must also maintain output while trying to achieve these goals. With input costs as high as they are, any drop off in yield and quality due to the wrong establishment method will have big impacts on profitability, something many growers cannot afford to risk.

About the author

rNFU crops board chairman Matt Culley is a fourth-generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother rThe 720-hectare enterprise produces wheat, barley, oilseed rape, forage maize and rye for anaerobic digestion across varying soil types, from chalk and chalk loam to clay cap. This includes 170ha of owned and rented land and 540ha of contract farming agreements rThe family also runs a pick-your-own soft fruit and summer vegetables business