Fundraiser to aid MND Association in memory of Su olk farmer

form of motor neurone disease (MND) and lost his life to the condition six weeks later on 14th March.

Tom Hitchcock from Ipswich, Su olk, is taking on the National Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association in memory of his late father.

A farmer of over 40 years, Tom’s father, Matthew Hitchcock of Hitchcock Farms in Elmsett, was forced to retire early due to ill health. In February 2020, he was diagnosed with an aggressive

As part of his fundraiser, Tom and ve friends will be attempting the Three Peaks Challenge as a winter climb on the 24th, 25th and 26th of March.

The group will ascend the Scottish peak Ben Nevis (1,345m) on the rst day, followed by Scafell Pike (978m) on the second day, and conclude the challenge with Snowdon (1,085m) in Wales.

“I feel that this is an appropriate challenge as when I was younger, my father used to take us to Wales and we walked up Snowdon, and Devil's Cauldron as well as a few other peaks in the Snowdonia national park as a family on holiday,” Tom wrote on his JustGiving page. In the rst month of launching the fundraiser, the campaign has reached 90% of its £2,020 target, which has been set in memory of the year Tom’s father passed away. However, Tom is hoping to at least double that target, and with his father being a lifelong farmer, he now turns to the farming community for support.

To make a donation, visit Tom Hitchcock’s fundraising page at https://bit.ly/3SeLy6T

The Climate Change Hub –which centralises the latest resources, information and guidance on climate change adaptation to support landowners, woodland managers and forestry practitioners in addressing climate change threats – was launched by Defra, Forest Research, Scottish Forestry and Welsh Government on 20th February.

Managed by Forest Research, the Hub centralises and distils the latest information and UKFS (United Kingdom Forestry Standard) guidance on climate change adaptation to encourage uptake of adaptive practice by forest and woodland owners and managers. It provides concise information about risks from the changing climate, how to identify suitable adaptation measures and examples of how other managers are

Sencrop has been active in the UK for several years, working with organisations like the BBRO on cercospora prediction, and recently it joined forces with Frontier Agriculture to roll out a UK-wide network of 480+ connected weather stations, helping farmers and their agronomists to make better crop management decisions.

This most recent move to the heart of UK and international crop research is a great opportunity for Sencrop and NIAB to collaborate, says Mark Herriman, sales account executive at Sencrop. “It is a very positive step. NIAB has a long history of scienti c research and Sencrop can help with bringing some of that research to farmers.

“For example, NIAB has been working on a potato yield model which could be integrated into the Sencrop app.” implementing adaptive practice.

To enable managers to make informed decisions for their own woodlands, the Climate Change Hub also includes detailed guidance through the decision-making process, step-by-step, including information about the online tools available to support risk management and species choice. More at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/ climate-change

Over £154,000 of funding has been awarded by Growing Kent & Medway to 11 businesses for research projects to improve the sustainability of the horticultural, food and drink sectors.

From reducing plastic in fruit punnets, cutting energy use in food processing, to extracting plant proteins from seaweed, the wideranging projects each showed innovative approaches to overcoming sustainability challenges.

Vouchers worth up to £15,000 were issued to each business to provide access to the technical expertise and testing facilities at three research centres in Kent and

Medway. The group of winning businesses include fruit growers, packaging suppliers, processors, ag-tech pioneers, and start-ups working with alternative proteins.

New grant opportunities, as well as a second round of Business Innovation Voucher funding, will be made available later in 2023.

Also, while Sencrop already has a potato blight decision support tool, data NIAB holds on susceptibility of potato varieties to the disease could be used to re ne the tool, says NIAB digital account manager Charles Gentry.

The company hopes to grow its network of weather stations by working more closely with NIAB through Barn4, says Mr Herriman. “We will have direct access to station information and will be able to feed local data to NIAB agronomists to aid their on-farm decision-making.”

The number of agricultural tractors (over 50hp) registered in the UK in January was 644 machines. That is nearly 30% higher than the gure for the same month last year and the highest total for the opening month of the year since 2019. Despite a relatively low gure in December, that means registrations over the last four months were 10% higher than a year before. The recent growth is perhaps an indication that the disruptions to supply chains which led to longer lead times for tractors and other machinery are starting to ease.

Month: 644 units +28.8% change (compared with January 2022).

Recommended List, the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI)-Barenbrug grass genetics partnership has delivered a cumulative increase in grass yields of 0.5% per annum over the 30 years since its inception in 1991. A new agreement will see this partnership continue with con dence well into the future.

“The Barenbrug partnership has formed a crucial part of our successful breeding programme for a number of decades,” says Dr Gillian Young, AFBI’s grass breeder.

Dr Young is already working on varieties with traits such as improved nitrogen utilisation and root structures. Improved nitrogen utilisation will reduce the need for fertiliser, while maintaining overall productivity.

But it’s resilience to stress – particularly drought – that she believes will be the most important trait to seek out.

Many of these ‘new’ traits will be root traits. “Whether it’s carbon capture, nutrient e ciency, or drought resistance, the answer’s going to be in the roots – their length, diameter, mass, and so on. But we’ll have to introduce these without losing sight of the all-important above-ground traits –those to which we’re accustomed.”

The value of the UK’s red meat exports has reached its highest levels since records began, worth a massive £1.7Bn last year, partially driven by the rising prices of meat. According to the latest data from HMRC, the total value of red meat shipments increased 22% year-on-year – with over 609,000 tonnes exported around the world, up 9%.

Beef exports brought the biggest boost, with the value of shipments up nearly 46% to £640M – driven by the recovery of trade with the EU. Pig meat exports reached £623M, up almost 10%, followed by sheep meat exports which were valued at £503M – a rise of 13% year-on-year.

AHDB international market development director, Dr Phil Hadley said: “Last year, we saw strong growth in some of our key target markets, such as Canada, Japan and Europe, which remains the UK’s most valuable market. We also saw new opportunities created for pork exports to Chile and lamb to the US, which both have the potential to help bolster these gures over the coming year.”

On 21st February at the NFU Conference, the NFU warned that the clock is ticking for the government to ensure British farmers and growers can continue to feed and fuel a changing and challenging world.

Delivering the opening address at the NFU Conference, NFU president Minette Batters said: “There are three cornerstones on which a prosperous farming sector must be built and which any government should use to underpin its farming policy. They are boosting productivity, protecting the environment and managing volatility.

“But the clock is ticking for those farmers and growers facing costs of production higher than the returns they get for their produce. It’s ticking for the country, as in ation remains stubbornly high, and the a ordability and availability of food come under strain. It’s ticking for our planet, as climate change necessitates urgent, concerted action to reduce emissions and protect our environment. And it’s ticking for government –to start putting meaningful, tangible and e ective meat on the bones of the commitments it has made. Commitments to promote domestic food production, to properly incentivise sustainable and climate friendly farming, to put farmers and growers at the heart of our trade policy, and to guarantee our food security. It really is time to back British farmers and back British food.”

A new paper launched by Scotland’s leading land reform body hopes to stimulate discussion on the ways communities can bene t from land use change and investment for Scotland’s net zero ambition.

The Scottish Land Commission’s ‘Community bene ts from investment in natural capital’ discussion paper not only considers thinking on how local communities can bene t from changes in Scotland’s land, but showcases how investment in natural capital enhancement, restoration, and creation projects can deliver a multitude of public, private, and community bene ts.

The paper draws together the Commission’s current thinking on some of the key questions about community bene ts from investment in natural capital, and highlights the need for major investment in Scotland’s land to ful l these on a local level while meeting climate demands. With an estimated £15–27Bn of investment required in Scotland to reach net zero by 2045, the Commission has proposed a de nition of community bene ts in this context and a set of expectations about how community bene ts should be identi ed and delivered.

Community bene ts are packages delivering maximum value to local communities on a negotiated basis for long term use. These bene t packages arise from investment in natural capital enhancement, creation and restoration projects.

The ‘Community bene ts from investment in natural capital’ discussion paper can be found at www. landcommission.gov.scot/ community-bene t

A warning for farmers to be vigilant for product for sale from unknown or suspicious sources comes from the AIC following a raid on a major distributor’s store in Norfolk on 6th February.

Products stolen from the store included a large quantity of herbicides for spring use in a range of crops including cereals, potatoes, and sugar beet. The names of speci c products taken are Grazon, Basagran, Artist, Broadway Star, Maister, Signum, and Paci ca Plus.

Hazel Doonan, AIC’s head of crop protection and agronomy, said: “Any business or individual selling or supplying professional PPPs must hold the BASIS Certi cate in Crop Protection. Growers should be extremely cautious if they are o ered product that appears to be exceptionally cheap or does not come from a known and reputable distribution company.”

The data from two seasons of the Bayer/NIAB CropCheck initiative illustrates just how unusual the last two seasons have been.

During June 2021, septoria came almost out of the blue. Until then, CropCheck qPCR septoria scores had been low apart from in the most susceptible of varieties, but the disease took o as warm and wet weather struck ahead of the Cereals event. Last season was almost a carbon copy – except what came out of the blue was yellow rust.

This poses the question of whether cereal disease control is becoming more challenging. It is worth some thought as despite ve varieties on the RL having septoria ratings of above 7, many of our wheat varieties and fungicides have a slight aw. Over half of the wheat area is down to just six varieties, all of which have a disease vulnerability. Our fungicide armoury o ers little in the way of septoria kick-back, some products that are more active are weak against yellow rust and no multisite is as consistent as CTL.

Project lead Greg Hanna doesn’t know whether disease control is more challenging now than in the past but he does feel it is less predictable. As well as the late yellow rust build up last season, CropCheck testing con rmed eyespot to be widespread, apart from the most southern counties.

As the rst positive eyespot results came in during April, so did yellow rust too. The rst was no great surprise given that it was leaf 5 of

RGT Saki at Scoughall Farm, East Lothian. As the season progressed, latent infection was found at other sites and in varieties considered resilient; Cranium (8) at Folkingham Farms, Sleaford, being one.

During May, a jump occurred. Quickly the disease was picked up elsewhere, including in KWS Extase at Fawley Court, Herefordshire; a variety thought to be highly resistant to all strains except 19/215.

But what was responsible for this late burst of the ‘yellow peril’?

The weather played a part. Met O ce anomaly charts show February through to May being warmer than UK averages and particularly conducive at between 10–20°C for most areas.

As spring turned to summer and temperatures increased further it took some time before CropCheck scores abated. Research has shown that yellow rust feels the heat and temperatures above 20°C should check the disease. That raises the question of whether new strains are circulating.

When it comes to why it took yellow rust so long to get going, despite conducive temperatures, Mr Hanna and Dr O’Driscoll feel it is again down to the weather. Although temperatures were favourable there was a distinct lack of humidity, which is what yellow rust needs.

In this case, spores will sit on the leaf until rain or heavy dew kickstarts them into life, which Mr Hanna says is an argument for an SDHI. “Azoles don’t act on a spore until it has germinated but SDHIs do. If you have a protective and lasting layer of an SDHI like bixafen on the leaf it will prevent any spores that land from germinating.”

Mr Hanna believes with the loss of tebuconazole it inevitably means greater reliance on variety resistance going forward.

Dr O’Driscoll agrees and points out that three of those most popular six varieties have yellow rust ratings of 5 or less. “We all know the old adage of ‘the genetics help the chemistry and the chemistry helps the genetics’. If yellow rust management is going to be more of a concern, then growers need to spread their risk using the range of genetics available to them. We have a wide choice of varieties available on the Recommended List, many with yellow rust scores of 8 or higher.”

With tebuconazole widely used as a guard at the T0, its withdrawal is likely to lead to higher pressure at the T1. The good news is that strong fungicide performance was seen in a high-pressure yellow rust trial with Skyfall at Troston Farms, Su olk.

The T1 comparison showed products delivering robust doses of prothioconazole standing up well. The two stand-out products being Ascra (prothioconazole + bixafen + uopyram) and Elatus (prothioconazole + benzovindi upyr), with 0.8-litre/ha of Elatus and 1.0-litres/ha of Ascra delivering yields of 9t/ha.

“We knocked back T2 rates so we could get a good T1 comparison, and both gave e ective control. Interestingly, where we lifted prothioconazole rates from 130 to 156g/ha we saw a 0.5t/ha yield response, Ascra at 1.2-litres/ha lifting yield to 9.46t/ha, notes Mr Hanna.

Yellow rust control is dependent on timings not getting stretched and for a disease that cycles quickly and likes slightly cooler conditions Mr Hanna feels growers will need to re-think fungicide programmes. “In prone yellow rust areas or with susceptible varieties, it is important to damp down yellow rust ahead of GS32. A strob is the next best thing to tebuconazole so it is a logical alternative. It will limit strob use later in the season but it is important to start o on the right foot,” he notes.

He also thinks it will be wise to ‘beef up’ yellow rust protection throughout the programme. “We saw last year spray intervals stretched with leaf emergence slowed, exposing leaf 2 for longer. Those Ascra and Elatus T1 plots o ered su cient leaf 2 protection so that T2 sprays were applied to a clean leaf 1. However, plots without strong yellow rust actives at T1 saw infection establish on leaf 2 and where this was followed by weaker yellow rust mixtures at T2 the disease spread further.”

More good news is that it is looking like Iblon (iso ucypram) will be approved in time for next season. “It’s a potent septoria active with excellent yellow rust protection too. With the tebuconazole revocation clock ticking the arrival of approval is welcome,” he adds. FG

The 2022/23 season started quickly for many, and so has the spring. Warm February weather saw a quick return to eld work, re ecting what happened at the start of the season. With harvest ending early, many took the opportunity to get winter wheat into the ground early.

The good news is that most crops have come through the winter well, especially early drilled ones. The bad news is that reports of yellow rust and septoria have circulated since the turn of the year. We’ve been here before but a recent run of dry spring weather has helped check disease pressure. But don’t bank on a lack of April showers again, is the warning from AICC agronomists Patrick Stephenson (right) and David Lines.

April average rainfall at NIAB, Cambridge, is 42.5mm, but for the last six seasons it has been just 29.0mm, in what have been six turbulent seasons weather wise.

Mr Stephenson feels a substantial reservoir of disease could fuel foliar threats and advises growers not to base fungicide decisions on recent seasons. He believes decisions need to be based on risk. That demands a rounded appraisal of variety rating, when it was drilled, crop biomass and weather patterns and forecast –all essential to protect emerging

continued over…

leaf layers.

His starting position for doing that is, well, at the start. Nip disease development ‘in the bud’.

That start could be at the T1, where a septoria resilient variety has been sown late; if not, then a T0 is a prudent investment. For susceptible yellow rust varieties, when prudence becomes a necessity, he considers a contact material like tebuconazole the best option.

T0 options where septoria is a concern are multisite folpet or possibly defence elicitor Lamanarin (Iodus). He considers nothing is as reliable as CTL but both are alternatives, especially as wheat prices are still upwards of £200/t.

When it comes to the two key timings, he feels growers have a good arsenal to choose from. Ascra (prothioconazole + bixafen + uopyram), Elatus (prothioconazole + benzovindi upyr), Revystar and Univoq (prothioconazole + fenpicoxamid) are all likely to feature again, depending on disease spectrum and risk.

In his view, Univoq and Revystar are the strongest septoria options. Elatus isn’t the strongest septoria option but is for yellow rust, with Ascra being a good ‘all-rounder’. With its high prothioconazole loading it is particularly useful where the stem-based complex is a consideration.

So, he sees the former two as more natural T2 ts and the latter two as more suited to the T1. But not exclusively, if leaves 3 and 2 are in a protective position ahead of ag leaf sprays then Ascra and Elatus still have a place.

Keeping leaf 3 clean is why the T1 is vital in Mr Stephenson’s view. He understands the need to target inputs accordingly but is uneasy about rates being cut below minimum recommendations, even if we see another spring drought. “Lower input varieties allow a degree of exibility but for the last two seasons some T1 rates have been extremely low. You are then relying on the weather to remain dry but if it turns, a few sharp rain events or a period of humidity can quickly change matters. It is likely rates have been a factor in the development of late disease pressure over the last two seasons,” he adds.

Herefordshire-based David Lines (right) probably sees as much septoria as anyone. Walking midSeptember drilled Extase and Graham in the middle of February, he didn’t have to look hard to nd the disease. It hadn’t made its way to new growth but it was there in the base of plants.

He is perhaps fortunate that the septoria risk in his area means many growers have heeded the warning when it comes to variety resilience and he doesn’t manage anything rated less than a six. But he warns that even the most resilient varieties aren’t resistant. “There is no such thing as an immune variety,” Mr Lines stresses.

He points out rating really depends on when it was drilled. “Drill in mid-September and you can knock as much as a whole point o a variety’s septoria rating. Dawsum and Graham have good ratings of 6.4 and 6.7 respectively, but these are going to behave more like a variety rated at 5.5,” he cautions.

He agrees that we have the fungicide arsenal to meet a range of disease scenarios and like Patrick that can include a T0.

He also sees a role for Iodus, and for those with more susceptible varieties in the ground, then he would advise Thiopron or folpet as useful T0 additions, and elsewhere for the most susceptible varieties.

the most susceptible varieties.

Ascra suits many T1 scenarios in his view. Rates will be tailored to variety rating, drilling date and environmental factors. He feels an azole + multisite does have a place but only for the most resilient varieties if later drilled and the weather has been kind. Revystar and Univoq will be held back for T2 applications, especially for more susceptible varieties.

There is also the issue of yellow rust spreading west. The disease was picked up in Extase at Fawley Court, Herefordshire, last season as part of Bayer’s CropCheck initiative, a variety considered resilient to all isolates apart from 19/215.

It probably is no surprise given the amount of Extase in the ground, Mr Lines saw the disease last year and mildew too. It could threaten lush crops again; however, he will only opt for a speci c mildewicide in severe situations. FG