Crop Production March 2023

£3.99

What are weeds telling you about your soil? page 42

In this issue...

Back to basics page 8

Disease threats this spring

Farming greener page 81

Connectivity at core page 68

Highlights from the Rootstock event

In for a roasting? page 87

Volume 25 Number 2

March 2023

As spring unfolds,we’re perusing the typical spring agronomy challenges ––diseases,nutrition and weeds. But as well as the predictable, different perspectives also feature prominently in this issue which could just challenge the way you habitually look at things. Of these,and my favourite article this month,is

Doctors of the soil on page 42. Instead of how to destroy them, we look at weeds as indicators of soil health. It’s enough to make you itch to pick up a fork and go and investigate.

mechanisms. I think you know what they are!

We also look at the role of a nutrio-biostimulant product which achieves a similar priming of plant defences via a different route in Bioscience in practice (page 22). Rounding off the disease coverage, Managing uncertainty explores early season disease control (page 26).

Editor

Lucy de la Pasture

Sub-editor

Rachael Harper Writers

Mike Abram

Adam Clarke

Charlotte Cunningham

Melanie Jenkins

Rob Jones

Martin Lines

Emily Padfield

Lucy de la Pasture

Martin Rickatson

Guy Smith

Paul Spackman

Andrew Wilson

Design and production

Brooks Design

Publisher

Steve Kendall

Commercial Director

Angus McKirdy

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We’re back to killing weeds in Tech Talk (page 50) and here the focus is on a group of chemistry that’s been around for decades and has been making a resurgence in recent years –– the phenoxies. With post-emergence windows for grassweed control open early this spring with the almost balmy Februar y, we’re also reminded that poor control doesn’t necessarily mean resistance (page 48).

Even though yellow rust has already made itself at home this spring and sights are already on T0, we horizon scan and gather views on how changing agricultural practices may impact on diseases –– varietal choice, drilling date, tillage regime, cover crops and environmental schemes could all tip the balance (page 8).

As the discussions over the merits of sustainable intensification and more regenerative methods rumble on, we travel to Yorkshire to visit BASF Real Results Pioneer, Richard Hinchliffe (page 14). In true Yorkshireman style, he has some blunt views which make interesting reading.

Several years past its sell by date, agronomists still bemoan the loss of CTL. In this month’s Innovation Insight (page 17), we char t the development of two naturally-derived CTL substitutes –– one provides multi-site activity, the other elicits plant defence

Last month saw several new events kick-off and we bring coverage from Rootstock (page 68) and the West Country Farming & Machinery Show (page 81) ––both didn’t disappoint. Perhaps a highlight for many in the regen world is the BASE-UK conference and this year’s event was a corker and brings a controversial topic to the fore (page 65), as well as many other thought-provoking speakers.

Nitrogen use is also front of mind, and we explore how on-farm trials are causing two growers to re-evaluate their practices and make some far-reaching changes to application strategies (page 56). Remaining with nutrition, we look at a huge study that indicates that applying nutrition using average figures (as in RB209) could be compromising productivity (page 61).

The machinery section reviews two farms’ machinery choices (page 78 and page 86) and finds out what is driving their decision making. We also round up some of the nifty additions to drill ranges and new models on page 70.

Last but not least, our farmer columnists are all on point this month and I’m sure what they have to say will strike a cord with some of you. Last Word is taking a hiatus and will hopefully return later in the year when the words may just fall on the page more readily!

I hope you enjoy reading this March issue of CPM as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together

Opinion

Smith’s Soapbox - Views and opinions from an Essex peasant…

Nature Natters - A nature-friendly perspective from a Cambridgeshire farmer.

Talking taties - Plain talking from a Yorkshire root grower.

Cereal disease – Back to basics

With T0 on the horizon, we gather some thoughts on disease threats and control this spring.

Real Results Pioneers – Production matters

Rather than chasing stewardships funds, a Yorkshire grower has other ideas about how to balance productivity and nature.

Innovation Insight – Natural potential

How two naturally-derived chemicals were developed to help bridge the gap left by chlorothalonil.

Bioscience in practice – Shoring up plant defences

Both research and practical experience are showing the benefits of supporting plant self-defence.

Managing uncertainty – Protect, prevent, and prosper

A look at early season disease control and its role in building and protecting yield potential.

Oilseed rape disease – At the stem of it

There’s a keen interest in stem health in OSR and we look at how breeders are evaluating its traits.

Theory to Field – One strategy,many different parts

A look at the latest research into CSFB and the best tactics to employ to prevent crop damage.

Pulse Progress – Catching up with the fly

A current PhD project is looking to get a better understanding of bean seed fly to help forecast its threat.

Weeds as indicators – Doctors of the soil

Ever wondered what weeds are telling you about your soil? We find out from Nicole Masters.

Grassweed control – Application matters

New research shows that its not just resistance behind incidences of poor grassweed control.

Tech Talk – Tried and tested

Phenoxy herbicides may be golden oldies, but they still have their uses in spring broadleaf weed control.

Insider’s View – Swashbuckling buccaneer

We get the inside view on a dual-purpose winter barley that’s set the yield bar higher than ever before.

Crop nutrition – Making more of nitrogen

The outcome of on-farm trials is influencing how two growers make their most of nitrogen inputs.

Crop nutrition – End of ‘averages’ era

A new study highlights nutritional pitfalls when crop requirements are based on average figures.

BASE-UK Conference – Base learning

Highlights from the 10th BASE-UK Conference, which took place in Nottingham last month.

Rootstock report – The role of connectivity

Aiming to connect farming systems, soils, people and technology, the inaugural Rootstock event took on an almighty task.

Drills – Multifaceted new generation

As drilling operations become more complex, we look at new drills which are becoming more multifaceted as a result.

On Farm Opinion – Crawler speed key to seedbed creation

We visit a Buckinghamshire-based contractor to find out why he’s moving from wheels to tracks.

West Country Farming & Machinery Show – Farming greener

We report from the new event, which took place in Exeter last month, and look at technologies for farming greener.

On Farm Opinion – Systemic change in tillage

A Lincolnshire farmer has been on a tillage journey that’s embraced all the extremes before settling on strip-till.

Potato agronomy – Potatoes in for a roasting?

Unless the supply chain comes on board with new varieties, the chips are down for growers with PCN.

Regime change

For those of us that can remember when fertiliser arrived in the form of pallet loads of blue one hundred-weight plastic bags, here is another thought that marks time. Set-aside was introduced to UK arable farming exactly 30 years ago. For what was an undoubted first for many of us,fields that hadn’t been sown in the autumn of 1992

remained fallow in the spring of 1993 so that they could be recorded as such on our new IACS forms,which we sweated over for the first time.

To be exact, the set-aside concept was actually introduced by the EU earlier in 1988 but it had little uptake in the UK as it wasn’t a condition when applying for acreage payments. The maths in 1988 was pretty straight forward –– with cereal and oilseed prices guaranteed through intervention-buying, production remained far more attractive than poorly compensated fallow. But it was the introduction of ‘compulsory set-aside’ five years later that caused a lot of head scratching because it was only ‘compulsory’ if you wanted a fairly generous acreage payment.

Again, the basic maths was reasonably straight-forward –– if you wanted a payment of around £80 an acre over an area of your arable land then you had to take 15% of that area out of production.

The tricky bit was second guessing yields and market prices. Some farmers reckoned that while it was worth it for cereals, it wasn’t so clear cut for the usually more lucrative oilseed rape. As the years rolled by, the farm planning became more convoluted as the set-aside area rose to 20%, but ‘industrial crops’ were allowed on set-aside and as were 15m margins around headlands.

For many arable farmers, all this was a watershed moment. The concept of farming ‘the system’ became almost as important as growing good crops. It was a mind-set that was to become well rooted, even when set-aside itself was abandoned after 15 years –– partly because it failed to do what it intended, that being to control production, and partly because global factors made the need to control production largely redundant.

I mention this 30-year-old history now because as I stare at the long list of ELMs options in the latest Defra missive, that same thought-process –– honed over three decades –– of trying to play the system is still alive and kicking. What makes this palava all the more brain-aching is that we have recently seen the wheat price double and halve in a breathtakingly brief period of time. Go back 30 years and crop prices were a good deal more stable. Hence the decision whether to apply for many of the ELMs options becomes a good deal more speculative as to whether they make good business sense or not.

The catchily titled option AB15 is a good case in point. It requires you to take land out of production

Guy Smith grows 500ha of combinable crops on the north east Essex coast, namely St. Osyth Marsh –– officially the driest spot in the British Isles. Despite spurious claims from others that their farms are actually drier, he points out that his farm is in the Guinness Book of Records, whereas others aren’t. End of.

@essexpeasant

for two years by growing legumes, thereby receiving an annual payment of £593 per hectare. When wheat is £300 a tonne this offer makes little sense but at £150 a tonne it becomes very attractive, especially if you can reduce your blackgrass burden in the process. The problem is that my guess is the wheat price will continue to swing like a pendulum between £150 and £300 over the next two years largely depending on the mood music in a certain bunker underneath the Kremlin in Moscow.

Suddenly I’m taken back to those Easter-time evenings in the early nineties, sweating over my newly commissioned maps of my fields while messing about with spreadsheets on the green-tinted screen of my newly acquired Apple IIE computer. I didn’t know it at the time, but life was so much simpler then.

The use of fallow and crop rotation in arable farming may be old as the hills, but under this new regime the rule book looks very different. As for the impact of all this on UK crop production, I struggle to see how it can be anything but negative. However, just as set-aside didn’t have much impact 30 years ago, maybe the ELMs of tomorrow can solve the conundrum of maintaining production while delivering other environmental goods.

Cereal disease

A relatively warm and dry February saw field work resume in earnest. With yellow rust already at uncomfortable levels in some regions and the T0 timing on the horizon, CPM gathers thoughts on disease control at a roundtable event hosted by Bayer.

By Lucy de la Pasture

Every season produces its unique challenges when it comes to controlling cereal diseases. With fungicide prices following the agflation curve and belts tightening on input spend,making the best decisions has never been more important when it comes to maintaining a healthy crop and a healthy bottom line.

With the goalposts always moving when it comes to diseases, changes in establishment practice, weather, varieties and chemistry mean that a change in approach may be required, says Bayer’s Greg Hanna.

There’s no argument around the table that variety choice remains fundamentally important as part of an integrated strategy for managing diseases –– the days of reliance on a fungicide as a cure all are well and truly over. According to Agrii’s John Miles, the profile of varieties in the ground has changed as a result over the past two decades, with the monsoon summer of 2012

Back to basics

standing out as ‘the watershed year’.

“Before 2012, varieties with a septoria rating of 6 or less were widespread [in terms of the % of overall winter wheat in the ground]. But thereafter the balance began to change and by 2023, we’re seeing a much more balanced spread of uptake.”

Variety seed sales

Looking at the NIAB data for commercial seed sales for the 2023 crop, John notes that some of the less resistant varieties still have a reasonable market share, with Skyfall at 6%, Gleam 7% and Skyscraper 9.6%. But topping the Agrii charts is the disease resistant allrounder KWS Dawsum at 16%, closely followed by the ever-popular septoria resistant variety, KWS Extase at 14.4%. Also making the top 10 varieties is old faithful Graham (7.1%) and Champion (6.9%).

But although those more resistant varieties are proving popular with growers, John also warns that the trend towards earlier drilling –– particularly where blackgrass isn’t a concern and in direct drilling situations, where there’s no time waiting for cultivations to be done ahead of the drill –– puts the pressure back on. September drilling effectively knocks a point off a variety’s septoria resistance rating and that’s a risk going into the spring.

It’s something to be aware of this year, he highlights. “There was an early finish to harvest in 2022 and many people just cracked on. I’ve just been up in the Borders and some wheat went in during August and September The septoria situation is looking very exciting up there,” he says.

For independent agronomist and AICC member, David Boulton of Indigro, drilling dates were spread from 10 September to

10 November. “Growers with blackgrass have the mindset to wait until the second or third week of October but others are shifting drilling dates forwards to balance a bit of risk and they’re managing that risk by going earlier on fields that are relatively clean where grassweeds are concerned,” he says.

David suspects that the recent bolstering of herbicide options for grassweed control may also have led some growers to put more reliance on chemical rather than cultural control methods for blackgrass. “We have Luximo (cimethylin) and Proclus (aclonifen) at the moment, so some people are comfortable to move drilling forward by seven days or so.”

Greg believes the wet autumn of 2019 is still at the back of many growers’ minds ––there was no opportunity to plant wheat past September that year. “With weather patterns becoming more and more unpredictable, if the weather breaks there may not be

Although more resistant varieties are proving popular with growers, John Miles warns that the trend towards earlier drilling puts the pressure back on even resistant varieties.

It’s a common misconception that the RL rating for yellow rust is representative of the whole season,but we don’t actually know when adult plant resistance will kick in. ”

Cereal disease

Commercial seed data for 2022

Use of prothioconazole-containing fungicides at T1 has indirectly been targeting eyespot but the trend for cutting back at this timing may be opening a hidden back door for the disease, says David Boulton.

another opportunity to get the crop in so they get on when they can.”

NIAB’s Dr Aoife O’Driscoll picks up on the effect climate variability is having on varieties later in the season, with consequent effects on leaf layer emergence as well as the prevalence of ear diseases, such as ergot and fusarium species.

“We have a lot of later maturing varieties on the AHDB Recommended List now and, in some areas, where May has been cool and damp this can lead to a protracted flowering period, often with differences in anthesis across the field which favours these diseases.”

Grass margins and uncontrolled grassweeds within the crop, including blackgrass, meadow brome and various ryegrass species also provide a host to ergot, notes Aoife. “When thinking about how ergot got into the crop or how it is spread, a useful exercise would be to walk grass margins in late April to assess whether there are ergots present.”

Another rumbling threat, that all around the table have noticed increasing in crops in recent years, is eyespot. Once a disease that was high on an agronomist’s watch list, eyespot has become less of a priority than it used to be because available chemistry has been good at controlling it.

Aoife believes that eyespot may have become more noticeable of late because of weather conditions favouring its development and she reckons that any change in prevalence could be having an effect on how varieties are being rated on the RL. But she points out that we really don’t know whether the disease itself has changed in response to the changing climate.

“Eyespot is one of the diseases where there is a lack of any recent epidemiology studies,” she notes.

Source:NIAB,2022

John agrees that eyespot is being picked up more often in Agrii trials and he says there have been some control issues due to boscalid no longer being used at T1 and prothioconazole rates being trimmed. “It could be a potential pitfall going forwards but it’s not a high breeding priority, so eyespot may come back to bite us.”

Hidden back door

David says use of Aviator Xpro (bixafen+ prothioconazole) or Ascra Xpro (bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole) has indirectly been targeting eyespot at the T1 timing and agrees the trend for cutting back at this timing may be opening a hidden back door for the disease.

NIAB have done numerous trials looking at the value of applying a fungicide at T1 in low risk varieties in perceived low risk situations, says Aoife. “There’s always a value in putting something on, even if it’s just a folpet and tebuconazole mix. But if using folpet, we have observed the benefits come from an all or nothing approach. If you’re going to use it, a full-rate at T1 and T2 gives the best result.”

David reckons folpet gives a return on investment just 50% of the time on his farms but being a multi-site, there’s a good argument for including it for resistance management, he says, agreeing with Aoife’s all or nothing approach.

In recent seasons, it’s yellow rust that has taken on the mantle of being the most

troublesome disease in wheat. No one doubts the impact that septoria can have on yield but lately weather patterns have favoured the development of rusts.

David comments that with 35-45% of varieties in the ground highly susceptible to yellow rust, and inoculum ‘enormous’, that it’s brewing up to be a problem this spring. For the most susceptible varieties, such as KWS Zyatt and Gleam, he expects to be looking at the leaf layers and treating for yellow rust as they emerge.

“Yellow rust has come in early in the East and is quite severe in places already. In Scotland, yellow rust is there in quite some levels. Even in the West, rusts are occurring more frequently,” adds John.

There’s agreement around the table that

With yellow rust,you have to treat what’s in front of you rather than rely on resistance genes to kick in.

Aoife O’Driscoll picks up on the effect climate variability is having on varieties later in the season,with consequent effects on leaf layer emergence as well as the prevalence of ear diseases,such as ergot and fusarium species.

it’s time to move away from septoria in the West, yellow rust in the East stereotyping –– everything is everywhere.

On the more positive side, according to the UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS) there haven’t been any major changes in yellow rust virulence and pathogen populations are relatively stable, says Aoife.

“But we are lacking up-to-date research on the biology and behaviour of the disease on-farm, with the most recent study carried out by Dr Pete Gladders and colleagues in 2007. The biology may or may not have changed in this time but from this study, a minimum of five days of air frost at minus 50C is required to knock back any yellow rust which might have penetrated leaf tissues and is ready to reproduce. So have we had that this winter?’’

In spite of cold spells during December and January, none of the agronomists are confident it has been cold enough for long enough to keep a lid on yellow rust. All agree that when you have a yellow rust infection in the crop, you have to treat it according to what’s in front of you rather than go by its RL resistance rating.

“It’s a common misconception that the RL rating for yellow rust is representative of the whole season, but we don’t actually know when adult plant resistance will kick in,” says John.

Aoife says John’s comment reflects a dichotomy within the industry when it comes to RL ratings. “If you’ve got yellow rust then economically you have to crack on and treat it, you can’t afford to sit and watch the crop hoping adult plant resistance will kick in.”

John notes that putting aside any septoria resistance issues, the Cougar lineage provides a good source of yellow rust resistance. “We also need to be aware of the amount of Timaru material coming through in

breeding lines. We’ve had KWS Siskin and Costello but now KWS Palladium, KWS Ultimatum, KWS Cranium and KWS Dawsum are potentially relying on a similar resistance package.”

David notes that there’s quite a lot of Reflection in some wheat lineages too –– a variety that broke spectacularly under the strain of yellow rust. John agrees that no Refection genes can bring yellow rust resistance into a cross, but the outcome can still be good if the other parent offers genetic diversity, as is the case with Champion. He also highlights that where a variety has good yellow rust resistance, the opposite is normally the case when it comes to brown rust.

Wider role of fungicides

The variety that immediately comes to mind when brown rust is mentioned is Crusoe, notes David, and it’s a variety that’s proving popular with growers because of its superior nitrogen use efficiency. But there are several popular varieties that are susceptible and both John and David believe the role of fungicides in improving NUE is often overlooked.

“If you want to maximise NUE then it’s by optimising yield that you can achieve that. There’s a narrative to reduce inputs across the board but by taking that approach, there’s a danger you’ll allow yield to erode. It’s just as important to make good product choices and apply them at the right disease control and nutritional timings. Good farming practice leads you to a better NUE,” says John.

There are also hidden advantages to some fungicide products, adds Greg. “The bixafen component in Ascra increase N-reductase, improving availability.”

It’s an effect John has seen in Agrii Green Horizons trials with Boogie Xpro Plus (prothioconazole + bixafen+ spiroxamine). “We’ve seen an improved NUE where Boogie Plus has been used and it also seems to help more micronutrients get into the plant. It’s making everything work harder.

“In stressful, cool and dry springs –– as soon as soil moisture disappears, bang goes the availability of micro- and macronutrients. It focuses a light on how important the little things can be, a nutritionally balanced plant is much better able to cope with stress,” he says.

Going back to fungicide timings, there’s a broad agreement that SDHIs bring advantages at the T1 timing. In spite of the newer fungicide chemistry that’s now available, David feels that Ascra still answers the questions at T1. “It covers all the

Many varieties on the RL have a weakness to eyespot,so the disease may assume more importance where early disease control is skipped or where fungicides which don’t pick up eyespot are applied.

diseases of concern at leaf three emerged, without spending too much money and has the advantage of rate flexibility.”

It’s a strategy Aoife supports for low to moderate septoria risk varieties in a low to moderate disease scenario. In moderate to higher risk varieties under moderate to high disease pressure then she suggests moving to a programme utilising Revystar XE (mefentrifluconaze+ fluxapyroxad) at T1, followed by Univoq (prothioconazole+ fenpicoxamid) at T2.

In situations where septoria pressure comes in late season, the use of Univoq at T2 opens up the possibility of using an SDHI at T3, adds John, which could be a less risky strategy than not applying an SDHI at T1.

Summing up, John says that the way farming is being enacted has completely changed in recent years and it follows through that decision-making will change too. Aoife points to the uptake of SFIs, adoption of green margins, cover crops and direct drilling as examples of factors which will provide new challenges that we may not yet fully understand.

“Grasses act as alternate hosts for some cereal diseases. Could it be a ticking time bomb?” she asks.

BYDV is another concern, says John. “We’re already seeing more BYDV in some places. No one looks for aphids in cover crops.”

With growers now being incentivised not to use insecticides under one of the SFI options, there’s going to need to be a rebalancing of the system while beneficials build up, comments David.

Now’s a good time to go back to basics, concludes Aoife. “There’s a lot of ‘noise’ out there at the moment to cut through, but don’t forget the basics. We have to understand the biology of diseases to manage them.” ■

Real Results Pioneers

Production matters

But the ‘warp’ soils, resulting from the intentional flooding of the adjacent Dutch River in the 1800s, are also highly productive for winter wheat and other combinable crops on the 560ha farm.

That means taking land out of production to put into a Countryside Stewardship scheme isn’t financially attractive, explains Richard.

Voluntary actions

“We farm in what we would call an environmentally sensitive way but on a highly productive parcel of land –– the payment rates haven’t been matched to what the land can produce economically. So we’ve taken action voluntarily, where appropriate, rather than chase government grants.”

It’s perhaps a little surprising to learn that Richard Hinchliffe and his family have never entered a government supported environmental stewardship scheme.

The Hinchliffe name is intrinsically linked to Rawcliffe Bridge, near Goole in East Yorkshire. The family farm has worked in partnership with BASF since 2002 to implement practical wildlife enhancing measures to encourage biodiversity, while not detracting from the highly productive arable areas.

The focus in the project has been on using simple techniques, farm labour and standard farm equipment to establish year-round food supplies for birds, as well as roosting and nesting sites, and a managed approach to creating habitats suitable for pollinators.

The farm is well set up to survive without Basic Payment Scheme funds, he adds. “When it was announced that BPS was going, we took the decision we wanted to be viable without it, and we are as long as we get decent input and output prices.

“If we can’t farm subsidy-free on our better land, then there’s going to be a lot of arable farmers in trouble.”

He suggests with the new Environmental Land Management offers, arable farmers will make a choice between whether to be primarily production-based or whether to chase stewardship funding more significantly

“There’s plenty of good Grade 1 or 2 land in this country, for example, around the Wash, Humberhead Levels and on the Wolds, where farmers don’t need production-based subsidies because

they’ve got the yield.”

But, unlike in previous stewardship schemes, there are some opportunities for him to be paid for actions that he is already taking on the farm within the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

“We’ve had a look at various bits and while the payment rates are not going to be high enough for us to actually change our farming practice, if we can get paid for something that we’re doing already, then that’s a bit different.”

For example, he’s considering the Integrated Pest Management and Nutrient Management plans within those two new standards. “We’re already doing those as part of Red Tractor, so we might just need to

On highly fertile soils,a Yorkshire farmer is firmly committed to producing high yields ahead of chasing stewardship funds. CPM finds out how he’s achieving a balance between pushing productivity and environmental considerations.

By Mike Abram

Wheat

yields on the farm,given decent conditions,are slowly increasing,says Richard Hinchliffe,probably due to better genetics and helped by good fungicides.

The payment rates haven’t been matched to what that land can produce economically. ”

tweak them a little.

“The insecticide-free option is also a possible one for us because we haven’t used insecticides for three years now.”

That decision has partly been driven by the products available for combinable crops reducing in both availability and effectiveness, he admits. “Over time though, I think not using insecticides is benefiting beneficial insects and things are getting more in balance.

“Apart from last harvest, when we had about a dozen or so metre square areas of BYDV in a couple of winter barley headlands, we’ve seen no problems.”

But he wonders whether an increased focus on integrated pest management will mean a change to how decisions are recorded. “I’ve been saying for a few years, half-jokingly, that I’ll end up recording what I haven’t done as much as what I am

doing, and that seems to be coming to pass with this new SFI insecticide-free alternative.

“If I want to sign up to that option, then I will be recording that I’ve been crop walking and decided not to use an insecticide.”

Whether current farm managementsoftware platforms can cope with recording what hasn’t been done, as well as what has, is debatable, he says.

“There’s a good opportunity to make a more farmer-friendly farm management software for growers wanting to do things slightly differently, especially self-advised farmers.

“The market leader is the only one that does it all, but in a clunky, outdated way that makes me want to throw my laptop out of the window. If you could slim it down to the essential parts and make it a bit more modern to use, it would be a really good programme, but there’s probably

New BASF option impresses

Spring barley has become a key part of Richard’s rotation since 2016,after a 15-year break from growing it. “We started originally for blackgrass reasons, but now it’s more to maintain a balanced rotation.”

Winter beans have replaced spring beans because they work better in the no-till system,leaving the rotation a little short on spring cropping, he explains.“So spring barley is filling that spring crop area,along with linseed.”

He previously used to struggle to achieve malting specification with spring barley on his predominantly heavy soils,but since its return he has found it possible to consistently make the spec with Planet.

“I think the plant breeding has progressed – we’re managing to meet the below 1.9% N spec using 120kgN/ha,on average.”

That consistency has meant changing from growing predominantly for seed to growing for the brewing market. Yields average 7-7.5t/ha, he says.

This season he will be growing 45ha – typically it varies between

40 and 60ha.It’s all direct drilled, which some growers have struggled to make work with spring barley, he says.

“We’ve just found a way that works for us.Timing of drilling is critical –– getting it in on those couple of days that are probably perfect.”

He uses “massive”seed rates of over 500 seeds/m2,which help with lower establishment.“We did a trial last season with up to 720 seeds/m2, and I think we will probably be around 600 seeds/m2 on heavier soil now,” he says.

He applies 75% of the nitrogen in the seedbed and hopes for some rain.Cover crops are not part of the system.“We dabbled with them but couldn’t get them to work on our heavier soils and have now dropped them.”

Planet is a ‘dirty-ish’ variety for disease,he says,but barley is much easier to keep clean than wheat.His programme has been based on Siltra (bixafen+ prothioconazole) but last year was the first time he hasn’t used an all-Siltra programme,with Ascra

Costello wheat: Front of Farm field at Dikes Marsh Far Treatment Field Comparison Innovation Innovation programme

Source:BASF RealAscra XPro contains bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole; Aurelia contains prothioconazole; Revystar XE contains mefentrifluconazole + fluxapyroxad; and Univoq contains prothioconazole+ fenpicoxamid.

Source:BASF Real Results,2022

half of the platform I have never used because it’s not required for a family farm.”

On the farm this February ––whisper it quietly –– cereal crops are looking perhaps as well they have for over 10 years at this time of year, he says. “If we get good weather, we could have phenomenal yields of both wheat and barley.”

For the past three seasons, the 320ha winter wheat has been

coming in as the T2 spray.

His Real Results trial for BASF compared Siltra with Tevos (fluxapyroxad+ pyraclostrobin) plus prothioconazole T1,with Ascra plus folpet sprayed across the trial area at T2.

Differences in NDVI (normalised difference vegetation index),captured by satellite imagery before T2 was applied,suggested the BASF treatment resulted in a larger or greener canopy at that time.The difference was less obvious in a later image captured in early July, but it did translate to nearly 0.5t/ha yield improvement in favour of the

drilled from mid-September, with the aim of finishing by the end of the first week of October. That might be a surprise, given Richard’s obsession and zero-tolerance to blackgrass, with the agronomic textbook suggesting better grassweed control from delaying drilling into later October and beyond.

But Richard says while maintaining zero tolerance to blackgrass control is still hard

BASF programme.

That’s encouraging Richard to switch his T1 treatment in spring barley to Tevos plus Innox (prothioconazole) as his farm standard treatment,although he will trial it again against Siltra to make sure it wasn’t a one-off result.

He’s likely to remain with Ascra rather than using Revystar at T2,but it’s not a definite in Richard’s mind yet.“It depends on how it establishes and looks because it’s quite a step up [in price] from Ascra. I was really impressed with how Ascra did –– it was the first time I’d used it in barley.”

Planet spring barley: Stackyard Field at Dikes Marsh Farm

Treatment Field Comparison BASF

T1 (19 May) Siltra (0.4 l/ha)Trevos (1.4 l/ha) + Innox (0.4 l/ha)

T2 (22 June) Ascra XPro (0.7 l/ha) +Ascra (0.7 l/ha) + Phoenix (1.0 l/ha)Phoenix (1.0 l/ha)

Average yield 7.42 t/ha 7.91 t/ha

Ascra XPro contains bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole; Innox contains Phoenix contains folpet; Innox contains prothioconazole; Tevos contains pyraclostrobin+ fluxapyroxad; and Siltra XPro contains bixafen+ prothioconazole.

Source: BASF Real Results, 2022

Real Results Pioneers

mole-draining as often as possible, chopping straw, a diverse rotation and a managed approach to wheelings to make sure they are in the same place every season, 20 years of non-inversion tillage and over 10 years of no-till has helped build more resilience into his clay soils, he believes.

“We’ve noticed our wheats are greener seven to 10 days longer in our long-term no-till system than others near us who more intensively cultivate.”

T1. For the remaining treatment (innovation programme 1), the order of the sprays was swapped –– with Univoq at T1 and Revystar at T2.

An increased focus on integrated pest management on the farm may mean a change in how decisions are recorded.

work, it’s no longer the challenge that it was. “I spend six weeks every summer walking through crops making sure there are no grassweeds. We spend more time rogueing every year than we do on any other single job –– that’s how important it is.”

As weed numbers reduce, it’s meant the team is able to walk fields more quickly and consequently rogue each one twice or even three times rather than once, he says.

“Now it’s under control, we’re back to early drilling to maximise yields. We lose more yield waiting for this imaginary flush of blackgrass, that doesn’t come now, by delaying drilling. We’re better off getting it drilled and away, growing big roots because that means big yields.”

Budget yields for winter wheat are 10t/ha –– the psychological benefit of a nice round number and a smile on the face when the farm beats it, says Richard. But in reality, that’s the lower end of what the farm is capable of.

“Second wheats usually do over 10t/ha. Last year, which was a particularly good year, wheats ranged from 10.5 to over 14t/ha, and averaged just below 12t/ha.”

It’s all Group 4 hard feed wheat with KWS Dawsum –– which went “gangbusters” last year –– the main variety supported by Costello and Gleam. “Costello is ‘Mr Consistent’ for us –– it’s short, stiff, can be drilled early and it’s a bit later to harvest, while Gleam is another high yielder with a flexible drilling date that’s been a good no-till wheat.

“But at the moment Dawsum is the complete package –– it did phenomenally well for us last year.”

Early vigour is a key characteristic Richard is looking for in varieties with his no-till system, along with ones that are short and stiff as he doesn’t want too much straw biomass to break down as it’s all chopped.

Along with other tactics, such as

Wheat yields on the farm, given decent conditions, are slowly increasing, adds Richard, probably due to better genetics and helped by good fungicides.

Last season he used Univoq (prothioconazole+ fenpicoxamid) to open up the possibility of using SDHI fungicide at T3.

“With Uniovq being an alternative mode of action, it allowed me to use Aviator (prothioconazole+ bixafen) at T3, to see whether I could push yield further.”

Despite the tactic working well, it’s not one he’s likely to repeat this season as despite no issues on his farm with his sprayer, he’s not particularly happy with the statements Univoq manufacturer Corteva has issued and the support –– or lack of it in his view –– that the company is giving to growers.

“I won’t be using Univoq this year, even if they gave it to me. But hopefully it can be reformulated to be a bit more user-friendly as it did a good job.”

In his Real Results tramline-style trial, Richard trialled three programmes –– the field comparison was Ascra (bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole) at T1 followed by Univoq at T2. Innovation programme 2 was similar, with the only difference being Revystar (mefentrifluconazole+ fluxapyroxad) was used instead of Ascra at

The Real Results Circle

BASF’s Real Results Circle farmer-led trials are now in their sixth year The initiative is focused on working with more than 50 farmers to conduct field-scale trials on their own farms using their own kit and management systems. The trials are all assessed using ADAS’ Agronomics tool which delivers statistical confidence to tramline,or field-wide treatment comparisons –– an important part of Real Results.

In a continuation of this series we follow the journey, thinking and results from farmers involved in the programme.The features also look at

It was that last treatment which was the one that stood out –– with Revystar used at the T2 timing –– in the trial, which yields were measured using weighbridge data rather than combine yield maps. This treatment produced a 0.77t/ha increase over the field comparison, and 0.84t/ha more than where the two new fungicides were used in the sequence Revystar followed by Univoq.

While the usual ADAS Agronomics was not able to be used because of the lack of yield maps, the ADAS team suggests the yield benefit for the Univoq/Revystar treatment was large enough to have been likely due to the treatment effect rather than underlying variation.

Disease assessments didn’t hold too many answers for why there was a yield difference, with both Innovation programmes having statistically significantly lower septoria infections on leaf two when assessed in early July than the field comparison, but no other differences were found.

With Univoq not likely to be considered by Richard as an option this season, there’s a strong likelihood that he will be using Revystar at T2, although no firm decision will be made until nearer the time, he says.

“It doesn’t feel right to be making those decisions in February or March, but I do know the main spend will be at T2 –– we always go big at T2 using good rates of a good fungicide –– while we will decide more season to season on T1 sprays, depending on disease risk at the time,” he concludes. ■

some other related topics,such as environmental stewardship and return on investment.

We want farmers to share their knowledge and conduct on-farm trials.By coming together to face challenges as one, we can find out what really works and shape the future of UK agriculture.

To keep in touch with the progress of these growers and the trials,go to www.basfrealresults.co.uk or scan the QR code.

Innovation Insight

Navigating disease control with an ever-declining chemical armoury is a challenge for many,so could leaning on historic natural options be beneficial in bolstering crop protection? CPM looks at the innovation behind two naturally-derived products.

By Charlotte Cunningham

The loss of chlorothalonil (CTL) in 2020 marked a step-change in how septoria is controlled in wheat crops,leaving many growers with a gaping hole in their crop protection programmes.

But with growers grappling for new solutions to tackle the yield-robbing disease, the loss of CTL has provided an opportunity for older, reformulated alter natives to step back into the spotlight –– as well as the launch of new products to provide useful alter natives in a post-CTL world.

Among those alter natives is sulphur ––an essential element in crop production, with long-standing proven benefits as both a fer tiliser and a fungicide.

However, though sulphur has been

Natural potential

around for some time, challenges with par ticle size and for mulation of traditional older products has somewhat restricted just how useful and usable it is to growers, explains Stuar t Jackson, head of technical services at UPL. “The beginning for sulphur is historical –– it goes back a ver y long way and has been recognised as having fungicidal properties potentially as far back as Egyptian and Roman times.”

Particle size

Today, there are two main grades of sulphur – fer tiliser and fungicide. “Fer tiliser grades of sulphur are usually presented as a sulphate and are generally very variable in ter ms of par ticle size, with a lot of ver y big particles in there,” explains Stuart. “While this is great for getting nutrition into the plant, the challenge with this is that it often results in poor leaf coverage, which allows fungal infections to pass through, as well as poor sublimation which can limit fungicide activity from the sulphur.”

To overcome this, fungicide formulations of sulphur star ted to appear –– known as water-dispersible granules (WDG or WG) –– which had a smaller average particle size of 3 microns, he adds. “These are products like Microthiol WDG –– which is a powdered formulation of sulphur –– and consists of elemental sulphur, which is more consistent and smaller in terms of particle size than sulphur used in fer tilisers. The benefit of this is better coverage and sublimation. While it’s targeted at disease control, the big ▲

Iodus gives you that piece of mind that you’re enhancing the plant’s own ability to fight septoria. ”

“

As well as filling a gap post-CTL,the driver behind the development of Thiopron was to improve formulation and disease control over the WG alternatives,explains Stuart Jackson.

View from the field

Covering 4000ha of combinable crops in Herefordshire,Shropshire and the Welsh borders,AICC member and independent agronomist David Lines is well-versed in disease control.And in the “wet West”it’s septoria that remains the biggest challenge to growers and wheat crops in particular.

“We have blackgrass,but not like in the East. For us, it’s disease control that’s our major threat and predominantly septoria.We do have yellow rust here too,but as we’re using such high doses of chemistry for the septoria,it isn’t really a major priority.”

Tackling septoria starts with getting variety choice and drilling date right,says David. “I don’t think I’ve got anyone here growing wheat with a resistance score for septoria of less than 6.5 –– the message has got through now that it’s equally important to look at disease scores as well as yield.

“Drilling date is also part of the line of defence and,even with blackgrass,we don’t tend to drill late –– we just can’t risk it with the weather.In the odd year,we might manage to go a bit later –– but that’s been just pure luck.”

But even with inherent resistance within varieties,crops still require support with crop protection products and,historically,CTL had been the go-to for David.“Life was a lot easier with CTL –– we had good protectant chemistry that was cheap,”he notes.“Traditionally,I would have gone in with CTL at T0,T1 and T2,but we haven’t got that anymore and unfortunately it’s

particles also help get some nutrition into the plant.”

While the particle size and consistency are improved in this formulation, the powdered state still poses a challenge for many users, says Stuart. “Particularly for spray operators, powdered formulations aren’t the easiest and, in the past, have been renowned for tank-mix and compatibility problems.”

Liquid formulation

To combat this, a new liquid formulation ––Thiopron –– was developed by UPL as one of two new bio-fungicide options, the other being the elicitor Iodus (laminarin), which were both introduced in 2020 to, initially, help fill the gap following the loss of CTL.

“UPL has been involved with sulphur for over 100 years, and liquid sulphur itself has been around since 1978, with application largely focused on fruit and vegetable crops,” explains Stuart.

“But, as well as filling a gap post-CTL,

something we have to accept.”

Though the loss of CTL left a hole in the strategy for many growers,tackling septoria still requires a robust T0-T2 approach,says David, and to fill the gap at T0 he recommends Iodus.

“I’ve had laminarin –– the active in Iodus ––in trials since 2017, after being approached to assess it in independent work for the West region. During the first year, we had it going on at all different timings,but what we’ve found is that it works best when applied at T0.”

These trials involved assessing Iodus against untreated wheat,as well as in comparison with alternatives such as folpet.So how does it stack up?

“What’s important to remember is that Iodus –– or any product in fact –– is not CTL.That said, across the several years of AICC trials, Iodus has consistently given us a 0.3t/ha yield response over untreated wheat,”explains David.

“When compared with folpet,Iodus has also delivered at the T0 timing –– giving a similar yield response –– but that has also continued throughout the season,and we found we were able to reduce rates of chemistry at later timings due to the control achieved at T0.

“Overall,with Iodus,the crops just seem to look a little bit healthier.It’s hard to quantify that, but essentially,wheat just looks that bit cleaner where it has been used.”

David adds that in terms of economics,Iodus is also more competitively priced than other alternatives.“Last year,I used it in about 90%

the driver behind the development of Thiopron was to improve formulation and disease control over the WG alternatives, designed specifically for the cereal market.

“The benefit of going to a liquid is that you get an easier-to-handle formulation ––growers and spray operators have told us they prefer a liquid –– and it also means you can start to add different adjuvants and wetting systems in there to help spread and move it on the leaf surface, and importantly, stick the product to the leaf surface and give it that rainfastness as well.”

But what about improved disease control? Registered for use at T1 and T2, Thiopron is a finely milled liquid elemental sulphur consisting of ultra-fine 1.2-micron particles. “The advantage of Thiopron over previous forms of sulphur is optimised formulation –– with the addition of an adjuvant. Trials have shown the coverage is actually twice as good compared with a WG type,” explains Stuart. “The addition ▲

In AICC trials,Iodus has consistently given a 0.3t/ha yield response over untreated wheat.

of my crops –– it’s a good substitute in a post-CTL era.”

And what do growers think? “With the farmer and agronomist relationship,it’s all about trust, and I think after doing this for many years that they trust my judgment,” he laughs. “Ultimately,we can bemoan the fact we haven’t got CTL anymore, but that doesn’t change it. Iodus gives you that piece of mind that you’re enhancing the plant’s own ability to fight septoria –– which is really important for us in this region. To my mind, this is the best of the protectant products out there.”

David Lines believes that Iodus is one of the best protectant alternatives against septoria in a post-CTL era.

Laminarin is derived from natural plant extracts and works by provoking a response from the plant to trigger its own natural defences so that it is able to defend itself from any future attacks.

of the adjuvant Xanthane in the for mulation also improves that coverage further and aids adhesion to the leaf and rainfastness.”

So why is this size and consistency so important? “The liquid formulation of sulphur reacts on the leaf surface to produce hydrogen sulphide gas but even coverage is crucial for optimum gas production and persistency,” explains Stuart.

“Sulphur as a fungicide is slightly different to fertiliser formulations as it requires a ver y specific –– and consistent –– particle size to enable surface coverage and gas production to occur.”

When the gas is for med, it’s toxic to pathogens like septoria and powdery mildew, he adds. “The gas is also anti-sporulant, which means that it can both prevent an infection from occurring and prevent spore release, stopping re-infection from disease that’s already present. So essentially, you see a longer length of disease control in the plant.”

Though there are many benefits of this improved formulation, Stuart says it’s impor tant to keep in mind how the par ticle size has changed during the development of sulphur products and what this means from a plant perspective. “As we’ve moved from bigger to smaller par ticles, while we’ve improved the disease control capabilities of sulphur, we’ve lost what it can do in ter ms of plant nutrition.

“So while Thiopron is great in terms of its fungicidal proper ties, it’s not so good for getting sulphur into the plants –– if that’s your goal then you’re better off going with something that has a bigger par ticle size, such as Microthiol WG.”

As such, the product found its final market position as a fungicide ––specifically, a bio-fungicide –– with a range of diseases and crops on its label.

It’s recommended at a rate of 2-3 l/ha and has extensive compatibility with typical T1 and T2 programmes, plus a wide range of tank-mixes. “One of the other main benefits is that it’s a residue-free product and can also be used in both conventional and organic systems,” notes Stuart.

Throughout its development, Thiopron has been trialled in a number of different situations over multiple years before its launch. “With regards to septoria, Thiopron has demonstrated the ability to provide at least equivalent disease reductions to folpet, with the added benefit of activity against powdery mildew –– and this has been proven over many years, sites and situations –– making it a robust alternative multi-site to consider this season.”

Studies have also looked at yield benefits in winter wheat and found that an application of 1 l/ha of Ascra Xpro (bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole) at T1, followed by 1 l/ha Revystar XE (mefentrifluconazole+ fluxapyroxad) plus 2 l/ha of Thiopron produced the best yield across three trials, at an average of 10.6t/ha. This is compared with 10.4t/ha where the Thiopron was omitted and replaced with folpet at a rate of 1 l/ha.

Natural plant extract

The second innovation –– Iodus –– is registered for the control of septoria and reduction of powder y mildew in winter wheat and contains the active ingredient laminarin –– a natural plant extract from a specific seaweed species, Laminaria digitata, which has a similar structure to the degraded products from disease damaged cells. “The decision was taken to register it as a fungicide under crop protection regulations from CRD. While we didn’t need to do that, we felt it was the right thing to do because ultimately these types of products are going to be needed to be registered at some point –– legislation will eventually catch up and come in,” explains Stuart.

So how does it work? First developed in 2003, laminarin works by provoking a response from the plant to trigger its own natural defences so that it’s ready to defend itself from any future attacks, with approval in cereals granted for UK growers in 2020. “Essentially, it tricks a plant into thinking it’s under attack and then the plant responds with its inherent resistance mechanisms,” he says. “It takes about 48 hours from application for the plants defences to be fully activated. Iodus essentially allows growers to take a preventative approach so that it is

primed and ready to deal with any future attacks.”

This line of defence is triggered via three main pathways, explains Stuart. “Firstly, the cell walls are strengthened to reduce infection –– the stronger the cell wall, the more difficult it is for the pathogen to penetrate and establish a foothold in the plant and modify what it is doing. It also produces phytoalexins, which are essentially the plant’s own chemical factory to help fight the pathogen attacking it. Finally, it produces pathogenesis response proteins, which are specific proteins for specific diseases, to combat the pathogen and signal to other cells to prepare a defence.”

Part of the development stage involved rigorous trials and testing. During field trials conducted in 2019 and 2020, Iodus provided a mean control of septoria of 57.25% –– based on an application rate of 0.75 l/ha. This is compared with 58.25% control from folpet used at 1.5 l/ha and 53.56% from 1 l/ha chlorothalonil.

Trials across the same years also revealed a yield advantage. “When applied at T0, Iodus delivered on average a 0.3t/ha uplift yield in a wheat crop. This is equivalent to the typical yield benefit given by conventional multi-site fungicides when applied at the T0 timing,” explains Stuart.

In ter ms of application, Iodus is recommended as a single dose at T0 –– at a rate of 0.75 l/ha –– in order to prepare and prime the crop for the season ahead. It’s also compatible with a wide range of products as par t of a tank-mix. “Overall, we believe that Iodus will play a really big role in ter ms of suppor ting the control of septoria ––particularly in regions like the West which are traditionally hit quite hard,” says Stuar t. “In a world without CTL, disease control is all about looking at what else we have available and how we can incorporate all the tools on hand to bring about the best level of control.” ■

CPM would like to thank UPL for kindly sponsoring this article,and for providing privileged access to staff and material used to help put the article together.

Shoring up plant defences

Bioscience in practice

bills,” stresses Will. “But there’s the thought that wheat is going to come down to £200/t while all the input prices are going to carry on increasing, which is obviously going to squeeze margins.

By Mike

A cost-squeeze could be coming. There won’t be many,if any,growers who have ever bought fertiliser at such a high price, while spring crop protection products are likely to increase by perhaps 20% and other costs, such as machinery and spares are also rising quickly.

While some growers may have locked into grain prices at or near highs last year, the wheat price fell to a 11-month low of around £220/t in January before recovering to over £230/t last month.

But with AHDB forecasting that it’s unlikely grain prices will return to the highs of last May unless another global incident occurs –– a surplus of Russian supply is limiting any gains from developments in Ukraine, strong EU exports and potential US crop damage –– gross margins are likely to be under more pressure than last season.

On Will Parker’s 690ha farm near Royston in Hertfordshire, which he farms with his father, that’s going to mean a continuation in trying to reduce inputs where possible, while still maximising yields.

“Yield is still king – I don’t want to sacrifice yield for anything as it’s still what pays the

“If you can get with most operations a 0.2-0.3 t/ha yield response, even at £200/t that will pay for a lot of inputs so we’re not being drastic with reductions. But we’re trying to do everything a little bit better, while keeping yields similar or hopefully increasing them.”

No-till transition

It’s a relatively light land farm which means larger areas of winter and spring barley and winter rye are grown than typically seen on many East Anglian farms, alongside winter wheat, oilseed rape and oats. The farm also grows sugar beet and rents land out for potatoes.

Like many, the farm moved from a purely plough-based system in the early 2010s to min-till establishment using a Grégoire Besson Discordon to prepare the land, says Will. “Then in 2016 we bought a John Deere 750A direct drill to go with our Väderstad Rapid and we’ve been steadily moving towards a no-till approach, where we can.”

It was a decision based partly on controlling cost with a desire to eventually reduce the power requirement on the farm, improve soil health and carbon capture and an understanding that government policy is pushing in that direction.

“We pick fields where we think it will work each year –– judging it on previous crop performance, whether any damage has been caused to the soil at harvest and looking at soil structure.

“Obviously as the root crops go around

the rotation, they need more aggressive cultivation, but over the past two years around 50% of crops have been direct drilled, and generally yields have been within 2-3% of the min-till system, so not significantly different.”

The transition has been easier than perhaps they expected, although this autumn brought a few more challenges, he admits. “We’ve generally had a lot of success, but this year we have had to rip up one winter wheat crop after 80mm of rain fell in a day after we put the pre-emergence herbicide on, washing the chemical to where the seed was, and the crop didn’t come very well.

“I’m going to have to pull back the pre-ems a bit where we do direct drill in future years,” he adds.

OSR establishment was also patchy, which he puts down to using a sulfonylurea herbicide last spring for brome control on some headlands and across some whole

Will Parker says he’s been able to see a lot of trials data on Scyon collected by Hutchinsons and virtually every trial was positive,which he adds is ver y rare with a biostimulants.

It fits well with our objective of reducing fungicide use,especially in the early part of the season.

With gross margins being squeezed, CPM talks to a grower looking to reduce inputs and finds out how a specialist biostimulants is helping to bolster disease control on the farm.

Abram

fields. “The label advises ploughing before OSR. We’d always got away with it in the past but because of the drought, the residues had never washed away and without any cultivations, wherever we’d used it the OSR didn’t come this autumn.

“In future years we’ll definitely

be a bit more careful where we use graminicides on the wheat where OSR is following.”

The farm has access to a limited amount of horse muck from an on-farm livery and locally sourced chicken manure, says Will. “We have about enough to spread on about 40-50ha each ▲

What is Scyon and how does it work?

Scyon contains nitrogen, potassium,zinc,manganese, sulphur and six metabolites, explains Andrew Cromie,from manufacturer Unium Bioscience. “Nutrients,when supplied in a balanced form,are known from Prof Don Huber’s research to improve plant health.”

resource allocation to these resistance mechanisms increasing the plant’s ability to fight off a disease,”he explains.

▲

The metabolites work on 14 key pathways in the plant associated with plant health and abiotic stress resistance mechanisms.These can broadly be grouped into three areas,he says.“The first is nutrient use efficiency which is the job of the metabolites.These promote the uptake and assimilation of nutrition to improve plant health, ensuring problematic nutrients, such as ammonium and nitrate, aren’t stored in plant tissue by increasing carbon fixation.”

A second area the metabolites help is in the upregulation of both induced and acquired systemic resistance pathways.“Induced systemic resistance provides the fast response by plants to disease attack,while acquired systemic resistance is the more prolonged plant disease resistance mechanism.

“Scyon increases the overall

Septoria PCR test results

Andrew adds that Scyon also improves the vitality of the plant by increasing chlorophyll and therefore photosynthesis. “A healthy,respiring plant is more prepared for disease incidence.”

The results being seen in the field are being backed up by an ongoing programme of scientific research, says Unium’s managing director John Haywood.

“We commissioned work with Greencrop Information in 2022, using the latest PCR technology for assessing crop health to look at septoria within the plant.Although not statistically significant,the results show a very consistent trend,showing a healthier crop with reduced levels of septoria for over a month from the application of Scyon.

“The extra nutritional support it supplies means the plant isn’t having to divert all its energies away from growth and development.This also resulted in a 0.33t/ha or £70 MOIC response to the grower.”

Scyon applied to winter wheat at T0.

Source: Greencrop Information, 2022

Since the withdrawal of chlorothalonil, Sam Hugill has found Scyon is providing a proactive alternative as a way of keeping crops healthy, particularly in the early part of the season.

year. I’d ideally like to increase that to a point that when we need to use cultivation, then an organic manure is spread onto the field to help with soil quality.”

However, with increased fertiliser prices that may not be that easy as competition for organic materials has increased, he notes.

Those increased fertiliser prices have been a driver in

Scyon use with fungicides

cutting nitrogen on the farm.

“In 2021 we used about 220kgN/ha on winter wheat. Last year we brought that down to 160kgN/ha, which was based on both the price and what was in the soil.”

Soil nitrogen cores taken this winter suggest a decent amount of nitrogen in their soils again for this spring –– equivalent to at least one index higher soil nitrogen supply than the book

calculation in RB209 would give, he says. “As a result, I’m going to try to keep nitrogen rates down at a similar level again, because every kilo of nitrogen that is over-applied burns carbon.”

As well as reducing nitrogen, the same is true of crop protection products, with an increased emphasis on using micronutrition and biostimulants to create a healthy plant requiring lower amounts of

fungicides. His part-time role as an agronomist with Farmacy helps with access to the latest tools, such as sap testing.

“We’ve done a lot of sap testing over the past two years to balance the plant’s nutrition,” he notes.

Samples of old and new wheat leaves are sent off for analysis of a wide range of nutrients around two weeks before each of the main T-timings for fungicides.

Foliar fungicide control (half recommended rate) of septoria in wheat – applications made one day before inoculation. Error bars = 95% confidence limits.

Source:University of Nottingham,2021

East Yorkshire agronomist finds marginal gains

East Yorkshire-based Hutchinson agronomist Sam Hugill estimates it will cost around £1200/ha to grow a crop of wheat this season,including all variable costs,labour and operational costs.

“While fertiliser prices peaked last November and have come down in the past couple of months,a lot of inputs are following inflation and rising between 10-15%,so gross margins are going to be squeezed more than last year.”

Some growers have sold a proportion of their wheat forward,but since the price started dropping,he says most have stopped locking into a price,especially after prices fell back below £250/t.

Crop potential looks phenomenal as crops emerge from winter,he says.“It’s about making marginal gains,making a 1-2% difference in

Impact of P and K deficiency on septoria development

nutrition,weed or disease programmes to enhance a grower’s gross margin and de-risk production this season.”

One area he is keen on is using biostimulants, such as phosphites and Scyon,to stimulate the plant’s own defences,which potentially can help tailor fungicide programmes to disease risk, says Sam.

Since the withdrawal of chlorothalonil,he’s found the use of these biostimulants is providing a proactive alternative as a way of keeping crops healthy,particularly in the early part of the season.

“Without a doubt,Scyon’s best fit in wheat is at T0 because it works in a way to optimise the plant’s nutrient use efficiency to help create a stronger,healthier plant.You don’t want a plant to have to waste its energy in fighting disease.

the season or in the tank with a fungicide later.

“I generally don’t like to go with too many elements at once as it can be tricky to get the concentrations high enough for a lot of nutrients to go in the leaf at once –– so I generally stick to one or two.”

“When the nutrition in the plant is unbalanced, it impairs its ability to coordinate a rapid defence response to diseases,such as septoria or rusts. If plants are healthier,they’re better able to fight it off.”

In practice that means he recommends Scyon as a T0 spray.On yellow rust-susceptible varieties he’ll add in some tebuconazole or azoxystrobin, and then potentially repeat using Scyon at T1,in combination with his usual fungicide programme.

Sam also recommends its use in barley crops. “It’s a brilliant product for winter barley,”he says. “It can be used at T0 in barley,but the main timing is T1,around GS31.Personally I think that timing is the best for using the product in barley and I’ve seen an average yield benefit of around 0.4t/ha from using it in the crop,”he claims.

susceptible varieties, such as Firefly and Kerrin, the T0 will also include tebuconazole, while on the more disease resistant varieties, like Champion, Scyon will be used by itself, he says.

fungicides, which was buffered by using Scyon, to around £75-80/ha, and yield remained in line with our 9.5t/ha long-term average yield.

Photos taken 14 and 21 days after septoria infection.

Source: University of Nottingham, 2022

The differences can be insightful for discovering which nutrients are potentially out of balance, particularly after taking into account the mobility of different nutrients, he says.

“Mobile elements might be adequate in the upper leaves, but very low in the lower leaves because they have moved to the upper leaves, while the immobile elements might be fine in the lower leaves but short in the upper leaves because they can’t be translocated up the plant.”

Typically, nutrients such as magnesium, boron, zinc, copper and to a lesser extent manganese have been the ones needing to be adjusted, either with a separate spray earlier in

He’s also using biostimulant Scyon from Unium Bioscience to help stimulate the plant’s own defences to fight plant disease. Scyon is a complex of metabolites designed to maximise nutrient health within the plant, by maximising nutrient efficiency and create a stronger healthier plant.

“Through my role with Farmacy, I’ve been able to see a lot of trials data on Scyon collected by Hutchinsons and virtually every trial was positive, which is very rare with a biostimulant.”

The results have encouraged him to use it in his wheat crop at what would usually be the T0 timing –– around GS30/31.

“It fits well with our objective of reducing fungicide use, especially in the early part of the season.”

Champion and SY Insitor form the bulk of the wheat area this season, with the remainder in Firefly, Illuminate and one field of KWS Kerrin to use up some left-over seed. On the yellow rust

The remainder of the programme will likely be an SDHI fungicide at T1, although if septoria pressure is low, he will consider reducing spend on Champion by using a triazole-based product, followed by a mefentrifluconazole plus SDHI combination at T2. Straight tebuconazole is likely to be used at T3.

“In 2021, we cut back on

Bioscience in practice

As the chemistry toolbox continues to shrink,a mesmerising array of new bio-solutions are coming to market,offering a range of benefits and complementary additions. Evaluating just how effective they are,and where they’re best placed can be tricky.

In 2021, CPM teamed up with Unium BioScience to open the science behind these innovations. In this third series of articles we explore how bioscience can be utilised in the field,building on our understanding of the physiological processes and trials data.Above all,these articles give the grower an inside view

“We did go a bit stronger on fungicides in 2022–– closer to £90-100/ha. I was a bit nervous after cutting back nitrogen fertiliser and making sure we made the most of that nitrogen and not wanting to pull back too much on fungicides and risk yields being too low.

“But I’ve got a bit more confidence after last year to be able to do both within reason,” he concludes. ■

on some of the exciting opportunities biosolutions offer in the field.

Unium’s view is that optimising genetics and chemistry are essential but to produce healthy crop plants,strategies should include judicious use of balanced nutrition and biostimulants.

Scyon is backed by over 10 years of trials experience and provides a robust and reliable support for crop health which can take some of the pressure off genetics and fungicides.

Protect, prevent, and prosper

Managing uncertainty

The early bird catches the worm – so the saying goes, and this is no truer than when applied to getting ahead of disease in cereal crops. CPM explores how targeted early season agronomy can make all the difference.

By Melanie Jenkins

Growers may have speculated about whether the country has been duped by a false spring this February,which –– at the time of print –– is still in question. But one thing the balmy February days have highlighted is that farmers still live with uncertainty on a daily basis.

According to Joe Bagshaw of Syngenta, over the past five years it’s been hard for growers to make decisions about early season disease agronomy because it’s been so dry. “Knowing how much disease might impact a crop in spring can be down to drill date and variety choice. Although

location has a big impact, this can’t be easily changed.

“But one way or another, there’s always enough inoculum in a crop to create an epidemic, so the temperatures and rainfall between March and May can have a big impact on septoria and yellow r ust outbreaks. The biggest risk time is between T1 and T2, so protection against disease at T1 is to insure yourself against late weather volatility.”

Proactive approach

For this very reason, independent agronomist Ruth East stresses the impor tance of proactively dealing with disease in winter wheat. “It’s vital to be on top of disease because there’s a pathogen living in the plant and if you let it develop, you’ll never get control over it. Fungicides won’t totally eradicate disease, so there’s always pathogens in the plant, meaning the right conditions will allow them to develop.”

Another benefit of keeping disease under control is to stop crops going into stress mode, says Ruth. “A stressed crop will respire instead of photosynthesising, which in turn makes it more vulnerable to disease infection.

“If a crop is well established with a good rooting system, then it’s able to use

nutrients better and access water more efficiently, as well as being able to build up green leaf area and canopy, and therefore can better withstand stress conditions.”

Optimising chemical applications is a key tool in tackling disease, but planning management can be perceived as more difficult for some diseases than others due to their unpredictability. “Septoria is more predictable than yellow rust as it’s latent period is driven by temperature and ▲

Less green leaf area means reduced yield-building ability.

According to Joe Bagshaw, crops are most at risk from disease between T1 and T2,so protection against disease at T1 helps to insure against late weather volatility

A stressed crop will respire instead of photosynthesising,which in turn makes it more vulnerable to disease infection.

moisture,” explains Ruth.

Since the Warrior race incursion in 2011, which marked the end of the clonal lineage which used to dominate in the UK, yellow rust has become much more adaptable and able to withstand greater changes in the environment.

The Warrior race can tolerate a greater range of temperatures, it has a shorter infection time, which means there is potential for the disease cycle to repeat several times during a season, and it’s much more aggressive, producing more spores than the ‘old’ yellow rust.

Protecting quality wheat

Prioritising T1 applications has been integral to spreading risk for Will Oliver at A H Oliver and Son, near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. Farming around 810ha, with a rotation consisting of winter wheat, maize and winter beans, Will’s focus is on preventing disease rather than trying to cure it.

“I brought Elatus Era into the management programme in 2018 as I quite liked it as a product that seemed to fit well as a T1,especially since Bravo (chlorothalonil) has been gone –– so the options at T1 were relatively limited.”

Will likes to use Elatus Era as a protective tool at T1, if possible.“I tend to buy in stock early,and then decide at the time if it will be used at T1 or T2.I don’t want to be in a position where I can’t get the chemical.

“Using Elatus Era at T1 helps keep the plants as green as possible and as there’s a number of other options to use at T2, it makes sense to use it at the early timing. I grow Skyfall as a milling wheat which is breaking down to yellow rust,so Elatus Era keeps that at bay.If yellow rust gets hold –– especially in Skyfall –– or there’s a spray miss on the headland,you can really see it.But as it’s still one of the best performing Group 1s on

Ruth believes all yellow rust races prefer different weather conditions ––some like higher and others prefer lower temperatures. “Yellow rust is tricky because of the variation we have in races now. Plus the virulence varies between genotypes so growers want to be targeting it early, at the T0 timing.”

Monitor for disease

As of mid-February, Ruth had already seen yellow rust in the field. “The temperature is now warm enough for the disease to sporulate –– typically from 7 to 100C. And as virulence can change, the disease can overcome even stronger varietal resistance, so you can’t rely on that.”

According to Joe, based on 21 years of data on disease in the AHDB Recommended List winter wheat trials, the real levels of septoria in crops has remained pretty flat, but the amount of yellow and brown rust present is creeping upwards. “Even varieties with good disease resistance ratings, that are being grown very widely, need to be monitored closely in the field,” he stresses.

One tool that should help growers keep track of yellow rust is Syngenta’s Rust Locator. “This can be used to track where infections are,” says Joe. “Growers can use the platform to upload photos of

their own infections and see what else is present in the area.”

For controlling the disease, Ruth suggests applying a triazole-based fungicide at T0. “This is followed by a strong T1 which includes a strobilurin for extra protection, and then go in again with a strobilurin at T2. It’s vital to control the disease early, otherwise you’re losing green leaf area and reducing the crop’s capacity to photosynthesise. Yellow rust cycles so quickly, if you don’t get onto it early, then you’ve lost.”

Ruth also warns that later drilled crops tend to be fairly prone to yellow rust because they can lack green leaf area. “In these cases, when the disease gets going it can be dramatic, so you can’t afford to lose any green leaf area because these later crops have less biomass than those drilled earlier.”

Joe concurs: “If you know the risk, get protection onto the crop early doors as you can’t get green leaf area back once it’s lost. Less green leaf area means reduced yield-building ability.”

But the opposite is true with septoria, he says. “A lot of growers are pushing back their drilling date for blackgrass control, which is reducing the risk of septoria.”

And as the likelihood of septoria infection can be more easily monitored

the RL and the chemistr y is working well,this allows us to keep growing the variety.”

The T1 application is also about spreading risk as much as possible,he adds.“Although pressures at T1 can seem low at times,the weather can change quite dramatically before T2.And you might feel that it’s a good time to cut back but certainly last year,when wheat was £300/t,an application at T1 was a good investment and a spend at T2 was risk management –– there was a lot to lose.”

Will’s primary driver is cost of production over yield. “I try to grow a crop to the best of its ability and make sure that every input is justified.”

As part of the wider drive to focus on cost of production, Will has placed a greater emphasis on integrated pest management,working on drilling and rotation as a whole. “We’re just trying to be better at what we do.” In 2022 his cost of production for Skyfall was £53.23/t,which has been cut a lot compared with his 2016 figure which was £86.34/t. “We’ve been able to make quite a difference.”

Applying Elatus Era at 80% of the full rate at 0.8 l/ha, last year (2022) his Skyfall achieved an

Will Oliver applies Elatus Era at T1 to help control yellow rust and spread risk as much as possible.

average yield of 9.49t/ha and in 2021 averaged 9.14t/ha.He also grows Siskin,which receives a lower rate of Elatus Era as there’s not as much pressure.

Due to more crops being added to the Elatus Era label, Will has also been able to apply it to his bean crop.“We first applied it last year at 0.66 l/ha and will definitely be doing the same again this year It’s really handy as it can help control chocolate spot and rust.”

As the likelihood of septoria infection can be predicted the key control points are at leaf three and leaf one emergence.

than yellow rust, Ruth advises the key control points are at leaf three (T1) and leaf one emergence (T2). “Leaf expansion is driven by temperature and not daylight, so link leaf three emergence to the temperature. “You can’t chase disease. People have tried and my money is always on the pathogen as it will win,” she war ns. Ruth strongly recommends using multi-sites in the battle against both

diseases. “Use all the materials and tools available. Multi-sites will help protect your SDHI and triazole chemistry, especially against septoria because of the number of insensitive isolates.

“I would include a multi-site at T1 and T2, but not at T0 because it’s not going to do any good against septoria then as it’s too early. Targeting septoria at T1 is important because this is when the disease starts to move within the crop,” explains Ruth.

Joe agrees that T1 is a vital stage for looking after the top of the canopy and advises using Elatus Era (benzovindiflupyr+ prothioconazole) at this point to help protect the plant from septoria and yellow rust. “The inclusion of a multi-site can help maintain green leaf area and acts as a block on leaf three to stop rain splash spreading septoria up the canopy.

“As just over 70% of the yield comes from the top three leaves, and 22% comes from the ear, you want to keep this as green as possible. You should be using chemistr y with mixed modes of action to protect and give better longevity to the current arsenal. It can be hard to justify using chemistr y protectively when you can’t see the disease, but this is far

During the past 21 years,the amount of yellow rust present in winter wheat crops has crept upwards.

better than having to attempt firefighting later on as efficacy will be reduced in a curative situation.”

According to disease forecasting, there's potential for this year to be higher risk for eyespot and take-all than the 25-year average. So Joe also suggests including a prothioconazole-containing product at T1 to help with eyespot reduction. Amistar (azoxystrobin) at the earlier T0 timing will help with take-all control, he adds. ▲

The inclusion of a multi-site can help maintain green leaf area and acts as a block on leaf three to stop rain splash spreading septoria up the canopy.

As well as direct disease control, the yield response of winter wheat to fungicides is still an important aspect, says Joe. “Based on 21 years of AHDB data, this has averaged 2.21t/ha and in 2022 it was 1.83t/ha –– so there’s still a strong benefit from fungicide treatments.”

In winter barley, there’s a different emphasis on timings. Ruth advises mildew prone varieties get a T0, but that all varieties get a robust programme at T1 followed by an ‘ordinary’ T2. “I choose my fungicides to suit the disease spectrum, as well as the proneness of different varieties to each disease. Growers should always include a multi-site in their programme alongside their single site chemistry as this helps protect it. There’s new chemistry coming along but it’s not quick enough, so we have to rely on what

we’ve got and prolong its use.”

Joe adds that in barley, the lower leaves are more important contributors to yield than in wheat and the stem does most of the work, so keeping the lower canopy clean is important. “The focus with barley is to use Elatus Era at T1 and then folpet at T2 as this has the best activity against ramularia.”

For those looking to utilise all modes of action against disease in other crops, the Elatus Era label has recently been extended for use in oats, triticale, rye, linseed, beans and peas, explains Joe. “In oats it covers mildew and crown rust.”

Although the focus might be on trying to cut costs, a lot of money has already been invested in the crop, highlights Joe. “The returns on fungicides are solid if the right products are used at the correct rates for the situation, so it makes sense to protect that extra bit of yield.” ■

Managing uncertainty

There’s always uncertainty in farming but UK growers are heading into unchartered waters as a number of global factors ––including the effects of climate change, the COVID pandemic and the war in Ukraine ––combine to cause market price volatility and input inflation.

Then there are more local variables to manage –– including weather-related risks, disease sensitivity shifts and weed pressures.With all of these factors combined, the stakes have risen even higher.

To help navigate these mounting risks and uncertainty for cereal growers, CPM has teamed with Syngenta to draw on its experience from varieties through to crop protection.Looking at the whole picture,this series of articlesaims to help manage uncertainty for those growing cereal crops.

At Syngenta our purpose is to bring plant potential to life.

We invest and innovate to transform the way crops are grown and protected to bring about positive,lasting change in agriculture. We help farmers manage a complex set of challenges from nature and society.Our approach is to ensure that everybody wins; that farmers are prosperous,agriculture becomes more sustainable,and consumers have safe,healthy and nutritious food.

OSR disease

Oilseed rape disease resistance focus has often been at leaf level,but as planted area is again on the increase,stem infections are progressively being recognised as damaging to crop health and gross output. CPM learns about a new stem health programme.

The area of hybrids has continued to grow, gaining 9% on last season, to account for 71% of the OSR area in 2023, he says. “Although the percentage of conventional varieties grown has gone down proportionately as the total area has increased, the actual area planted has remained pretty static and this has been broadly the same for the past four years. This indicates that as farmers have returned to growing OSR or have increased their acreage, it’s been hybrids they’ve been choosing to grow.”

Genetic solutions

As an influx of growers returned to planting oilseed rape amid the skyrocketing commodity prices,the cropping area in the UK has risen to about 414,000ha,up from 360,000ha for Harvest 22, according to Will Charlton of Limagrain.

“We’re still a long way off where cropping levels peaked historically, but the trend is going back up,” he says. “And although it’s been an exceptionally dry year, data from our establishment scheme suggests only about 6% of the planted crop has been lost. We believe this is because of a combination of genetics and the practices being put into place on farm to establish the crops, meaning the losses are fewer.”

But as previously reported, Will still feels that the days of 700,000ha of OSR are gone. “I think this is unlikely to happen again as there’s a question over whether that kind of area was sustainable anyway.”

Will believes that the popularity of hybrids has grown due to the traits they offer growers. “These include the Rlm7 phoma gene and N-Flex gene, which increased nitrogen use efficiency, as well as Clearfield, clubroot, pod shatter and TuYV resistance. Hybrids do get out of the ground quicker and are better able to compensate for any damage. Plus, the establishment schemes help,” he adds. “If you’ve got a hybrid on an establishment scheme, you’re not any more exposed in terms of seed cost.”

And looking back at AHDB’s Recommended List over the past five years, Will calculated that on average, non-specialist hybrids boast 3% more yield than conventional varieties. “The big thing is that these traits and the ability for hybrids to compensate is delivering very stable, reliable yields on farm.”

As part of Limagrain’s efforts to add a further string to the bow of hybrid benefits, its latest endeavour unites its resistances to stem diseases under one banner: ‘Stem Health’, explains the firm’s Liam Wilkinson. “For the past couple of years we’ve been

“Stem health is generally an area that is often overlooked but can have a serious impact on gross output. The importance of stem health isn’t just about protecting against the disease, it’s also about keeping

▲

According to Liam Wilkinson,stem health is generally an area that is overlooked but can have a serious impact on gross output.

“ ”

At the stem of it

talking about stem health in terms of phoma/stem canker, cylindrosporium (light leaf spot of the stem) and verticillium. And now we’ve launched this internal scoring system for the three diseases.

the stems as clean as possible for as long as we can so plants are better able to reach their genetic yield potential.”

What this means for the plant is enhanced oil content, better yield potential and green stems towards the end, he explains. “I know farmers don’t necessarily like green stems at this point because they can make the combine rattle but actually, this is a sign that the nitrogen you’ve put onto that crop has done its job and has made the crop as high yielding as possible.”

As OSR is quite efficient at using N, anything that’s put onto the crop –– if it’s a green leaf –– will be reassimilated within the plant and put up into the canopy, says Liam. “By keeping stems green, this ensures that any N that is stored within that crop is then moved up into the seeds and into the pods. So you end up with as high a seed yield and

oil content as possible. This is because they’re making the most of the nutrition available to them.

“The best way to mitigate the stem diseases is through genetics. And for a long time now we’ve seen that having the best genetics is the backbone to all crop management. And at a time when we’re looking hard at sustainability, this has to be the foundation of integrated pest management––picking the correct variety with the right disease profile so that any fungicide applications are necessary and not wasted.”

Limagrain is looking at each variety’s cylindrosporium, phoma and verticillium scores, explains Liam. “The varieties which tick the box for all of those diseases are then given the stem health label.”

Although these varieties include the Rlm7 phoma resistance gene, he highlights that there are other quantitative resistances in the background. “These varieties aren’t solely relying on this one gene for resistance to the disease.”

Varietal resistance

Cylindrosporium is a polycyclic disease ––meaning it has more than one life cycle over a single season –– and fungicide efficacy against it is waning, which is why the firm sees varietal resistance as so important, says Liam. “There are new fungicides on the market, but we have seen reduced efficacy to the azoles.”

When it comes to verticillium, there’s no chemical solution and it’s becoming an increasing problem, he stresses. “Growers are drilling earlier when temperatures are warmer which is indicative of increasing verticillium incidence. We see this as a growing problem in the UK which is why our breeding programme is targeting it.”

Liam points out that unlike cylindrosporium, fungicides still work really well on sclerotinia, given that they’re timed properly. “So at the moment, the problem stem diseases for us are phoma, cylindrosporium and verticillium. We have breeding programmes set up to look for resistance to sclerotinia but at the moment the immediate threat to OSR is the other three diseases.”

Limagrain currently has two varieties with the ‘Stem Health’ badge attributed to them: newly recommended Attica (107% UK gross output) and the current commercial variety, LG Auckland (106% UK gross output). There are four further coded varieties that have the potential to be awarded the stem health badge in the near future if they are commercialised and meet the assessment criteria. ■

Green stems are a sign that the nitrogen put onto a crop has done its job and has made the crop as high yielding as possible.

By Adam Clarke

The distress surrounding cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) as it caused huge swathes of oilseed rape to be written off over the past decade is understandable.

And although the pest is still causing severe headaches across the UK, an impressive research effort since the withdrawal of neonicotinoid seed treatments has done much to calm growers’ nerves.

A major AHDB-funded project has been integral to finding solutions and its lead scientist, ADAS entomologist Sacha White, urges growers to consider the whole suite of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) measures it has identified.

He believes the work has shown IPM can succeed against the pest when all the available tools are stacked together to protect vulnerable crops.

“Those tools should be selected based on sow date, as we know this informs the level of pressure experienced and the type of pressure, whether its adult, larvae, or both. Different approaches are better

One strategy, many different parts

suited to managing either adults or larvae,” explains Sacha.

Based on the project learnings so far, variety choice is key to any situation OSR is being drilled into and their characteristics must match with the pressures the crop is likely to face. Sacha says the start, peak and end of migration do vary between locations and years.

Rule of thumb

Data is currently being analysed to see if there are relationships between these events and factors such as weather and crop growth stage. However, until these can be clarified and honed, the rule of thumb remains that adult migration tends to intensify around the final week of August into early September, he says.

“So, if you are sowing a crop from the third week in August, you need a variety with good autumn vigour to grow away from adult feeding.

“There is also an increasing body of evidence that companion crops reduce pest numbers and damage. Work we’ve done as part of this project looked at buckwheat, berseem clover and fenugreek, alone and in mixtures,” explains Sacha.

This showed there is significantly less damage to OSR at the two-leaf and five-leaf stages when companion-cropped. However, advice is to choose one that won’t outcompete the crop and can be removed easily, either killed by frost or taken out with a post-emergence herbicide.

Much has been made of drilling date and seed rate, with growers and agronomists

largely divided into two camps –– early to get plants away before adult migration, or late to miss the peak of migration.

Either path comes with its inherent risks. Early drilled crops can suffer from lack of moisture, slowing emergence and reducing

Different approaches are better suited to managing either adults or larvae, explains Sacha White.

It’s so important to understand the pest if we are to manage it effectively.

“ ”

Cabbage stem flea beetle management now requires a multi-pronged approach.

CPM reports on an ongoing AHDB project that’s uncovering the best tactics to deploy.

establishment. Crops can also become too forward and trickier to manage later in the season.

Later drillings can also suffer from slow establishment if the weather turns cold and wet, but there are clear benefits if they get away unscathed.

“Drilling in the second half of September may result in the crop emerging after the migration peak, reducing the threat from adult beetle feeding. Those crops are also associated with reduced larval pressure,” says Sacha.

Eggs are laid at the base of plants once adults finish feeding, typically from late October, and a few weeks later the emerging larvae tunnel into leaf petioles to feed during the winter and into spring.

When crops are established later, the process of egg laying and development is slowed as conditions cool, he explains. “Our trials results suggest that a three-week delay in sowing may result in a 10-fold reduction in larval load. We also found a significant yield increase in a crop drilled on 26 August and one drilled on 15 September,” explains Sacha.

However, he adds the caveat that results from field trials were variable and should

be treated with caution. To iron out this variability, caused by other factors influencing plant and pest development in the field, the project is conducting larval feeding experiments in controlled conditions. This involves three different pot test protocols.

The first is looking at the impact of larvae numbers on crop development outcomes, with larvae introduced to individual plants at 0, 5, 10, 20 and 40 larvae per plant.

Larval impact

The second is investigating the effect of crop growth stage on larval impact, with the hypothesis that more mature plants can better tolerate crop damage. With late larval invasion of crops more common, a better understanding is required, says Sacha. This experiment will load plants with 0, 10 and 20 larvae per plant at three growth stages ––BBCH 12, 18 and 24.

Finally, the influence of stem width on larval impact will be investigated after field trials suggested that thicker stemmed OSR plants can tolerate high larval populations and still achieve high yields. The third experiment will therefore introduce two larval loads of 0 and 20 per plant to three different

OSR establishment guidance cracked

Thanks to the significant research efforts of recent seasons, Frontier Agriculture’s technical sustainability specialist, Rob Nightingale, hopes conversations will now shift back to optimising yield from guaranteeing establishment.

The crop production and grain marketing company has been a key industry partner in the project,contributing to the pool of data used to tease out the best CSFB management tools.

This has come from CSFB catches at its multiple field-scale trials dotted around the country,building a picture of the pest’s lifecycle over many years,along with strip trials comparing cultural measures –– like companion crops or planting into longer stubbles,says Rob.

“From the project, I think we,as an industry, can come up with some very good guidance on how to best mitigate against the pest.For a long time now,conversations with growers centred around getting the crop established rather than factors that help improve yield.

“Now we can get back to things like macro- and micronutrition, canopy management and disease control to help achieve the crop’s full potential,”he explains.

Three elements of the project have made a lasting impression on him,the first related to the CSFB lifecycle.Much of the previous work was

carried out back in the 1980s, when the crop area was just 50,000ha,he points out.

It peaked at about 700,000ha in 2012 and although it has since fallen to 323,000ha,this significant increase in area has been accompanied by milder winters.

“It’s been important to revisit the lifecycle work and put it into the context of today’s OSR production.It’s clear the warmer winters are leading to more larvae damage and we are also seeing a huge adult migration in the first two weeks of September.

“I’m a fan both early drilling and late drilling to avoid peak adult migration, and late drilling can reduce larval pressure.It can spread risk if you drill a proportion at each timing, particularly if you have a large area,” says Rob.

The second point has been seeing how results have been measured –– in field-scale, small plot, and controlled trials –– before data is analysed to see what each control tactic brings to the party.

Rob says that sometimes people want and expect IPM strategies to be like a spray which quickly gets rid of the problem, but the project shows it’s all about stacking odds in the crop favour by 5% or 10% here and there.

“It’s been interesting to follow how things work, and how the research ruled a few things out too.

The trials results suggest that a three-week delay in sowing may result in a 10-fold reduction in larval load.

stem widths to see if there’s any evidence to back such observations.

“Is it possible that plants with thicker stems can cope better? If true, it would suggest that crops could be managed to improve tolerance,” explains Sacha.

In all experiments, second instar larvae will be introduced to the plants and initially kept in a controlled environment to maximise invasion success, before being moved ▲

It can spread risk if you drill a proportion of the crop at an early and a late timing,particularly if you have a large area,”says Rob Nightingale.

One example is high seed rates,which leaves you with thick,thin-stemmed crops and could be breeding more larvae.

“It’s best to stick with seed rates for an optimum plant population of about 35 plants/ha. If you’re in a real hotspot, you might increase it by 5-10%,but no more than that,”he explains.

Finally, Rob says insecticide sprays should only be used with great care and once the strengths, weaknesses and potential impact on beneficial insects have been considered.

“Pyrethroids might do a job on certain populations,but not on others.However,it’s very difficult to get that resistance information in time to inform spraying decisions,” says Rob.

The project has shown significantly less damage to OSR at the two-leaf and five-leaf stages when companion-cropped.

outside to conditions more representative of those a crop might face.

“The plants will be assessed for growth stage, plant height and stem width regularly, before finally being destructively assessed for internal damage and biomass. Plants in some experiments will also be assessed for stem strength. Results will be in the final report later this year,” says Sacha.

Work at Harper Adams University by Dr Tom Pope has also been looking at the feeding preferences of CSFB adult using OSR seedlings at different growth stages: cotyledon, one true-leaf and two true-leaf.

In the first of these experiments, adult beetles were offered OSR cotyledon, first and second true-leaves in enclosed arenas, and they ate a greater surface area percentage of cotyledons.

However, the adult beetles actually seemed to prefer eating the second true-leaves, munching a much greater area of leaf, even though this area represented a lower percentage of the total leaf area.

Tom says it’s a work in progress, but they hope to pinpoint the exact stage when OSR plants are most attractive to beetles, adding another layer of information to base drill date decisions upon.

Although beetles eating cotyledons could potentially kill the plant, if adult females are eating more at the second true-leaf stage, the beetles could be healthier, lay more eggs and thereby increase

larval pressure, he suggests.

“The plant might survive that better in the short term, but then get nobbled by larvae later. It all feeds into Sacha’s work on identifying risk windows and timing it so the crop is outside of those windows when it’s at its most vulnerable or most attractive.”

Feeding preferences

“We’re also trying to understand the mechanisms that determine any feeding preference for different aged plants. The assumption is that they use smell to identify their preferred food. We can test this by removing the plants and just offering adults the smells of seedlings at cotyledon, first and second true-leaf stages,” explains Tom.

He suspects the reason adults show a preference for a particular growth stage is due to subtle changes in the chemical composition of the plant material, such as glucosinolate levels.

“What is going on is quite complicated, but it’s so important to understand the pest if we are to manage it effectively, particularly in the absence of effective insecticides,” adds Tom.

Alongside drilling date, seed rates have been debated amongst growers and advisers, with some opting to sow high rates of farm-saved seed to get enough plants through the adult migration peak by diluting feeding damage.

Interestingly, however, higher seed rates are associated with higher numbers of larvae per hectare and that could exacerbate the

Theory to Field

problem in future crops.

Sacha says that, generally, increasing the seed rate beyond what’s required to achieve the optimum plant population of 25-40 plants/m2 results in little yield benefit, unless conditions are very dry at establishment.

“Decreasing the seed rate may produce larger plants more tolerant of larval feeding in spring, but that’s something we hope to clarify with the larval feeding experiments.”

Other practical steps to consider as part of an IPM strategy include cultivation method, with low soil disturbance systems helping to retain moisture and improve establishment in drier autumns.

Sascha says based on anecdotal evidence, CSFB may be attracted to disturbed soil, but there is little robust scientific evidence to back that theory so far. Similarly, early nutrition is thought to be important in getting crops established to the four-leaf stage, beyond which the impact of adult feeding is no longer considered a threat to survival.

Some farms have successfully used starter fertilisers at establishment, along with the use of organic materials like digestate. The industry could well benefit from more research into these areas, highlights Sacha,

Tom Pope says they hope to pinpoint the exact stage when OSR plants are most attractive to beetles,adding another layer of information to base drill date decisions upon.

alongside managing the farmed environment to encourage natural enemies like parasitic wasps while deploying biopesticides like entomopathogenic fungi that infest and kill adult beetles.

“IPM isn’t straightforward, so developing decision-support systems that can help predict when pest events are happening and guide what interventions are required could be very helpful,” he adds. ■

Research roundup

From Theory to Field is part of AHDB’s delivery of knowledge exchange on grower-funded research projects. CPM would like to thank AHDB for its support and in providing privileged access to staff and others involved in helping put these articles together.

For further info: AHDB Project 21120185: Reducing the impact of cabbage stem flea beetle (CSFB) on oilseed rape in the UK is led by RSK ADAS, with scientific partner Harper Adams University.

The project has a total value of £550,520. AHDB Cereals and Oilseeds contributed £240,000,with the rest from industry partners.These include BASF,Bayer,Cotton Farm Consultancy,DSV,Elsoms,Frontier, Innovative Farmers,KWS,Limagrain, Syngenta,Tuckwells,United Oilseeds and Yara. Project reports can be found at https://ahdb.org.uk/reducing-the-impactof-cabbage-stem-flea-beetle-csfb-onoilseed-rape-in-the-uk

Pulse progress

Catching up with the fly

Arguably the biggest cause of financial losses in vining peas, bean seed fly can also decimate beans, but little is known of this pest’s behaviour and there’s no chemistry to curtail it. CPM investigates research putting this fly under the spotlight.

By Melanie Jenkins

Aside from anecdotal evidence, there are big gaps in research into the pest known as bean seed fly. And with no chemistry available to control it,there’s no other option but to take integrated pest management to the next level,which is just what Becca McGowan,a PhD student at the University of Warwick, has spent the past three and half years researching alongside PGRO.

Actually comprising of two ver y closely related species, Delia platura and Delia florilega, the bean seed fly is a generalist pest that will feed on a large range of plants including onions, brassicas, lettuces, maize, cucumber and legumes such as peas and beans, explains Becky Howard of PGRO.

“These pests show low levels of activity

over winter, but we tend to see a peak in adult activity from mid-April onwards. Adults then lay eggs in soil and once the larvae hatch, these feed on the seeds and stems of ger minating crops which can result in patchy establishment or even total crop failure.”

Symptoms of activity in beans include damage to the growing point of emerging seedlings, lack of cotyledon development, no true leaves and low percentage emergence, explains Becca. “In peas, larval damage is harder to spot. If you look at seeds, you can see tunnelling but emerged plants can still look healthy.”

Variable damage

It’s this impact on emergence that makes the bean seed fly such an issue, adds Becky. “If the pest reduces establishment, this can result in significant losses and can impact the maturity of vining peas across a field, which is used as a key indicator of harvest date.”

PGRO sees var ying levels of damage each year, depending on conditions, she says. “This can be down to recent cultivations, as well as high levels of organic and green material. And the pests are attracted by the exudates of seeds as they imbibe water from recently disturbed soil.

“The highest risk tends to be to later drilled crops, such as green beans planted in May and vining peas going in throughout June, in some areas,” she explains. “There’s potential for a significant

number of crops to be at risk.

“Although it’s a widespread pest, it tends to be relatively regional, with some areas more badly affected and this varies

The project offers a lot of potential for advancing IPM strategies and is really positive progress against this pest.

Becca McGowan, a PhD student at the University of Warwick,has spent the past three and half years researching the bean seed fly.

Pulse progress

pest is that its behaviours are not that well understood and there’s no pesticide available for UK growers to control it, says Becca. “There’s neither chemical nor seed treatment control, so to tackle it we have to look at a more integrated approach, monitor the fly and research more sustainable solutions to incorporate into IPM strategies.”

Understanding biology

a lot year-on-year,” adds Becky. “A lot of the work PGRO has done looking at the pest has been in the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire Wolds and in Warwickshire.”

The big problem growers face with this

Flying the flag

After three decades of working for cooperative Swaythorpe Growers, Matthew Hayward has seen his fair share of the bean seed fly in pea crops. “In 1998, we had an incredibly wet spring and many of our growers were unable to work their seedbeds until drilling. There was a lot of greening up and big flushes of chickweed and speedwell. Once crops were drilled,we saw a lot of damage and rotten seeds. Anthony Biddle of PGRO came to look at the crops and announced that the issue was bean seed fly.This was because they were attracted to the high level of decaying organic material in the seedbed. And the worst affected patches were where the greener y had been.”

Since then he has seen a repeat of this sporadically for a number of years.“As a result, our growers have generally tried to produce stale seedbeds or have worked soils in early spring,killing any greenery with cultivations,” he explains. “But there are still problems, especially with looser soils.”

Chalky,stony soils is where crop damage has been greatest, says Matthew.“The fly and its larvae can move more easily in these loose soil types.But at the time we noticed this,we still had access to Cruiser (thiamethoxam) seed treatment,which was really effective against the fly.”

Over the years, Matthew obser ved another pattern building.“One example of this was a year where two cooperative members had adjacent fields of peas. One farmer worked the

Becca’s PhD project is looking at tackling the pest from four angles. The first aspect of the AHDB and PGRO funded research has been to look into the overwintering behaviour of the bean seed fly as little was known about this, and the assumption has been that it goes into diapause –– a state of insect hibernation. “Similar species, like the cabbage root fly and onion fly, go into this type of hibernation,” explains Becca. “To be able to investigate the second objective of the project –– forecasting spring emergence –– we had to

understand this overwinter activity.”

The two other objectives have involved looking at cultural strategies to prevent infestation and to effectively monitor the pest. “We created a culture of the bean seed fly –– essentially a collection of the insects obtained from fields in the rearing unit –– and looked to answer questions on their behaviour. Firstly, we studied whether the flies went into diapause and if so, how long they are in it. We also looked at how they developed in real conditions by observing egg development in the field to help us work out how we could forecast more reliable adult fly emergence.”

From this, Becca was able to determine that the bean seed fly actually behaves quite differently to other closely related species. “Unlike the cabbage root fly and onion fly, we found that only a small percentage of the bean seed fly would go into diapause, with the majority slowing their development but continuing to be active in the field. This meant it was

seedbed early in spring –– at the end of March into early April –– and then drilled mid-May into a stale seedbed with a Väderstad drill.

“The neighbouring farmer didn’t work his land until two days before drilling.He used the same drill,the identical variety and both fields were planted on the same day.

“The first farmer had the perfect crop with 100 plants/m2,whereas the second farmer got 40 plants/m2 and consequently a massive reduction in yield.On this occasion both seedbeds were clean which raised another question as to what the attractant was here.”

He has seen other scenarios where pea crops have hardly established where seedbeds haven’t been kept clean of weeds. “The seedbed had dried out and I could see the next generation of flies emerging from the cracks in early summer. And in another case, there was a big bald patch in a crop adjacent to a muck pad as the manure had drawn the flies in.”

Over the past two years, Matthew has seen plot trials where one was worked five weeks prior to drilling,another two weeks ahead and the third, one day before.“These trials have shown that damage levels are massively greater where the seedbed is worked immediately prior to sowing in May,further proving that flies are not only attracted to decaying organic material but also freshly disturbed soils,”he says.

“One thing with this pest is that you might not think you’ve got any damage –– the plants might look fine –– but approaching harvest and

Where fields haven’t been kept clean of weeds, the seedbed has dried out and the next generation of flies were observed emerging from the cracks in early summer.

pod filling you may see random plants dying, which coincides with warmer weather and the root being unable to cope due to the earlier damage,”he explains.“In these cases,fusarium foot rot sometimes gets hold and plants easily pull out of the soil.”

Matthew believes that the bean seed fly is the biggest pest for the members of the cooperative.“It’s the greatest cause of financial losses.There are other pests but the potential damage from this one in our area is massive.”

Having worked with Becca on her PhD over the past three years,he’s positive about the value of a forecasting tool to help growers tailor their IPM strategies.“If we can build up a pattern of fly emergence and forecast it accurately,then we can work towards cultivating seedbeds accordingly.”

In peas,larval damage is harder to spot but seeds can show signs of tunnelling.

necessary to find a different way of forecasting spring emergence of the adults, and this is something I’m just finishing experiments on.”

Because bean seed flies are insects, their development is dependent on temperature, explains Becca. “Based on five years of Warwick Crop Centre data from water traps, we can predict spring emergence of the pest in the field using the accumulation of day-degrees above a base temperature of 3.9°C. For example, the model predicts that 50% of the spring generation will have emerged once 313 day-degrees have been accumulated from 1 January.”

At a constant temperature of about 200C, it takes two days for bean seed fly eggs to hatch. Larvae will then feed for 14 days and can eat organic material as well as seeds, which is why they can survive in higher organic material soils before seeds are drilled, she explains.

“Depending on temperatures, you can choose whether to sow before or after the expected date of peak emergence,” she explains. “Generally, with beans and peas, once the cotyledons separate the plant can withstand larval feeding, so the pest often causes most issues before this point.”

In the field, Becca undertook both monitoring and management trials, which included investigating whether blue sticky traps containing a lure are more effective than those without. “We also looked at the impact of the orientation of traps and their effectiveness depending on how long they were left out for,” she explains.

The results of these experiments were that traps with a lure attracted more bean seed flies –– almost three times as many compared with those without, says Becca. “Horizontal sticky traps were also more effective at catching the pest than curly sticky traps, and the less time the trap is in the field the more efficient it is. Leaving a trap in for one to two days is ideal, otherwise you catch too many other species and it gets hard to identify the bean seed fly.”

To explore management strategies, Becca produced replicated field trials looking at whether bringing cultivations forwards by seven days ahead of drilling would reduce fly damage and if covering soils with a fine mesh on the day of cultivations and sowing would also lessen the impact of the pest. “The cur rent literature says that ground with high organic material, that has been recently cultivated, attracts adult bean seed fly

females to lay their eggs. So in theory, if cultivations happen at the time of sowing, more flies will be attracted to the plot to lay their eggs.”

The trials were undertaken in 2021 and 2022, but of the seven trials only one demonstrated that delayed cultivations reduced fly damage. And this was the same for the trial on covering cultivations. “There was a significant effect but there were considerably more flies seen in this trial, so we’re now looking at why this might be. However, it does show promise that delaying cultivations or covering the crop could be an option.”

Cultivation strategy

PGRO has been closely involved with the research into cultivation techniques, says Becky. “With trials suggesting that delayed drilling could limit fly damage, by monitoring the pest, it should be possible for you identify where the highest risk areas are and perhaps change your sowing date accordingly.”

There’s already a lot of guidance on cultivation and drilling, which includes creating a stale seedbed, but PGRO also advises ensuring all organic material has been allowed to fully die back before planting, says Becky “Get on top of weed management and make sure cover or root crops are killed off early. This is more difficult with root crops so maybe consider selecting fields that are lower risk.”

Becca has now finished all of the field trials and is in the final stages of practical work before she star ts writing up her PhD. She will then fully analyse the results of her project which will help develop a forecasting tool. “We’re looking at whether the flies are laying eggs if temperatures are low over winter And what they’re doing during the summer, as some

evidence suggests they might go into aestivation –– summer dormancy ––when temperatures are too high, because this could also impact forecasting their behaviour.”

Being able to effectively monitor and forecast the pest will allow growers to make decisions on when to plant their crops, says Becca. “The project won’t be a silver bullet against bean seed fly, but it will be a contribution towards an IPM strategy. But at the moment, if you suspect there’s damage from bean seed fly, it’s really beneficial to report this to PGRO as this helps us build a picture of where the pest is and how sporadic it is.”

PGRO continues to explore whether there are any soil applied products which will be effective against the pest, says Becky. “While we look into further management measures, the project offers a lot of potential for advancing IPM strategies and is really positive progress against this pest.” ■

Field monitoring trials investigated whether traps containing a blue lure are more effective at catching bean seed flies than those without.

Replicated field trials explored whether delaying cultivations by seven days before drilling would reduce fly damage.

Weeds as indicators

Doctors of the soil

organised by Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld of Land Gardeners at Althorp Estate last Autumn.

Nicole is a regenerative soil educator, author of the best-selling For the love of Soil and consultant for more than 26 million hectares across the world. “Weeds should be classified as doctors of the soil,” she explains. “We can reframe how we look at what we see growing and see it more as an enquiry: Why is that growing here?

By Emily Padfield

Weeds –– they’re every grower’s nemesis. Whether arable, livestock or just plain old garden enthusiast, millions of pounds and man hours go towards attempting to eradicate them. Yet it’s a futile war to wage and is getting even more so as chemical efficacy starts to waver and soils begin to falter

So what is a weed? Its Oxford Dictionary definition is: “Any plant that grows in an unwanted place, especially in a garden or field where it prevents cultivated plants from growing freely.”

Weed is an easy word to use. Any plant can be a weed in any setting. But what are they trying to tell us and what are the conditions that set the signal for them to germinate? Globally-renowned agroecologist and systems thinker Nicole Masters believes there’s a lot to learn from these seemingly nuisance plants.

She believes a paradigm shift is needed when looking at weed control, believes Nicole, speaking at a two-day course

“As with drugs and cancer, we will never win the war on weeds by being reactive in our thinking. However, we can identify the root cause and change the signal that allows these weeds to germinate,” she suggests.

“We have to move away from the attack, dominate and kill approach to cropping. Let’s work with Mother Nature in order to respond rather than react. It seems that for many cropping conventionally, every day it’s a battle of what to kill. We should be heading towards ‘No Kill’ farming wherever possible.”

There are several different signals and reasons why and how ‘weed’ species might germinate. Plants fall into different trigger groups, she adds, which include those that colonise bare ground, grow in response to low organic matter, to open up compacted soils, in response to mineral availability, balance and toxicity, and

stimulation.

Bare soil

Many will be aware of fungal to bacteria relationships within soil and what affect these can have on plant health, weed prevalence and disease pressures.

When the soil is bare or disturbed, bacterial levels become high. The first species to arrive can grow even without a functional soil. These include lichen, moss and cryptogams, explains Nicole. “Then

We can reframe how we look at what we see growing and see it more as an enquiry:Why is that growing here?

“ ”

Nicole Masters believes there’s a lot to learn from seemingly nuisance plants – weeds.

microbial

Is it time we had a major rethink about how we approach weeds? Renowned agroecologist and soil expert Nicole Masters certainly believes so. CPM gets some insight on why that is and how the information can be utilised by growers.

Blackgrass is a typical sign of a bacteria dominated soil.Microbial testing under these early colonising species shows high archaea and bacterial dominance which reduce microbial communities and compromise the nitrogen cycle, making the soil inhospitable for other species and crops to grow successfully.

come the early colonisers with shallow rooting systems and scrambling growth patter ns. These early plants prefer, and even support, bacterially dominated soil conditions.”

Blackgrass is a typical sign of a bacteria dominated soil, she adds. “These annual species produce huge volumes of seeds, adding to their dominance, and can even hold back the natural succession process. Microbial testing under these species shows high archaea and bacterial dominance which, in turn, reduce microbial communities and compromise the nitrogen cycle, making the soil inhospitable for other species and, in particular, crops to grow successfully.

“It’s wor th doing tissue tests to find out what the plant is high and low in, to tr y and tell what the mineral imbalance could be,” she adds.

Dynamic accumulators like these mineral imbalances, explains Nicole. “Take dandelions, for example. They’re known for gathering sodium, silica, magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron and copper and bringing it all to the sur face.

“Use a refractometer to deter mine what plant is flourishing in this environment. If you have a flush of thistles, measure your intended crop compared with the thistle and whichever Brix is higher, the soil conditions are suiting this plant better. If the thistle is a lower Brix than the crop, it could be on its way out. The other way around, and the thistle could be settling in to stay so more aggressive remedial work could be required.”

Far mers aren’t dealing with a pristine resource, there’s a lot of historic loading

and often mineral and microbial balances can be out of whack, she goes on to add.

“The weed seedbank in our soils is massive. One single fat hen plant can produce over 600,000 seeds in a season, most of which will remain viable for over 40 years.”

Weeds are able to pump nitrogen back to the soil surface after it has dropped to the lower soil zones, beyond the reach of most crops, and are able to hold the element in reserve. Heavy growth of summer annuals is especially valuable as nitrogen retainers, she explains.

“We’ve all been guilty of looking over the fence and chastising our neighbour for letting their weeds go to seed for fear of them blowing onto our side of the hedge,” she adds. “But really, we’re providing the environment they need to germinate, so it’s within our control.

“Nature can do it all but, as producers, most of the time we can’t wait for nature’s timeline, so there are steps you can take,” she explains.

“Look at the species specifically A species like knapweed, which feeds archael and monosaccharides, allows a foothold for disease and pests. They keep the conditions ideal for themselves and cause the succession process to stall. We need to interrupt this in some way, whether it be heavy animal impact, bale grazing or another method.

“As a last resort, cultivation can be used but you must mitigate the har m done by applying humic acids as well as adding organic matter and getting seeds straight into the ground.”

Low organic matter species

Weed species common on bare soil are also prevalent on low organic matter soils, explains Nicole. “Species that prevail in low organic matter soil often have deep penetrating roots. Think of those species that grow in the cracks of concrete or on gravel on the sides of roads, like

Know your cryptogams

Cryptogams include lichen,cynolichen,algae, mosses and cynobacteria and are described by Nicole as being vital colonisers in environments that have little,no or even dysfunctional topsoil.

“These organisms use powerful acids to draw minerals from their environments and can be found in all environments from desert to tundra.Although they sit at the base of the trophic pyramid,they help to create a crust

Weed species common on bare soil are also prevalent on low organic matter soils and often have deep penetrating roots.They increase resource availability in low organic matter soils by priming the soil to release bound nutrients and act to kick-start the carbon and soil-building process.

dandelions, fleabane, knapweed and leafy spurge.”

They use several methods to increase resource availability in low organic matter soils by priming the soil to release bound nutrients and act to kick-star t the carbon and soil-building process, she adds.

“When they die, they contribute to organic matter. But the plant process alone of rebuilding organic matter in soils isn’t quick, it takes many decades to substantially lift soil carbon levels.”

Ways of building soil organic matter are to spread, feed and add organic materials like straw, woodchip, composts, hay in the method of bale grazing and things like biochar. “Manage for maximum groundcover using animal trampling, herbal leys, cover crops and consciously try to increase your plant Brix levels,” she advises.

Compacted soil indicators

Obviously, there are numerous causes of soil compaction. It could be due to mineral and microbial imbalances, but equally

which in turn captures dust and protects against losses of soil,carbon,water and from UV rays,”explains Nicole.

Cryptogams are excellent sinks for global carbon, with estimates of between 2.1 to 7.4 billion tonnes being held by them each year.

“In nutrient devoid environments,they can also be significant sources of nitrogen,with one study suggesting they can contribute as much as 100kg/ha in some environments.”

Deep-rooted species like dock and thistle are actually providing a service by opening up tight, compacted soils.

overgrazing, tillage and the use of soluble nitrogen are all causal factors, says Nicole.

“Many weeds provide growers with an indication that soils are compacted or crusted, which prevents soils from breathing. This lack of oxygen sends a germination signal for things like dock, buttercup, thistles and rushes, to name but a few. They’ve adapted to live in anaerobic soils by pumping oxygen down through their roots to free up nutrients.”

Many of these weeds also suggest that calcium is not functional in the soil. Deep-rooted species like dock and thistle are actually providing a service by opening up tight, compacted soils. Actions for compacted soils include planting a multi-species cover crop, focussing on deep rooting varieties like tillage radish, brassicas, phacelia and cereals like rye and oats can all play a par t.

“You need to establish why these soils have become compacted. Is it mineral imbalance, microbes, organic matter, management, mindset, or a mixture of reasons?” she advises.

Mineral availability

High available potassium and low phosphorus levels often provide the trigger for broadleaf weeds, such as dandelions, plantain and night shade. Species like field bindweed suggest low availability of calcium but high levels of magnesium, says Nicole.

“Primitive weedy grasses indicate low functional calcium, high nitrates and bacterially dominated soils. So many weed species indicate a breakdown in fungal life, which is often the case in land that has been tilled for long periods of time,” she explains.

“Some weeds flourish in soils which have nutrients in excess and have

Weeds as indicators

Bare soils

Low organic matter

Compaction or surface crusting weeds

Nitrate and release valve weeds

Purelane,bindweed,chickweed

Groundsel,knapweed

Creeping thistle,dock,sedges,rushes,buttercup

Foxtail barley grass or primitive grasses,fat hen, milk thistle

High available potassium and Dandelions,plantain,thistle,wild radish, low phosphorus nightshade

Early successional bacterial species

adapted to grow in environments with otherwise toxic levels of sodium, cadmium, lead, potassium and zinc. Think of those areas where historically things could have caused this, for example, areas for working with livestock, maybe old dumping grounds from the past, or where ground has been reclaimed.”

These ‘release valve’ species include knapweed, barley grass, teasle and ragwort. “Avoid grazing these areas and soil test for potential contamination. Plant other release valve crops, such as sunflowers and willow, and think about treating with biochar and humates to reset the balance.”

Nicole says to expect to see species like cocksfoot, dandelion and nettles in areas around the farmyard or where there’s an excess of nutrients like magnesium, potassium and nitrates.

“We’re never going to run out of minerals, it’s all in the soil but we just need to make it bioavailable. It’s a great way of selling products though,” she jokes.

Microbial stimulation

Generally, plants that want to grow in fungal dominated soils or vice versa won’t flourish if the microbiology is out of kilter Trees planted into grass without inoculant or other remediation will not grow as well as those in a woodland setting, where soils have higher fungal dominance, explains Nicole.

In a healthy grassland ecosystem, high-value grass species –– like tall prairie grass, rye, wheat and corn –– prefer soils with biomass of between 1:1 or 1:2 bacteria to fungi ratio. Rarely are things that simple however, Nicole comments. “There’s a large element of random chance involved as to what ger minates and what doesn’t.

“As soils become less and less disturbed, fungal biomass lifts and woody weeds like blackberry, roses and sagebrush start to establish. Then, over time, trees star t to dominate.

“Early succession plants prefer

Foxtail barley,wild oat,barnyard grass,blackgrass

bacterial-dominated environment and produce this huge volume of seeds which prolong their dominance and prevent the next stage in the process.”

These species tend to be less palatable, coarser and contain less feed value than the more advanced grass species, making them in turn less desirable in a cropping scenario, she describes.

“Above all, get out on your farm and observe what each plant or situation is trying to tell you. All research is anecdotal and area or situation specific. Each field on your farm is different and so will need a different approach. Get a shovel, look at the root systems –– where and what grows. Then monitor how different methods of management affect the outcomes.

“Don’t get dogmatic. There’s no reason why 20 years down the track you might not decide to try something different.” ■

Recommended reading

● For the Love of Soil by Nicole Masters

● Weeds: Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A Cocannouer

● When Weeds Talk by Jay L. McCaman (available from www.acresusa.com)

Species like field bindweed suggest low availability of calcium but high levels of magnesium.

Application matters

Grassweed control

When grassweeds survive post-emergence herbicides, it’s often assumed that the spray hasn’t worked and resistance may be at play. But recent research shows that application matters just as much. CPM reports.

By Lucy de la Pasture

Two recent pieces of research highlight why application matters for spring herbicides. While poor weed control is often blamed on resistance, results show that nozzle choice,speed and conditions all have a huge effect on product performance

“Results from the Bayer/NIAB ryegrass survey showed widespread susceptibility to post-emergence herbicides but many farmers still reported problems using ALS-chemistry to control ryegrass,” says Bayer’s Roger Bradbury

“Last year, we carried out a separate project looking at the effect of nozzle choice and sprayer set up on herbicide application. Linking the results of these projects together provides useful guidance on how to get the best control of weeds this spring.”

Turning first to the survey, he explains it tested 197 ryegrass samples that had been sent in by farmers and agronomists.

Of these, 65.5% were still susceptible to either ALS-chemistry or pinoxaden. Roger highlights that this level of susceptibility is a key difference between ryegrass and blackgrass, and underlines that there are subtle differences between the best strategies to control each weed.

Resistance status

“From these results, it appears that post-em resistance in ryegrass is less common than in blackgrass. Interestingly, for pre-emergence actives the opposite is true,” he says. “But results from national surveys are only so much help, knowing the resistance status in your field is the most important thing.”

Roger urges those planning to use an Atlantis-type product (based on mesosulfuron and iodosulfuron) this spring, to focus on application timing and technique to give the herbicide the best chance of success.

“In glasshouse resistance tests, application is near perfect with the herbicide applied precisely and drying on the target leaf. In the field it’s obviously more difficult, but the application research shows improvements could be made,” he adds.

Independent spray application specialist Tom Robinson led the research, which investigated product stewardship and efficacy. “We wanted to reduce drift and retain good product performance. In the trials, we tested Roundup (glyphosate), but the results are equally relevant to farmers applying post-em chemistry this spring.”

Four nozzles featured in the trials –– the

110 Fan Jet, which is the label standard recommended nozzle for herbicide application; the 3D nozzle, angled forward and back; Hypro Guardian Air 75% drift reduction; and the Lechler ID3 90% drift reduction. The applications were made by a farm sprayer applying 100 l/ha at 12 km/h to a field of spring wheat, water sensitise paper was positioned in the crop to measure coverage.

He points out that the challenge in the spring is for the herbicide to land and settle on the target leaf. A finer spray quality helps get the coverage but suffers more from drift in windy conditions.

“Good spray operators don’t like drift because it shows that application is less than ideal. The biggest problems caused by drift are seen at field margins and next to

Results from a national survey show postemergence resistance in ryegrass is less common than in blackgrass,though,for preemergence actives the opposite is true, says Roger Bradbury.

Good spray operators don’t like drift because it shows that application is less than ideal.

“ ”

watercourses –– in these locations drift must be under control.”

He highlights that, apart from the environmental considerations, if the spray is drifting then weed control will also be compromised.

In the trial, the poorest performing nozzle was the fan jet –– it increased the risk of drift without any gain in weed control. The 3D gave the best control but was prone to drift, while the Lechler ID3 had the least drift but had slightly lower weed control. A good compromise option is the Guardian Air, says Tom. “With lower drift and good control, it has the highest droplet number among the LERAP 3-star rated nozzles.

“The most important conclusion is that the label recommended nozzle performed the worst, so look beyond the label for nozzle selection. In ideal conditions, with winds of up to force 2 (6-11 km/h) with few stronger gusts, the 3D is the best option. At higher windspeeds, the Guardian Air or Lechler nozzles are probably a better choice.”

Boom height is the most important factor for drift management, according to Tom, followed by nozzle choice and finally, speed. He recommends 50cm is a good rule of thumb for boom height, although some sprayers and nozzles can go even lower.

“Vehicle speed, setup and maintenance are all important because, if the boom is unstable the operator usually increases its height, leading to more drift and poorer spray coverage.

“For herbicide applications, the general rule is a maximum speed of 12km/h. There is a definite drop off in control when you go faster because of more turbulence and poorer deposition. Interestingly, we don’t see the same effect in fungicides, where 16km/h is a safe application speed.”

Tom suggests that when controlling grassweeds this spring with glyphosate, or in-crop with a post-em herbicide, it would be beneficial to use the 3D nozzle or something similar. “Aim to only apply in good spraying conditions as this allows you to choose the nozzle that will give the best coverage and control rather than trying to ‘get something on’ in poorer conditions.”

For glyphosate applications, Roger adds that winter hardened broadleaf weeds often require fairly high rates (1440-1800 g/ha) for effective control in spring.

Tank-mixing a T0 and post-em is one option to reduce workloads if the post-em is delayed, he says. “Efficacy data show that mixes of Atlantis Star (mesosulfuron+ iodosulfuron+ thiencarbazone) plus several common fungicides cause no drop off in weed control.”

The following fungicides were tested at full label rate in tank mixes: Arizona (folpet) plus Variano Xpro (bixafen+ PTZ+ fluoxastrobin); Arizona plus Boogie Xpro (bixafen+ PTX+ spiroxamine); Aviator Xpro (bixafen + PTZ);and Ascra Xpro (bixafen+ PTZ+ fluyopyram).

“Atlantis Star was applied at the T0 fungicide timing in early April with a number of different fungicides,” says Jamie Oakley, Bayer cereal herbicide specialist. “All of the mixtures tested have biological compatibility, this means applying in a mixture doesn’t cause a herbicide efficacy penalty. This is exactly what we aimed to find out in these trials.

“A combined T0 and post-em spray will be a helpful option for many farmers but don’t compromise on the post-em timing by waiting for the T0,” he suggests. “You are

The most important conclusion from the work is that the label recommended nozzle performed the worst,so look beyond the label for nozzle selection,suggests Tom Robinson.

more likely to get good control of challenging weeds like blackgrass and ryegrass when they’re small.” ■

Rediscovering phenoxy herbicides

Nufarm believe that within the current agricultural climate,phenoxy herbicides have an essential role to play.With resistance on the rise,the unique phenoxy mode of action becomes more relevant than ever.That’s why we’re eager to help bring this Tech Talk to you,so that you can get the most out of phenoxies this spring.

Tried and tested

As a long-standing member of the chemical armoury,there’s still great value in using phenoxy herbicides. CPM gets advice from the experts on what exactly they are and how growers could be using phenoxies this season.

By Charlotte Cunningham

They may have been available for several decades, but phenoxy herbicides still have an important role to play in spring broadleaf weed control ––plugging the gaps in herbicide programmes and providing an alternative mode of action to the ALS group of chemistry.

CPM speaks to Laurence Power lead agronomy manager at Nufar m to get his advice on when and where phenoxy herbicides could be used, while ADAS’ Sarah Cook discusses the current resistance status of broadleaf weeds.

How are crops looking this spring?

As always, it’s a very mixed, regional picture. Some crops in the Suffolk and Norfolk areas seem to have come through the winter ver y well –– herbicide programmes have been strong and done a really good job.

Working up into Lincolnshire and the East Midlands, it’s a bit more of a story of two halves.

A lot of wheat was drilled early, and though herbicide programmes were put on, weeds have still come through.

Groundsel is one that is being

talked about quite a lot and a new weed, that seems to be problematic where you get it, is bur chervil. Such is the case for poppies and chickweed ––they’re both ver y problematic where present, too.

On our own farm in Derbyshire, I’m really pleased with the weed control in our wheat, but a little bit disappointed with the barley That’s purely because the barley went in first, followed by the wheat, and mayweed and groundsel have come through –– despite the programme –– which is really disappointing.

With this in mind, a spring clean-up might be very valuable in some areas and go as early as possible if this is something you need to do. Ideally before the T0 timing, but at least at T0 if this isn’t possible so that herbicides are on in advance of the

T1 timing

Where do phenoxies best fit?

Using phenoxies can be quite flexible, but they do fit particularly well in those earlier timings ––anything up to GS33, with use of MCPA possible up to GS39.

Tackle weeds as early as possible –– the more time they

One of the biggest advantages of phenoxies is that they don’t have the same resistance issues that are being seen with the ALS-type products, says Laurence Power

One of the biggest myths surrounding phenoxies is that they don’t get into the root system –that is completely untrue.

stay the ground, the more that is being taken away from the crop. So with an early window in mind, phenoxies can be a really useful part of the crop protection strategy

This is one of its strengths, but one of the biggest advantages of phenoxies is that we don’t have

Resistance outlook

Though varying levels of resistance to ALS herbicides are known,ADAS’ Sarah Cook warns that we may just be scratching the surface with regards to quite how many populations of broadleaf weeds are affected.“So far, we know of resistance in chickweed, mayweed,poppy and sow thistle. However,the challenge for us is that it’s very difficult to identify cases of resistance and collect the seed, meaning there are more cases out there that we haven’t identified yet.”

Sarah says this is due to both the diversity of UK rotations and deciphering at farm-level whether or not chemistry simply hasn’t worked that year or whether it’s actually more indicative of a resistance issue.“The UK rotation is varied –– it includes different crops and different chemistry every year.This makes it quite difficult to pick out if herbicide applications haven’t been successful

the resistance issues that exist with the ALS-type products. The statistics show that currently there are 97 different species of weeds that are showing some sor t of sensitivity to ALS-inhibitor herbicides.

Resistance can show itself in different ways on different far ms,

but essentially, what this means is that we’re not getting the good control that we used to see with the ALS herbicides alone. This is where phenoxies can come in, as they don’t have these same resistance issues, and therefore as an active do a really good job.

They can be used alongside ALS products, or in a tank-mix, but essentially, phenoxies offer a really good opportunity to avoid further resistance issues building up.

Of course, all products have their weaknesses and for phenoxies it's probably their crop growth stage timing restrictions, so always follow the label. Though this maybe a good thing as it forces growers to get on with weed control early.

How do they work?

Phenoxies are a group of herbicides, first developed in the 1940s, which work by mimicking the effect of auxins –– natural plant hormones. The role of auxins is to regulate growth and, specifically, to help plants grow towards light.

The phenoxy group includes MCPA, 2,4-D, CMPP-P and

Rediscovering phenoxy herbicides: top tips

● Target the earlier windows –ideally when the crop is GS28-30 and the smaller the weeds,the better for control

● Consider growing conditions – weeds should be actively growing and the crop stress free,with no rain or frost forecast

● Application matters –consider water volume and quality,adding a water conditioner if necessary.Aim for a medium-fine spray quality

MCPB and has been designed to manipulate this function and are able to mimic it to the advantage of weed control –– causing target weeds to thicken, twist and grow rapidly in a way that is detrimental to the weed, which ultimately causes them to wilt and die.

As a weed control option, phenoxies are quite flexible and can be used alone to control specific weeds, such as thistles, combined with other phenoxies

or whether there is genuine resistance happening.

“I think going forward it’s really important that if growers spot this, then not to just assume they have made a mistake with their programme and to consider the alternative.”

As ALS herbicides are used by so many growers and at all key timings, it’s likely that further resistance will build if it’s not managed carefully –– with more resistant populations identified by ADAS over the past year alone,she warns.That said,Sarah says that these types of herbicides are still incredibly valuable.“ALS chemistr y is a low-dose option and ver y effective where they work. They’ve also got a wide range of usage windows –– really, they revolutionised weed control.”

So how can growers protect this chemistr y going forward? “It’s all about variety –– not just within

chemistr y programmes but also in rotations, so not growing just autumn-sown cereals every year, for example.

“It’s important not to use the same chemistry every year too as this is how a lot of resistance builds up. ALS herbicides have a really big safety zone,so they’re unlikely not to work for no reason –– if this is something you start to see, it’s more likely to point towards resistance issues.”

Sarah says this is where alternatives like phenoxies come into play.“Though they can be a bit more restrictive in terms of their timings, phenoxies are an incredibly valuable resource for both weed control and resistance management.”

Looking ahead to the spring, with warmer temperatures than normal it’s important to keep a close and careful eye on growth stages to maximise weed control over the coming months.

“As it warms up,and now we’ve had a little rain,things have started to grow and appear quickly.So particularly if you’re using phenoxies, which work best in that early window, pay close attention to growth stage to ensure you can get the control on as quickly and effectively as possible.”

Sarah Cook warns that we may just be scratching the surface with regards to the number of resistant broadleaf weed populations.

or with other broadleaf weed herbicides –– like florasulam or sulfonylureas –– as part of a tank-mix to provide more wide-spectrum control. The type of weed control possible is product-dependent but includes some of the most problematic weeds such as chickweed, fat hen and groundsel. They can be used in both winter and spring cereals.

One of the biggest myths surrounding phenoxies is that they don’t get into the root system –– that is completely untrue.

We’ve done a lot of different trial work which shows that phenoxies do indeed move into the root systems and do kill into the root. On our own farm, trials have compared thistles treated with phenoxies with thistles which haven’t. This involved digging

up the root system and the discolouration in the roots where the phenoxies had got into the system and killed the weed could clearly be seen.

What’s the best timing?

For best effect, growers should be targeting the earlier windows –– ideally GS28-30 –– though the upper limit to this is variable depending on the product. In ter ms of weed size, the smaller the better for control.

The right environmental conditions are important too. Phenoxies take about four to six rain-free hours to get into the plant, so avoid spraying if the forecast is looking inclement. It’s also important to avoid frost conditions.

Due to phenoxies’ solubility, it’s important to be mindful of

where you’re spraying ––particularly near watercourses. This means not spraying if wind speed is more than 15km/hour and using 3* rated drift reduction nozzles. If in doubt, the best thing to do is not to spray.

How do you optimise application?

To get the best from phenoxies, weeds must be actively growing and, though it sounds obvious, it’s also important to check the species is actually susceptible. As already discussed, the correct timing is also vital.

Something else that is important to consider is any evidence of crop stress. If the crop is under stress as a result of drought, disease or nutrition, it could limit weed control and actually cause damage to the crop itself.

With regards to water, when using phenoxies it’s important to try to keep to 200 l/ha and in ter ms of quality, it’s important to get the water checked. If it has too much calcium or magnesium in it, it can affect the efficacy of most herbicides –– not just phenoxies. Where hard water is present, using a water conditioner can help get the best out of the chemistry.

Nozzle technology is also important and what you should be aiming for is a medium-fine spray pattern.

What about tankmixing?

In general, phenoxies have good compatibility with a range of

Sponsor message

Combining phenoxies with Nufarm’s range of other herbicides can provide answers to the various agronomic challenges you may find while walking a crop.Our range of agronomy solutions aim to combine mixtures of products catered to the different problem weeds you may find in cereal crops this spring.

We’re proud to be a part of British agriculture,with many of our phenoxies produced directly at our

Phenoxies can be used in both winter and spring cereals on a range of weeds including chickweed,fat hen and groundsel.

products, though it’s important to remember that we shouldn’t be using more than four products in a tank anyway as good practice. If using a wetter, which ALS herbicides benefit from too, then there shouldn’t be any issues with regards to compatibility from that respect either

How about resistance management?

We know that there’s resistance in broadleaf weeds, so having a sound understanding of groups of herbicides is essential when it comes to future resistance management. Phenoxies are in HRAC Group 4 and, at present, have the lowest risk of developing resistance.

But to maintain this, it’s vital to continue to use phenoxies at the appropriate rate and in conjunction with other products –– no one active can be used continuously as resistance will inevitably build. ■

manufacturing plant in West Yorkshire.Whilst Nufarm is a global player in agricultural chemicals, we’re both big and small; our business is large,stable and built on solid values. But we’re small enough to be quick,agile and fuelled by innovative ideas.

Hard water can prevent all chemistry from working effectively – not just phenoxies – so it’s worth considering a water conditioner.

Groundsel is becoming particularly problematic in some regions in the UK.

Swashbuckling buccaneer

Insider’s View

Looking to catch a favourable wind and sail the high arable seas is the new malting winter barley from Elsoms,Buccaneer. CPM hears about how this variety is setting a course to try and fly the flag for both the malting and

By Melanie Jenkins

Sailing out of a Danish breeding programme,Buccaneer first landed on UK shores from Saaten Union’s trailing station in 2018.

Every year the breeder looks at 10-12 of its varieties in UK conditions, and although Buccaneer had been flagged as a malting variety, it was the agronomics and yield which were of initial interest to Andrew Creasy of Saaten Union UK. “The variety stood out right from the beginning,” he says.

Now marketed by Elsoms, Buccaneer doesn’t just stand out in the winter malting sector, according to the fir m’s George Goodwin. “It stands above the cur rent winter malting varieties, with yields at 100% of treated control varieties on the AHDB Recommended List. The variety has a current nor ther n yield of 102%, which is equal to market-leading two-row feed barleys, such as Bolton and

KWS Tardis. It also has a strong untreated yield of 87%.”

A cross between Zophia and SJ128225, Buccaneer has taken on traits from both parents, with a lot of Zophia shining through, he says. “This is widely regarded as an uncomplicated variety to grow as it’s conventional in its habit, is clean and has good malting quality.”

Stand out variety

Elsoms knew Buccaneer could be something special when it was screened at Saaten Union UK’s site in Suffolk, he says. “The first thing that stood out to us in the field was how clean Buccaneer was, exhibiting really strong disease resistance. The pure delight came after taking the variety to harvest. Seeing its yield, we realised we were onto something very special here as it had the benefits of being a malting type too.

“We feel that going forward, the combination of yield paired with malting quality is going to be the most impor tant characteristic,” states George.

Simpsons Malt had several of its growers put crops of Buccaneer in the ground last autumn, according to the firm’s Laura Beaty. “We term these as commercial trials at far m scale which will be used for our own evaluation.”

Up until this point her experience with Buccaneer had been limited, with Elsoms bringing it onto the maltster ’s radar just over a year ago. “We knew they had a variety with potential and since then it’s gone on the RL in a really strong way

“For anyone interested in malting barley,

they can’t fail to take note of it because it’s a stand-out variety. There’s a very clear pull for growers as it’s almost on a level ▲

There’s a very clear pull for growers as it’s almost on a level with feed barley yields, but with malting quality.

Andrew Creasy highlights that Buccaneer’s disease scores are as good as any winter barley on the RL.

feed markets.

George Goodwin feels the combination of yield paired with malting quality is going to be the most important characteristic going forward.

with feed barley yields but with malting quality, which I suppose is the Holy Grail. To get both characteristics in one variety is quite a rare achievement.”

In addition to yield, Buccaneer has good rhynchosporium resistance, adds Laura. “Its rhynchosporium score is higher

Seed to malt

Having grown Buccaneer for seed,Mike Wilton was impressed with how it performed and now has a malting crop in the ground.As farm manager of the Stody Estate, near Holt in North Norfolk, Mike works predominantly light sandy land which is ver y reliant on extensive irrigation systems.“Although this doesn’t necessarily affect combinable crops,we do irrigate the cereals.”

The 1650ha estate has a broad cropping system,consisting of winter wheat,winter and spring barley,oilseed rape,sugar beet,maize, rye,onions,potatoes and sometimes carrots and parsnips.It also has an outdoor pig unit and large areas in stewardship agreements.

Mike first grew Buccaneer for Harvest 22. The 20ha he put in the ground really impressed him,so this year he has 10ha in the ground to go for malting.“It’s going to a specific maltster and they want to see how it performs,” he explains.

“I was very happy with Buccaneer last year as it outperformed the other seed crops ––some of which were feed varieties,”says Mike. “There was one big caveat to growing it for seed,however,as it had to be grown where there’d been a two-year break from other cereals.Buccaneer followed a crop of maize which had gone in after parsnips,so it had a good break. And although it was on light land, it’s good light land that was irrigated,but so was the rest of the barley.”

than a lot of the popular feed varieties.”

Andrew highlights that Buccaneer’s disease scores are as good as any winter barley on the RL. “It scores a 6 for net blotch, a 7.2 for rhynchosporium and well for brown rust.” However, AHDB is yet to publish the official brown rust score, he adds.

Malting attributes

During trials, Buccaneer’s untreated yields were very encouraging, he says. “This is what gave us confidence to add it to National List trials and to look more into it as a malting variety.”

And as a maltster, Simpsons Malt is really interested in Buccaneer’s malting attributes. “What we’ve seen so far puts the variety in the right kind of category for malting, but this is just based on data shared by the Malting Barley Committee and Elsoms, we haven’t done our own malting analysis yet,” she admits.

“For us, the real test will be to see how it does this summer once our far mers’

The crop was planted with a Väderstad Spirit around the 15/16 October 2021,after the field had been ploughed,cultivated and levelled.“We only plough about 25% of our ground but after a crop like maize, we have to plough.Most other crops have non-inversion cultivations ahead of planting. We can’t be no-till because the soil type doesn’t lend itself to that,”explains Mike.

As weed pressures were relatively low,the crop of Buccaneer had an application of Liberator (flufenacet+ diflufenican) in mix with Hurricane (diflufenican),which was followed in the spring with Ally Max (metsulfuron-methyl+ tribenuron-methyl) to tidy up any broadleaf weeds.“We also sprayed the whole area as routine with Axial Pro (pinoxaden) for wild oats because this was a seed crop,”he adds.

The field then had a spray of Elatus Era (benzovindiflupyr+ prothioconazole) and Comet 200 (pyraclostrobin) in mid-April at T1 and then Ascra Xpro (bixafen+ fluopyram+ prothioconazole) at T2,when the awns just became visible.

“Because we didn’t want to risk it falling over,it had a small amount of Moddus (trinexapac-ethyl) PGR with the T1,”says Mike.

“Buccaneer was nice and easy to grow and didn’t cause us any grief at all.It didn’t appear to have any agronomic weaknesses in the 2022 season,but we may get a different set of weather conditions this year,”he explains.

“The crop had good uniformity,stood up

crops are harvested. We’ll get their feedback and the initial intake analysis of grain nitrogen levels and screenings. It’ll be next winter when we start to see any malting data from it, but what we’ve seen so far is really promising.”

Buccaneer is also navigating MBC

nicely in the field and yielded well.Achieving just over 8t/ha, it came in above the farm’s rolling winter barley yield average.The Buccaneer performed as well as the other varieties we grew on farm, and it even had the slight edge over the six-rows.”

This season,Mike’s Buccaneer crop has gone into the ground in a second cereal situation.“This is the more traditional winter malting barley position for us.The field was ploughed to remove wheat volunteers and the crop was drilled at the end of September.It had the same herbicide programme as the previous Buccaneer crop and will get a very similar fungicide and PGR programme.”

The variety has come through the winter looking well,he says.“It shares a field with Flagon and the disease pressure in Buccaneer is visibly lower.But both look well,so I’m not concerned about either.”

Whether Mike grows Buccaneer again will depend on its agronomic performance and end user uptake. “If there’s an end user for it and some sensible contracts available, then we would certainly look at growing it again.But that’s the potential stumbling block,”he admits.

“If there isn’t enough interest in it as a malting barley then we may struggle to find contracts and we won’t grow it without a home. But if the market likes it and provides a premium,there’s no reason it couldn’t be the malting barley of the here and now.”

A cross between Zophia and SJ128225, Buccaneer has taken on traits from both parents, with a lot of Zophia shining through.

Buccaneer is suited to a darker roast,which can be used to enhance flavour and adjust colours.

review, with full approval pending until 2024 after macro-scale trials, says George. “Going through trials, Buccaneer’s roasting feedback has been good. It’s suited to a darker roast, which can be used to enhance flavour and adjust colours –– this opens up the opportunities it could be used for. The variety has shown good results for beta-glucan levels, good viscosity and hot water extract.”

Laura believes that the variety will definitely gain interest from maltsters if it meets MBC’s criteria. “But at this stage it’s very hard to gauge what scale this will be on. Like anything, when there are established performers in the market like Craft, for example, it can be difficult for other varieties to come in and bypass them. Buccaneer still has work to do but ever ything I’ve seen so far is giving the right indications.

“It’s quite a lengthy process to get malting approval but it’s impor tant we get the best varieties because the products we’re making from malting barley in the UK are world leading.”

Buccaneer presents a good opportunity to grow a winter malting barley in the

north, according to George. “Its yield is strong, and its maturity (+1 day to control) helps to spread the harvest window. The variety presents the opportunity to widen the harvest window alongside the more traditional spring barley grown in the area, offering an extended harvest movement.”

Andrew believes that Buccaneer will be best suited to growers near maltsters. “Its yields in the East are holding up better than the national average but as it’s slightly lower in the West, there may be other varieties better suited to this area.”

And Buccaneer isn’t the only contender Elsoms has introduced to the market in recent years, says Laura. “They brought Firefoxx in as a spring distilling barley and we’ve been happy to support them with that as it’s good from a maltsters point of view, plus it provides a real pull for the grower because of some of its agronomic benefits.

“It’s good to see Elsoms bringing these varieties through and we have to support breeders to do this. But if a variety doesn’t appeal to both maltsters and growers then it’s very difficult for barley to go anywhere,” she adds.

But whatever happens with Buccaneer ’s malting approval, there might be another challenge to overcome, according to Laura. “Being completely honest, it’s a difficult point in time for winter malting barleys because of the increasing amount of spring malting barley being grown.”

Crowded market

Simpsons Malt is predominantly based in the Scottish borders and covers the whole of Scotland, which has always had a strong spring growing area, she says. “The firm also has a site in Norfolk, and sources barley from there, which has historically been from winter varieties. But we’ve seen a shift in the English spring barley area with higher amounts of it being grown.

“There’s been a move towards dual-purpose varieties –– such as Laureate and LG Diablo –– and this makes it quite a crowded market for winter barley to progress in. However, from the malting analysis we’ve seen of Buccaneer, combined with the farmer benefits, it should be able to find a place.”

Laura Beaty believes that Buccaneer will definitely gain interest from maltsters if it meets MBC’s criteria.

variety, he says. “There are crops out there for producing seed and for large-scale malting evaluation, but this year I expect availability to be limited.”

George doesn’t want Buccaneer to be pigeonholed into being either malting or a feed variety. “We don’t want to just think of it as a high yielding malting, we also want it to be considered a feed as it fits the criteria for both. One thing is for sure, if Buccaneer can meet all the criteria needed for full malting approval, it won’t be a struggle to get farmers on board with its agronomics.” ■

Buccaneer at a glance

Yield (% treated controls)

UK treated99.7

UK untreated86.9

East region treated100.8

West region treated[97]

North region treated[102]

Grain Quality

Specific weight (kg/hl)70.3

Screenings (% through 2.25 mm) 2.2

Nitrogen content (%) 1.73

Agronomics

Resistance to lodging without PGRStraw height without PGR (cm)[99]

Ripening (+/-KWS Orwell)+1

Disease resistance

Mildew 5.8

It’s a difficult point in time for winter malting barleys because of the increasing amount of spring malting barley being grown.

Andrew agrees that spring barley has been in favour over the past couple of years. “But bringing winter barley into the cropping helps growers and maltsters spread risk.”

And so far, a number of commercial companies have expressed interest in the

Brown rust -

Rhynchosporium 7.2

Net blotch [6]

BaYMVR

Source:AHDB Recommended List,winter barley 2023/24 – [] = limited data.

Making more of nitrogen

Crop nutrition

Deciding how to get the most from expensive nitrogen fertiliser is at the forefront of many minds this spring. CPM talks to two growers at the cutting edge of applied farm research to see how the knowledge they’re gaining from this is influencing their approach.

By Paul Spackman

There’s nothing like a dramatic rise in costs to reinforce the importance of maximising input use efficiency,and nitrogen fertiliser tops the list.

Prices may have fallen from 2022’s highs, but many growers have been left looking for cheaper alternatives, such as urea, or are reducing applications this spring. In all cases, it’s vital every last drop, granule or prill is used as efficiently as possible, and with typical Nitrogen Use Efficiency (NUE) in the UK averaging 55-60%, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

The topic has been firmly under the spotlight for farms involved in the Helix project. The Hutchinsons initiative brings

together innovative techniques and technologies, testing them at farm-scale across a network of seven farms from Fife to Oxfordshire (see https://helixfarm.co.uk/)

Significant changes

Nor thamptonshire far mer Andrew Pitts hosts the National Helix Technology Development Far m at Whiston. His nitrogen strategy across 890ha has been driven by the NUE research carried out on the farm since Helix launched in 2019, resulting in some significant changes.

“We’re massively changing the way we’re using nitrogen, tailoring it even more per field and per crop than before.”

Andrew recognises that historically, nitrogen rates were beyond the economic optimum, so has reduced the total applied, favouring a “little and often” approach.

The far m standard for a first wheat grown for seed used to be 200220kgN/ha, plus another 40kgN/ha for second wheats, he explains. “But, through our Helix work, we’ve consistently seen that 160kgN/ha is our optimum for first wheats. If we use any more, we’re not utilising it effectively

“My view now is that, particularly with fer tiliser at £2+ per unit of nitrogen, first wheats will be targeted at a base rate of around 160kgN/ha, and second wheats at 180-200kgN/ha, but that will var y from field to field depending on soil N-Min tests taken in early Februar y and crop

changing the way we’re using nitrogen, tailoring it even more per field and per crop than before.

Andrew Pitts recognises that historically,nitrogen rates were beyond the economic optimum,so has reduced the total applied,favouring a “little and often”approach.

We’re massively

“

”

On Andrew Pitts’ farm,first wheats are targeted at a base rate of around 160kgN/ha,and second wheats at 180-200kgN/ha,but that will vary from field to field depending on soil N-Min tests taken in early February and crop requirements.

requirements. We’re using less overall, and instead of two or three applications, it’ll be four or five.”

He believes the savings outweigh any extra application cost. “Using 40kgN/ha less product is a £80/ha saving. Travelling once more with the spreader or the sprayer, costs roughly £12-14/ha application cost, which still leaves £65/ha less spent.”

He’s also about to convert from 24m to 36m tramlines following the purchase of a new 8000-litre sprayer, so “getting around the far m is not going to be a problem”.

“Furthermore, because of the Helix work we’ve been doing on crop and soil management, we’re up at 75-80% NUE, which is terrific,” he says.

Soil Mineral Nitrogen (SMN) testing of the same fields over multiple seasons provides a good benchmark for residual nitrogen and builds a useful database to analyse changes

after different crops or agronomic practices, adds Andrew.

Wheats typically receive their first application as solid ammonium nitrate as soon as conditions allow in February before switching to liquid products containing sulphur for the second and third applications, then back to AN for the four th dose.

Tissue testing of the flag leaf is a valuable tool for deter mining whether extra foliar nitrogen is required on the ear for milling wheats to meet grain protein requirements, he notes.

“We’ve been using Hillcourt Far m’s protein prediction for several years and it’s been ver y accurate. It’s a simple test that doesn’t cost a lot. We’ve definitely made more profit doing the test than not. That’s the ultimate measure for any of these tools or techniques; does it deliver a higher gross margin? If the answer’s yes, we’ll do it again.”

Andrew Pitts has consistently seen 50-100kgN/ha after overwintered stubble turnips and grazing over the past three or four years.

Crop nutrition

Rooting for success

Total crop nutrition advice to boost plant health and improve crop yield

Getting roots off to the best start has always been sound advice for producing quality, high yielding crops. With efficiency at the forefront of growers minds across the UK, giving the crop an extra boost at the beginning of the season to uptake nutrition, will pay dividends in the long run.

Applying a healthy dose of foliar nutrition such as Kickstart, will assist in root development from an early stage. A plant with a good root structure is much more likely to withstand stresses throughout the growing season. Without a strong root system in place, crops will be left vulnerable and unable to meet yield and quality targets.

Consider using liquid nutrition as part of your nutrient management plan, to boost accuracy and efficiency. Foliar liquids are not only incredibly concentrated, but bypass limiting soil conditions. Their ability to target specific organs and boost growth make them a highly sustainable and effective nutrient management technique.

Communication with your FACTs qualified advisor is key, OMEX have a team of knowledgeable experts located across the country and are contactable throughout the season, ensuring farmers are getting the most out of the fertiliser they apply this spring.

Contact the Liquid Fertiliser Experts

At Helix East in Suffolk, Tom Jewers also recognises the value of accurate soil and tissue testing for refining his fertiliser strategy.

He usually starts by calculating the breakeven ratio in Omnia, based on information such as nitrogen cost, historic average yields and budgeted crop price. “There’s also a useful breakeven tool on the AHDB website that I’ve used previously.”

Growing confidence

For this season, breakeven figures recommend reducing rates by 25kgN/ha due to the risk/reward ratio. This recommendation is fine-tuned with N-Min results, which in February showed Soil Nitrogen Supply (SNS) of 112-151kgN/ha.

Tom acknowledges he was initially cautious about cutting fertiliser rates too far based on N-Min analysis, however confidence in the results is growing. “We’ll monitor things with tissue tests as we go through the season, but I’m much happier with N-Mins now than in the past.”

Tom’s wheats typically receive two initial doses of 60kgN/ha each (120kgN/ha total) granular nitrogen/sulphur fer tiliser (27% N + 9% SO3). Then depending on conditions, he either applies a 33.5% N granular fer tiliser, or if ver y dr y, instead he’ll use two, three or four foliar applications of

Tom Jewers highlights the pattern of recent dry springs where the benefit from soil-applied fertilizer may not be seen,so he’s been trialing replacing it with foliar N.

“With the pattern of recent dry springs, we might not get the benefit from soil-applied fertiliser, in which case I’ll try replacing it with foliar N. I’m not 100% convinced yet, but my confidence is growing that we’re getting the response from foliar applications where we’re putting less soil-applied N on.”

Like Andrew, nitrogen response trials at Helix East show yield typically plateaus beyond 160kgN/ha. “If you put 160kgN/ha of soil-applied N on, you’re already at the top of the response curve, so if you start putting more on as a foliar treatment, you’re unlikely to see the benefit when trying to measure it coming off the combine.

“It’s easier to see a response if we start from a lower base of 120-130kgN/ha, then switch to foliar.”

N-Min sampling after a cover crop (clover,vetch,phacelia,linseed, buckwheat mix) has returned 80-100kgN/ha,plus another 20kgN/ha where cover was grazed by sheep.

Azotica 33 or Aiva Foliar N.

Scott Baker, National Agronomy Manager

Tom recognises foliar N is only a top-up to a solid foundation of soil nutrition and warns it won’t build crop biomass. A tramline trial where soil-applied N was reduced to 80kgN/ha clearly demonstrated this. “The crop itself, according to tissue samples, was never short of nitrogen, but that’s only because less nitrogen was being shared between fewer plants.”

In contrast, the foliar top-up was more effective with a base application of 120kgN/ha. “Each farm is different, so it’s about finding what level works in your situation.”

Hutchinsons’ fertiliser and crop nutrition specialist Rob Jewers says similar results are seen in trials elsewhere. “Where insufficient base fertiliser was applied, the foliar N couldn’t make up the difference. It does vary though; on some farms it might be 120 or 140kgN/ha, while on another it could be 180kgN/ha.

“If the base level isn’t there, you’re not building the biomass, or generating and retaining the tillers. Also, if it’s a thin crop with less leaf area to take up foliar fertiliser, some will be hitting the soil, which is very inefficient.”

Tom also says many other nutrients, such as iron, molybdenum, and manganese, need to be optimised for plants to utilise nitrogen and other macronutrients efficiently. In-season tissue testing is useful for identifying potential deficiencies. He does an initial test in February/early March, then every fortnight on representative fields tomonitor crop progress.

“We’ve tried sap testing, which tells us a lot more, but gathering samples is ver y labour intensive. The Holy Grail is some kind of handheld device you can clip onto leaves to give real-time infor mation about the crop’s nutrient status.”

Andrew agrees. “The growing window for wheat is actually really shor t, with the bulk happening between 1 March and June, giving 8-12 weeks to make a big difference. If there’s something wrong, you need to correct it quickly.”

Tom and Andrew recognise healthy soil drives the efficiency with which nutrients are cycled, accessed and utilised by plants, and retained –– rather than being lost through leaching or denitrification.

“I’m sure our predominantly chalky boulder clay soils have become more efficient at using nitrogen because we haven’t cultivated for years,” says Andrew “We’ve been direct drilling for 6-7 years and using very shallow min-till before that.”

Crop residues are all chopped to build

soil organic matter, while cover crops are integral to the rotation, feeding soil biology, building structure and drainage, and enhancing fertility.

Tom has also been direct drilling since 2016 and says good soil management is key to achieving strong, even plant establishment, which sets the foundation for using nutrients efficiently.

Andrew agrees. “Once you’re several years into direct drilling and the soil’s got used to it, you’re able to establish more even plant stands.”

Variable seed rates

“Direct drilling conserves moisture and allows more even germination, particularly in spring crops, when instead of letting soil dry out at depth, you only have to wait until the surface is dry enough to carry a tractor on low pressure tyres. We’ve seen beans and spring barley fly out of the ground because moisture hasn’t been lost creating a seedbed.”

They both think variable seed rates are important for establishing even crops, perhaps more so than variable rate nitrogen.

“If you’ve got low biomass areas, increasing seed rates seems more effective at overcoming that than simply applying more nitrogen,” says Tom. “We’ve never been able to manipulate a biomass map just using variable rate nitrogen.”

He still thinks variable rate nitrogen has a place and uses Omnia to generate application plans based primarily on variations in yield potential (using historic mapping data) and satellite imager y “I’ve never been entirely convinced we’re getting the right response by just basing decisions on biomass. The aim is to concentrate our inputs where we’re going to get maximum retur n,” he adds.

Andrew has tried different approaches to variable rate nitrogen but admits the “jur y’s still out” on its effectiveness. “I’m yet to be convinced, whereas I’d never drill without variable rate seed. If you can establish a more even crop, there’s less need to var y nitrogen.”

While Andrew admits to initially being sceptical about cover cropping, he has seen real value over the past 5-6 years. “We’ve always seen a nitrogen benefit, with significantly higher N-min after cover crops than without. If cover is grazed, it’s even higher.”

N-Min sampling in a second cereal situation –– spring barley after wheat, for example –– typically shows 30-50kgN/ha in the soil. But N-Min sampling after a cover crop (clover, vetch, phacelia, linseed,

In trials,where insufficient base fertiliser was applied,the foliar N couldn’t make up the difference,highlights Rob Jewers,though the level of base fertiliser needed is very variable.

buckwheat mix) has returned 80-100kgN/ha, plus another 20kgN/ha where cover was grazed by sheep, says Andrew.

“Over three or four years of cover cropping, we’ve consistently seen 50-100kgN/ha after overwintered stubble turnips and grazing. Last year, in one field going into spring barley we found 140kg/ha of available nitrate in the spring after a dry winter and a really good crop of stubble turnips grazed by sheep. The barley received 30kgN/ha applied as ammonium sulphate and yielded surprisingly well.”

Andrew was so convinced by cover and catch cropping that last year he fitted an auto-caster to the combine to establish cover between every crop.

“Unfor tunately, the summer was so dr y we didn’t use it. The only cover we established was 40ha of stubble tur nips, direct drilled after rain in September, which will go into vining peas for seed. Where we’ve grown peas after stubble turnips before they’ve produced a phenomenal crop, so hopefully the extra nitrogen will help crops grow tall enough to go through the combine.

“I’ve gone from being sceptical about cover crops, to thinking absolutely no way would I not plant them now given sufficient moisture. Quantifying financial returns is hard, but we’ve certainly seen clear benefits to nutrition and soil health.”

Tom also believes cover crops bring big benefits, not least in preventing nitrogen leaching during wetter autumn and winter months. He acknowledges quantifying residual nitrogen benefits is hard though.

“It may be because we’ve used them for quite a while now, so the soil is just cycling nutrients differently. Until last year, the only thing we hadn’t done is graze cover crops off, so it’ll be interesting to see if that makes a difference to N-Min.” ■

The spotlight on farming is getting bigger and brighter due to the focus on its impact on our environment. The Government has announced its plans for environmental improvements,outlining 10 goals in its 25-Year Environment Plan.

The agriculture sector could view these goals as challenges or opportunities. I see more of the positive in how these goals give the sector a chance to prove its part in making them achievable. With that comes the added incentives of more sustainable farming with the added bonus of public money for public goods.

Without the weight of the sector behind these plans to restore the natural landscape, the Gover nment would fail to meet the legally binding tar get of halting nature’s decline by 2030. With seven years to go, a lot needs to be done. At a glance, the 10 goals in the Gover nment’s Environment Plan include improving the UK’s air and water quality, minimising waste, protecting threatened plants, trees and wildlife, and other measures that aim to leave the environment in a better place than we found it.

All of these goals will impact far ming and crop production in the years ahead. While the England Government is using ELMs to help agriculture

deliver environmental and climate improvements, we must show best practice in action and demonstrate how we’re reducing our share of environmental damage. Sometimes farming is unfairly blamed for the percentage of harm it causes, but as other industries start adapting and changing, the spotlight on our share of the impact becomes bigger.

With many farms moving to urea fertiliser this year because of the cost of ammonium nitrate, we can expect an increased focus on the impacts of urea fertiliser on air quality. If we don’t want urea fertiliser removed from the market sooner than planned, we must do all we can to minimise risks. Hopefully, many farmers have started to order urea fertiliser with inhibitors or planning to add inhibitors to the liquid fertiliser.

Enhanced urea fertilisers and urease additives will have a more significant role on arable farms as the gover nment looks to slash ammonia losses through its Clean Air Strategy The UK Gover nment agreed to reduce ammonia emissions by 8% in 2020 and 16% in 2030, compared with 2005 levels. With 88% of ammonia emissions in the UK coming from agriculture, much attention is on fertiliser use. We need to be doing as much as possible to reduce fossil fuel-based fertiliser, not only for our own cost savings but also for climate and air quality benefits.

Another spotlight is on pesticide use for its environmental risks and human health concerns. Many products have been withdrawn already, and with the UK now out of Europe, the

speed of other products not being renewed for UK use may be accelerated as the cost of licensing to UK standards may be prohibitive for manufacturers.

I attended many conferences, meetings and discussion groups over winter, and numerous times I’ve been shown data from water companies highlighting the number of pesticides they detect in drinking water. While some are low levels, many others have a very high level at different times of the year. Water companies spend large amounts of money trying to remove these pesticides from drinking water. Even products removed from use years ago still appear in samples. Sometimes that may be after heavy rain, and the sediment has been disturbed in ditches and rivers. Some of the products found in drinking water may not have come from agricultural use in part or total, but they are becoming an increasing problem.

As we see water companies get squeezed for their pollution, fined and ordered to clean up their act, those same companies will want to pass on the pollution costs to those industries causing the problem. As the implicated industry, we will have to do our bit to reduce pollution risks and suppor t far mers struggling to reduce their reliance on harmful chemical inputs.

Funding is available from many sources to help with capital expenditure for spray filling areas, sprayer sheds, biobeds and wash-down areas etc. There are also incentives for using cover crops or buffer zones to prevent pesticides and nitrates from entering watercourses. The next few years are the time to take up

Martin Lines is an arable farmer and contractor in South Cambridgeshire with more than 500ha of arable land in his care. His special interest is in farm conservation management and demonstrating that farmers can profitably produce food in harmony with nature and the environment. He’s also chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network UK. @LinesMartin martin.lines@nffn.org.uk

these funding opportunities before they are lost, and regulation and enforcement play a bigger role. It’s a moment in time when businesses can choose between the ‘carrot or stick’. With collective momentum moving England closer to a cleaner, greener environment, we have to push farming’s role in making this possible to the fore and grab the opportunities available now to wean ourselves off har mful practices that ultimately eat into our bottom line. More carrot, less stick.

With the Government dangling carrots,now is the time to take up these funding opportunities before they are lost.

Carrot or stick? Get while the getting is good

End of ‘averages’ era

Crop nutrition

Making every bit of nutrition count is the name of the game.Results of a five-year study reveals some of the nutritional pitfalls when using averages to predict crop requirements. CPM finds out more.

By Lucy de la Pasture

The UK’s soil has far greater variability in its structure,nutrient make-up and ability to utilise nitrogen than previously thought. That’s the key finding of a major five-year study of nearly 50,000 individual fields carried out by independent agronomic and environmental analysis company NRM.

Many producers striving to boost productivity against a backdrop of greater environmental and sustainability demands are doing so with critically sub-optimal levels of basic nutrients and overall soil quality, says NRM’s Dr Sajjad Awan.

“It’s been a real eye opener just how variable our soils are and not just between different regions of the UK but also between neighbouring fields on the same farm. Some

of this is undoubtedly being driven by climate change, with the wetter and milder winters and drier, hotter summers we’re now experiencing affecting soil microflora and biology to a significant degree.

“This points to a reshaping of some aspects of current management thinking, but the analysis also shows following some simple steps can help address many of these issues.”

Doing so could improve the soil considerably while making better use of resources, including nitrogen, says Sajjad, who was previously a crop nutrition scientist with the AHDB and responsible for updating RB209 fertiliser guidelines.

“The key is to know where you’re starting from and base management decisions around own farm data and not assumptions or generalised information,” he says.

“Testing, whether it be soil organic matter, soil nutrient status, nitrogen offtake in harvested crops or for a whole host of other analytics, has to become a routine part of future farm management. Only then will producers be able to make the necessary improvements across a range of management areas that together will combine to deliver real benefits to their business and the environment alike.”

Sajjad identifies five key areas from the NRM analysis where growers could achieve significant gains.

It’s been a real eye opener just how variable our soils are and not just between different regions of the UK but also between neighbouring fields on the same farm.

Know about soil carbon levels

Carbon content is a good guide to the overall organic matter of soils and there are so many beneficial aspects to improving this, such as higher resilience to rapidly changing weather conditions by increasing soil water holding capacity, aeration and soil microbial activity, he explains.

“Generally speaking, we’re seeing arable land containing 24% less soil carbon than that used for livestock, but within all soils there is tremendous variation.”

In arable soils, NRM CarbonCheck shows a range from 28-178t/ha for total carbon stock measured at 30cm, with the median being 86t/ha. For livestock, this is about 113t/ha which is close to that of horticultural

Variation in soil carbon

long-term project, he points out.

“Using farmyard manure (FYM) and other organic materials can do much to help, as can reducing the number of cultivations, disturbing the soil less and avoiding soil compaction. There’s a strong relationship between carbon content and the bulk density of soils, too. The higher the carbon level, the lower the bulk density of the soil and the better protection this gives against compaction,” says Sajjad.

the most accurate picture.

“At a time when N prices are so high, understanding precisely how much N is in the soil ––soil mineral nitrogen (SMN) and the total soil nitrogen supply (SNS) –– can help save on fertiliser bills.”

Variation in organic amendments

“Soils with low carbon content tend to compact more which damages their structure, makes them less water retentive and starves plant roots of oxygen. But you need to know where your fields sit on the soil carbon spectrum. Trying to farm in a manner based on an assumed high carbon content when this is actually significantly less, can not only reduce productivity, it’ll damage soils and long-term sustainability too.”

Implications of grain nutrient offtakes

The analysis shows P offtakes were also considerably reduced in 2022, he says. “These were 8% less than in 2021, again suggesting more has been left in the soil than in previous years so soil indices could be higher than you would normally expect.

“There is no point adding more nutrients to crops than is necessary from both production and environmental viewpoints but equally, starving crops of vital yield-enhancing nutrients can adversely affect the economics of production too. With climate change making the factors that affect nutrient availability in the soil more complex than ever, getting an early indication of requirement for the next season through grain offtakes is vital,” he says.

soils at 122t/ha.

“So, if you’re growing crops on land in the lower range on that scale, you’ll be struggling. In fact, soil carbon level correlates highly with soil nitrogen content, meaning high carbon soils are likely to require less inorganic N and they will

The right soil pH

The NRM analysis suggests a soil pH of 5.8 to 6.5 is the optimum level for maximum soil respiration rate to take place in most soil types.

“Getting soil pH right is important because our results suggest soil respiration levels, which are a good proxy for soil microbial activity and overall soil health,could fall by 10-15% for every change in pH of 0.5 either side of the kas RB209 suggests the optimum is 6.0 for grassland and 6.5 for arable.The rate of

also process any N that is applied more effectively due to the greater activity of their soil bacteria.”

Medium to heavy soils tend to have greater soil carbon content than lighter soils but there’s much that can be done to lift levels, although this tends to be a

decline in soil respiration if these guidelines are not adhered to has never really been documented before.

“The bottom line is that modern data collection and analysis can improve understanding of individual farming businesses more clearly than ever and contribute hugely, both to greater productivity and future sustainability.

“The era of ‘farming by averages’ is rapidly coming to an end as new individualised precision technology takes over,”he concludes.

While growing numbers are realising the importance of soil testing ahead of fertiliser applications, fewer appreciate the significance of testing nutrient offtake values in the grain post-harvest, believes Sajjad.

“Knowing how much N, P and K, is contained within grain can give you a vital early indication of fertiliser needs for the following season. Again, our analysis shows this varies considerably from year to year and the extent of these changes is highly significant.

“Grain N offtakes measured through NRM GrainCheck at harvest 2022 were around 4% less than in 2021, suggesting more of the applied N has been left in soil so this could be an early indication of less N being required in 2023,” he notes.

“Factors during the winter, such as soil temperature and rainfall, can affect overall soil N level subsequently, so it’s essential that this is tested at the start of the following year to give

“You might consider using more FYM, slurries, and other organic sources than perhaps you would normally, or it could be that it has an impact on your decisions regarding rotations moving forward. But again, if you don’t know the values you can’t implement the right strategies.”

Climate impacts on nutrient utilisation

The drier summer conditions experienced in recent years are creating a greater number of UK soils with indices below 2 for P and K, the analysis reveals.

“Distribution curves for years considered historically ‘normal’ look very different compared with those of recent years where summer droughts were experienced, with 13% more soils below index 2 in the drier years than in an average year,” explains Sajjad.

Met office data for the past five years reveal a trend for drier, hotter summers with many climate change specialists predicting this will become the norm

in the years ahead for the UK.

“If this is the case, we may well have to rethink key nutrient strategies. Water is essential to drive most chemical reactions, and this is certainly the case with soil microflora which do much of the work involved in making nutrients available to plants.

“Mineralisation of phosphorus in the soil is much reduced under drought conditions and this is reflected in our analysis, with the distribution curve visually skewed towards the lower indices.”

Increasing soil organic matter helps soils retain moisture better and hold key nutrients more effectively whilst building vital resilience to future droughts, he explains. “But drier, hotter summers will also affect the time it takes to improve the carbon content of soils. Whereas it might have been possible to improve this by 1% in five years previously, this could take six or seven years under drier and hotter conditions.

“Again, minimising ploughing and disturbance of the soil will help get the biology working to its full potential, as will the use of FYM and other organic sources of nutrition,” he comments.

As well as the effects of drought on P and K indices, the analysis also highlights the

wide range of these nutrients in UK soils, he adds. “Overall, phosphorus ranges from 4mg/l to 57mg/l, Index 0 to Index 4 respectively. Potassium ranges from 19mg/l to 362mg/l, Index 0 to Index 3 respectively, so you just can’t estimate these with any accuracy at all.”

Organic manures are highly variable

The NRM analysis shows the contribution of FYM and slurry to farming systems is much more variable than previously thought, with some applications contributing just 3% of that from others.

“The differences are of a magnitude I don’t think anybody was expecting,” says Sajjad. “Focusing on N, P and K alone –– all of which are roughly the same in terms of cost/kg at the moment –– shows that a 20t/ha application ranges from £100 to £3300 in terms of nutrient value.

“It’s another great example of how working with average values and making management decisions based on these can be so damaging to production and profitability,” he says.

“With organic materials increasingly seen as an essential means of reducing the use of bought-in inorganic fertilisers and building

soil carbon content, such variability makes getting the most out of them very challenging if you don’t know exactly what you have.”

Sajjad suggests relying on the average values in RB209 is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. “We’re increasingly realising all farms are different and so too are the organic nutrient sources they produce. Underestimating nutrient content from these sources could result in significant

The era of ‘farming by averages’ is rapidly coming to an end as new individualised precision technology takes over,believes Sajjad Awan.

over-application, with potential impacts to the environment.

“On the other hand, over-estimating can lead to crops being left critically short of vital nutrition with neither situation being acceptable. Routine testing of organic nutrient sources is the only way to make the right decisions around how they can be integrated into crop production plans to the greatest effect.”

Don’t overlook magnesium

The NRM soil analysis shows 25% of UK arable land is below Index 2 for magnesium, which means many UK growers are trying to maximise production with a hugely important nutrient in limited supply.

“Magnesium is essential in the production of the chlorophyll that drives photosynthesis, enzymatic activation and protein synthesis. It’s at least as

important as P and K, yet all too often gets overlooked. Even if you have everything else spot on, low Mg will suppress plant metabolism, health and production.”

The analysis shows Mg levels in UK soil ranging from 12mg/l to 210mg/l, Index 0 to Index 4 respectively, so similar variability as the other key nutrients.

“Excessive application or presence of potassium can result in low uptake of Mg. Similarly, high concentrations of ammonium in the soil can also reduce the uptake of magnesium. This affects lighter soils more than heavy, clay soils,” explains Sajjad.

“FYM and other organic sources are a good source of Mg but should be checked to make sure you know what you have available and can amend your crop nutrition strategy accordingly.” ■

New test unlocks importance of carbon

A new soil test for carbon has just been launched by Eurofins Agro UK,using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to measure organic matter.According to Eurofins’ Sophie Cath,the information it provides will help farmers make more accurate decisions to reduce CO2 emissions and sequester more carbon.

“For the first time,farmers will be able to use accurate carbon data to chart soil health. This will help decide crop rotation,the use of nitrogen-fixing cover or break crops,and the quantity of organic and non-organic fertilisers.”

The test will provide data on how much carbon is sequestered in the soil,how much organic matter is stable or dynamic,what inputs can be used to improve the carbon sequestration potential of the soil,and how those inputs are likely to impact on the crop.

“Carbon is a key indicator of soil stability and fertility.Understanding how carbon fluctuates is the key to balancing the amount of carbon, nitrogen, and other soil components. Understanding the carbon to nitrogen ratio is critical to soil stability because it helps to indicate what levels of nitrogen and other inputs are sustainable for the soil,”she adds.

The speed at which organic matter degrades determines the nutrients released to a crop.The higher the breakdown,the more nutrients are made available.This data is captured in the tests to help indicate what inputs will benefit the crop and what needs to be put back into the soil to improve carbon sequestration.

Sophie explains that reaching this

By better understanding the C to N ratio,the stability of organic matter and the speed at which it’s broken down, it’s possible to manage soil carbon sequestration more accurately,says Sophie Cath.

optimum level for a crop within a rotation can be better gauged by first understanding the active organic carbon content:“We know that adding N stimulates growth.However,the C to N ratio is crucial to accurately evaluating the stability of organic matter and the speed it’s broken down.By better understanding this, we can manage soil carbon sequestration more accurately,”she says.

“The new test is a powerful tool that can tell us how much carbon is being sequestered in soil, how stable that carbon is, and how we can improve carbon sequestration over time. This can help agriculture to meet carbon targets while also lowering costs and improving yields,” she concludes.

BASE-UK Conference

Base learning

it has to be disruptive,” she pointed out. Starting with some basics, NIAB’s Dr Elizabeth Stockdale pointed out there was no longer a good reference method for measuring soil organic carbon, after the Walkley-Black method was banned due to its use of some carcinogenic materials.

That left a choice between loss on ignition –– the difference in soil weight before and after it has been ignited –– or the Dumas method, which measures organic carbon and is then converted to organic matter.

By Mike Abram

If any conference is set up for learning both from researchers and farmers, it’s BASE-UK. Its 10th anniversary edition attracted 160 delegates, all with a keen interest in regenerative or conservation agriculture.

Packed full of insights into what and how to make key aspects of conservation agriculture successful from a succession of excellent speakers, it’s also the conversations that happen in the breaks, at the bar and over dinner that provide full value for attendees.

As one of the speakers, LEAF’s Vicky Robinson – who has researched knowledge exchange for her recent Nuffield Scholarship – highlighted, it’s those conversations where tacit knowledge, often undervalued, is discussed in a trusted environment that breakthrough moments begin.

“If knowledge isn’t shared, it’s lost,” she said, quoting Alfred Grand, a regenerative farmer from Austria whom she met during her travels.

And for complex nature-based solutions and biological processes, knowledge exchange is vital. “If you want to drivechange,

“The two do correlate well, but it’s not a one-to-one line,” she said. “In general, you get higher estimates of organic matter if you test with loss on ignition. You also get slightly different answers from different laboratories.”

Organic matter measurement

So which should you use? “If you’re going to start measuring organic matter, what you shouldn’t do is skip between methods or labs. That will mean if assessments change over time, you know it’s a real result rather than possibly due to the method or lab changing.

“Either measurement will work perfectly well, but if I was setting up to measure organic matter on farm for the first time now, I’d use the Dumas method, which is slightly more expensive.”

Another consideration, especially for those considering trading carbon credits, is that the Dumas method is the only one of the two that’s compliant with the recently announced Soil Carbon Code, said Becky Willson, technical director for Farm Carbon Toolkit.

“It has higher precision as it measures elemental carbon and not just organic matter, this means it’s important for those on chalky soils to ensure you measure your inorganic carbon as well,” she said.

The downside to Dumas is a “miniscule”

amount of soil is analysed, which could reduce the ability to take account of variation across a field. “You may have to take multiple samples to best reflect that variation,” she said.

Looking at soil as a growing medium, plant roots are the key driver of improving soil health, according to Joel Williams, an independent soil consultant with Canada-based Integrated Soils.

While roots and shoots are linked and

Cover cropping, intercropping,reducing nitrogen and the value of compost in regenerative agriculture were among the topics researchers discussed during BASE-UK’s annual conference. CPM picks out some key messages.

If knowledge isn’t shared,it’s lost.

“ ”

United in purpose,the BASE chairmen of Ireland, Norman Dunne (left); BASE founder Frederic Thomas (middle) representing France and Edwin Taylor,chairman BASE UK were all present at the 10th anniversary conference.

work together, the driver of nutrient cycling, improving physical structure, porosity and feeding soil biology are the roots. “So when thinking about cover crops, don’t be fooled by solely judging the success of it by how it looks above ground,” he said. “We must always judge success by the roots.”

The invisible part of the equation is the root exudates –– sugars, carbohydrates, amino acids and proteins that are excreted by roots, which are the preferred food source for soil organisms.

“This is how we can easily and rapidly grow soil biomass,” adds Joel.

Analysis of 60 different research studies showed cover crops on average increased the abundance soil microorganisms by 27%, and microbial activity by 22%. But microbial diversity was only increased by 2-5%, he noted.

“So you’re not increasing soil microbial diversity by growing cover crops much, but you are activating what’s there more widely.”

Whether to grow single or multispecies cover crops will depend on what you’re trying to achieve, advised Joel. If it’s just one specific objective, then a single species might be best as some plants are better than others at specific things, such as legumes for nitrogen fixation, or brassicas and buckwheat for phosphorus scavenging.

Multispecies cover crops are likely better where there are multiple goals, while they also potentially would help cover problems with establishment of species within the mix, he noted.

“So it depends on what you’re trying to achieve –– there’s no magic number Although it can add to cost, so there’s an economic consideration.”

But with diversity the important feature is functional diversity, he stressed. “If I had the choice between a three-way mix of a cereal,

legume and brassica versus an eight-way mix of different legumes, I would choose the three-way mix.

“It has functional diversity –– different species offering different specific functions. It’s not diversity per se, but the function of those species.”

With the potential payments now available for companion cropping through the Sustainable Farming Incentive, Joel shared some data about some of the benefits. For example, a meta study of 100 trials with 196 direct comparisons found that in 79% of cases, growing intercrop or companion crops resulted in a decrease in disease pressure, with a further 18% showing no difference and only 3% an increase.

“So the odds are on your side when you step away from a monoculture and integrate more diversity, you lower disease burdens.”

Diversity benefits

With pests, this time comparing 153 studies and 546 direct comparisons, 68% of the time pest pressure declined, with 24% neutral and 8% increasing pressure, he said. “And with weeds, we have similar numbers ––an 86% a decline in weed pressure when growing two or more crops or companions.

“I’m not saying you’re going to completely control weed, diseases and pests, but by stepping away from a monoculture you’re making it harder for them just through the inherent design of your production system.”

Joel also shared research examples showing how legume/cereal mixes could share nitrogen in real-time through amino acid root exudates if root to root contact was close or through mycorrhizal fungi networks, as well as when the legumes die or decay

“It’s not going to be huge amounts [shared in real-time], especially in high yielding areas like the UK, but legume cereal intercrops have an opportunity to be a piece of your nitrogen puzzle and provide some nitrogen fertility.”

Elizabeth

message was that if you’re going to start measuring organic matter,you shouldn’t skip between methods or labs.

Current varieties of companion or cover crops are typically bred for different purposes, he suggested.

“For example, we haven’t bred legumes specifically for the purpose of sharing nitrogen –– they’re probably the ones you would also grow as a monoculture to be productive.

“So if we breed varieties that were better at sharing nitrogen, what percentage could it make up of the nitrogen requirement of a cereal? I think there is an opportunity to increase this if it’s a breeding goal.”

It’s already known that small leaf clovers share more nitrogen than large leaf clovers, as the small leaf clover has less need for nitrogen for its little leaf, and therefore has more to share, he said.

The same applied to cover crops. “Cover cropping is still in its infancy. I think the next generation of cover crop seed will be specific varieties, primarily bred for their roots but maybe other functions too, and their potential will be far greater than it is now.”

Many growers only look at how much nitrogen the initial following cash crop gets back from a cover crop, said French farmer, Frédéric Thomas, a leading expert in conservation agriculture and co-founder of BASE-France. “But it’s an investment.”

Typically, growers should expect 8-10kgN/t of cover crop dry matter back in the next crop, he suggested. “With the price of fertiliser currently, if you grow around 4t/ha of dry matter in the cover crop, which is quite easy to reach, you get most of your money back in terms of nitrogen in the first crop.

“So it’s an investment where you get a

Stockdale’s

For those considering trading carbon credits, the Dumas method is the only one that’s compliant with the recently announced Soil Carbon Code, said Becky Willson.

It’s those conversations where tacit knowledge, often undervalued,is discussed in a trusted environment that breakthrough moments begin, said Vicky Robinson.

return in the first year at current fertiliser prices, and then you get all the other economical returns in time –– it’s a very secure investment.”

In France, growers can use a tool ‘Méthode d’estimation des Restitutions par les cultures intermediaries’ (MERCI) developed by Arvalis, INRA and other partners to estimate the nutrients available for the next crop. It either uses weights of cover crop species taken shortly before destruction in the field or a model approach to answer a ‘what-if’ scenario.

Composting farmyard manure loses a lot of nutrients and is probably not worth the effort to make, commented Frédéric. “The best thing is to put the farmyard manure on the cover crop, because you bring food to the soil. When you feed the soil, you need to with quantity, quality and continuity.”

Comparing 30t of FYM with the same amount composted into 15t, there was a lot less nitrogen and potassium in the compost, while phosphorus remained the same, he said. “But in the FYM I have 5.2t of carbon compared with 1.5t in the compost. So I’ve divided by almost three what I am feeding my soil.”

Steve Townsend, a conservation agriculture consultant for Soil First Farming, recommended thinking about the lime used and targeting an increase calcium levels in soil, where needed, to help improve soil health. But be careful to use a quality lime product, he warned.

Within soils there were two structuring elements – carbon and calcium, he explained. “Carbon is obviously the big one. It’s key to enabling the microorganisms to make those glues and gums to stick the soil together, making a better structure and environment for soil biology to flourish.”

Calcium also plays a positive role in soil health and structure, helping to create an

airy, aerobic crumb structure by flocculating clay particles, he said. In contrast, magnesium dominated soils were likely to have negative impact –– drawing soils tighter, making them difficult to work “minute-land” and creating compaction.

Most farmers and advisers used pH as a proxy for calcium measurement in soils but Steve suggested using the controversial Albrecht soil test, which he believes is more accurate.

As well as soil pH, the Albrecht test measures the full range of cations in the soil, including calcium, magnesium and sodium levels as well as the cation exchange capacity –– the ability of soil to hold onto and exchange positively charged cations. Organic matter content is also usually included.

“Use the potassium extraction or total cation extraction test as opposed to the ammonium extraction as it’s more accurate,” he suggested.

Albrecht explained

Some of the criticism of Albrecht, according to Steve, was because he suggested the soil ideally should have a 68% calcium to 12% magnesium ratio. “That’s not true –– he never said that. What he did say was that in any soil type driven by the clay content, the calcium and magnesium should be 80% of the cation exchange capacity.

“That might mean in your sand soils you could want 60% calcium and 20% magnesium to hold the sands together On some of your clays, you might want to drive your calcium to above 72% and magnesium to 8% because of the type of soil, topography and location.”

But be careful with high calcium levels in soils, he warned. “Albrecht suggested for every 1% of calcium above 68%, it disguises the true magnesium level.”

In that situation the additional calcium should be added to the magnesium level. For example, one soil Steve had tested had 89% calcium and 4% magnesium. But

adding the additional 21% above 68% calcium to the magnesium made it effectively 26% magnesium. “All of a sudden that’s a completely different ball game, and why this soil goes rock hard, and sticky when it is wet.”

“How much lime have you bought recently?” he asked delegates. “When buying lime, look at grind size. The big disappointment is the quality of lime that is sold, or what farmers accept as quality lime.”

Sieve tests by Soil First Farming highlighted that in one lime product only 1% went through a 150-micron sieve, whereas 40% of it should have, according to lime regulations, he said.

“My recommendation is to buy reactivity and use granulated products like Calcifert or Calciprill. Use annual or bi-annual applications, particularly when you have oilseed rape or beans in the rotation to cancel out the acidity of growing those crops.”

Applications of between 100-300kg/ha could be required, he suggested, matched to nitrogen application rates.

“If you need bigger applications, use Limex 70. Its neutralising value might be only 25% but 88% of it will react, so therefore you will get what you’re looking for out of it.” ■

Why is Albrecht’s system controversial?

It’s not the test that’s controversial,it’s the interpretation.Albrecht’s system is based on a belief that crops yield best when calcium (60-80%), magnesium (10-20%) and potassium (2-5%) are in a particular balance,there will be enough to support optimum crop growth.

nutrient,the ratio system may call for adding more,when none are needed.

It’s the roots that are the driver of nutrient cycling,improving the soil’s physical structure, porosity and are responsible for feeding soil biology,said Joel Williams.

But this fails to recognise that in a low CEC soil,the actual nutrient amounts might be too low even if in the right balance.In a high CEC soil, it’s possible there could be plenty of each

Research suggests plants do well over the broad range of cation ratios and a review in 2007 published in Soil Science Society of America Journal suggested that in most commonly found soils,the chemical,physical and biological fertility of a soil was not influenced by the ratio of calcium,magnesium and potassium.

According to Frédéric Thomas,putting farmyard manure on a cover crop is best because it brings food to the soil and when you feed the soil,you need to do so with quantity,quality and continuity.

The role of connectivity

Rootstock report

Aiming to connect farming systems,soils,people and technology,the inaugural Rootstock event in early February took on an almighty task. CPM went along to find out more.

By Melanie Jenkins

Situated amid the rolling Devon hills near Exeter,the first Rootstock event was a total sell out,drawing in a crowd eager to learn more about resilient and profitable farming.

Leading proceedings, farmer and chairman of Adapt Biogas, Sir Harry Studholme claims that there’s no one way forward for farming. “Instead, there’s a journey to be made for farmers about how we build profitable, resilient farming for the future. But there’s also a journey being made parallel to this in the academic world, which is also trying to support these aims for a more viable future.”

But at the heart of the journey for both farmers and academics sits soil and how it functions. According to Professor Andy Neal of Rothamsted Research, soil is a dynamic process. “It’s not a static physical thing. The more we look at it, the more we realise it’s a living entity that responds to the way it’s managed and that it’s all about connectivity, in the same way that human

society is all about connectivity –– and with soil it’s particularly the connectivity of pore space. This is what allows the biology in the soil to flourish,” he explains.

“Connectivity is the basis of a healthy soil as this controls microbial metabolism,” says Andy. “We now have evidence that microbial metabolism evolves under the constraints imposed by connectivity between pores and this has a really important influence upon its nutrient use efficiency.”

Adaptive system

And this is shaping the way soils systems are identified, he says. “We are starting to think of soils as either adaptive or non-adaptive systems in regards to organic matter inputs. For example, sandy soils don’t really respond and don’t sequester much carbon, whereas silty clay loams do respond nicely and sequester a lot of carbon.”

In adaptive soils, those with low carbon have very little porosity or connectivity between the pores present, whereas those with high carbon have a lot of pore space and high connectivity between these, says Andy. “Dependent on how much organic matter is in the soil, the degree of connectivity follows a very predictable response. Understanding how systems behave from a connectivity point of view is extremely important.”

In permanent pasture there’s a lot of porosity and connectivity between those pores, but in low carbon soils typical of arable systems there are still pores but fewer of them and the connectivity is extremely reduced, he explains. “Those pores, which are about 100 microns or

There’s a lot of people itching to tur n regen into fancy things to be ticked off on a clipboard.

“

less in size, are the pores which hold water back by capillary action as the soil drains after a rain event. This space

At the heart of building profitable,resilient farming for the future for both farmers and academics is soil and how it functions.

effectively represents the water holding capacity of the soil.

“Not only are high organic matter soils more connected and able to hold water, they also have a great ability to move water around and, more importantly, oxygen and nutrients,” says Andy. “In poor organic matter soils there are a lot of dead ends which makes moving anything extremely challenging. It’s a logistics issue.”

Pore space also controls plant root access to water and by limiting oxygen diffusion through these systems, it creates very poor soil environments, explains Andy. “This results in anaerobic spaces which drives microbial activity into very negative behaviours which produce methane and nitrous oxide due to anaerobic respiration. Whereas in very highly connected systems, there isn’t

What is regen?

that increase in metabolic pathways.

“So we have this pore space controlling the way the physics of the soil works, which directly influences the microbial genetic component, and that component evolves to suit the new physical construction,” he surmises. “You can drive this in a positive way by adding organic matter to adaptive soil, where you get much greater pore space and connectivity. And in more connected pore spaces, we see increased nutrient use efficiency because we’re osing less nitrous oxide from these soils that have a lot more oxygen in them.”

And when soils are cultivated, their fabric is broken up into aggregates, adds Professor John Crawford of the University of Glasgow. “Soil is an adaptive system and is always adapting to the prevailing tillage system and that is largely down to the energy flowing into it.

▲

I can make more money as it’s a cheaper system.”

James Lee,of Uppincott Farm in Devon, sees direct drilling systems as a solution to soil erosion on his hilly land. “Over the past 20 years we’ve come to appreciate direct drilling,not just as a system, but for enhancing the biological processes of the soil and how it can reduce our costs.

“For me,regen is about tweaking around the edges and having a play with things.It’s working out the systems to get the best results for you,” he adds.

What is regenerative agriculture? This might seem like a ridiculous question given the mass of interest, discussion,media hype and marketing surrounding it, but the three farmers on the discussion panel at Rootstock expressed ver y different views on it.

For John Cherr y, a Hertfordshire farmer of Groundswell fame,regen agriculture is not just a fancy term but a direction of travel.“Once you’ve seen the light, you change what you’re doing to try to make things better.There’s a lot of people itching to turn regen into fancy things to be ticked off on a clipboard so they can charge more for what they produce.But to me, I just want to make my farm better.It would be ver y nice if someone wanted to pay me extra for it,but either way it’s improving my farm and

Whereas Ed Horton, who runs a mixed farming operation in the Cotswolds,doesn’t like the word regen at all.Instead,he operates what he calls a ‘hybrid system’ which aims to integrate different farming practices and reduce risks in the challenging environment of having what he says is “no soil”on his land.“Our soils don’t hold water and our elevation means we are often above the rain.We redesigned our farming system to integrate what we have at our fingertips,which includes a lot of livestock.

“But I don’t like the word regen because it can mean anything to anyone –– which in some respects is wonderful,”he admits.“But as you can apply it to so many things,in another respect it’s actually lost its core meaning.I do farm like John,but I also have a large plough. I feel labelling can lead you down a path of being too restrictive.”

For all three farmers,reducing soil disturbance,incorporating cover crops and utilising livestock are core elements of their systems,so in many respects they agreed on

practices but each tailor them to their own farms.For example,Ed uses his flock of sheep to hard graze his cereal crops,but James feeds his with oat and bean cover crops during the winter

When asked about animal health,Ed detailed how his grazing rotation of 10 consecutive days in a year and use of chicor y leys minimises the requirement for worming.

And John claimed he has to practically explain to the vet who he is each time he rings as it’s so infrequent.“We move our cows every day and if you watch them,they self-medicate when grazing. When I’m asked what my herd health plan is,I say my plan is to have healthy animals. Health is the ver y basis of everything that regenerative farming is all about.”

Connectivity is the basis of healthy soil as this controls microbial metabolism,according to Andy Neal.

Ed Horton, who runs a mixed farming operation in the Cotswolds,doesn’t like the word regen at all.

For James Lee, regen is about tweaking around the edges and having a play with things.

“Think of soil like a battery. It needs physical and biological power in order to function. When you’re tilling, you’re breaking up the structure and letting oxygen in, enabling the microbes to burn carbon faster. Whereas if you just left soil naturally, it burns off carbon more slowly and keeps it in the soil,” he adds.

But understanding the functionality of soil through science is just one way in which academics are helping drive the future of farming.

According to Professor Will Blake of the University of Plymouth, a lot of the answers to his research questions have been found within the agricultural community “So the engagement between the research and agricultural community is really important and getting that steer to make our research relevant to the real world is absolutely fundamental.

“There’s innovation happening at farm scale to enhance soil carbon management and to mitigate climate change, as well as to provide the added values of soil health productivity.”

Will’s colleague, Professor Mick Fuller, explored some of the technological advancements bringing science and agriculture together

“One of the big things that’s held back the application of robotics in agriculture is the fact we have this chaotic, unpredictable environment,” he says. “The weather, topography and soil type all change.”

This means it’s not been as simple as taking robotics used in industry and putting these onto far ms. “The robots in industr y are ver y precise and are known as hard robots. The trouble with hard robots is that they can only put something into a single space, and that space has to be the same every time,” explains Mick.

But some of the robots developed at the University of Plymouth have overcome this

challenge and are now actually working in the agricultural landscape.

The first company Mick highlights is Robotriks. “This is an agricultural robotics platform that has taken on earlier research from other platforms developed elsewhere in the country which effectively didn’t work,” he explains. “Either because they were too heavy, too cumbersome or because the robots couldn’t find their way around a field.”

But the team of researchers has managed to build lightweight platforms with incredible power and stable framework to which sensors and robotic arms can be attached, says Mick. “We have tested these over and over in the field. The important thing is getting it to work in the field and then to value engineer it –– making it affordable.”

Robotic advances

“This small but powerful unit can traverse a field and we’ve used it in Devon and Cornwall on hilly and flat ground and it per forms equally well on both. The robot knows its exact location and where it’s going through precise GPS navigation. It also has a power ful battery system so it can keep going for 24 hours,” he explains.

“That’s the beauty of all these robotics –– it’s not that you’ve got to stand there and watch it, you can set it going and trust the technology, then come back hours later and the robot will have completed its task.”

Another company, Fieldwork Robotics, has focused on creating what’s known as soft robotics. “The real innovative part of this platfor m is that it doesn’t have to work with a precise thing in a precise location every time. For example, if the arm of the robot gets bashed by something, it can reposition itself and knows its exact

The next challenge for researchers is now not just to develop technology,but to value engineer it,says Professor Mick Fuller.

location,” explains Mick. “These robots have so many sensors and such soft dynamics that they can negotiate the unpredictable agricultural landscape.”

The other area of technology applied to agriculture which is advancing at pace is space technology, he says. “The Agri Living Lab is endeavouring to harness the data that comes out of satellites and put this into a system that can assist with management on farm. It’s really multifaceted.”

The project has been coupled with another University of Plymouth venture; a mobile lab. “This is set up in a little horsebox that can be towed to a field,” explains Mick. “But packed inside it are all the sensors and testing kits to analyse the soil in the field at the point of sample. This is proving to be really interesting from the perspective of setting up a service for far mers. Some of the sensors are so sensitive we don’t quite know what they mean yet and we’re still tr ying to interpret the data they’re generating.”

Then there’s diagnostics and DNA applied science, coupled with some light imaging technology that’s able to detect diseases, he says. “This has become so much more sophisticated, meaning fungal infestations can be both detected and characterised more easily and accurately.

“Our challenge now is not just to develop technology, but to value engineer it –– bringing the cost down without losing any efficiency or robustness,” adds Mick. “If we can value engineer technology, then it becomes affordable for ever ybody.” ■

High organic matter soils are more connected and able to hold water,they also have a great ability to move water around.

Engagement between the research and agricultural community is really important.

Drills

Multifaceted new generation

2000-litre twin-chamber hopper on the Centaya-C allows the machine to sow companion crops or for under-sowing in addition to the main cash crop. The firm states that this can provide benefits in terms of weed suppression, as well as aiding biodiversity and giving users more ability to manage erosion.

By Melanie Jenkins

The past year has seen a raft of new drills hit the market,from those best suited for direct drilling situations to those capable of navigating heavier inversion systems. Here are some of the latest products from manufacturers.

Amazone

Aimed at tackling the challenges of crop establishment and providing a modern seeding system to help growers in their quest to achieve the highest yield, Amazone has extended its range of pneumatic harrow-mounted seed drills with its new Centaya-C.

Released in 2022, the key to this new ISOBUS controlled addition is its 2000-litre twin chamber hopper, which allows growers to apply several materials in one pass. This feature has been added to address the increasing focus on dual applications, either of more than one seed type or for a seed and fertiliser split.

According to Amazone, the new

The ability to use different sowing techniques allows farmers and contractors to make the most of different agronomical methods and provides more flexibility, as well as the potential for fuel and time saving, claims Amazone.

Available in working widths of 3m, 3.5m and 4m, the Centaya-C can be equipped with two different disc sizes, either the RoTeC pro single disc or the TwinTeC double disc coulters.

If fitted with the 400mm RoTeC pro, two types of media can be applied using the single chute. Both materials are metered individually but are fed into a single entry point. This means that a small amount of fertiliser can be placed in the row with the seed.

Using the TwinTec coulter, two different seed types or both seed and fertiliser can be applied to separate entry points. With either, the first material is placed with the TwinTec coulter and the second is embedded via a separate conveyor on the coulter in front of the depth guidance roller.

The Cetaya-C Super can also be used with Amazone’s GreenDrill 200 catch crop seeder box, allowing for a third material to be applied to the surface behind the drill using baffle plates.

Electric metering units permit sowing rates of 0.5-400kg/ha at forward speeds of up to

12km/h with row spacings of 12.5cm and 15cm. The hopper can be split 60:40 or 70:30 and seed rate can be adjusted from the cap during the task.

Depending on the soil conditions, the drill can be combined with the KE 02 rotary harrow or the KG and KX rotary cultivators. On very light soils, the Centaya-C Super can be used with the compact disc harrow CombiDisc.

Claydon

Launched last year, Claydon’s new range of mounted Evolution direct drills can also be used after consolidation in ploughing and min-till scenarios.

With working widths of 3m, 4m, 4.5m, 4.8m, 5m and 6m, the Evolution models incorporate nine, 13, 15 or 19 tines, respectively Most models feature a 1910-litre hopper, but the 3m Evolution 3MF and 4m 4MRF models incorporate a 2700-litre tank with a 50:50 split between seed and fertiliser Second and third hopper options allow for the application of multiple types, varieties and sizes of seed.

All Claydon Evolution models feature a hydraulic fan, Artemis metering control and

Is any piece of machinery more innovative than the drill? As manufacturers persevere to perfect the key tools in crop establishment, a raft of new machines have hit the market. CPM gets the lowdown from manufacturers.

The key feature of Amazone’s Centaya-C pneumatic harrow-mounted drill is its 2000-litre twin chamber hopper.

tramlining facility. Typical daily outputs range from 20ha for the 3m Evolution, which requires a minimum of 150hp, to 40ha for the 6m version, which calls for a minimum of 300hp.

Hydraulically controlled seed depth adjustment is a new feature of the range, as well as improved metering unit access. Other features include quick-fit knock-on/knock-off coulter options for the standard leading tine and A-Share to low disturbance twin disc and tine options.

Further options include GPS variable seed rate capability, pre-emergence marker arms, front disc toolbar, stone protection, micro fertiliser applicator, low-disturbance twin tine kit, slug pelleter, blockage sensors as well as a light and vision kit.

Horsch

Back in December, Horsch announced that it was adding 8m, 9m and 10m working width models to its Avatar SD range of direct drills. Just like the 12m Avatar 12.25 SD launched in 2021, the new models feature 25cm row spacings. The 8m model is also available with 16.7cm row spacings.

“The 25cm row spacing is proving popular with the 12m model. Customers are reporting little to no detriment in yield in most crops, particularly in winter crops, yet lower input costs. The new models offer these benefits to customers wanting a smaller working width,” highlights Stephen Burcham of Horsch UK.

New to the extended model range is a triple tank system with a 6400-litre capacity which can be split 60:10:30. A double 60:40 split tank option is also available.

To help remove organic material, stones and clods from the rows, an optional trash wheel can be mounted in front of the single disc seed coulters. Where there are high levels of organic material, this can help reduce the hairpinning effect.

Horsch has also compacted the features of its large-scale Sprinter NT drill in its new SL and SC models. The trailed 12m Sprinter 12.25 SC and mounted 6m Sprinter

6.25 SL drills feature 25cm row spacing and can be folded to the 3m transport width required for movement on UK roads.

Both drills come with different seed coulter options, including the Ultra ThinEdge that provides a 12mm wide seed band to ensure minimum of soil movement, the ThinEdge coulter with a 21mm seed band (suited for sowing catch crops directly into the stubble) and the WideEdge tine seed coulter which has a 110mm seed band.

Equipped with a 6300-litre double hopper which is based on the design of the Avatar 8.25, the SL and SC drills should soon be available with a triple tank or MiniDrill option.

The tines of the Sprinter 12.25 SC are hydraulically pre-stressed, with a coulter pressure up to 180kg, and can be retracted for transport. The tines are individually depth-controlled with a press wheel and the three-bar tine section.

Kuhn

Announced in the latter stages of 2022, Kuhn’s new Megant 602R drill is lightweight, allowing for it to be operated by tractors with as little as 150hp.

The latest 6m model has had a number of new features added compared with the

All Claydon Evolution models feature a hydraulic fan,Artemis metering control and tramlining facility.

Drills

previous 600 version, including updated tine coulters and terminal. It also includes half-width shut off and the option to add a second 110-litre SH 1120 hopper –– allowing two crops to be drilled in a single pass.

The Megant has the option of three types of tines, including reversible forward action, straight, and a new narrow 12mm straight tine coulter. Kuhn claims the latter can reduce soil displacement through improved penetration and can minimise wear on the tine due to the addition of carbide-plated points.

A new 1800-litre hopper –– capable of holding 1200kg of wheat and able to drill 60ha a day –– has been welded and included internal steps, replacing the riveted hopper of the previous model. A shut off door allows operators to isolate the two compartments, meaning the metering unit can be adjusted when the hopper is full and prevents seed settling while the drill is in transit.

The drill’s new VT 30 terminal means it is suitable for tractors with and without ISOBUS. The terminal features shock-proof casing and larger buttons for ease of use and is compatible with both Kuhn CC1 800-1200 and other ISOBUS terminals.

Fitted with Kuhn’ Vistaflow valves –– which can be configured and controlled from the terminal –– operators can programme the flow of seed and save settings for future use. Tramlining configurations can also be recorded, including working width and wheel track, to help with the line-up of sprayer and fertiliser applications.

Several features from Kuhn’s larger Espro drill have been leant to the Megant, including spring-loaded nonstop track eradicators and side markers that are better suited to dry conditions.

Lemken

Lemken launched its new Solitair DT drill last autumn with one 6m machine it was able to use last year in the UK, says the firm’s Paul Creasy.

“The unique feature is the pre-running wavy disc that runs in front of the drilling disc coulter,” he says. “This enables the machine to be used in low disturbance situations where bad blackgrass is an issue, for example.

“And although we don’t sell it as a direct drill, with our OptiDisc H coulter bar this machine is well able to run in low till systems and drill into green cover crops too.”

Väderstad

Väderstad has two new innovations to introduce to the market. The first of which is its new 12m, high-capacity precision seed drill with responsive double disc seed coulter

system –– the Inspire, which is now available in the UK for the 2023 season.

Offered in two different models –– the 1200S and 1200C –– the S is a seed only version which is equipped with a 5000-litre seed hopper. The C is a combi version which includes a 7200-litre hopper holding both seed and fertiliser in two separate compartments, which is later mixed into the same airstream and placed together into the soil.

Eight separate sections –– each with a Fenix III metering unit –– allow for high output and variable rate application and section control –– down to 1.5m sections.

Both the S and C models have a double disc seed coulter system to help them adapt to field irregularities, meaning a constant seed depth and accurate seed placement should be maintained, says the firm.

The new Sprinter SL and SC are compact versions of Horsch’s large-scale Sprinter NT drill.

Drilling is controlled via the iPad-based management system Väderstad E-Control, which can also connect to an ISOBUS task control system.

In addition to the Inspire, Väderstad’s new Proceed concept drill is targeted at advancing seeding technology. The firm attests that the concept machine could be capable of increasing the yield potential of ▲

a full range of crops, including wheat, barley, oilseed rape, sugar beet, peas, maize and sunflower.

“How to farm profitably and sustainably now and in the future is getting complicated,” says Andy Gamble of Väderstad. “Production costs are increasing while prices paid for crops are not, and new regulations, along with a shift in subsidies and the need for environmental care puts farmers in exposed positions.

“But modern farming is not looking for quick fixes. It needs sustainable long-term solutions that accomplish more with less. Väderstad sees the Proceed drill as one of the solutions to help farmers face the future with confidence,” says Andy.

“The Proceed places the smallest of seed at the ideal depth with millimetre precision, leading to yield increases as well as less need for tillage, chemical treatment and use of fertilisers,” he claims.

At the heart of the drill is its high-precision row units. Prior to seed placement, individual pre-drilling wheels consolidate the field to ensure the same conditions for each seed. The pre-drilling wheels are individually mounted, using hydraulic downforce to deliver highperformance.

When the seeds reach the row units from the central hopper, an adapted version of the Väderstad PowerShoot singulation system

takes full control of each single seed all the way down to the soil. Each seed is received by a stop wheel, which is designed to optimise seed-to-soil contact at the selected depth across the full working width of the machine.

To provide the driver with full control, each row unit is electrically driven and controlled via Väderstad E-Control. Functions include row-by-row shut-off and variable rate, dynamic tramlining, individual calibration, as well as real-time precision monitoring and control.

According to the firm, field trials have demonstrated that the Proceed can reduce wheat seed rate by up to 50% without compromising yield when compared with modern seed drills.

In the trials, a few months after drilling winter wheat at a seed rate of 150 seeds/m2, plant biomass was recorded as having an increase of 102% –– 72% in root biomass and 62% more shoots per plant –– compared with a modern seed drill, claims the firm.

The Proceed has a row spacing of either 225mm or 250mm and simple calibration. A quick change of seed discs allows the drill to switch to 450mm or 500mm for crops such as sugar beet or OSR, and to 750mm for crops like maize or sunflower. ■

Kuhn’s new Megant 602R drill is lightweight allowing for it to be operated by tractors with as little as 150hp.

Väderstad’s Inspire is a new 12m,high-capacity precision seed drill with a responsive double disc seed coulter system.

Crawler speed key to seedbed creation

On Farm Opinion

Advances in power,road speed,suspension and tyre technology mean conventional wheeled tractors are replacing tracked models as some larger farms’ mainline machines.But one Buckinghamshire contractor believes the former don’t hold all the cards.

CPM pays him a visit.

By Martin Rickatson

Reinforced rubber track technology

unarguably revolutionised the tracked tractor principle. First came differentiallysteered twin-track machines as an evolution of the conventional crawler. Then came a complete departure in crawler tractor steering –– the development of the first tractor using four triangular track units on a chassis that articulated.

This development facilitated smoother headland turns, minimises trafficked ground and keeps each track in full ground contact when pulling hard.

More recently, advances in tyre technology –– such as, increased/very high flexion (IF/VF) carcase designs and variable pressure systems, plus higher tractor road speeds and the trend to shallower cultivations – have seen some larger farms

move away from rubber-tracked crawlers towards conventional tractors in the 400-500hp bracket, to pull wide cultivation equipment at high speeds. But is this a trend set to spread?

Superior traction

Ask Buckinghamshire-based contractor Daniel Tuckwell, and he’ll suggest it’s not something that suits everyone. To maintain cultivation speed, improve work rates and enhance soil finishes on the heavy clay land using full and minimal tillage, he has switched his prime mover from the largest conventional wheeled tractor on the market to the largest articulated tracklayer.

Having done so, he reckons there’s little to challenge tracks for traction, both to pull deep-working implements and to operate shallower-working wide ones at the speed required for best effect and decent daily output.

“We run four 360hp conventional tractors for general work, backed by some smaller 180-250hp models,” explains Daniel, who runs Robert Tuckwell Contractors with his father Robert, who began the business out of a dairy and arable enterprise that’s now focused on beef and combinable cropping.

“Customers judge us on how our seedbeds and crops look and perform, especially as much of our cropping is milling wheat. We’re on mainly heavy clay, which isn’t kind when very wet or very dry. It needs effort in to get quality and quantity out, but I think the crops we produce look and perform better for the cultivations we do, particularly as we have maize in our rotation, and also often need to incorporate sewage

cake and cattle muck.

“Because that means doing more than scratching the surface, we need power and traction to maintain cultivator momentum, achieve good daily outputs, and get jobs done when soils are in good condition.”

Väderstad TopDown and Sumo Trio

This isn’t a machine for operating in a high gear at tickover.

“ ”

The need to operate wide tillage equipment at speed to achieve the desired finish was a key reason for his tractor policy change,says Daniel Tuckwell.

one-pass cultivators and a Väderstad Rexius Twin press have been the business’s main primary and secondary soil implements, plus a nine-furrow semi-mounted Lemken where ploughing is required for restructuring or weed control. But expansion of contract services and whole farm contracting in recent years has meant more work in both autumn and spring, necessitating an upgrade to both the cultivation equipment and the top-end tractor

“When our preferred big tractor maker Fendt introduced a 400-500hp range above the biggest ones we were running, in 2016 we purchased the largest 1050 model to boost cultivation output. It was equipped with a variable tyre pressure system and set up with help from tyre specialists.

“You need weight to pull weight, and they helped us find not only the best pressures, but also the ballast needed to maximise grip, resulting in a weighted tractor that totalled 24 tonnes so we could get full power transfer. It worked well in many situations, and when the tractor came due for renewal

in 2019, we replaced it with another,” he says.

“But across more seasons we found its limitations. On maize ground, using full wings with 80mm points on our 5m TopDown to move all the soil at 9-10in deep, upon hitting compacted ground it would stop and spin. I’d have to disengage cruise control, back up and raise the cultivator, pre-work the soil, then drop back in.

“And on hard cereal land after a dry summer, we just couldn’t get the power to the ground with the 7km/hr. The 1050 often topped out at not fast enough to boil the soil and produce a good result. At some points on headlands or tramlines the tractor would just sit and spin, and I felt we’d reached the limits of what a wheeled machine could do for us.”

Having previously considered a tracked tractor to boost primary cultivation output, Daniel subsequently decided to arrange some demonstrations. His favoured high-hp tractor maker Fendt was by this point marketing twin-track crawlers, but a four-tracked articulated tractor was preferred over a

To match the new tractor’s capacity and help ensure one-pass seedbed creation across all soil types/conditions,the 3m trailed Sumo Trio was upgraded for a 5m trailed Quatro.

To match the new tractor’s capacity and help ensure one-pass seedbed creation across all soil types/conditions,the 3m trailed Sumo Trio was upgraded for a 5m trailed Quatro.

differentially-steered twin-track for full power turns and full track-to-ground contact.

“The expansion of our contracted land area and the wheeled tractor limit we’d found with our existing main machine meant I decided we’d reached the point we could justify one. From the outset, the Case IH Quadtrac was my preference, as it was the original machine of its type, so was well-proven. But John Deere had also entered the articulated four-track market, so we had the two choices.”

Demonstrations of the largest model in each maker’s range –– the 9RX 9620 (691hp max) and the Quadtrac 620 (692hp max) ––were subsequently organised, and Scott Hosking, who was to be the chosen tractor’s operator, compared the two alongside Dan.

“I’d operated mainly John Deere tractors for my previous employers,” says Scott. “But when I came here, I worked mainly with a Fendt 724, so it was a while since I’d driven a John Deere and I’d had no experience of Case IH machines.”

Demo comparison

“We used a Quadtrac demonstrator for a few days, and then tried the John Deere 9RX. The Deere impressed us both, and visibility to the rear was better, but we felt the Quadtrac had the edge in terms of refinement –– the cab was better-finished and quieter with more forward vision, and the tractor was smoother at work when pulling hard.”

Both tractors were subsequently priced, with the Quadtrac proving significantly more competitive, partly due to the dealer being keen to work with the Tuckwells as a new customer. Consequently, the Quadtrac’s purchase was agreed in September 2021, with the Fendt 1050 part-exchanged.

To match the new tractor’s capacity and help ensure one-pass seedbed creation across all soil types/conditions, the 3m trailed Sumo Trio was upgraded for a 5m trailed Quatro from the same maker, featuring an additional twin row of scalloped discs ahead of its loosening legs, which are followed by a further double row and a press. Other Quadtrac partners include a 9f Lemken plough and a 7m Kuhn power harrow.

“Where compaction at depth isn’t a particular issue and we want to ‘boil’ the top few inches and mix the trash, we use the TopDown, which produces a better finish. But if deeper loosening is necessary we’ll use the Quatro, following in both cases with a 10.5m Väderstad Rexius Twin press if needed,” explains Dan.

“The Quadtrac isn’t as fast and easy to

move on the road as the 60km/hr tractor it replaced, but it does do 40km/hr, and as all our cultivation equipment is rated for towing at that speed – apart from the 30km/hr-rated Rexius –– this isn’t an issue. We’ve always been careful to stick to those speeds for safety and machinery care reasons.

“It looks a big machine, but the Quadtrac is actually 10cm narrower than the 1050. That said, we’re slightly more restricted in running to and from jobs. As a rule we run tractors home at night, but that isn’t so simple with the Quadtrac. While we have some outlying areas, most of the 1200ha (3000ac) we currently farm is in a 15-mile radius, and we try to crop and work in blocks. We usually take a vehicle and fuel bowser, leaving the vehicle behind so the operator can return home if there’s more than a day’s work.”

The tractor switch has helped cut fuel use,boost output and shorten some working days,says operator Scott Hosking.

On Farm Opinion

“Since it arrived, we’ve reduced the annual workload on our frontline Fendt 936s from 17-1800 hours to 1500, because they’re not doing as much work supporting the main tractor, as it’s now more than on top of the job.

“In fact, I think we could do more with some implements, and as we’re taking on more land this autumn I’m considering replacing the 5m TopDown with a 6m, if our balance of light/heavy contract ground remains unchanged.”

we had wasn’t so bad, but with the second we were asking more of it, wearing out the tyres in 18 months. At £20,000 a set, that’s costly. Track wear on the Quadtrac has been ok, although after 1300 hours in its first year it doesn’t look like the midwheel rollers will do much more than another 12 months.

“But with regard to other components we’ve purchased a 5000-hour warranty with the tractor. The purchase prices of tractors today mean long warranties are essential.”

The Väderstad TopDown for shallow working or the Sumo Quatro for deeper loosening are both followed by a 10.5m Väderstad Rexius Twin press where necessary.

This is reckoned to be more than compensated for by the Quadtrac’s greater output and the better work it produces, he says.

“With the additional power, footprint and grip we soon found we could achieve with ease the right forward speed to get the best finish from the TopDown and Quatro, even in last year’s dry and hard conditions.”

Scott keeps detailed tractor fuel use and performance records, and he and Dan reckon this analysis supports their conviction that the Quadtrac has brought about significant output and cost benefits.

“Using the 1050, typical fuel use with the TopDown was 88 litres/hr, working at 7.4km/hr at 15% wheelslip,” he says.

“With the Quadtrac, those figures are 8.8km/hr at 1.0% track slip and using 83 l/hr. At the depth we pull our TopDown, the fastest I pulled it with the 1050 is the slowest I have pulled it with the Quadtrac.

“With the 5m TopDown on our heaviest ground, the 1050 was covering 3.6ha/hr using 85 l/hr of diesel. With the Quadtrac we were using 122 l/hr of fuel but covering 5.2ha/hr. As a result, the Quadtrac was £2/ha cheaper to operate, and was also doing a better job, because it just walks through sticky corners and tough spots.

“There’s no need to stop and start and feather through, doing half a job with the implement to maintain momentum. It’s not just another 120hp, but how the power is put to the ground. Track slippage is no more than 2-6%, compared with up to 20% in tough going for the fully-weighted Fendt.

“Higher output also cuts long working days –– on larger fields I can cover 80ha/day with the Rexius without doing silly hours.”

In its first year the Quadtrac completed 1,300 hours’ work, and Dan reckons that provided a fair analysis of its benefits and any drawbacks. The former considerably outweigh the latter, he believes.

With the business growing a significant area of maize for AD and for sale to dairy/beef farmers, plus stubble turnips and spring-sown combinable crops, the Quadtrac is busy both sides of Christmas.

Power considerations

“Spring crop land is mucked during February-March before cultivation,” explains Dan. “That presents additional traction issues, and is another reason we didn’t looked at a twin-track crawler or half-track machine. With the TopDown, for example, 11km/hr is the optimum speed to achieve a good mix at 250mm/10in deep. With the 1050 we were sometimes pulled back to 8km/hr, especially on old grass leys, but we now have the power and grip to maintain speed.”

Quadtrac models from the 525hp (max) Quadtrac 470 to the 613hp (max) Quadtrac 540 are available with an optional CVXDrive continuously-variable transmission, but the 620 (692hp) and 580 (647hp) models come in 16F/2R powershift form only. While he appreciates the benefits of a CVT, Dan says power was his first consideration. Scott agrees that the larger powershift model was the right choice.

“To operate the powershift for best efficiency, I select the best gear for the task and load the engine so the revs are pulled back as the tractor settles into work and just tap back a gear if hitting a really tough spot. This isn’t a machine for operating in a high gear at tickover –– it prefers 1800rpm to the 1400rpm sweet spot of the 1050 –– and in tough going powering through is the right technique rather than easing back.

“But I keep a close eye on fuel consumption, and the larger displacement of 15 litres versus 12.4 litres in the 1050 means it just doesn’t sweat. Working the 1050 the same way would see it needing more rpms and more fuel as it searched for grip, and I often found as a result that I’d end up operating the CVT manually.”

Beyond the in-field arguments, there are pluses and minuses on the road for both tyres and tracks, notes Dan. “The first 1050

While its wheeled predecessor’s comfort was rated highly, despite being a tracked tractor the Quadtrac’s suspended cab means the ride is good, says Scott.

“Sometimes you don’t notice that the implement has hit some tough going, because the tractor simply pulls through it, so it’s important to make sure the cultivator can cope with what the tractor can.”

Based on his first year’s Quadtrac ownership, Dan is now considering supplementing it with another. “We’ve got customers who’ve seen the cultivations and crops we produced with it this past year and have booked us for 2023 as a result. With more contract land and greater demand for services, I may add another Quadtrac to complement the 620.

“Leaving that tractor to do the primary tillage, the largest CVX model, the 540, is a possibility for top work and to operate our chaser bin. For jobs like those where traction and flotation are critical, I think the Quadtrac is ideal and the CVT will be the right transmission for those tasks.” ■

Farm facts

Robert Tuckwell Contractors,Little Horwood, Milton Keynes

● Cropped area: 1258ha plus contract work

● Cropping: Winter wheat (768ha),maize (490ha)

● Livestock: 100 Belgian Blue cows plus followers

● Tractors: Case IH Quadtrac 620,Fendt 936 x4,JCB Fastrac 4220 x4,Claas Arion 650 x3

● Combine: 10.5m New Holland CR10.90

● Cultivation equipment: 5m Väderstad TopDown,5m Sumo Quatro,10.5m

Väderstad Carrier, 6.5m and 10.5m Väderstad Rexius presses, 2x 6f and 1x 9f Lemken ploughs

● Drills: Kuhn Megant 6m tine drill, Väderstad Rapid 6m disc drill, Horsch 16-row maize drill

● Sprayer: Amazone Pantera 36m self-propelled

West Country Farming & Machinery Show

When does the alternative become the normal? Is it when something replaces the old to the point of majority or when the newer version is standardised? In this first of two articles from the West Country Farming & Machinery Show, CPM learns about the possibilities of alternative fertilisers.

By Melanie Jenkins

It’s late February and farmers in the South West have flocked to the inaugural West Country Farming and Machinery Show, held just outside Exeter. Although this part of the country is often associated with predominantly livestock rather than arable farms,it faces a lot of similar challenges to those across the rest of the UK.

One such challenge surrounds artificial fertilisers, its cost, carbon emissions and continued availability. But organic manures also have their own challenges, often to do with their environmental impact.

A lot of focus in recent years has been about stopping nutrients from artificial fertilisers getting into water once they’re applied to agricultural land, says Tim Stevens of Wessex Water. “But the focus is shifting increasingly to addressing the source and trying to avoid the overload of

Farming greener

nutrients –– in the form of nitrogen and phosphorus –– in the first place.

“At the same time, we’ve got a challenge with the expense of inorganic fertilisers and the amount of fossil fuels used to create or extract them,” he says. “And there’s also a food security issue as these nutrients are crucial for food production, but when relying on imported goods this becomes a challenge.”

Water issues

The annual UK phosphorous surplus –– the difference between all that’s applied to agricultural land and all that’s taken off in harvested crops, milk or meat – is about 80,000t. “Every year the UK is accumulating this much elemental phosphorous, mainly in our soils, but this will leak into water

“So the challenge is that the nutrients we’ve got are often in the wrong form, be it animal manures, biosolids or food waste,” he says. “So how can we recover and recycle these?”

A research group at Harper Adams University has been exploring valorisation pathways for a range of agricultural by-products, so that instead of them being waste, they’re put to further use. Some of this work has been on manures and anaerobic digestion, explains the institution’s Dr Marie Kirby

“The aim is to bring new revenue streams on to farm, to help farmers minimise their carbon footprint and reduce the potentially negative environmental impacts,” she says.

One interesting use for slurries being explored is the extraction of components that can be used to make biodegradable plastics, says Marie. “We’ve also been

looking at biomethane, biocarbon dioxide and biohydrogen use.”

But one particular project, funded by Innovate UK and Defra, aims to make it easierto comply with legislation on slurry applications by stripping out the phosphorous and introducing it into artificial fertiliser that could be sold to other grassland or arable farms, she says. “We generate as much P in slurry and manures

Those three components,which we currently consider waste,are turned into something both valuable and good for the environment.

“ ”

Dr Marie Kirby has been part of a team at Harper Adams researching removing phosphorous from slurries to create alternative fertilisers.

West Country Farming & Machinery Show

Mastering methane

New Holland’s T7 methane tractor has been in production since 2021 and for any farmers with a slurry tank,the methane could be harnessed at source to directly fuel the tractor.

If anyone stood and watched a lagoon for a few minutes,they’d see the biogas boil coming off it,says Dr Chris Mann of Bennamann.“It’s really toxic and that’s going on for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.So the fuel is there,it’s just about capturing what’s already on farm and converting it into something.”

But the methane produced from a typical dairy slurry is more than a methane tractor could possibly use,he says.So the firm’s gas capturing system actually processes all emissions, supplies it back to the farmer in a useable form at a fixed cost and then sells the rest to the market,with profits shared with the farmer at a fixed ratio.

“We supply the compressed methane at 45p/kg which is the equivalent of 35p/l of diesel, for five years.For a typical 150-head herd,this is worth between £25,000 and £40,000 in savings.”

The system can store a month’s worth of methane on farm, says Chris. “So when there’s a period without much sun,we can power a

generator to produce electricity,providing power to the grid or charging electric vehicles.”

Converting a slurry’s methane to an alternative fuel is also worth about 3000t of global warming potentials (GWP),he explains.“This accounts for about two-thirds of a farm’s carbon footprint.And as methane is probably going to be responsible for nearly 50% of global warming over the next 20 years,it’s vital we start capturing it.The only thing that leaves our system is carbon,hydrogen and oxygen,all the other nutrients are locked into the slurry.”

The T7 tractor is powered by a liquefied form of methane and according to the firm, if the biomethane is supplied by animal,crop or food waste,it’s possible for farms to achieve a carbon negative footprint.Because the methane is liquefied,more can be stored than a compressed gas, meaning that the tractor operates just like a standard diesel tractor,delivering the same power, torque and fuel for a day’s work.

Kevin Hoare has been using Bennamann’s methane capturing system alongside the T7 for the past 12 months,at Trenance Farm in Cornwall. “There are no downsides to it. We’ve got the fuel on farm and we fill it up with a gas tube

no differently to a diesel,and the tractor runs just as well.The only difference is the farm’s carbon footprint.”

The farm typically produces 60-100kg of methane from 100 cows,which is enough to power a fleet of 60 vehicles for six months,says Chris.The methane storing system is also portable,allowing it to be exported from farm. And to supply this to a wider pool of consumers, Bennamann has started setting up supply systems with fuel stations in Cornwall.

When the farm had its carbon footprint assessed in 2020,it was producing around 800t of CO2 equivalent,but when it was tested again in early 2023,this had fallen to 172kg,both because of the methane capture and due to efforts towards carbon sequestration,explains Kate Hoare.“I think the total emissions from the methane that we can save on our farm is nearly 700t,which is a huge amount.”

According to Chris,the farm running the T7 for one year using its own slurr y,is the same as taking 700 cars off the road.“The next biggest challenge the tractor manufacturers is where to get the gas, which is where our storage system comes in.”

as this country requires, so we don’t actually have to import it in artificial fertiliser.”

A system, by Elentec, which has been fitted at Harper Adams’ dairy farm is removing P from slurry to make a secondary fertiliser and the project next aims to make the technology scalable. “The slurry is put through a separator to remove some of the solid fraction. We then introduce electrocoagulation, whereby an electrical current is applied to slurry which depolarises the ions of dissolved metals in the effluent. These depolarised ions then link with the P which becomes bigger and are then dropped out of suspension,” she explains. “This then generates both a P-rich fraction –– which is separated off –– and a P-free fraction.”

From this point, if the P-rich fraction has a high availability of the nutrient, it could be used as a source of P for artificial fertiliser and could reduce the reliance on imported P from other countries,” she says. “The P-free fraction, which is still rich in N, can then be spread on the farmer’s fields.

“There are no chemicals involved and it has a relatively low energy requirement. Plus, the system is modular, so it can be fitted for a 50-head herd or a 2000-head herd,” explains Marie. The system is fully automated and runs off a smartphone and it fits within a very small footprint, she explains. “We want technologies that are robust and don’t take up a lot of time.”

For dairy farmers, the conservative estimate is a 15% reduction in volume of slurry just from the separation of solids, explains Marie. “We see a further 35% reduction in the amount of slurry you would then have to spread.

“We’re seeing around 98% of the total P recovered through the P-rich fraction and about 89% of the phosphates. For those in zones where there are limits on how much slurry can be applied due to the P index, then this helps with compliance and still

West Country Farming & Machinery Show

allows for the application of sufficient levels of N.”

The current trials are looking at the bioavailability of the P and so far, it does appear to be bioavailable compared with a standard TSP fertiliser control. And there seems to be no negative effects to the slurry, says Marie. Field trials are about to start imminently, and the next stage is to engage stakeholders and roll the system out to other herds as demonstrators.

It’s not just slurry that poses potential as an alternative fertiliser, CCm Technologies is using carbon dioxide and biological waste materials to either capture CO2 emissions or convert them into fertilisers and plastics.

Quoting figures published in Nature magazine recently, one of the firm’s founders, Pawel Kisielewski, points out that the global impact of fertilisers has been

quantified to account for over 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions. About two thirds of this figure are in-field emissions, while the remaining third is from manufacturing fertiliser.

“The critical point from a policy point of view is that the emissions from manures ▲

Synthetic fertilisers produced by CCm can be customisable to include the desired nutrient content,depending on a farmer’s requirements, says Pawel Kisielewski.

Farmers in the South West flocked to the inaugural West Country Farming and Machinery Show seminars.

West Country Farming & Machinery Show

climate positive,” says Pawel. “It’s relatively straightforward mixing and blending technology that has around three inputs; fibrous materials from any sustainable source –– grass, straw, woodchip or digestate cake –– ammonium, recovered from food waste and cardon dioxide from exhaust streams.

“Those three components, which we currently consider waste, are turned into something both valuable and good for the environment,” he explains.

being put into rivers and groundwater –– but this requires regulatory approval.

The firm’s fertiliser is also placing both organic matter and carbon in the form of calcium carbonate into the soil, says Pawel. “So it’s putting it back where it started from and closing the cycle.”

It’s not just waste products that can be a source of fertiliser, naturally produced flora has been used in this capacity for centuries.

and synthetic fertilisers is 2.6Gt (gigatonnes) and put into context, that’s more than global aviation and shipping combined.”

Pawel and his business partner, Peter Hammond, founded CCm in 2011 and Peter developed a method for capturing CO2 and using it profitably as a pelleted fertiliser. “We’re able to produce fertiliser with a zero-carbon footprint or even be potentially

Synthetic fertilisers produced by CCm can be customisable to include the desired nutrient content depending on a farmer’s requirements. It has a slower release time than current inorganic fertilisers and the aim is for the price point to match or be slightly better than them, adds Pawel.

The firm has conducted eight years of field trials, worked with a number of universities and has been working with PepsiCo to grow potatoes in Scotland using CCm produced fertilisers. Pawel also hopes to be able to work with water companies to extract P and ammonia from discharge

David Edwards of Edwards Agricultural Supplies, and long-time farmer, diversified 30 years ago to become an agent selling seaweeds and soil advice. “If we go back in time, our ancestors fed this country by using cover crops and green manures, and seaweed was widely used but now a lot of people have never heard of it.”

The company blends seaweed and humic acid together to make a rich potash and carbon seaweed liquid fertiliser. “Applying seaweed to plants means there’s no build-up of phosphates as the seaweed helps plants mine P from the soil, so there’s no surplus to what a plant requires,” explains David.

As well as seaweed, David advocates the use of bacteria as a soil conditioner. A blend of eight naturally occurring soil borne bacteria can help to colonise roots and provide pathways for plants to access soil nutrients, he explains. “Just 100g of this bacterial blend can supply enough continual N for one acre for nine months by capturing N from the air. And because N is captured from the air as the plants require it, there’s no waste.

“Natural fertilisers are what the government wants, what customers are looking for and we see them as probably the only way forward into the future.” ■

● The next West Country Farming & Machinery Show will be taking place on 21 February 2024 at Westpoint Arena, Exeter. Tickets are free. Find out more at: www.westcountryfarmmachineryshow.co.uk

Edwards Agricultural Supplies has a blend of seaweed and humic acid which makes a rich potash and carbon seaweed liquid fertiliser.

According to David Edwards, just 100g of a bacterial blend can supply enough continual N for one acre for nine months.

On Farm Opinion

Systemic change in tillage

rotation’ simply because it’s difficult to find alternative crops that suit the thin limestone brash soils which make up half of the farmed area, the remainder being heavy clay.

Simple system

By Rob Jones

When it comes to crop establishment, Lincolnshire farmer Will Gilman has been on a journey from traditional deep cultivations involving ploughing,to min-till, and then to the other extreme,direct drilling with zero cultivations. Now all crops are direct strip seeded using the Claydon Opti-Till System,which he feels best suits the requirements of his family’s business.

Farming 730ha of arable land –– part of it owned, part on FBTs and part contracted ––his business, HP Gilman & Partners is based at Grange Farm, Pickworth near Stamford. Formerly part of the Burghley Estate, it had been tenanted since 1904 by three generations of the Gilman family and when it came up for sale in 2009, they decided to grasp the opportunity.

Will operates what he describes as a ‘tight

“We’re very limited as to what we can grow, so our approach is very commercial and we keep things as simple as possible,” he explains. “For 10 years, feed wheat and oilseed rape were the only crops grown here and, although we have added others, they generate the highest margins and remain the mainstay. Output and margins drive everything that we do, so it’s a fairly high input system and there’s no skimping when it comes to inputs such as fertilisers or agchem.”

For the 2022 harvest, the business grew 320ha of winter wheat, comprising soft Group 4 LG Skyscraper, together with hard Group 4 varieties Gleam and a newcomer to the AHDB 2022/23 Recommended List, KWS Dawsum.

In that same year, the cropping also included 200ha of winter OSR, all conventional varieties produced from farm-saved seed, plus 150ha of winter and spring beans, a little spring barley, with various environmental schemes accounting for the balance. The enterprise encompasses two diversification projects, livery for 35 horses and Rutland Simulated Game, a simulated game shoot which has proved extremely popular.

In addition to their own land, the Gilman

family also contract-farm land for two neighbours, all of it falling within a ring fence and being connected by 4km of tracks.

“Until 2010 we operated a full cultivations system, with part of the land ploughed and part min-tilled using a Horsch Terrano, then drilled with a Väderstad Rapid,” says Will, adding that the drawbacks were significant

The key is to understand the concept and how to get the best from it.

“ ”

Strip seeded rows are clearly visible in this crop of LG Skyscraper winter wheat just before the 2022 harvest.The space between rows is kept clear of weeds using a 6m Claydon TerraBlade inter-row hoe.

It’s horses for courses when it comes to establishment systems. CPM visits a Lincolnshire farmer who’s been on the journey that’s encompassed the extremes of tillage before settling for a strip tillage system.

On Farm Opinion

drilling is a concept which sounds good in theory, in practice it doesn’t work well enough here or consistently enough over the longer-term for us. I missed the tine concept and experience had shown yields from the Claydon Opti-Till System were significantly higher, so in 2020 I sold the Weaving and bought a new 6m Claydon Hybrid.”

Will also bought a 6m Claydon Terra-Blade inter-row hoe last year to take out any weeds growing between the rows. “That approach has brought yields back up to their former levels and allowed us to drill later to help combat blackgrass.”

The undulating land at Grange Farm includes a wide range of soil types,from limestone brash to heavy clay.

in terms of timeliness, cost and labour.

“We had an ageing workforce with two staff due to retire, so that was a significant concern and led me to review our approach. I also wanted to trim costs and minimise soil disturbance to reduce weather risk –– a major advantage of strip seeding as it avoids having large areas of cultivated soil exposed and being caught out by heavy rain.

“I looked at two alternatives. One was the Claydon Opti-Till System, the other the John Deere 750A –– a true direct drill. In my eyes, the full direct drill approach was too risky, so I bought a 6m Claydon Hybrid mounted drill and used it very successfully for two seasons.

“Much of our land has stone underlying the topsoil –– we even have a quarry on the farm which supplies stone used on buildings such as the Houses of Parliament –– so I decided to change it for the same model, but with stone release instead of the normal shear-bolt protected tines,” he explains.

“After operating the Hybrid for five years, I felt that our soils had improved sufficiently to allow true direct drilling and in 2017 we bought a Weaving GD trailed direct drill. With hindsight that was a mistake. Yields dropped by 15%, we were forced to drill earlier to make it work, nitrogen mineralisation was much reduced, and blackgrass seemed to grow more strongly throughout the winter.

“The other major issue was that there was no way to relieve the compaction caused by a heavy trailed direct drill if the weather turned wet, which was particularly evident on headlands and caused significant issues. That was important because, even though our average field size is 15ha, headlands account for a significant area of the farm,” comments Will.

“I concluded that although pure direct

It’s an approach that seems to be working. “The Claydon is used to drill all our OSR in August, straight behind the combine,” says Will. “The leading tines are run as shallow as possible to avoid bringing up any of the underlying clay and we keep an eye on levels to ensure that the seed goes in at an even depth.”

And it truly is a family affair with the eldest of Will’s three sons, age 15, drilling all the OSR and his 13-year-old helping with harvest.

Pulling power

The Gilman’s new drill is pulled by a 300hp Case IH Optum 300 CVX, which works alongside the farm’s other tractor, a 175hp Case IH Puma 175, both supplied by local Case IH and Claydon dealer, Sharmans Agricultural in Stamford. The Optum has an excellent power-to-weight ratio and could easily operate much faster than the 9-10 km/h which Will prefers to minimise soil disturbance.

“The aim is to leave 25cm stubble behind our 12m Claas Lexion 770 combine, then drill at an angle to the tramlines to help keep fields level. We sow winter wheat about 50mm deep using a seed rate which varies from 180 seeds/m2 in mid-September to 220 seeds/m2 at the end of October.

“I have found that certain varieties suit the Claydon system better than others. Gleam, for example, tillers like crazy and helps to crowd out blackgrass which, along with cow parsley and cleavers, can be an issue in places. I like the fact that now we can hoe between the rows with our TerraBlade on the front linkage of the Puma 175, so it’s very much an add-on to our system which enhances the effect of herbicides rather than trying to replace them,” he adds.

“We use the TerraBlade as early as possible in the spring, usually February to take out any weeds growing between the rows before they have too much opportunity to develop and become difficult to control. The blades also break up any capping that

has developed over winter and aerates the soil.”

Like all farms, Will has a sharp eye on costs. “Buying the farm increased our overheads considerably so we must focus on keeping costs in check and growing crops which produce the highest gross margin,” he says.

“Attention to detail is essential to get the most out of them on this hungry ground, so as part of that we apply chicken manure from local poultry farms at 7t/ha and Severn Trent treated sewage sludge at 22t/ha, often drilling crops directly through that using the Claydon Hybrid. Our winter wheats averaged 10t/ha last year and we hedge risk by selling some of our production forward, with commitments already in place for November 2023.”

Although it’s been a journey to find the right regime for his soils, Will reckons he now has it about right. “Since switching from conventional direct drilling to direct strip seeding, the performance of our crops has vastly improved, particularly on headlands.

“The key is to understand the concept and how to get the best from it. We find all our Claydon products are simple, easy to maintain and inexpensive to operate. Apart from a broken weld on the steps of the drill we’ve not had any issues and the back-up from Claydon, through Sharmans, has been really good.” ■

Farm Facts

HP Gilman & Partners,Grange Farm, Pickworth,Stamford,Lincolnshire.

● Arable area: 730h

● Cropping: winter wheat,winter OSR, winter and spring beans,spring barley

● Soil type: Limestone brash and heavy clay

● Mainline tractors: 300hp Case IH Optum 300 CVX; 175hp Case IH Puma 175

● Combine: 12m Claas Lexion 770

● Cultivation equipment: 6m Claydon Hybrid; 6m Claydon Terra-Blade

Will Gilman stands in a conventional crop of OSR,a crop which remains a key crop at Grange Farm,where alternatives struggle to generate sufficient margins.

Potato agronomy

Potatoes in for a roasting?

From cover crops to clean seed to nematicides, it’s all part of an integrated approach to nematode control. CPM digs into the detail but finds there’s far from an oven-ready strategy.

By Rob Jones

For all the problems created by higher energy and input costs as well as the pressure to reduce carbon emissions, it’s potato cyst nematodes (PCN) that many advisers consider to be the existential threat to the sector

PCN, and to a lesser extent their migratory cousins, free-living nematodes (FLN), present a problem that spans the industry –– and the country.

Specifically, it is the fear that Nemathorin (fosthiazate) could be withdrawn in 2024 that has exposed the seriousness of the situation. Without the yield protection afforded by high-volume granular nematicides, there’s a risk that vast swathes of otherwise productive potato land will be taken out of production.

“Unless we take action now, we’re looking at a three- to five-year period during which the potato area in Great Britain is likely to collapse,” says Eric Anderson, senior agronomist for Scottish Agronomy.

“Even if the varieties with good resistance

and tolerance to Globodera pallida, and to a lesser extent G. rostochiensis, had broad market acceptance –– which they don’t –– it would still take five to six years to multiply seed stocks needed to meet grower demand. I fear that we could lose a big part of our industry before anyone accepts the need for change,” he says.

While there are signs that some of the processors are making positive changes, there are concerns that some of the multiple retailers are less forward-looking.

Retailer preference

“McCain is moving towards King Russet, a French fries variety with good resistance –– scores of 9 –– to both G. pallida and G. rostochiensis. Elland, which has good resistance to G. pallida but only partial resistance to G. rostochiensis, is being trialled by some packers but it accounts for a relatively small volume.

“The real hurdle to progress is retailer preference for those varieties that exacerbate the situation. Supermarket buyers have the power to steer a course towards those varieties with good resistance and tolerance to both species of PCN, but aren’t invested in developing sustainable solutions,” says Eric.

While PCN may dominate discussions, it’s only a part of the nematode threat. Stubby-root nematodes (Trichodorus and Paratrichodorus), a type of FLN, are of increasing concern. Stubby-root nematodes vector tobacco rattle virus (TRV) while the feeding damage inflicted on roots leads to an increased risk of internal rust spot (IRS), he explains.

TRV manifests as necrotic rings in the flesh of tubers in ‘spraing’. More than 5% internal defects from TRV, and the batch is likely to be rejected from packing with a significant loss in value to the grower. Root damage means the plant is less able to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Where this results in restricted calcium uptake, it often leads to increased incidence of IRS, says Eric.

“Calcium is moved passively through the water transpiration stream so it should be applied in the rooting zone if it’s to be moved to the tubers. Applying calcium as a foliar spray is ineffective as there’s no movement of calcium between the foliage and the tubers. Applying a nematicide and scheduling adequate irrigation will protect root function while supporting water and nutrient uptake.”

▲

The real hurdle to progress is retailer preference for those varieties that exacerbate the PCN situation,says Eric Anderson.

Supermarkets have the power to steer a course towards varieties with good resistance and tolerance but aren’t invested in developing sustainable solutions.

Groundkeeper control

The reliance on rented land is seen as one reason why volunteer control is perhaps not practised to the standard it should be.The effect of this is that nematode populations are increasing for every year that a volunteer potato emerges uncontrolled.

To understand the rate of escalation that might occur, evaluation by a team from PCN Action Scotland provided what is believed to be the first qualitative data on the impact of volunteers on PCN populations.

“In 2022,soil was sampled directly under the root of a

Some varieties are described as having resistance to TRV, but the supporting data is often so incomplete that it’s rarely enough to support decisions, claims Eric. “There isn’t the depth of data needed to assess a variety for TRV susceptibility in the absence of a granular nematicide. It means the grower is left to carry the risk.”

At a 2022 trial in Strathmore, Scottish Agronomy investigated

volunteer potato and again at a metre away across 34 paired samples.On average,the Pf:Pi ratio increase was 16-fold,though it ranged from 2-fold to 500-fold,” explains Eric.

“There was a clear link between PCN populations and the rate of increase.In low populations,the rate of multiplication was higher,while in higher population situations the increase was lower.The implication is that in fields with potato groundkeepers,this is not a rotation; it is akin to growing potatoes every year,”he concludes.

the incidence of TRV and IRS in varieties popular in the region but grown without a granular nematicide. The results served to underline the value of a granular nematicide in reducing internal damage.

“Detailed information on varietal resistance to TRV is scarce at best. Much of what’s available is based on limited assessments. The strain of TRV in the Vale of York or Strathmore,

for example, may be different to that in Cambridgeshire where most assessments are performed,” he says.

Until more varieties with both strong resistance and tolerance gain market acceptance, growers are encouraged to adopt policies involving more integrated measures. For Nick Winmill, Agrii head of potato R&D, developing an IPM approach for PCN and FLN begins with field selection, but it encompasses everything –– from certified seed to good weed control, to diligent use of nematicides, to resistant varieties, where possible, and cover crops.

“We need to be far more objective when risk-assessing sites. Too many fields are planted that shouldn’t be. Rotations of less than one-in-six make it hard to have a positive effect on populations, especially with G. pallida,” he says.

The rate at which a population declines in the absence of a host varies between species but is also influenced by environmental factors such as soil type. For G. pallida, annual decline ranges from 4-40% per year but is typically in the region of 20%. For G. rostochiensis, rates are less variable at about 30% per annum.

Cover crops, principally trap crops such as sticky nightshade (Solanum sisymbriifolium) and biofumigants such as oil radish (Raphanus sativus), have been found to positively impact populations. The seed costs, management input and

establishment difficulties, however, have discouraged many growers from realising their potential, he expains.

“Success with these cover crops varies between regions and sites, so perseverance is key. We have had good experience with DeCyst, a sticky nightshade from Produce Solutions. Where it’s done well, we have seen it outperform several biofumigants and it doesn’t require the care with maceration and incorporation that some alternatives require.”

In Scotland, where a shorter growing season is typical, oil radish has emerged as a favourite among those keen to bring populations down, adds Eric. “Like Indian mustard, oil radish, especially the variety Bento, is high in the glucosinolates that are converted into volatile isothiocyanates, a form of mustard gas. But where these are concentrated in the leaves and stems of Indian mustard, in oil radish they are in the root.

“This removes the need for maceration and incorporation as they are continually released into the soil through the feeding activity of herbivores and soil biota,” he adds.

Cover crops are of increasing interest given their potential to improve soil organic matter levels, but growers should be wary of those species with the potential to support FLN, warns Eric. “Some species of cover crop, notably Phacelia and black oat, positively support

Incidence of TRV and IRS

Pratylenchus nematode populations, so growers should be wary of inadvertently making the situation worse.

“Conversely, with oil radish, we’ve seen instances where populations have significantly reduced. It can take several crops of oil radish within the rotation, but to those involved it represents an investment in the future of the far,” he says.

“Good weed control, and this extends to careful choice of those species sown as cover crops or game cover, is essential for managing FLN. We see that where it isn’t practiced, populations rise significantly,” reiterates Nick.

Good groundkeeper control has a role to play too, both in-crop and between crops, especially for PCN, if the rate of natural decline is to be sustained, he adds.

The yield protection afforded by nematicides is often influenced by factors beyond the grower’s control, such as the PCN species present, soil type and the extent of feeding sites on

the roots, but few would argue that their use isn’t worthwhile, says Nick. The question is what to use and how to make the most of its contribution.

“Anything less than a zero-tolerance approach to PCN is unlikely to succeed, but there are considerations that will influence strategy.”

Nematicide strategy

In short-season crops, such as salads, growers are precluded from using Nemathorin due to the 17-week harvest interval but in main crop potatoes, growers have the option to apply it alone or in sequence with Velum Prime (fluopyram). This flexibility can be useful in constructing a strategy, he suggests.

“Salad varieties are as vulnerable to PCN as main crop and, increasingly, FLN is a threat too. In such a situation Velum Prime is the only means of control. Whether to apply it as an in-furrow spray at planting or as a broadcast spray before cultivating to a depth of 10-20cm is for the grower to decide. In our

ware crop trials we see that while one method might work better in one year, there’s no statistical difference in performance when viewed across the seasons,” explains Nick.

Within main crop varieties, the strategy is equally straightforward. “There’s a debate about thresholds and at what point does it become viable to apply a nematicide. In practice, PCN eggs and juveniles at any number should be seen as indicators to treat the field.

“Full-rate Nemathorin is the minimum response, but we have also seen half-rate Nemathorin in sequence with Velum Prime work consistently well, sometimes better,” he says.

In manufacturer trials between 2018 and 2021, Velum Prime in sequence with half-rate Nemathorin achieved an extra 3.1t/ha in gross yield over Nemathorin only. The uncertain regulatory future of Nemathorin has led members of the Potato Partnership, a group of growers and advisers that came together

Variety breakthrough for G.pallida management

Latest results from a five-year research project, PCN Action Scotland,confirm the effectiveness of potato varieties that combine tolerance with high levels of resistance to the pest,especially the dominant G.pallida species.

Set up to deliver a sustainable potato industry for Scotland,the collaborative project estimates that one third of the area of land available for seed potato production in Scotland is infested with PCN,with levels in ware land also increasing significantly.

And as the G.pallida strain of PCN has increased by 145% since 2010,the nematode is on course to compromise the amount of land that can be used to grow seed potatoes unless better,integrated practices to manage it are implemented,say researchers.

With chemical nematicides facing an uncertain future and continued inflationary pressures on farming,genetic solutions are viewed as key for sustainable production.

In the trials,new potato varieties with combined resistance and tolerance,such as Elland,reduced initial G.pallida levels of over 30 eggs/g or higher to negligible counts

post-harvest –– giving growers the tools to effectively clean up their land.

Their uptake now requires a whole supply chain effort, stress the experts, who have been encouraged by major retailers and processors who are starting to recognise their value and list them.

Two key genetic traits are required in potato varieties to manage PCN –– resistance and tolerance, says Alistair Redpath of potato breeder Cygnet PB,who has seen increased interest in its variety Elland for this reason.

“A variety with resistance and tolerance will stop PCN multiplying and yield well where they are present,” he says.

“That’s in contrast to one with just resistance, where yield is not protected,or with tolerance alone, as that doesn’t restrict the multiplication of PCN.”

Elland has performed well,both in trials and on-farm, he reports,demonstrating its suitability for both processing and pre-pack markets. As a result, sales of the variety have increased sharply since it was launched in 2019 and accepted by McCain last year

The

which a

population declines in the absence of a host varies between species but is also influenced by environmental factors such as soil type,says Nick Winmill.

to build on the work of AHDB Potatoes Spot Farm East, to investigate how best to exploit Velum Prime’s contribution to PCN control.

“It has been the focus of one of our trials last year and will be again in 2023. It performed well in combination with half-rate Nemathorin (15kg/ha), but we think that there is more to learn about application practices that could further support performance,” says Nick. ■

More recently,both Sainsbury’s and Asda have included the variety in their listings,with other retailers currently evaluating Elland for their own uses and likely to follow suit.

“There’s far greater understanding of the practical difficulties posed by G.pallida,in particular, and the environmental benefits of growing a variety like Elland,”adds Alistair.

“Now that there’s recognition of their place in sustainable farming systems, it’s up to the processors and packers to do their bit so that growers and consumers can benefit from them, not just in Scotland, but in all areas of GB with a G.pallida problem.”

Paul Coleman,of the potato forecasting ser vices group Crop4Sight,welcomes the arrival of good pre-pack potato varieties with G.pallida resistance.

“These variety developments are very timely,” he says.“The last granular nematicide on the market is being reviewed next year and may not be with us in 2025. “Growers have much to thank the breeders for.”

rate at

PCN

A fool’s spring maybe where we’re at right now,but here in Ryedale we’ve sown some spring beans,caught up with spraying and spread some urea on winter combinable crops –– all of which are in good shape (provided I ignore the oilseed rape…).

So far, we’ve held off sowing any spring barley or oats, mostly due to the risk of the late frosts that we can often see in this part of the world –– one only need look at volunteer spring barley in cover crops to see the effect we could experience by sowing too early.

Root crops are seeing some focus here at the moment. We’ve just finished delivering this year’s beet crop, which hasn’t exactly broken records. For a drought year, it could be worse. We’ve managed 87% of our average adjusted yield of 77.6t/ha. The surprise, given the sunshine hours of 2022, has been the sugar percentages, which have been variable to say the least.

Our range is 14.51 to 17.61%, with no real pattern to identify any solutions or reasons. All I can put it down to is variable soil types, causing variable stress in

the hottest days and perhaps more frost this winter than normal. Given similar dirt deductions, that range can make -15 to +5% difference to adjusted (ie paid) weights, and a significant effect on the haulage cost, particularly given the distance we are from the Newark sugar factory.

This far north, we have very little trouble from virus yellows or beet moth but can get clobbered by late frosts. The yield insurance only pays out to 80% of contract. We have only dipped below that figure once in the last 10 seasons (2020/21, 78%) so the likely average payout wouldn’t come close to covering the £1.50/t annual premium. When the frost insurance was first introduced in its current form in 2012, the cut off date was roughly aligned with the factory closure dates in mid-January. In recent years the campaign has dragged right into April, and it would seem only fair and sensible for the frost insurance to correlate with this in future.

The beet price increase has invariably helped the look of my budgets, but there is always room for improvement. This year we have white clover as part of a cover crop about to become an understory under spring barley, in a field that will become beet in 2024. My thinking is this will host beneficial insects to ward off virus-carrying aphids, and perhaps allow a trim in nitrogen applied. Time will tell!

For 2023, I’m once again experimenting with strip-till beet in a field currently occupied by a frost desiccated cover crop, and we may also try a companion of some sort

too. Always tweaking something…

On the potato front, our stall is set, albeit in a simpler form than in recent years. Less varieties, less customers, less acres, less tarmac farming, less money laid out, less work and less risk. Will we finish up with less rewards? Who knows. For 20 years from my leaving college in 1997, our potato area slowly grew. Since 2017, that scale has slowly reduced. I love being part of the potato industry but working for nowt is a fool’s game. I have no desire to further shrink our enterprise any more than I desire to return to the peak of 2017, but I must focus on the people, profit, progress, sustainability and the wider effect of our enterprises.

Potatoes get some bad press at times but are one of the most nutrient dense and best value foods available. The fairies won’t put them on the supermarket shelves, any more than they do eggs in the crazy current times that we’re in if we don’t produce them, so we must dig deep and pull together to safeguard our industry before its metamorphic wheels fall off.

When I look back at how we used to produce our spuds when I was a kid, and chronicle the colossal changes in my lifetime, it is phenomenal. I don’t foresee that trend changing any time soon –– we have always adapted and progressed as a sector.

In light of this, I have signed up to GB Potatoes, and urge others to do the same. I feel that we are stronger with a collective voice, in every sense of the word, and need to retain our pride and professionalism alongside fighting the threat of whatever obstacles appear in our path –– the most

Andrew Wilson is a fourthgeneration tenant of the Castle Howard Estate in North Yorkshire. He has a strategic approach to direct drilling on his varied soil types and grows a wide variety of crops.He’s passionate about the potato industry and having been utilising cover crops to reduce cultivation and chemical use

@SpudSlingsby

prominent of these being short term politics and disproportionate legislation. It’s not sufficient, in my opinion, to leave the future of our industry to the hands of others, we must stand up and be counted. Our voices need to be heard. With seed potatoes due to arrive imminently for chitting, the 2023 season is all but upon us –– here’s to a great season for all.

It’s not sufficient to leave the future of our industry to the hands of others,we must stand up and be counted.Our voices need to be heard,says Andrew Wilson,who has now joined newly formed GB Potatoes.

since 2011,dipped his toe in the water of regenerative potatoes in 2021.