Content originally published in the Farmers Guardian
Land remains far too wet to travel as I write this in mid-February. Many of my customers are immersed in Sustainable Farming Incentive literature, judging by the phone calls I’ve been getting recently. With so many SFI options on offer, it can be a bit of a minefield sorting out which ones best suit your farm to make up, as much as possible, for reductions in BPS income.
It helps that we agronomists are very familiar with many of the farm businesses we look after, so we can pave the way for one of our rural consultants to pay a visit, saving time and money all round.
Most interest centres around where to establish herbal leys or stitch in clover. Rotations with cereals usually revolve around grass reseeds, so if we see a real swing towards rejuvenating swards instead, will it reduce the overall productivity of grassland in the region? Something to watch…
Spring cropping in the main has been decided. We have had much kinder weather than the east of the country – 85-90% of planned winter cropping has been drilled. The acreages aren’t big, so most has established, with hopefully only a few small areas to patch.
Most crops have tillered satisfactorily and are going to need 40-50kg/ha nitrogen and potash as soon as land will travel. Being a livestock area, phosphate levels are generally fine.
Winter barley is drilled earlier than wheat and benefited from the relatively mild winter. Some manganese deficiency can be seen on less consolidated areas.
Quite a bit of late-drilled winter wheat after maize or grass will require herbicide to control annual meadow grass and broad-leaved weeds. Drilling was a snatch-and-grab operation, ploughing and drilling on the same day, and there has been no chance to spray anything since.
Spring cropping is pretty much business as usual. The maize area might increase to replace some spring barley in cow rations. Memories of last spring are still fresh – maize did extremely well but spring cereals were diabolical due to the drought.
The trend to planting ultra-early maize varieties without film is set to grow. The expense of film puts some people off, and they have seen others succeed without it, although on a good favourable site, nothing beats a high yielding, medium maturing variety under film. I hope three good years have not lulled us into a false sense of security.
Simon Nelson advises farmers on a wide range of arable and forage crops across Cumbria, north Lancashire and into south west Scotland. He has worked for Agrovista for 23 years.
