Article taken from the Agronomist & Arable Farmer Vegetable Guide
It is good practice and a requirement of all assurance schemes to carry out an assessment of land going into a vegetable crop. This doesn’t have to be onerous; a simple pro forma check sheet can be used to pick up crop agronomy issues and can also form part of a robust health and safety risk assessment. Several key areas need to be weighed up individually to create an overall land assessment. The following are typical examples that most growers will need to cover.
Previous cropping
Growers should consider the last time the proposed crop or a crop of the same group was grown on the land. They should then check whether the gap is sufficient according to Red Tractor and retailer protocols. They should also find out whether any previous crops could cause contamination in the planned veg crop. Potato volunteers can pose serious weed problems – processing varieties such as Saturna can be problematic with costly volunteers decades after cropping. Potato leaves can also contaminate a baby leaf crop.
Soil nutrition testing
Agrovista agronomists can arrange soil sampling and testing of pH and NPK as well as relevant trace elements. They will provide a recommendation specific to the crop to be grown. Precision mapping services like those offered by precision agriservices provider Plantsystems provide highly accurate results to ensure available nutrition accurately matches crop need.
Herbicides history
Check out the residual herbicides used in the previous crop and check against the label for notes on persistence and subsequent cropping. Some maize herbicides have high persistence and label-recommended restrictions. Another example is late planting following an early harvest crop such as vining peas. Again, check the labels of the products applied.
Soil Type, Texture and Condition
Everyone knows checking soil condition is vital but few do it! Take a spade, dig some holes and look for compacted layers and anaerobic layers, which signify poor previous cultivations or damage from previous harvests. Consider proper subsoiling to lift the soil, allowing drainage and air penetration.
Local Topography
This is important for a number of reasons. It plays a key role in the susceptibility of the land to soil erosion. It also affects machine stability, particularly irrigation booms. In addition, field obstacles and field shape dictate the amount of short work and the efficacy and operation of boom irrigators, sprayers and mechanical harvesting.
In-field Hazards
Electricity pylons, electricity poles and ditches are obvious examples of in-field hazards. As well as being physical obstructions they are also important health and safety assessment – students, long aluminium conductors and overhead high voltage electricity wires don’t go well together!
Highway Access
This is a particular concern for crops harvested in the winter. While roadside fields will reduce time and effort getting to fields when travelling conditions are poor, growers must consider how they will carry out their obligation to keep the highway free from mud.
Field shape
Time spent working out the best way to cultivate and drill/plant the field, considering subsequent operations such as spraying, irrigation and harvesting, is time well spent. These factors could dictate splitting the field into sub-sections. For example, in an intensively irrigated crop, consideration of the layout of the above-ground irrigation mains or the ability to reach into corners of the field could inform the decision.
Crop layout
Consider and agree how the field will be cultivated and cropped. How big will headlands be? Will headlands be planted? With the same variety, or would a different one or even a different crop be a better option? How will corners of the field be dealt with? Do all operators know the answers to the above questions?
Water source and quality
The HDC-sponsored Microbial Risk Assessment Tool (www.safeproduce.eu) is a very good online water risk assessment tool.
Several retailer crop assurance schemes also support risk assessment tools.
The assessment will depend on a matrix including whether produce will be cooked or consumed raw, the source of the water, is it stored, type of application (drip tape is lower risk than overhead application in leaf crops), timing of last application prior to harvest, time of season and weather conditions prior to harvest (dry, sunny conditions reduce bacteria counts faster), water treatments such as UV treatment, frequency and trends in water quality sampling.
The tool covers in-field microbial risk assessment of water, organic manures and field worker hygiene. It also has a facility to record water test results and view trend graphs.
Your Agrovista agronomist is able to help with all of the above.
It is good practice and a requirement of all assurance schemes to carry out an assessment of land going into a vegetable crop. This doesn’t have to be onerous; a simple pro forma check sheet can be used to pick up crop agronomy issues and can also form part of a robust health and safety risk assessment. Several key areas need to be weighed up individually to create an overall land assessment. The following are typical examples that most growers will need to cover.
Previous cropping
Growers should consider the last time the proposed crop or a crop of the same group was grown on the land. They should then check whether the gap is sufficient according to Red Tractor and retailer protocols. They should also find out whether any previous crops could cause contamination in the planned veg crop. Potato volunteers can pose serious weed problems – processing varieties such as Saturna can be problematic with costly volunteers decades after cropping. Potato leaves can also contaminate a baby leaf crop.
Soil nutrition testing
Agrovista agronomists can arrange soil sampling and testing of pH and NPK as well as relevant trace elements. They will provide a recommendation specific to the crop to be grown. Precision mapping services like those offered by precision agriservices provider Plantsystems provide highly accurate results to ensure available nutrition accurately matches crop need.
Herbicides history
Check out the residual herbicides used in the previous crop and check against the label for notes on persistence and subsequent cropping. Some maize herbicides have high persistence and label-recommended restrictions. Another example is late planting following an early harvest crop such as vining peas. Again, check the labels of the products applied.
Soil Type, Texture and Condition
Everyone knows checking soil condition is vital but few do it! Take a spade, dig some holes and look for compacted layers and anaerobic layers, which signify poor previous cultivations or damage from previous harvests. Consider proper subsoiling to lift the soil, allowing drainage and air penetration.
Local Topography
This is important for a number of reasons. It plays a key role in the susceptibility of the land to soil erosion. It also affects machine stability, particularly irrigation booms. In addition, field obstacles and field shape dictate the amount of short work and the efficacy and operation of boom irrigators, sprayers and mechanical harvesting.
In-field Hazards
Electricity pylons, electricity poles and ditches are obvious examples of in-field hazards. As well as being physical obstructions they are also important health and safety assessment – students, long aluminium conductors and overhead high voltage electricity wires don’t go well together!
Highway Access
This is a particular concern for crops harvested in the winter. While roadside fields will reduce time and effort getting to fields when travelling conditions are poor, growers must consider how they will carry out their obligation to keep the highway free from mud.
Field shape
Time spent working out the best way to cultivate and drill/plant the field, considering subsequent operations such as spraying, irrigation and harvesting, is time well spent. These factors could dictate splitting the field into sub-sections. For example, in an intensively irrigated crop, consideration of the layout of the above-ground irrigation mains or the ability to reach into corners of the field could inform the decision.
Crop layout
Consider and agree how the field will be cultivated and cropped. How big will headlands be? Will headlands be planted? With the same variety, or would a different one or even a different crop be a better option? How will corners of the field be dealt with? Do all operators know the answers to the above questions?
Water source and quality
The HDC-sponsored Microbial Risk Assessment Tool (www.safeproduce.eu) is a very good online water risk assessment tool.
Several retailer crop assurance schemes also support risk assessment tools.
The assessment will depend on a matrix including whether produce will be cooked or consumed raw, the source of the water, is it stored, type of application (drip tape is lower risk than overhead application in leaf crops), timing of last application prior to harvest, time of season and weather conditions prior to harvest (dry, sunny conditions reduce bacteria counts faster), water treatments such as UV treatment, frequency and trends in water quality sampling.
The tool covers in-field microbial risk assessment of water, organic manures and field worker hygiene. It also has a facility to record water test results and view trend graphs.
Your Agrovista agronomist is able to help with all of the above.