Article taken from Arable Farmer Magazine
""High yields partially compensating for dismal prices""
At the time of writing, a very unwelcome spell of unsettled weather has interrupted a promising start to harvest in the North East. Most barley has been harvested now and yields have been pleasing, with some farmers experiencing higher yields than achieved from first wheat’s over the last two seasons. It has also come off fairly dry, minimising drying charges – a massive bonus in this region. Oilseed rape yields to date have also been encouraging, however with many fields still to harvest, it is to be hoped the weather improves quickly. By the time you are reading this, we should be in full flow with the wheat harvest. I have never seen crops with so much green material left at this stage, which has to bode well, so fingers crossed for a good harvest too, to at least partially compensate for the dismal prices. While the rain has frustrated combine drivers, it has been ideal for recently sowed oilseed rape crops. Many farms in the region have drilled next year’s crop before harvesting last years. Most of these have gone into nearly ideal seedbeds, and now with plenty of moisture, they have the perfect opportunity to jump out of the ground and away from flea beetle and slugs.
Opportunity
If, as a result of this early sowing, crops get away in the back end, with the recent autumn and split dose approval of Caryx (mepiqaut chloride + metconazole), growers have the opportunity to apply a genuine growth regulator to forward crops in autumn in order to manipulate canopies and reduce lodging risks. As a rough guide, if crops are going to reach 25cm or more in height before winter sets in, then they are likely to benefit from an application of Caryx at the 4-6 leaf stage. Despite giving oilseed rape seeds the best possible start, it is vitally important emerging fields should be monitored regularly for the tell tale signs of ‘shot-holing’ in the leaf indicating the presence of flea beetle particularly with no neonicotinoid seed dressing being permitted in the region. Notorious ‘sluggy’ areas should also be monitored as the mild wet weather can quickly trigger a slug population explosion. With the Tillage Live even taking place in the region in the middle of September at the Croft-on-Tees, there is a lot of discussion regarding cultivation techniques, and particularly the theory of using ‘sun powered roots’ rather than iron to restructure soils. On the back of this there has been a surge cropping to improve both soil structure and soil organic matter while also trapping nutrients over winter. The technique is growing in popularity even more in areas of difficult grass-weeds, as the correct well managed cover crop can significantly reduce grass weed burdens without the use of selective herbicides, as well providing all the soil health benefits.
Another area increasing in popularity which will be demonstrated at Tillage Live is growers sowing berseem clover as a companion plant among their oilseed rape crops in order to improve establishment and early rooting of the OSR crops, as well as improving soil structure and soil organic matter.
Agronomist Facts:
Chris Martin is a technical manager for Agrovista, based in the North East of England. His role is to provide technical advice to growers over an area extending from Lincolnshire to Scotland. Prior to this, he was an agronomist with the company for 15 years and continues to provide agronomy advice to a number of growers producing combinable crops in the Scotch Corner area.