Article taken from Farmers Weekly magazine
Written by Louise Impey
Precision farming technology is allowing Yorkshire grower Neil Welburn and his son Chris to take the guesswork out of nitrogen applications and push up their crop yields. A tractor-mounted Isaria crop, sensor combines real-time measurements with field-history data and continually alters nitrogen rates according to plant needs as it travels through the crops. The system has helped Mr Welburn boost yields and produce more even and easier-to-manage crops over the past two years, despite variability in soils on his 240ha Crosshill Farm, near Goole, and nearby contracted land. Unlike other systems on the market, the Isaria works by measuring the crop's nitrogen uptake and the amount of ground cover before calculating requirements, rather than averaging the nitrogen rate for the whole field. Variability in soil types means the family runs two rotations, with the very light sand land growing two crops of maize, followed by sugar beet or either potatoes, pars-nips or carrots. On the heavier land, they grow winter wheat, barley and oilseed rape, and occasionally include a crop of winter beans. ""We also introduce grass leys, where needed, as they have been very helpful in bringing our black-grass populations down," he says. A 600-head bull beef unit on the farm means soils receive regular applications of farmyard manure, and this is taken into account when formulating fertiliser plans. ""Otherwise we're using solid fertiliser, except for the final foliar nitrogen application at the milky ripe stage. Manure goes on both before and after the oilseed rape crop," Mr Welburn adds.
CROP POTENTIAL
He tries to push crops and maximise their potential, but has to be mindful of the limitations of his lighter soils, especially in a dry year, and the fact that the farm is in a nitrate vulnerable zone. Mr Welburn's original interest in precision farming was sparked by its potential to cope with variations in yield, produce better crops and apply inputs accurately. He had been altering both seed and nitrogen rates on the move for some time, using his eyes and knowledge of previous crop performance, but he could see it had more to offer. ""Initially, there wasn't any saving in inputs, but there was a lift in crop performance.”That's because we were target-ing the fertiliser to where it was needed most, rather than making a blanket application," he says.
SHOW VISIT
A visit to the Agritechnica show in 2013 with his Agrovista agronomist Simon Vaux introduced him to the Isaria, which was developed in Germany. The opportunity to try the technology was too good to miss, so working with Agrovista, Mr Welburn started testing one in 2013. His son Chris now uses it across all of the wheat, barley and oil-seed rape, opting for the two-point mode which involves scanning both good and poor growth areas of the crop, for calibration purposes and to set the parameters. He also has to input the type of fertiliser product being applied, including its nitrogen percentage content. ""The Absolute mode, which we have tried, is not ideal for wheat. We get on much better with the two-point mode," he says. As proof of this, he highlights last year's first wheat crop of Crusoe, which achieved a yield of 13.4t/ha, along with a Hagberg of 370, specific weight of 80kg/ hi and a grain protein content of 13.7%. He also mentions two neighbouring fields of oilseed rape, one of which received twice the amount of nitrogen as the other, but only had a 0.1t/ha difference in yield at harvest. ""One of the fields had received muck. The Isaria does all the hard work for us in these situations," he says.
Mr Welburn adds that he can use the system at night and in the rain, if need be. ""It isn't constrained by the con-ditions, which some of the other systems on the market are. That is a considerable advantage at busy times of year," he says.
HUGE ADVANTAGES
Mr Welbum's final point is that he wouldn't want to be without the Isaria technology now. ""It's become part of our system. Once you know how to use it, there are huge advantages," he says. Mr Vaux points out that the accuracy of the system is its main benefit, allowing it to maximise output while also being able to recognise areas of the farm that have lower yield potential. ""That's important because when a wheat crop is growing well, it will use 3kg/day of nitrogen. Putting the right amount of fertiliser on is essential," he says. The Isaria costs between £18,000 and £20,000, depending on the specification. ""It would be wrong to expect it to make you big savings in your fertiliser bill. Its role is to improve the targeting, so that there's better performance from the crops, but no waste of fertiliser," Mr Vaux adds.
Protect potato crops against heightened rhizoctonia risk
The cool and unsettled spring has heightened the risk of rhizoctonia in potato crops planted into cold and wet soils, where the disease thrives. To counter this, Agrovista's Andy Steven is recommending robust tuber treatments to protect against the seed- and soil-borne pathogen. The cold and wet spring is also causing Devon-based Neil Potts to see high levels of septoria in wheat crops and he warns growers not to cut back on fungicide inputs early this season if wet weather continues. Oilseed rape crops are approaching sclerotinia spray timings and in the East, Ryan Hudson is looking to implement a split fungicide programme in variable crops to cover a potentially protracted flowering period. Kevin Knight of Zantra is recommending products that cover sclerotinia, but also a range of other diseases. In Yorkshire, David Martindale highlights high chocolate spot levels in winter beans, which will require fungicide treatment to protect yield.
SPUD SPECIAL
By Agrovista Agronomist, Andy Stevens
Potato planters are still snugly parked in the sheds up in northern Scotland as spring proves to be rather elusive this year. There is much sign of a significant improvement this week. Soil temperatures are hovering around or below the 7C growers would like before putting seed in the ground. It's also wet, with even lighter land in Morayshire still to dry out enough to allow much progress. Some sandy land has been destoned but sits unplanted. Robust rates of tuber treatments will be needed lithe low temperatures persist, as the risk of rhizoetonia will be high. This later start gives the opportunity to revisit recent research work looking at cultivation techniques on wetter sells. The main conclusions were to avoid the temptation to gel the bed tiller out and look more at the depth of cultivations being used especially the depth of the destoner. It’s easy to say, but much harder to apply, as frustration will grow if the weather continues to be uncooperative and with diesel cheaper than it has been for a few seasons.