FEATURE
FARMER FOCUS
NEIL WHITE Berwickshire farmer Neil White calls for clarity and equity in their baseline carbon audit on his farm after six years of No-till Harvest 2021 was, in the end, better than expected. The crops came out of the wet cold spring looking respectable, but then continually improved to culminate in some top yields and good quality grain - not the case across the country, but in SE Scotland we had our turn at an easier and drier harvest this year. I still run two systems to establish my barley crops, still ploughing a small percentage mostly due to remedial drainage work or the risk of wheat volunteers. I sowed the winter and spring barley crops with the Mzuri and comparisons with the plough/powerharrow combination drill were very interesting again this year. The Pearl winter barley sown with the Mzuri went into winter looking the better crop but in the wetter spring it stalled, and the conventional sown crop overtook it, maybe accessing available nitrogen quicker. The carrying capacity was noticeably different, the Mzuri ground carried the sprayer and spreader 6 or 7 days earlier without marks. This year the winter barley yield was admittedly better on the conventional by around 0.4t/Ha but still all above my historical average. When I worked out the margin there was very little in it with the Mzuri sown crop just coming out on top. The biggest surprise was in the Diablo spring barley where the yield was reversed and the direct drilled came out on top despite it looking thinner. The higher yield and lower cost of establishment is always reassuring as I move towards 100% direct drilling. I have in the past noticed a bolder grain in the wider row, direct sown barley, maybe due to extra light inception on the upper leaves. But this year it was all very similar and all in spec for malting. This year I have the same
two methods and conditions were perfect. I felt I still needed an earlier start in the direct drilled crop, so I went around 10 days earlier with the direct drill to aid establishment, so far everything looks great. Like all winter crops in this area my cover crop went into perfect conditions, I don’t think Berwickshire has ever looked better going into December. Sown on Sep 3 the mixture of home saved spring beans, phacelia and buckwheat made up my relatively cheap cover crop. It was sown in one pass at two depths, beans at 2.5 inches down the front leg and at the coulter the phacelia and buckwheat 1 inch. It was sown at a faster than usual sowing speed, all at 12kph no spray or rolling and as the picture shows it has exceeded my expectations above ground. The first frost has killed off the buckwheat and I am hoping some hard frosts over new year may kill the beans leaving an open cover with only the phacelia to spray off ahead of hen muck and spring oats for Quaker. The concern I have about a strong cover over winter is if the ground fails to dry in the spring it may leave a wet seed bed prone to smearing, ideally 2/3 of this cover should be dying back or dead by New Year. The companion cropping in the oilseed rape, while maybe doing unseen things, didn’t help gain yield or supress the pigeons, so I didn’t do it this year. It was inconvenient at sowing time and in the case of the clover, had very poor establishment. This year’s rape crops have covered the ground well, they are looking strong and go into winter looking well. I hope this will suppress the pigeons (for now). Slugs and pigeons are the main risk for rape here and while I vary my
56 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE
ISSUE 16 | JANUARY 2022
