Direct Driller Magazine Issue 16

Page 96

FEATURE

FARMER FOCUS

GEORGE SLY And Breathe….. a much better year

Agroforestry update:

After 2019 and 2020, I think we can all agree 2021 has been a much happier time to be farming. Prices are good, yields were ok to good, the autumn has been very kind, autumn establishment cracking, smiles all round in the Sly Family, turkey is on the menu again this Christmas

We harvested the annual alleys in our agroforestry field for the first time this year. We drilled explorer spring barley on 24m alleys in between the hazels and walnuts. We had a pleasing yield and made malting spec with the barley, I must

admit we had to be very careful with spraying and we will have to be very vigilant for the first 4-5 years. It’s strange, but having a field with 12 X 24m alleys automatically makes you ‘experiment more’ in terms of trying different things in each alley. We did 3 trials, which I will discuss further later on. Overall, the agroforestry so far has been very successful, the AB8 strips have established well, the trees have largely survived year 1. We have lost 4 walnut trees (from 240) to hares/ deer and just under 25 Hazelnuts (from 600). Given the March planting date I am happy with that and we have learnt a lot.

High yields need strong foundations

In terms of time in the field consumed by the trees, we have walked the tree rows twice in an 11 month period and mowed the AB8 twice. Overall on this 16 hectare field, that has consumed 27 man hours. The walking was to check / fix guards, log on a tablet any dead / suffering trees and hand weed anything that’s troubling in the AB8 strips. As of yet we haven’t applied any pesticide to the tree rows. When we planted the trees, we did apply some muck / mulch and Leonardite as a soil conditioner. We have another 16 hectares to plant December 2021 / January 2022 and then in 2022 / 2023 winter a further 40 hectares. This will bring us close to 2500 trees. We will begin planting some timber as well as nut trees in 2023 as long term projections look very attractive.

Tap into Agrii‘s integrated agronomy support For more informatio n please visit www.agrii.co.uk or call our Customer Services Team on 0845 607 3322

96 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE

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I do LOVE having the mix of perennial and annual plants in the same field, everything is yet to be proven, but somehow it just feels right for the future.

ISSUE 16 | JANUARY 2022


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What do you Read?

5min
pages 97-100

Farmer Focus - George Sly

2min
page 96

High Fertiliser Prices Focus Attention

7min
pages 76-77

Nuffield Scholars 2022

12min
pages 88-91

Farmer Focus - Andy Howard

3min
page 82

Agronomist in Focus - Mark Dewes

8min
pages 92-95

Autonomous Agricultural Machinery

9min
pages 72-75

Farmer Focus - Steve Lear

6min
pages 70-71

Carbon in Soils

6min
pages 46-47

Pay it Forward

4min
pages 36-37

Michelin Tracks and Tyres: European Tour

5min
pages 58-59

Importance or Tyre Pressures

6min
pages 50-53

Plan the move to direct drilling carefully

6min
pages 38-41

Supporting Non-assured Grain

6min
pages 48-49

UK Carbon Code of Conduct

8min
pages 66-69

Farmer Focus - Neil White

6min
pages 56-57

The 8th World Congress

7min
pages 6-7

History of the GD

13min
pages 10-13

The Seed Microbiome

6min
pages 8-9

Welcome to the 8th World Congress Speech

17min
pages 14-18

Farmer Focus - Andrew Jackson

7min
pages 19-21

Farmer Focus - Tom Sewell

6min
pages 26-27

Are you happy with the quality of your lime?

9min
pages 22-25

Soil Farmer or the Year

21min
pages 28-35
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