Talking Arable

IANMatts

Ian Matts is a partner in his family farm, an independent agronomist at BFC Agronomy, and managing director at Brixworth Farming, a joint venture farming business in Northamptonshire.

I am a little concerned about what the impact of the dry April will be on yield potential

IAN MATTS

Farm facts

rBrixworth Farming is a joint venture farm business in Northamptonshire rCropping includes wheat, barley, winter oilseed rape and winter beans but the farm experiments with other crops. Cover crops and spring barley also feature in the rotation, primarily for black-grass control rSoils are variable, but predominantly consist of Hanslope and Denchworth series heavy clays with some Banbury series loams rAnnual average rainfall is close to 650mm Until the rain came two weeks ago, there wasn’t a single crop, spring or winter, that wasn’t showing some sign of stress. The winter cereals were yellowing from the impact of the frosty nights following the T0 applications, as well as nitrogen deficiency due to the lack of soil moisture reducing the availability of the recent nitrogen applications. The winter beans were wilted and buckled from a combination of the drought and the frosty nights as stems started to extend. The spring crops were emerging unevenly depending on seed depth, soil type and available moisture.

Having now had more than 40mm of rain in the first 10 days of May, the story has changed dramatically. Crops have gone from a light green with hints of yellow, to a much darker green as they have suddenly been hit with a big dose of nitrogen that has been on the surface waiting to be washed in. Although the winter cereals are now looking a lot better as a result of the rain, I am a little concerned about what the impact of the dry

April will be on yield potential. I have not adjusted forecast yields to account for this and was a few days off trying to do so before the rain came and I decided to hold off. It’s not too difficult to imagine that any stress a crop encounters during the growing season is going to have a detrimental impact on yield potential, but what the scale of it is, is too difficult to forecast at this stage, with so much of the critical yield building development still ahead.

Conditions

While crops were largely clean at the end of April, especially of septoria, the conditions so far in May will no doubt change the picture significantly. T1 spends on the wheat have been reduced according to variety, drilling date and existing disease levels and, as the showers keep coming on almost a daily basis, it starts to put a bit of doubt in the mind. However, with the way spring has gone, the gap between T1 and T2 for some varieties will be relatively short, so this is unlikely to be too great a concern.

Grass-weed control has been pretty good on the whole this year, although some plants that had escaped the pre-ems in autumn are starting to become more obvious. If the tillering capacity of black-grass could be harnessed for winter cereal crops, I am sure it would be a massive boost for any late-drilled crops. With the move towards lower cultivations, it is evident that brome is

Crops have picked up after some much-needed rainfall, but the impact of the drought on yields is yet to be seen.

becoming more of a challenge, particularly in winter barley. The cold conditions this spring have also not been conducive for optimal brome control in the wheat, as plants weren’t actively growing around the time of the herbicide application.

The dry conditions through April have made arable operations less challenging than expected, with plenty of dry and still days to get fieldwork up to date. It has created some more challenges for the stewardship work, as establishing small seeds that needed to be close to the surface was always likely to be a challenge with the soil as cold and dry as it has been.

The pollen and nectar plots went in at the end of the month, followed by a decent rain, so with soil temperatures now on the rise, these should be alright. Not all of the winter bird food plots have been drilled; we chose to delay this until we had better conditions, but we are now struggling to get the required gap between showers to drill and roll them.

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HANNAH Darby

As a partner in her family’s farm, former physiotherapist Hannah Darby switched to farming after studying for an MSc in crop management at Writtle College in 2015. She takes on all aspects of running the farm with her uncle and is a keen advocate of continual learning.

I cannot believe the extremes of weather and lateness of frosts we are now facing

HANNAH DARBY

Farm facts

rT.E. Darby & Sons is a family business based in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, farming 360 hectares across three farms rLand is mainly organic fen soil with some wasted peats and clay soils rCropping includes wheat (winter and spring), sugar beet, peas, oats, beans and spring barley. Land is let for potatoes rNo-till and cover cropping are utilised where appropriate rThe main farm is around sea level and average rainfall for a harvest season is about 500mm Isn’t it amazing how everything grows after rain? The spring-drilled oats, peas and beans seemed to sit barely chitted or growing very slowly for so long, but with the rain in the last few weeks like always, nature catches up.

Our earliest sown winter wheat is behind the normal date for flag leaf emergence, but all things considered it will not be too long now. Unfortunately I feel that the potential of the latest

November and early December wheat on the fen is dropping from a relatively low starting point.

After the wet winter, slug pressure and drought, it was all hit hard by the continual frosts in April which took off the new growth and part of leaf 4, and caused the rest of the plant to lay horizontally until the rain came. Thankfully, it did, and it has grown away well but you know the stress will be yield robbing.

This year we drilled the sugar beet later, on purpose, to try and avoid the frosts we have been facing in recent years. The April-drilled beet was slow to emerge, due to lack of moisture but finally we are seeing a better established crop. I am just hoping the frost forecast for the end of this week (May 21) will not come to much. I cannot believe the extremes of weather and lateness of frosts we are now facing.

It is not surprising that our opportunistic friend black-grass has pounced on the lack of competition from many of the winter crops. In previous years I felt we had won small battles in the fight to keep the grass-weed under control, but it will not be the case this year. Much of our winter wheat was drilled later than hoped.

Historically we have drilled later to enable destruction of a flush of black-grass before drilling, but increasingly wet Octobers have delayed and reduced the potential of wheat crops which may not compete against black-grass in spring. As the rain fell soon after drilling there was little opportunity to re-visit fields with early post-emergence herbicides. Probably more seed was shed last year in uncompetitive spring crops such as our sugar beet and peas which struggled under the conditions – everything knocks on. Black-grass seems to grow at colder temperatures than most crops, so conditions for this weed this spring seem ideal. I am not feeling that optimistic for a bumper harvest, but let’s hope I am proved wrong.

Plans

As June approaches we start to pull plans together for harvest 2022. Having just completed our Basic Payment Scheme and Countryside Stewardship claims, the realisation that the cheques we will receive in December will amount to less this year has sharpened the focus on our cost of production and how best to get the most out of the land we farm. We are aware crop prices remain good but that input prices are likely to be higher. There is always the discussion of what to grow and where, while there is always a rotational plan, weed

Sugar beet drilling was delayed to try and escape the frosts.

burdens and the experience of the previous harvest mean things are adapted.

Our new Countryside Stewardship arable offer includes 14 hectares of AB15 two-year legume fallow, which is proving a popular option among friends and neighbouring farmers. It is drilled after harvest of year one and three and is cut to control grass-weeds. It is hoped it will restructure the soil, provide food for wildlife and help control black-grass by removing ears when they emerge. Importantly, it also pays well at £522/ha. It fits well into our drive to become more regenerative as we will not cultivate after the fallow is destroyed.

I’m now just wondering if we should have applied for more as the frustration with stewardship options is you can’t change them as you see how well they work for you on your own farm.

The cold has meant winter wheat has been slow off the mark and flag leaf emergence has been delayed.

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