Arable Farming May 2022

Talking Arable

‘Redrilling is a costly exercise and leads to variable results’ Pages 12-13 May 2022

Volume 45 Issue 5

2 T l u f s es c c u s A “ s p o r c y m s p kee greener and cleaner for longer ”

SUSTAINABLE FARMING Strip-tilling cereals and herbal leys Pages 48-50

FARM SAFETY Technology to deal with blind spots Pages 52-54

SCOTT CAMPBELL, FARMER IN ABERDEEN, 415 HA

T2 is probably the most important spray that we do on farm. I expect a T2 fungicide treatment to deliver a robust programme that gives us the best chance of yield and grain quality. In our trials, Revystar ® XE performed very well compared to other products, keeping the crop greener and cleaner for longer. The result hasn’t just been more yield – it’s been higher bushel weight as well.

SCAN HERE OR SEARCH ‘SCOTT CAMPBELL REVYSTORY’ FOR MORE. Use plant protection products safely. Always read the label and product information before use. For further product information including warning phrases and symbols refer to www.agricentre.basf.co.uk. Revystar ® XE contains mefentrifluconazole (Revysol ®) and fluxapyroxad (Xemium®).

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MACHINERY

Assessing no-till drills for performance on clay Pages 60-66

Innovation in action for progressive arable farmers AF May p1 Cover TR AD RM.indd 1

22/04/2022 12:55

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AF_05_IFC.indd 1

22/04/2022 14:37

CONTENTS: REGULARS

In this issue of

MAY 2022 VOLUME 45 ISSUE 5

Comment 10 14 18 72

Talking Arable The focus is on careful management of high value crops Talking Agronomy Spring crops are safely in the ground Talking Roots Fight Against Blight data provided until last season by AHDB Potatoes will be missed Talking Policy Industry should be commended for working to change the course of Defra’s urea ban

Technical 20 30

33

33 36 40 42 44

Policy measures target fertiliser concerns New measures to address cost concerns and uncertainty around water rules Tracking and benchmarking bringing transparency to crop production Platform allowing users to scrutinise every single crop management decision Gaining a clear view Cloud-free imagery advances are set to enhance precision farming services How to make autonomous vehicles safe and secure Overcoming the challenges of unmanned machinery use in the field SDHIs a tonic for clean crops Crop protection expert Dr Tudor Dawkins shares the findings of his studies Smart system provides flexible weed control Conviso Smart is providing benefits above weed control for one sugar beet grower Achieving sustainable agricultural systems Findings from the six-year Assist project as it draws to a close

Machinery 52

60

38

Tech to boost safety on farm How technology could help deal with deadly blind spots around machines A no-till drill for clay We report from a drill demo on Roy Ward Farms’ heavy Lincolnshire clay

R&D 38

Exploring environmental effects on bread wheat quality AHDB-funded research is focused on strategies to increase grain protein content

Product news 46

Disease control developments ADAS report highlights benefits from folpet

Podcast 73

Managing input costs Cutting back on chemicals for pest control

60 MAY 2022 AF May p3 4 Contents RM AD TR.indd 2

3 22/04/2022 14:32

CONTENTS: FEATURES

23

6

Business

Management Tips on tackling the business management challenges that lie ahead

23 Farm case study

Environment How the Sustainable Farming Incentive is providing a succession opportunity on one Suffolk farm

48 Sustainability 48 67

Pasture cropping Why a Norfolk farm is developing a technique to grow cereals in strips between soil health-enhancing herbal leys

56 Machinery

Telehandlers Nine metres of lift height and six tonnes of lift capacity are giving materials handling a boost in Lincolnshire

67 Machinery

Drills Three-metre direct drills can provide an accessible route into no-till

4 AF May p3 4 Contents RM AD TR.indd 3

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 14:33

a word from the Contacts Group Editor – Arable Teresa Rush 01787 282 822 teresa.rush@arablefarming.com Senior Arable Technical Specialist Alice Dyer 07966 445 458 alice.dyer@arablefarming.com Machinery Editor Toby Whatley 01772 799 496 toby.whatley@arablefarming.com Production Editor Rik Magliola 01772 799 456 rik.magliola@arablefarming.com Picture Editor Marcello Garbagnoli 01772 799 445 marcelllo.garbagnoli@arablefarming.com Account Manager Jane Newton 01948 780 783 jane.newton@arablefarming.com Account Manager Mark Jackson 01322 449 624 mark.jackson@arablefarming.com Account Manager Chris Knowles 01772 799 550 chris.knowles@arablefarming.com Head of Commercial Solutions Mike Hartley 01772 799 532 mike.hartley@arablefarming.com Advertising Production Justine Sumner 01772 799 437 justine.sumner@arablefarming.com For circulation queries, to request a copy or subscribe, please contact Emma Williamson 01772 799 452 emma.williamson@arablefarming.com Subscriptions Contact: 03303 330 056 help@subscribe.farmers-guardian.com

I

editor

must start by paying tribute to Lord Plumb, who has died aged 97. As both farmer and leader, his was a massive presence in agriculture and the industry has lost a great advocate.

His recommendation for good leadership is reported to have been ‘Listen. Listen. Never try to dictate. Listen’. A piece of advice many current and aspiring leaders might care to pay heed to. His name lives on with the Henry Plumb Foundation, created to encourage young people into farming. A fitting legacy for a man who saw making a living on the land as ‘the best life you can ever imagine’.

While we await the publication of the Government’s Food Strategy White Paper, delayed until the local elections have taken place on May 5, it is, however, expected to promote a greater reliance on machinery and technology.

These themes of course feature regularly in the pages of Arable Farming and in this issue take the form of special features on precision farming and drills.

Robotics We look at the latest developments in cloud-free imagery produced from synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data (p33-34) – the benefits are said to be regular, reliable imaging that will enhance, among other things, field scouting and variable rate application tools. And as the momentum for the greater adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in agriculture continues to build, we examine some of the challenges the industry faces around the safety and security of autonomous farm machines (p36-37).

With many arable farm businesses taking steps to reduce costs through reduced tillage approaches, the spotlight is very much on the drill as a central piece of kit. Is there such a thing as the perfect drill?

Possibly not, but in our review of three-metre direct drills (p67-70) and report on a recent drill demo on Roy Ward Farms’ heavy Lincolnshire clay land (p6066), we hope to help inform the drill deliberations of arable businesses large and small.

Farm safety is another huge issue for our industry and our feature on how technology already in use in construction, could aid safe working around tractors and telehandlers is a must read. Incidentally, the potential for agriculture to learn from the experience of other sectors is also highlighted in the autonomous farm machinery feature mentioned earlier.

My office window frames a view of the Suffolk countryside coming into its best. But do you know what, we could do with a drop of rain.

© Agriconnect 2022 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher.

The contents of Arable Farming are subject to reproduction in information storage and retrieval systems. ISSN 0269-6797

67

Arable Farming, Unit 4, Fulwood Business Park, Caxton Road, Preston, Lancashire PR2 9NZ

www.croptecshow.com November 23-24, 2022

Origination by Farmers Guardian, Unit 4, Fulwood Business Park, Caxton Road, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 9NZ. Published by Agriconnect. Printed by Precision Colour Printing, Halesfield 1, Stirchley, Telford TF7 4QQ. No responsibility can be accepted by Arable Farming for opinions expressed by contributors.

MAY 2022 AF May p5 Leader TR AD RM.indd 1

5 22/04/2022 12:23

BUSINESS Soaring cereal prices and input costs are playing havoc with arable farm accounts, making business planning over the next few years challenging to say the least, writes Cedric Porter.

Farm business rollercoaster ride set to continue

T

his year will go down in farming legend as one when a hot market got even hotter, with cereal and oilseed prices hitting new highs but farmers paying four times as much for their fertiliser as a year ago. This year contrasts with last, which with hindsight will probably be seen as the calm before the storm.

For 30 years Andersons farm business consultants has used the fictional Midlands Loam Farm as its model for an average set of farm accounts, with its figures based on real-life data. The farm is made up of 600 hectares with 240ha owned by the business and a further 360ha rented on Farm Business Tenancies.

The farm employs one full-time worker alongside the owner and gets in a casual worker during harvest. The rotation is relatively simple –

Loam Farm has benefited from buying fertiliser forward this year, but if prices remain inflated it will suffer next year RICHARD KING milling wheat followed by oilseed rape, feed wheat and spring beans.

Last year (2021) was a good one. Rising prices pushed output up 31% on the year to £1,523/ ha, while input prices had yet to soar so variable costs were just 5% higher than in 2020 at £390/ ha. The year did see the first

drop in basic payments under the Government’s post-Brexit farming regime, with a 15% fall in support to £197/ha. The year end result was a business surplus of £573/ha.

Richard King, head of business research at Andersons, says this was a record business surplus for the farm.

“But the record might not stand for long as the farm was able to buy fertiliser forward last summer insulating it from the autumn and recent price rises.

Meanwhile, wheat has been sold for £240/tonne.”

Variable costs This means output is set to increase by another 30% to £1,966/ha in 2022, but variable costs will only be up 18% to £460/ha. And even with a 16% increase in overheads and 17% drop in basic payments, the business margin will jump by

Business performance for Andersons’ Loam Farm in £/hectare

Output Variable costs Gross margin Overheads Rent and finance Drawings Margin from production Basic Payment/Sustainable Farming Initiative Business surplus Source: Andersons

6 AF May p6 7 Business AD TR RM.indd 2

2020 2021 1,165 1,523 370 390 795 1,133 436 437 238 242 75 78 46 376 233 197 279 573

2022 1,966 460 1,506 506 243 80 677 163 840

2023 1,734 840 894 563 256 82 -7 128+40 161

47% to £840/ha. This represents a whole farm profit of more than half-a-million pounds, with 80% of that coming from production not support payments.

Any joy at such record profits will not be long-lasting. Next year is likely to see reduced crop prices, while input costs look set to remain high, with an increase in overheads and another drop in basic payments eating into the business margin. However, the business will see the first Sustainable Farming Incentive payment of £40/ha.

Once the dust has settled, profits are likely to have plunged by more than 80% to £161/ha, with the loss from production at £7/ha. Scottish farmers will see their basic payments maintained at £233/ha in 2022 and 2023 which should give them some limited protection from the fall in output and rise in costs.

“The accounts show how volatile the market is,” says Mr King. “Loam Farm has benefited from buying forward fertiliser

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 14:46

BUSINESS 2022/23 to reclaim tax paid in 2021/22.

“There’s no limit on how much you can reclaim but you can’t do it until the end of the financial year, so you still have to pay the tax before reclaiming it,” adds Mr Kirkpatrick.

“It doesn’t get round the cashflow issue, so get your books done quickly to minimise the time between paying and reclaiming.”

Sole traders and partners can also make use of farmers’ averaging, whereby profits can be averaged retrospectively over two or five years, to even out fluctuating incomes.

Next year is likely to see reduced crop prices, while input costs look set to remain high, says Andersons.

this year, but if prices remain inflated it will suffer next year.

The figures show the importance of understanding the financial performance of your farm throughout the year. We calculated the Loam Farm figures in February for our seminar series. Then we expected an average output of £1,576 for 2022 26% less than our current predictions.”

One clear thing the figures highlight is the need for good tax planning. Arable farmers may be

able to pay tax bills for high profits made in 2021 from continued strong returns in 2022, but they may struggle to pay even higher tax bills when cashflow is much tighter in 2023.

Cashflow For most businesses – depending on their year end – the tax incurred in 2021/22 will be payable in January 2023, at a time when cashflow – and potentially profit – could be tight. Short of borrowing money

to pay that bill, there are a few ways to reduce it, says Philip Kirkpatrick, manager at rural accountant Old Mill.

“Depending on your year end, you could bring purchases, for example machinery, forward into the current tax year to offset against the higher profits. But only if you were planning to make those purchases anyway – don’t do it purely for tax reasons.”

Another option is to carry back any losses made in

Payments on account One very useful tool for individuals (not companies) expecting a poor year ahead, is to reduce payments on account.

“Payments on account for 2022/23 will be set on the high profits in 2021/22, with half due in January 2023 and half in July 2023. If you’re expecting profits to be lower, you can reduce payments on account.”

It is important to forecast accurately, says Mr Kirkpatrick because if payments are reduced below the actual income level then HMRC will charge interest on the difference.

“However, with HMRC charging interest at 3.25% per annum it could work out as a good alternative to an overdraft facility.”

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MAY 2022 AF May p6 7 Business AD TR RM.indd 3

7 22/04/2022 12:38

POLITICS WATCH

ABI Kay Boris Johnson needs to acknowledge the importance of domestic production

I

t has become cliche to say this, but great tides of change are upon us.

When you stop to think about what was happening a decade ago, the world is almost unrecognisable. Cast your mind back to 2012 for a moment: Obama had just been re-elected for a second term, Xi Jinping was almost unknown outside China and David Cameron was busy building diplomatic relations with Russia during a visit to Moscow.

But even the last two years alone are likely to be the subject of their own history books in the future.

In the agriculture sector, Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have caused massive waves. At the moment, commodity prices are high, with London wheat futures at record levels.

Agflation But prices need to rise to keep pace with a tsunami of ‘agflation’, which surged to almost 30 per cent in March. Fuel costs have risen by 29.4 per cent and fertiliser by 107.7 per cent, leaving cereal farmers and oilseed rape growers particularly exposed.

Traversing waters as choppy as this, the industry needs a life jacket from Government.

Many people hope that floatation device might come in the form of the new Food Strategy, due to be published this month.

8 AF May p8 Politics AK TR RM.indd 2

I am a big believer in harnessing the benefits of technology, but the Government must also be aware of the risks it opens up ABI KAY The plan must provide a framework which can offer stability to farmers, but also be flexible enough to cope with any future shocks. That is quite a course to navigate.

Defra recently trailed some of the headline measures in the strategy, notably promoting a greater reliance on machinery and technology in the sector.

I am a big believer in harnessing the benefits of technology, but the Government must also be aware of the risks it opens up, such as vulnerability to cyber attacks and reliance on foreign actors for satellites, for example.

It may be that in order to keep a 21st century food system secure, Ministers need to spend more on IT defence.

And that’s why the Food Strategy has to be a cross-departmental effort. It cannot be Defra’s work alone. The same goes for trade policy.

The second iteration of the Trade and Agriculture Commission recently published its report on the Australian trade deal and came to the conclusion that farm groups’ fears about the agreement were ‘overheated’.

One risk that was acknowledged, though, was the ‘theoretical’ possibility that Australian crops could be grown at a competitive advantage due to cheaper pesticides.

Trade ties This is even more likely to be the case in the deal the Government is pursuing with India – one of the world’s highest pesticide users after China.

Boris Johnson visited New Delhi last month to discuss boosting trade ties and food security with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

But if he is serious about food security, he needs to acknowledge the importance of domestic production in the mix and stop UK farmers from sinking.

About the author rAbi Kay is head of news for Arable Farming’s sister publication Farmers Guardian.

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 12:25

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AF_05_P09.indd 1

MANCHESTER

20/04/2022 12:50

OLLIE Martin Ollie Martin is responsible for the arable and grain business enterprise across Bedfordia Farms’ 2,450-hectare operation, with 27,000 tonnes of grain storage, near Bedford.

He studied agribusiness management at Writtle University College and has had previous farm management roles in Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Fife.

Most wheats have now had their full dose of soil applied nitrogen OLLIE MARTIN

Farm facts rBedfordia Farms has more than 2,400 hectares of combinable crops including wheat, barley and beans rThe business also provides grain testing in its on-site lab and has 27,000 tonnes of grain storage and processing capacity rThere are 27 soil types across the farms, but most of the land consists of Hanslope clay, Faulkbourne and Stretham, which are classified as chalky clay, becoming waterlogged in winter rThe farm utilises a number of precision technologies and has two pig units totalling 1,100 breeding sows

10

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t’s that time of year when time seems to fly and crops progress rapidly. It’s a happy time to be employed in the countryside, with days getting longer, birds in full song and the oilseed rape in flower.

No sooner had we completed T0 fungicide applications to the winter wheat, then leaf 3 was making an appearance on the earliest drilled block of Crusoe.

Yellow rust, so far, has been almost conspicuous by its absence, with only the Zyatt exhibiting extremely low-level symptoms. Long may that continue. A well-timed dose of tebuconazole should keep it at bay until the T1 takes over the mantle, in the next week or so. Product of choice at T1 will be Ascra Xpro (bixafen + fluopyram + prothioconazole) due to its well balanced activity on rusts, as well as septoria tritici.

After some debate and conflicting evidence, I have also decided to include one litre/hectare of folpet in the mix. It may be no substitute for chlorothalonil, RIP, but having a multisite in the mix just feels like the responsible thing to do.

Early sown wheats, that seemingly never stopped growing, will get another robust dose of 1.5 litres/ha chlormequat chloride plus 0.1 litres/ha trinexapac-ethyl. Mid to late sown crops will receive a proportionate one litre/ha CCC. Most wheats have now had their full dose of soil applied nitrogen, although some land still waits

patiently for its share of the digestate. The pig slurry lagoons have been well and truly drained, thanks to the ever-professional efforts of Tramspread and A. and R. Cramphorn. With my purely arable hat on, the pig slurry is a good value source of nutrients that we are lucky to have in the present climate. Looking at the wider business perspective and the challenges the pig industry is currently facing, there is in fact a significant cost attached that can’t be ignored.

Generally, the wheats look to have great potential and, looking around, that statement is not just limited to our own crops. I am reminded though, that all we can do is manage that potential, the weather will dictate whether it’s a good harvest or not. And if I am honest, it is starting to get a bit dry around here. The good news is that it should be worth growing, as the new crop discount appears to be rapidly diminishing, as the trade switches attention to next season.

The oilseed rape received its final dose of soil applied nitrogen and sulphur just as the flower buds started to open. Now approaching full flower, attention is turning to sclerotinia and whether we should aim for a one spray programme or two. With oilseed rape prices seemingly on a one-way trajectory at present, two sprays might be easily justified. However, I shall keep a close eye on the AHDB sclerotinia infection risk forecast to aid my judgement. Unfortunately, the fragrant aroma of OSR in flower does little to mask the whiff of digestate or slurry that seems to be lingering in

Pig slurry is a good value source of nutrients for the farm.

MAY 2022

AF May P10 11 TA Martin TR AD RM.indd 2

22/04/2022 10:37

TALKING ARABLE

Yellow rust so far has been almost conspicuous by its absence.

the area. My thanks to the local community for putting up with it.

As I write, the winter beans are receiving their first fungicide just as the first flowers are opening. Seraphin (azoxystrobin + tebuconazole) should give a few weeks’ protection against chocolate spot before we return with a second application. Currently, new crop feed beans are trading at around a £25 premium to wheat which, while not particularly inspiring, is enough to motivate me to invest in what is a good-looking crop.

Finally, it was with great relief that I read of the updated guidance on the Farming Rules for Water. Well done and thank you to those industry bodies and individuals who made the case on our behalf and managed to get the Environment Agency to see sense.

As it stands now, I see these rules as being sensible and proportionate, a win for both farming and the environment. As an industry we must now adhere to them. Failure to do so will undermine the significant efforts made to make our case.

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MAY 2022 AF May P10 11 TA Martin TR AD RM.indd 3

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11 22/04/2022 14:16

HANNAH Darby As a partner in her family’s farm, former physiotherapist Hannah Darby switched to farming after studying 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.

Our fen fields have still had no nitrogen and our trial last year determined a late application produced the highest yield 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

12

I

seem to always open my column talking about the weather and I am sure it is the first thing on most farmers’ minds. It is very dry, but I must say, I am impressed, so far, by how resilient the winter crops are. This year, we are only growing winter wheat and rye. My intention is to bring oilseed rape back into the rotation soon, but it still seems very risky.

Rye I have talked often about rye and I am still impressed. It is now obvious that the two fields on the stronger clay have suffered more with the drilling malfunction and slug damage. And although they are gapping in places, the rye is tillering well and will offer some competition against black-grass.

Where the plant population is full on our fen fields, there is now no light in the base of the crop and the black-grass is extending, dying back and I doubt it will survive to produce an ear. It certainly looks like if you can get the crop established well, the seed return from any black-grass should be minimal.

The inputs, so far, have also been reduced compared to wheat, with the clay fields having 100kg/hectare of nitrogen and 30kg/ha on the fen. It will be interesting to see the gross margin as rye trades at a deduction to wheat.

The winter wheat on our ‘high land’ – which basically means not fen – has now had 160kg/ha of nitrogen and anything more will be put on with

the sprayer on the flag leaf. The N-Tester has so far proved useful at determining the crop need and it doesn’t look short so far. All of these fields have been treated with Tiros seed dressing after last year’s successful trial, so the impact of the endophytes might also be helping. Our fen fields have still had no nitrogen and our trial last year determined a late application produced the highest yield. I know we are in a small club with organic matter levels around 40% – whilst it has benefit for nitrogen levels, there are many other challenges.

Spring drilling We have nearly finished spring drilling. It is always the intention to leave the sugar beet until April, to try and avoid the early spring night frosts which have led to redrilling in years gone by.

This is a costly exercise and leads to variably developed plants at harvest.

The sugar beet is drilled into the strip which was established in the autumn after the cover crop was planted. This season, we opted not to have our seed treated with neonicotinoids for a few reasons.

The main reason is our rotation which, on the fen, is dependent on peas. In the future, it may feature spring beans or oilseed rape, which would be challenging given the limitation on the following crop for 32 months after treated sugar beet.

Sugar beet presents many challenges for us on The farm has nearly finished spring drilling.

MAY 2022

AF May p12 13 TA Darby TR RM AD.indd 2

22/04/2022 13:24

TALKING ARABLE

Grow the Future our soil type. And the presence of virus isn’t the only challenge leading us to the conclusion that it will be difficult to continue with in the future.

Weeds Weeds both in the crop and in the following crops, due to the soil disturbance and problems establishing the following crops, have meant sugar beet is not so much the banker it once was.

I hope that we have a good season this year and the decision not to plant with the seed dressing is not too devastating for us.

We also have our peas and oat intercrop to drill. Peas always rely on a good soil temperature and moisture. Let’s hope that we have a good, quick germination and the crops get ahead of the weeds, as there are little to no herbicides we can legally use in the crop.

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MAY 2022 AF May p12 13 TA Darby TR RM AD.indd 3

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22/04/2022 13:24

TALKING AGRONOMY

GREG Taylor Sheep-grazed winter covers provide a good entry for spring drilling

G

oing into mid-April all our spring crops – with the exception of linseed and maize – are safely in the ground.

Some persistently cold nights have led many to take their time in getting going. But a dry winter, with enough moisture in the ground, has meant they’ve direct drilled really well.

Sheep-grazed winter covers – of which we have had many more this season – have given us a particularly good entry for spring drilling; not least after such strong autumn and winter growth. The informal arrangements our growers have developed with local shepherds, well-equipped with electric fencing and keen for extra forage in January and February, have proved very valuable.

Agronomist facts JGreg Taylor has been an Agrii agronomist for more than a decade, servicing around 6,000 hectares of mainly combinable cropping across a broad range of soil types in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire.

As a Harper Adams graduate, he has worked on farms in New Zealand and the USA, and is now responsible for the trials and demonstration work on the Brackley i-Farm.

He is particularly engaged with direct drilling, soil improvement and regenerative agriculture and is an ardent rugby fan and marathon runner in his spare time.

14 AF May p14 TAg Taylor TR AD RM.indd 2

One big upside has been much less residue to get in the way of drilling. While grazing removes some of the captured nutrients, we find this is more than made up for by the ‘processing’ the crop gets into organic matter with a better carbon-to-nitrogen ratio.

By the time they reach the New Year, we reckon the covers have done their main job of absorbing CO2 – providing root exudates and protecting the soil and its structure.

Advantages As well as clear advantages for those with little opportunity to introduce livestock into their rotations, sheep-grazed covers are proving an environmental scheme in themselves – and one delivering greater environmental benefits than most overwintered stubbles. The fact that grazing saves a glyphosate treatment and provides a bonus of around 50p/ewe/week adds further value to our cover cropping.

After grazing, we have found it vital to leave the ground long enough for the soil to weather down ahead of drilling. We also need sufficient weed growth to enable an effective pre-drilling spray of glyphosate. Otherwise, we get far too many broad-leaved weeds – not to mention grass-weeds – in our crops at just the time they are most vulnerable to competition.

With conditions as good as they have been this spring, we have seen tine-based direct drills perform as well as disc drills. However, where they have been used before the ground has dried out enough, tine drills have lifted too much soil and squashed it down badly on the seed on occasion. Patience has been an obvious virtue here, in the same way it has

been in making sure of the best slot closure with disc drilling.

Unlike no-till purists, we haven’t been afraid to do a little shallow spring cultivation or soil lifting ahead of drilling, wherever needed, especially to make sure the land comes out of linseed in the best condition for direct wheat drilling in the autumn.

We definitely have more peas in the ground this season, but not as big an area of legumes overall as we thought might have been the case.

With working capital levels set to be so much higher next season, though I’m sure 2023 will see a lot more spring cropping in general and legumes in particular. After all, it will be crucial to ‘cut one’s coat to suit the cloth’, making sure that only land well able to deliver a good eight to 10 tonnes per hectare of wheat goes into it.

Thankfully, most of our wheats are still in very good shape with little early disease. And the bulk of our OSR has recovered remarkably well from alarming levels of late winter pigeon damage. The colder recent weather that has held back our spring crops has really helped to calm winter crop growth down.

We are particularly pleased with the potential our earlier drilled wheats have, with KWS Extase standing out for its tillering as well as cleanliness. Having concentrated our early spray programme more on nutrition and plant growth regulation than anything else, septoria remains our key watch out as we move towards T1.

We are also continuing to do everything we can to minimise the stress our crops are under this spring. I only wish we could do the same for their agronomist.

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TALKING AGRONOMY

BEN Boothman With end market prices as strong as they are, this is not a year to have flat crops

T

he start to April provided us with a mixed bag of weather, meaning spray windows were very few and far between, leading to a backlog of jobs. As we approach Easter, however, conditions have been near perfect allowing many to work their way through the spray list and get the majority of these jobs crossed off.

All spring grass-weed programmes should now be completed alongside any T0 applications that may have been planned.

With crops moving forward, albeit at a gentle jog rather than an Olympian sprint, focus now turns to T1 fungicide applications. As with every year, variety profiling dictates which chemistry I choose to recommend.

Varieties such as Extase, Siskin and Illustrious all have a sound agronomy package, therefore my plans will be based around a low dose SDHI (bixafen + fluopyram) while

Agronomist facts JBen Boothman is an independent agronomist and member of the Arable Advisor Group and the Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC), covering Yorkshire and the North East. He is BASIS, FACTS and BETA qualified and studied for a degree in agriculture and crop management at Harper Adams University.

16 AF May p16 Boothman TR AD RM.indd 2

slightly more disease-prone varieties such as Cranium, Gravity and Skyscraper lead me more into the more septoria active fluxapyroxad + mefentrifluconazole. The recent rise in temperatures has caused our little friend yellow rust to wake up and be easily seen.

Varieties with known yellow rust susceptibility will have a low dose of tebuconazole added to the tank, adding some curative activity. With crops looking so lush and end market prices as strong as they are, this is not a year to have flat crops. Chlormequat and trinexapac-ethyl will also be added with rates tweaked dependent on final planned nitrogen amounts and any previous growth regulation which may have already been applied.

Growth stages Winter barleys are going through the growth stages day by day, with the earlier-sown crops now displaying their flag leaves. Due to the four-seasons-in-one-day weather, many have only just received their T1 fungicides and a first PGR application.

Where flag leaves are still tucked away, a recommendation of mepiquat chloride will be prescribed, the rate of which will depend on the individual crops.

PGR is always a hot topic with barleys, especially as many of my clients are mixed enterprises meaning soils are rich with manure. Previous experience has told me to never scrimp on growth regulators as neither

the farmer nor the combine driver will thank you.

Oilseed rape crops are now well into flower and survived the recent frosts relatively unscathed. First flower sprays protecting against sclerotinia will be going on this week, with follow up sprays planned for two-three weeks’ time if needed. Bixafen + prothioconazole are my actives of choice following pleasing results last year.

If conditions stay dry during flowering, then a second spray may not be needed as petal stick onto the plants will be vastly reduced. With prices hitting more than £700/tonne, one thing for sure is that every trailer this harvest will be watertight and any leaks of the golden crop on the way to the shed will not be appreciated.

Linseed crops are also starting to show signs of spring life and putting height on at speed. Applications of difenconazole and metconazole will be going on towards the end of the month when flower buds become visible. Again, rates of these will be tweaked dependent on how good a job pigeons have been doing at natural growth regulation.

The first fodder beet crops of the spring 2022 campaign are going in and I could not have wished for better conditions. Once they are up and away I will be sticking with my favoured broadacre herbicide programme, which is a combination of actives sprayed twice within a certain window.

MAY 2022 21/04/2022 16:35

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TALKING AGRONOMY ROOTS

DARRYL Shailes We are increasingly using early warning systems and technology to help us manage everything

W

ith the Easter weekend forecast to be fine, a mix of fieldwalking, grass cutting and entertaining was planned.

I did at one time imagine a long weekend like the rest of the nation. However, in agriculture, as we know, days off in spring are hard won and have to be caught up with, either before or after the event, so some fieldwalking had to be undertaken.

At least it wasn’t raining.

I’ve yet to see a swallow, but have heard reports and I wait with anticipation to hear the first cuckoo to let me know that summer is truly on its way. I looked at the British Trust for Ornithology’s cuckoo tracking project and some have got as far as northern Spain, so it won’t be long hopefully.

I’m planning to have my dad over when they’re in full voice in the Waveney Valley, as he’s not heard one for a while and he has not been able to visit for the last two springs, due to the Covid-19 restrictions. We normally have a good

Agronomist facts JDarryl Shailes is root crop technical manager for Hutchinsons, with a nationwide remit. He has been working in potato agronomy for more than 20 years.

18 AF May p18 Roots TR AD RM.indd 2

chorus echoing across the valley when they first arrive.

I’m not sure how the weather affects the cuckoo migration, whether it’s like aphids and the warmer it is they earlier they come, but it’s good to have the tracking project to give us an early warning.

It’s a bit like the Rothamsted insect survey and the BBRO yellow water traps, which we rely on this year to help manage aphids and virus in the sugar beet and potato seed crop.

With around 75% of the national sugar beet crop treated with Cruiser SB (thiamethoxam), there will be a bit of time to concentrate purely on weed control for some.

Trapping information However, with most of my beet not being treated, I’ll be relying on the trapping info and then scouting and treating when the threshold of one wingless green aphid per four plants is met.

It’s always a challenge to fit everything in and tank mixing isn’t always possible, so the crop may need to be covered on several occasions over the coming weeks.

On the limited amount of Conviso Smart beet I’ve got, it may be easier to tank mix the insecticide with the Conviso One herbicide as long as the timing for either isn’t compromised.

I would think by the time you read this we will have applied the first treatment on the

non-Cruiser treated beet, as the predicted aphid migration date is the middle of April.

We are increasingly using models, early warning systems and technology to help us manage everything, within an integrated crop protection framework, so I’m really going to miss the AHDB updates in potatoes this spring, especially the Fight Against Blight (FAB) information.

While we have our own weather stations and models, within our Omnia package, to give us risk warnings of many different pests and diseases, including potato blight, I’m not sure what we will see of the Hutton Criteria this season.

One of the most important parts of FAB, has been the reporting of infection sources, whether dumps, volunteers or crops, to enable us to strengthen up our programme if needed.

Also, as we have mentioned before, the real time genotyping has been a very useful tool when making decisions.

Without this information in the public domain, it will be down to teams of growers and agronomists to share the information, once blight is found, to help us all react to the pressure in an appropriate manner.

In the meantime, I’m going to be avidly watching the cuckoo tracking project to see when Calypso, Victor II, Ellis or their friends are likely to be in East Anglia, to get the timing of Dad’s visit spot on.

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 11:55

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20/04/2022 22/02/2022 12:53 11:59

TECHNICAL CROP NUTRITION

Defra plans for a ban on urea have been reversed.

A package of policy measures announced by Defra in late March addresses fertiliser cost concerns and uncertainty around the Farming Rules for Water. Arable Farming reports.

Policy measures target fertiliser concerns

F

arm groups have broadly welcomed a package of measures from the Government to help with high fertiliser costs but are warning more action is likely to be needed over the coming months.

The policy announcements from Defra came as analysis from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit suggested farmers could be paying an extra £760 million for fertiliser over the next year, assuming prices stay as high as they currently are.

The plans include reversing a

Government response will mean scheme members can: rOnly use untreated or unprotected urea fertilisers from January 15 to March 31 each year rUse urease inhibitor-treated or protected urea fertilisers

throughout the rest of the year Defra will monitor the effectiveness of the scheme and has stated it will introduce regulations if the scheme does not reduce the necessary amount of ammonia emissions.

proposed ban on urea in England, with a new Red Tractor (RT) standard allowing the use of untreated or unprotected urea

fertilisers between January 15 and March 31, and treated or protected urea fertilisers throughout the rest of the year. This measure will be implemented in April 2023.

Generation change drives early SFI commitment Putting more transparency into crop production Gaining a clear view How to make autonomous vehicles secure and safe Exploring environmental effects on bread wheat quality Smart system provides flexible weed control Achieving sustainable agricultural systems Pastures new for cereals

Policing body However, some farmers have voiced concerns that RT could become Defra’s policing body, making the assurance scheme ‘more compulsory than voluntary.

Staffordshire farmer Clive Bailye points to what he sees as

the ‘dangerous levels of control ’ RT, a private company, will have over another business, while East Yorkshire grower Stephen Ridsdale highlights that the new standard will only apply to English RT farmers, not their Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts.

“It is really unfair that to pass RT accreditation, English farmers are going to be disadvantaged,” he says.

NFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw points out that the

JGovernment response to the consultation on reducing ammonia emissions from solid urea fertiliser.

An alternative approach delivered through the Red Tractor farm assurance scheme and FACTS advisers from 2023

Also in this section 23 30 33 36 38 42 44 48

20

MAY 2022

AF May p20 21 22 Tech Crop Nutrition TR AD RM.indd 2

22/04/2022 10:07

The SFI will reward farmers for sowing nitrogen-fixing plants to substitute fertiliser requirements, Defra has announced.

FULLY LOADED

HYBRIDS Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme is far preferable to the planned ban on uea.

He says: “Maintaining access to urea fertiliser benefits every farmer in the country that is using nitrogen fertiliser. Not only does it give choice to utilise the benefits of untreated urea early in the season, but it also critically, provides price transparency to the market place.

“To maintain access to this product, Defra wanted to see an auditable industry approach. Given that RT covers approximaely 95% of those farmers utilisng urea fertiliser, this was the only way to avoid an outright ban.

“Farmers looking to undermine this risk losing urea for the whole of the industry.”

A Defra spokesman said decisions around RT assurance were ‘a matter for farmers themselves’.

‘Unaffected’ Non-RT members will be ‘unaffected’ by the new standard and will be able to use untreated urea during the restricted period Defra also announced that new slurry storage grants will be offered this year to help farmers store organic nutrients and reduce dependence on artificial fertilisers.

And a new industry fertiliser roundtable, chaired by Farming

JDefra will pay to help with the costs of sowing nitrogen fixing plants and green manures in crops to substitute some fertiliser requirements for the coming season and reduce dependence on manufactured fertilisers linked to the price of gas.

The scheme is due to launch in June.

Minister Victoria Prentis, met for the first time on March 31. An update on that meeting was awaited as Arable Farming went to press.

CLA president Mark Tufnell says he is pleased to see Defra taking action but pointed to the massive challenges ahead for UK food production.

He says: “If prices continue to stay at this all-time high, Government will need to urgently consider ways of increasing and diversifying domestic fertiliser production. We hope this will be a central focus of the roundtable Defra has rightly called.”

And providing further details on its Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) policy, Defra announced that the first component of the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, the SFI, will reward farmers for sowing nitrogen-fixing X

MAY 2022 AF May p20 21 22 Tech Crop Nutrition TR AD RM.indd 3

21

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22/04/2022 10:07

TECHNICAL CROP NUTRITION plants and green manures to substitute fertiliser requirements.

The Government also issued new guidance clarifying the Environment

Time periods JWhen application rate limits for high RAN organic manures will apply: Soil type – sandy or shallow soils rTillage land: August 1 to end of February rGrassland: September 1 to end of February Soil type – all other soils rTillage land: October 1 to end of February rGrassland: October 15 to end of February

Agency’s (EA) role in policing the Farming Rules for Water.

The new document sets out ‘criteria’ for the EA to follow when applying the directive and was announced by Defra Secretary George Eustice.

Imposing sanctions The EA makes it clear the guidance ‘does not amend’ the rules, which were introduced in 2018 to reduce and prevent agriculture polluting water sources, but the document does highlight various factors the EA should consider before taking further action or imposing sanctions.

It refers in particular to the use of organic manure and manufactured fertiliser to agricultural land stating that, ‘enforcement action should not normally be taken where land managers have met the criteria’ and can demonstrate they have ‘planned

Slurry storage grants JFarmers will be able to apply for slurry storage grants, helping them meet the Farming Rules for Water and reducing dependence on artificial fertilisers by storing organic nutrients until needed or for onward processing.

These grants will contribute towards the cost of covered slurry store construction projects, to enable farm businesses to get to six months storage capacity.

applications of organic manure or inorganic fertiliser’ such as a nutrient management plan.

It also suggests farmers look closely at which crops or soils need

The grant will be available for a range of store types depending on what is most appropriate for each farm.

The grant will be a new theme under the Farming Transformation Fund, part of the Farming Investment Fund. Defra says it intends to open for a first round of applications this coming autumn with more details on the scheme published in early summer to allow a start to be made on project planning.

fertiliser and to avoid using those that raise the soil P index and to avoid ‘significant risk of agricultural diffuse pollution due to nitrate leaching’.

Farming Rules for Water JThe Farming Rules for Water have been a huge area of concern for farmers in England since last year, when the EA issued guidance which indicated that spreading manures in autumn ahead of winter cereals was contrary to the rules. While the EA did allow some autumn spreading in 2021, it warned that this was just a temporary measure and the rules were likely to tighten this year, says Andrew Atkinson, of Strutt and Parker’s farming department.

Going forward farmers will have to be able to demonstrate that they have a nutrient management plan which considers the expected crop nutrient requirements based on RB209 guidance or a FACTS-qualified adviser, the soil analysis of each field and the nutrient content of the manure.

They must be able to prove that any applications are proportionate and there is a soil and crop need, although this calculation can

22

now be based on the annual crop cycle and not just the immediate need of the crop.

The rules on how much manure can be applied will differ depending on whether spreading a manure type that is considered low in readily available nitrogen (RAN) – for example, farmyard manure from a suckler cow enterprise – or a manure with a high RAN content, such as slurries.

New guidance on implementation of the Farming Rules for Water will see the EA prioritising advice over enforcement action.

Application limit Low RAN manures – which have a RAN content of less than 30% nitrogen – can be spread at any time without any application limit, so long as the wider rules on not exceeding soil and crop need are met and steps are taken to avoid diffuse pollution.

For high RAN manures, which pose a higher nitrate leaching risk, there will be an application rate limit of 30cu.m/ha within certain time periods (see panel, above) and no repeat applications will be allowed for at least 21 days. Outside of the

time periods there will be no application rate limit, so long as it does not exceed crop and soil need.

Mr Atkinson says: “The new guidance says that the Environment Agency will generally prioritise giving advice and guidance before taking enforcement action.

“However, farmers should not see this development as meaning they can be complacent. The new rules will remove some logistical

challenges, as well as enabling farmers to continue to improve their soils. But the focus on preventing water pollution remains a clear priority for Government.”

Defra is consulting on legally binding targets, following the passing of the Environment Act, and one of these is to reduce N, P and sediment pollution into water from agriculture by 40% by 2037, compared with a 2018 baseline.

MAY 2022

AF May p20 21 22 Tech Crop Nutrition TR AD RM.indd 4

22/04/2022 10:07

ENVIRONMENT TECHNICAL

With a commitment to an extended rotation required under SFI, Tom McVeigh is adding spring barley and spring beans to his existing winter wheat/oilseed rape rotation.

For one Suffolk family, playing a part in the development of the Sustainable Farming Incentive has been taken up with full commitment from the new generation. Martin Rickatson reports.

Generation change drives early SFI commitment

W

ith the most significant farm support changes in a generation on the horizon, the generational change at the helm of its business has encouraged the McVeigh family to prepare by committing fully to Defra’s Sustainable Farming Incentive

(SFI) in its earliest development stages.

Having signed up for the SFI pilot scheme back in January, it is record-keeping and forward planning which are keeping minds occupied for the moment, but more complex changes to rotations, machinery and even field layouts will start to take effect this autumn.

Tom McVeigh returned to his

167-hectare, all-arable family farm near Debenham, Suffolk, in 2020, after working in the automotive industry since graduating in agriculture from Reading University in 2018.

Changing agricultural policy has encouraged his father to take more of a back seat in the business, while Tom’s sister is also now focusing on a new livestock enterprise.

Tom says: “We’ve never entered into any schemes, but my father had been talking with our agronomist, Rob Jackson at Farmacy, and environmental adviser, Hannah Joy at Farmacy-owner Hutchinsons, about committing to the Countryside Stewardship [CS] scheme.

“But with the Government developing its new agricultural policy following Brexit, I felt X

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23 22/04/2022 10:28

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT there was an exciting opportunity to do more than this and we considered it a natural transition point for moving the management of the farm to me from my father.

“Our farm is run currently on typical current agricultural lines, with a short rotation of two wheats and oilseed rape, across a landscape of large, open fields, well-suited to the current support scheme.

“I felt that a time of significant change was a good point to become one of the first farms involved in the pilot SFI. I’ve also done this with other recent initiatives, such as the Farming Technology Fund and the Resilience Fund, because I think that with so much change coming, it’s imperative for anyone entering the industry to understand the changes and opportunities..”

As the farm was not in any established scheme, Tom was able to commit to the advanced SFI scheme, which requires the farm to put 10% of its land area into environmental commitments.

He says: “I wanted to go to into the advanced level so I could understand exactly what it entails.

However, at the point I signed the agreement in January, our 2021-22 cropping was already sown.

Expectations “Most of what’s therefore expected from me between now and the next cropping year is primarily benchmarking of business performance figures via completion of a land management plan and calculating option selection scenarios to help

Cover crops will be a new feature on the farm, with moisture management being a key factor on the heavy clay.

understand the different earnings and commitments of entry, intermediate and advanced levels for a farm like ours, to help Defra help farmers down the line understand why they should sign up for the level that suits them best.

“The whole farm is entered into the scheme, but I have the ability to change the level I’m committed to at any time. However, I don’t anticipate this, as I don’t think that for our farm the demands are too onerous.

“The key difference in admin-

I may end up with a very different landscape to the one I became used to growing up TOM McVEIGH

24

istration is that things appear to be moving from ‘be seen to be doing things’ to ‘outcomes will be measured’, so proving that will be necessary.”

The key change to the McVeigh family’s working practices is the requirement to eliminate ploughing.

Tom says: “That’s a big change for us, as we’ve been a standard conventional farm, ploughing every three years, cultivating twice plus rolling before drilling.

“An extended rotation is a commitment under SFI, with cover crops ahead of spring cropping, but I think all of that goes hand in hand with reduced tillage. Our 2022-23 rotation will include winter wheat, spring barley, spring beans and winter oilseed rape, with a rotation of two wheats, beans, barley and oilseed rape planned.”

Cover crops are new to the farm and will be a learning curve, says Tom. “But our agronomist has experience managing them for other customers, so I’m reassured we’ll have the right husbandry advice.

“We need to think carefully about what we want from them, with drainage being a key factor on our heavy clay.”

He acknowledges that moving in one season from a ploughbased system to direct drilling is a challenge.

Condition “But our soils, despite being heavy clay, are in pretty good condition.

We are trying to avoid changing equipment hastily, and the Defra definition of min-till is very vague, defining it as tillage of less than 100mm which does not invert the soil, so this autumn we plan to begin by reducing cultivation depth to 75mm maximum, using shallow spring tine passes.

“We will also be hiring a direct drill to begin trying to understand how it would work and what further changes may be required on our soils.”

The SFI payments do not warrant immediate investment in kit without careful planning and calculations first, he says.

“It’s unlikely we’ll be able to X

MAY 2022

AF May p23 24 26 Technical Environment AD TR RM.indd 4

22/04/2022 10:28

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TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT achieve our SFI aims with our current machinery, largely because we were contracting out many services, including crop establishment. But I am prepared to invest so I can take more of this back in-house and meet our commitments.

“We have our own tractors and some machinery, but not many implements, so we need to understand exactly what is essential.”

To add a livestock element to the business beyond the 25-head Longhorn beef herd the family runs, a poultry unit was purchased in March, with the aim of further diversifying the business and more fully integrating livestock.

“It’s over an hour from the home farm, which isn’t ideal, but gives us further scope. We believe organic manures will play a vital role in our farming system, and because of the area we live in, they aren’t always easy to obtain.”

While all the farm is entered into SFI, the most significant change in the next cropping year will be to one field in particular which Tom is planning to use as a trial for a new farming system aimed at minimising both costs and monoculture.

“Soil mapping is

a key metric Defra is looking to use to measure the outcomes of this future scheme, making benchmarking necessary for us. I will also need to be able to measure my current system against my trial to understand any differences in outcomes.

“I’ve used Hutchinsons’ Omnia Terramap service to have this field and others fully mapped for nutrients, which also enables me to enter and log data for specific strips of fields and start to understand and compare their differences. This could be a vital tool for better understanding of land’s productivity.

Transition “I think a transition to direct drilling will be possible as the field is sufficiently prepared – it has no drainage problems but possibly lacks some structure, so I’m prepared to take a punt with it. It’s the next step in our move towards min-till and a further reduction in our fuel use and carbon impact.”

In the same field, Tom plans to put into practice his interest in the potential mutual cropping and carbon capture benefits of agroforestry, having visited experts in this area and in commercial tree crop production.

Tom says: “When I studied agriculture at Reading

University, I found visiting other farms to learn how they did things really useful and also became very interested in the agroforestry work of Prof Martin Wolfe.

“He’s done a lot of fascinating work on the beneficial co-existence of different plant species and their often complementary rooting systems, their benefits as windbreaks, and mineral cycling “When visiting both Japan and eastern Europe I saw that strip cropping was common because they don’t have access to the crop protection products we do.

“I thought I could incorporate these elements whilst including beetle banks - a requisite of the SFI – maximising their effect in the field without wasting space. The problem initially is that the SFI rules against ploughing, which is the best way of establishing a bank.”

However, strip cropping may not suit everyone, Tom acknowledges.

“We’re likely to be spending more time performing actions on this field than under our current system, but we need to find ways to reduce our inputs without compromising yield, while simultaneously moving towards a system aligned to greener farming.”

The farm’s first payment under the three-year scheme is due in May, and will then be quarterly. Tom says being young and relatively new into the business means he is so far optimistic about scheme commitments and payment times.

“My father’s generation have gone through a lot of

aggravation with such things but I’m new to it, so either naive or optimistic. So far commitments have largely involved online webinars on subjects such as soil health or hedgerows, and submitting surveys.

“Hannah Joy, Hutchinsons’ environmental adviser, has been able to help answer a lot of questions, as the firm has other farmer customers participating, and has provided invaluable knowledge to help us understand what to expect in the future and how to practically achieve certain outcomes.

“It’s been a helpful exercise in benchmarking to learn more about our business, though, and I think this is the first step to a more sustainable farm support system.

Meeting environmental standards and producing high crop yields shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. “ If my beetle banks work and reduce my requirements for slug pellets by encouraging predation, it will be a pragmatic solution.

Fertiliser and spray cost rises mean it seems sensible to reduce our dependence on them.

Flexibility “By making changes now and using the SFI as a vehicle to experiment on my land, I’m hoping to find my business is more profitable, achieving similar yields but spending less, with wider diversity and more flexibility and a greater spread of business risk. I may end up with a very different landscape to the one I got used to growing up,” Tom concludes.

An example of the agroforestry approach Tom McVeigh is interested in adopting on his Suffolk farm, possibly planting trees within a beetle bank.

26

MAY 2022

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AF_05_P27.indd 1

20/04/2022 12:56

Venue: The Vox Venue, Birmingham | Date: Thursday, October 20, 2022

Arable Farmer of the Year Jake Freestone was named Arable Innovator of the Year after impressing judges with his balance of biodiversity with profitable food production last year. A passionate communicator, he and his team have continued to make great strides forward. Emma Penny reports.

T

here has been no resting on laurels of any variety for Jake Freestone and his team at Overbury Enterprises since winning Arable Innovator of the Year at last year’s British Farming Awards. If anything, the level of innovation has gone up several gears – and into the wider community.

Passionate about regenerative agriculture, with an enthusiasm to know more and to undertake research, Jake’s latest on-farm innovations include a project looking at further reducing nitrogen inputs and a continuing focus on using sheep as a key part

of the arable enterprise. He is also involved in a new organisation which puts farmers in the driving seat of investment in carbon and natural capital.

His role as farm manager near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, involves running 1,565 hectares of in-hand arable and grassland.

Grassland

Combinable crops account for 950ha, including milling wheat, oilseed rape, beans, peas, linseed, quinoa and winter and spring malting barley. The farm has more than 300ha of permanent grassland and 67ha of herbal leys

Previous winners

2020 winner Tim Parton, Brewood Farm, Staffordshire

2015 winner

Lucy and Anthony Carroll, Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes, Northumberland

Why offset on trees on the other side of the world when you could support a local farmer to be more sustainable while improving the environment for both parties?

JAKE FREESTONE carrying 850 outdoor lambing ewes, with progeny sold as stores or fattened.

It is also a Leaf demonstration farm.

While judges praised Jake on his clear direction for the business and for exploring innovations, Jake is quick to point out the award was not about him.

“Winning was a great morale boost for everyone on the farm,” he says.

“Everyone has ideas, contributes and delivers and I couldn’t do it without them – it’s a team award.”

The team’s focus on profitable food production has come into sharp focus this year with escalating fertiliser costs.

Working with Kellogg’s and its Origins programme, they are looking at reducing N use - by as much as 30 per cent in winter feed wheat and 40 per cent on spring barley - though much greater use of soil nitrogen and tissue testing. They are also using soil probes and other technology to understand more about soil and crop biology.

“We are doing lots of measuring and soil mineral N testing, which shows potentially available N. We are also using a Yara N sensor and testing chlorophyll levels in crops each week so we can apply N when crops are starting to run dry [of N].”

Learning curve

The sheep are another learning curve and have also continued to prove their worth as part of an arable system.

“I am really excited about this as the benefits are huge.”

The ewes went into forward winter wheat crops this autumn, grazing them right down and the crops now ‘look a picture’, he says.

“We have lots to learn about using sheep to improve arable production, but I’m keen to push it. It provides clean grazing for the ewes and is great in terms of rooting and tillering for the crops.

“It builds in resilience and addresses

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2013 winner

Michael Marriage, Doves Farm, Berkshire

28 AF May p28 29 BFAs SM RM.indd 2

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Category sponsored by Top five measures of success 1. Growing an increasingly profitable crop – combining good yields with reducing the cost of production 2. Worm counting – digging a forkful of soil and finding lots of worms, showing the difference regenerative farming is making 3. Farmland birds – regular bird counts finding an increasing number and diversity of species 4. A motivated, engaged and happy farm team – a really important measure, and something agriculture as a sector could focus on more 5. Maintaining overall profitability – a key measure given the challenges farming is currently facing

Five ways Jake is aiming for net zero 1. Direct drilling 2. Improving soil health 3. Reducing nitrogen inputs 4. Livestock grazing arable fields 5. Measuring and monitoring key carbon costs, such as electricity and fertiliser

the climate change challenge though better rooting crops and nutrient scavenging, so we will do more of it.”

Winning the award has prompted a lot of interest, he says.

“We’ve had quite a few groups come for farm walks as a result. It’s allowing us to spread knowledge about regenerative farming and the more we can share the story, the better.”

Sharing that story – and ensuring farmers are rewarded for the environmental benefits it provides – is a key part of one of the biggest innovations for Jake, The Green Farm Collective.

This new organisation, of which he is one of six farming founder members, aims to help farmers take control of any sale of carbon from their farm and allow businesses and individuals to invest in biodiversity on these farms.

Natural capital

The farming, carbon and natural capital data for the scheme is being recorded and organised via Trinity Agtech’s Sandy platform, with Trinity’s Natural Capital Markets division providing the platform for natural capital and carbon trading.

Jake says it is an innovative approach which will help farmers connect with companies seeking to invest, helping to cut out the middleman. The group believes it will also keep money for such investment within the UK, where investors can see their biodiversity projects.

“Why offset on trees on the other side of the world when you could support a local farmer to be more sustainable while improving the environment for both parties?”

Along with the five other farmers in the group, Jake wants the organisation to be one where members are

happy to share knowledge and help progress regenerative farming.

“We want to create a community of like-minded farmers who are happy and willing to swap ideas and obtain collective benefits from improved farming systems,” he says.

Enthusiasm

It is clear there is no shortage of innovation and enthusiasm at Overbury Enterprises and the wider regenerative agriculture community, and that others in the sector will benefit.

“It is nice to be in a positive place with all the challenges the sector is facing – we have to stay positive.”

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MAY 2022 AF May p28 29 BFAs SM RM.indd 3

29 22/04/2022 10:10

TECHNICAL BENCHMARKING

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A platform aimed at putting buying power back into the hands of growers now allows users to scrutinise every single crop management decision through its new live tracking and benchmarking feature. Alice Dyer reports.

Putting more transparency in crop production

A

s prices fluctuate, Yagro’s online platform has become a useful place for business owners to benchmark the price they are paying for their inputs.

But thanks to new developments from the data company,

users can now live track crop production budgets and compare them to other farms.

Yagro launched PriceCheck in 2017 as a place for farmers to see how their chemical and other input prices compare to how much others are buying them for, helping them to question what

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and how they are buying and giving them more power in negotiations with their suppliers.

Since then, the company has built its Analytics platform which takes in a farm’s variable costs, incorporating details such as sales data, contracts, products applied in Gatekeeper and yield maps, so users can benchmark their cost of production against the same crop of another user.

Yagro’s Rupert Harlow says: “The farm then sees that for winter wheat they’re producing at £51/tonne, for example, when some farms are producing it at £44/t or £74/t.”

The system currently covers more than 340,000 hectares and carries data for most crops,

Yagro data helped Cranborne Farms calculate its winter bean cost of production as just £36/tonne last harvest (see case study on p32).

including all major arable crops, potatoes, vegetables, sugar beet and some top fruit, with data spanning back to 2015/2016.

Strengths Costs can be broken down into categories such as herbicides, fertilisers or how each individual variety or field is performing to see where a businesses’ strengths and weaknesses lie.

“A farm can then see that some varieties may cost £100/t to produce rather than £40/t, for example,” says Mr Harlow.

“If it’s not a milling spec, why spend more? They can delve into why, if it’s supposed to be a clean variety, they’re spending £17/t on fungicides

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By Abi Kay

production and the increase in urbanisation, which requires 300,000 houses a year.

“I am hopeful this land use committee might produce a meaningful report. It will take time to do that, but it needs to be done.”

DEFRA’S new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme puts domestic food production at risk and increases the likelihood of a rise in low-standard imports, a parliamentary committee has warned.

In a damning new report on ELM, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it was not convinced the department understands how its environmental and productivity ambitions will affect the food and farming sector over the next decade.

“Farmers will be required to free up land currently used for food production to produce environmental LIVESTOCK benefits, for example converting NEWS farmland to forestry,” the docuHills ideal ment reads.

‘Many “This may result in an increase in for Northern food imports and possibly the price tenants are Dairy of food into the UK, potentially exnot getting porting the UK’s environmental Shorthorns impacts through food being proa fair deal’ PAGE 70 duced in other countries where environmental standards are lower.”

PAGE 12 Lord Donald Curry told Farmers Guardian he shared the concerns of the PAC and had been expressing them to Defra for some time.

He said: “The House of Lords has agreed to set up an English land use committee to look at all the pressures there are on land use currently, inJanuary 28 2022 | £3.90 potential for sequestering | Subscribe for Agroforestry has major | FGInsight.com new report. to a£3.08 cluding afforestation, rewilding, carbon, according the threat to domestic food

Support The PAC also hit out at Ministers for failing to provide any evidence to support their assertion that the loss of direct support would be offset by productivity improvements.

More generally, the committee was critical of Defra’s failure to

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and we said we would keep it under review. We have been clear all along that we will spend money where it delivers for the environment

alongside food production and we need to support changes across the entire farmed landscape to deliver our ambitions.”

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PAGE 80

By Abi Kay Jeremy Moody, secretary INDUSTRY leaders at the Central Association and adviser have fra’s long-awaited plan warned Detural Valuers, told Farmersfor AgriculGuardian retire is not a powerful to help farmers the scheme would not its own to restructure enough tool on suade people to leave’. ‘suddenly perthe Under the terms of sector.

Discussion Exit Scheme (LSES), the Lump Sum week, farmers will published this “It can prompt a family discussion be entitled to a payment of up to around the kitchen £100,000 to help table, it can them exit the industry. prompt a landlord-tenant discussion and then people Defra hopes these plans will create have got opportunities for new the larger assets in for people who are the business to looking hard at er businesses looking entrants or othbargain with,” he said. to expand, but “This is not life-changing, but

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By Abi Kay and Hannah Binns

PAGE 72

PAGE 8

NFU president Minette Batters pushed Defra

LIVESTOCK

Fodder beet a key alternative feedstock

GREEN GAINS GONE ● ELM payments ‘not high

enough’

● Scotland diverges on support

DAIRY IN FOCUS

Cow comfort and diet advice

THE HEART OF

p1 Feb18 GG BB AK.indd

Nigel Owens opens Carmarthen mart

2

OCCUPATION

THE HEART

LTURE OF AGRICU

CEREAL DISEASE

occupied by soldiers

Reduced septoria resistance in wheat

CONTROL

food supplies

● Ukraine farms

MORE FROM THE CONFERENCE See pages 4-5.

23/02/2022 14:51

FARM PROFILE

Passion for environment changes farm practices

SHORTAGE FEARS PAGE 26

● Concerns over UK food security ● Nitrogen fertiliser

hits £1,000/t

PAGE 22

The war in Ukraine focus on food security has put the

once again.

By Hannah Binns number of times he had been asked FOOD security was to show problems were occurring, increasing scrutiny coming under rather than mitigate as risks. continued to escalate the situation “We cannot go on in Ukraine, with relying upon concerns of global parts of the world food shortages. which are at best unfriendly towards The war has prompted us and at worse and Ewan Pate look again at its flagship the EU to hostile for our food and energy secusustainability policies, with the rity,” he added. stories of Ukrainian European ComSHOCKING occupied by Rusmission set to discuss NFU Scotland has farmland being emerging as the allow cultivation on proposals to Scottish Governmentwritten to the urging it to sian forces arethe two countries Despite this, Defra set aside land. allow farmers and said its policy on crofters to play war between food production their part by allowing focus on the rocketing the future for and costs and rages on, making uncertain. ment would remain the environon fallowing land to a derogation availability of inputs.

It added they were unchanged. meet in regular global food supplies Focus Area obligations. Ecological Farming industry contact with industry But farmers in the Peter Thomson, Fife farmer miles south of Don Curry said the crisisstalwart Lord how any policy move UK questioned the impact on supply to understand 25 regarding emerchains.

President the ‘laissez-faire’ attitudehad shattered who now lives farming business gency crop planting “At the moment supermarkets a would towards food are security, especially The Irish Government Kyiv but runs Government’s rewilding fit with the reporting high levels oilseed rape, as nitrogen fertilhas already of product iser has hit £1,000/tonne. reportedly come growing sunflowers,and soyabeans availability,” it said.

Defra and the Welsh agenda. out in favour of corn Government such a move, but winter wheat, hectares in the both declined to comment “This should challenge A Welsh Government Irish Farmers’ our selfwhether sufficiency for food Association president they would follow across 21,000 son added food supply spokesperregion, told and fuel and what suit border.

Tim Cullinan was tightly has, however, denied farmers to plant cereal and ask UK Odessa and Kherson integrated with the on the Ukrainian he had already of our priorities should be,” he added.

UK there had checkpoint to biggest farm been discussions on approached by Farmers crops when Farmers Guardian tional supply chains and internato the Perekop Mr Thomson’s is under threat Tenant Farmers Association chief of his land bank the subject. to ensure a of executive George ride on a truck balanced supply.

He said Irish farmers lost 10 per cent was expecting A Defra spokesperson Guardian. near the city Dunn said UK and almost 4,000ha time with his Government Russian troops would do their bit, but food import dependencysaid the UK’s Another farm been occupied. the invaders spends It added tackling seemed to ‘wait for climate change too. He now also cocktailscar crash on Eastern the light vehicles starof from certain’ askingit was ‘far Europe was very low was vital for future more to go.

Kherson has to happen’ before reacting. making Molotov soldiers in occupations of turned up and right terrabout food so daughter farmers they the security.

Russian local did Russians far, farms, not to the plant crops was So for expect any significant He added he had lost “The of his the best use of incurred losses count of the (petrol bombs)team and does not direct impact weapons systems peoentered one of the border with resources and government on UK supplies but MORE ON THIS his land have million (£750,353) ted setting up he said. “Our and STORY acknowledged any itorial defence 25 miles north should The fields were disruption could cause up For more on the impacts at least US$1 next to our yard,” believes the price rises. told ‘if you shut of annexed Crimea.tanks. the Ukraine invasion, ON PAGE 2 and Mr Thomson get worse as ple there were you will not get hurt’. see p4. only CONTINUED too wet to carry said: “They just problem will do not interfere,that one as well.”

Vladimir Mr Thomsonfarm at about 4am Russian president So we have lost the invasion to ‘conwalked into our night watchman.”

BRITAIN Mar11 BB GG AB.indd OF p1 Putin uses the food chain’.

2 BACKBONE and kicked out trol the world of February 24, FARMING: THE On the night

● Russians threaten

what people here today are discussing. They are not marrying up, so something is wrong somewhere.”

However, Sarah Bell, a mixed farmer from Rutland, said farmers had to do more than just complain.

“He does have some understanding of agriculture, and for that I am grateful, because we could be in a much worse place with a different Minister who does not have that understanding,” she added.

AGRICULTURE

16/02/2022 16:00

PAGES 40 & 44

– p91

PICTURE: ALAMY

PICTURE: ALAMY

By Abi Kay

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Princess Anne weighs in on ELM scheme

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PAGE 19

‘unlikely’

p1 Feb11 AK BB

19/01/2022 16:20

Minister George DEFRA Secretary George Eustice Eustice harder than ever. rejected claims the Government was lurching from crisis to crisis with no plan for farming during a heated NFU Conference this week.

Mr Eustice faced tough questions from the audience on a range of issues, including the ongoing difficulties in the pig sector, high fertiliser prices and access to labour, with union president Minette Batters pushing him harder than ever before.

The grilling left some asking whether the relationship between the NFU and Government was at a low ebb, but Ms Batters and Mr Eustice insisted they were working together as closely as ever.

The Minister also claimed he had a cooler reception at the conference in 2020, when anger over heavy flooding was palpable. want to be Defending the Government’s colnshire, who did not “But when it comes to our agricrop ‘every record over the past two years, Mr more pressure from within the Cabinamed, is planning to schemes culture policy, we have had a clear which has Gains made by environmental Eustice said: “There have been a series net, I do not know. square inch’ of his land as direct and consistent direction of travel

By Abi Kay 31 years could be squandered of supply chain issues which have fol“I am not sure he is quite the powbeen in stewardship for comes close. since 2016.” support comes to a lowed the coronavirus pandemic, but erful representative he was when he when the current agreement 2023. in I do first started.” not end accept an to this caricature that we Expectations discusare going from one crisis to another.

Matthew Rollason, a livestock “I am in a 40-strong farmer Some conference attendees, howarea of farmer from Lancashire, agreed.

“Was the pandemic a crisis? Yes, sion group with a total land none of ever, believed the Defra Secretary and it was a global crisis. Have there “He will be under incredible pres32,000 acres between us had not lived up to industry expeche said. been supply chain issues globally as sure, perhaps from Number 10 and us are going into ELM,” March 11withtations since he took the top job.

2022 | £3.90 | Subscribe a result of that? the Cabinet Office, and has moved “I know it is only a small area Yes. Is there a global for £3.08 Speaking to Farmers Guardian, | FGInsight.com be alone.” spike in gas prices which away from the core principles of food in England, but we will not is affecting NFU livestock board chair Richard industry right around the globe? production,” he said.

Findlay said: “I do not think he is Disadvantage Yes. Are we immune from that? No, “I have come round to some more as strong as he initially was, but Rural of course we are not. of his thinking, but many of the things The news came as the Scottish whether that is because he is under Gougeon he is outlining are still in conflict with Affairs Secretary Mairi element of pledged to maintain an a move direct support in Scotland, if you can. would ‘put and earn more money which Mr Fletcher said to go on to a lot of rate for that area of land he said.

That is the situation quite English farmers at a disadvantage’. some the stewardship payment,” p1 Feb25 AK BB MB.indd 2 others are in.”

The funding may include payhe had Market on the Norfolk-Cambridge“If an option gave you £500/ha, Mr Fletcher went on to say Guardi£230 sort of BPS, as well as coupled of a shire border, told Farmers most of calf scheme we would really want another we been ‘excited’ about the prospect for ments, such as the beef saying farmers an he had already cropped payments, on top of that. I am not scheme which rewarded | FGInsight.com and Less Favoured Area had in stewardship more by he has he already the £3.08 up to 50 for11ha are definitely going to earn environmental work, as 18 years. and is likely to comprise cover | £3.90 | Subscribeagreements for the past payments going to combinable crops and support has grass leys and winter he had per cent of the overall give it a go, March 4 2022 The increased CS what grass, but we have got to crops, but claimed from not make a package for farmers. intenis the point in signing more recently announced do for what expected 09/02/2022 15:15 because he far, approached so seen the arable Defra was break benefit. significant difference to up for five years to barelyfarm. sive arable operations to in. comment.

Linoptions he participated even on part of your rented crop it Another mixed farmer from needed “For us to stay in, we really “You have got to try and MART’S THE HEART (BPS) the Basic Payment Scheme

EXIT SCHEME CLAR

Applications to the scheme can be made from April September 30, 2022 until ■ Applicants must have Basic Payment Scheme claimed (BPS) in 2018 or have inherited land since 2018 ■ A claimant must do all of the following before receiving the lump ■ Transfer agricultural sum: disposal in May 2001, land at your either by sale,

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● Eustice defends his Defra record

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threat

DIRECT ROUTESimmentals

p1 Feb4 AK BB RM.indd

LIVESTOCK

Metal fencing gets green light

with the Commission, approval from the EU they thought we had Ministers saying it seemed this was a good idea and Defra were behind it. frustrated “So I have been really had no deciby the fact that we have this issue.” sions or movement on had Mr Stocker said the industry set of robust also come up with a to be protocols to allow smokies farmers to legalised and enable market for cash in on a lucrative the West African delicacy. burnProduction, which involves with carcases ing unskinned sheep to achieve a blowtorches in order under unique flavour, was banned the meat EU law due to fears that such as can carry harmful bacteria, e.coli or salmonella. provided Mr Stocker said Brexit out the UK’s an opportunity to carve own rules. on this “We have been working

suggestion in implement the blunt will definitely the consultation, then it to farmers.” cause a financial burden spokesA Welsh Government welcomed person said Ministers all views on the consultation. proposals “We are confident our we are and will make a difference farmers,” the of course listening to spokesperson said.

02/02/2022 15:03

AGRICULTURE

to move to a

Phil Stocker NSA chief executive two years said: “We got to a point had got we ago where we really felt had got the this over the line. We

RM.indd 2

Associathe Livestock Auctioneers Governtion, was hopeful the Welsh before ment would listen to industry it made any decisions. healthy He said: “What is never place market for industry is a tiered created by regulation. to sell “It is important for farmersmarket fair their stock in a true and Government place and if the Welsh

PICTURE: TIM SCRIVENER

PAGE 32

Over the line

sell toconsumers Pages 24-27 changes to with New entrants connect30,000gns red diesel

26/01/2022 16:26

Blelack Dean Martin on-song at 38,000gns

be happy for the UK new system.

PAGE 22

p1 Jan21 OM AK BB

● English disease management

at risk

giving buyers from high areas of bTB, per head an angle to reduce the price on those cattle. could be disrupts WELSH farms and marts He said: “Anything which impact a proposal to will put out of business by the various cattle markets ‘risky’ bovine as well penalise the purchase of the profitability of enterprises, leaders have who will TB (bTB) cattle, industry as auctioneers and hauliers the warned. not be trading and transporting be used to.”

An ongoing Welsh Government volume of cattle they may there secretary of consultation asked whether cattle Chris Dodds, executive for should be implications notice of bTB keepers who fail to take regardless information and buy stock of highlighted risks.

Farmers’ But Dr Hazel Wright, adviser, policy Union of Wales senior due to warned penalising purchases inevitably their health status would unsaleable. make some Welsh cattle the Welsh She said: “Effectively, a situation Government could endorse unwhere some farms are completely their stock. viable as they cannot trade a wider of “This proposal is part to chase bTB policy which continues it.” control than rather the disease, concern Dr Wright also raised disease manabout the impact on if farmers agement in England to sell stock travelled over the border be pennot where buyers would Defra is alised – a possible impact on. eye’ keeping a ‘close were Many farmers in Wales were they angered by the inference in their herds content to accept bTB both ‘disand felt the proposal was criminatory’ and ‘divisive’.

Wyn Pembrokeshire cattle farmer stock devalue Jones claimed it would

By Hannah Binns

● Cash siphoned away from farms

crops chair, was among those who slammed the funding allocation for

Battling against unseen health issues

PAGE 83

● Welsh plan will put farms

PICTURE: RUTH REES PHOTOGRAPHY

By Hannah Binns and Abi Kay

WEALTHY landowners will have

THE HEART OF

PAGE S

‘TWO-TIER’ TB TRADE PAGE 31

‘CASHING IN’

● ELM boon for wealthy landowners

STIRLING BULLS

risk aversion’ A CULTURE of ‘total Agency in the Food Standards in Defra (FSA) and ‘foot-dragging’ in the ads is holding back progressleaders of classified farming sector, industry starts after have warned. p41 burden on Easing the regulatory a key Brexit farming businesses was out by the manifesto pledge set but the Conservative Government, (NSA) National Sheep Association through on said it had failed to follow sheep key issues such as splitting the induscarcases which would save a year. around Other concerns centre regulatory delays to plans to lift the and legalin burden on small abattoirs food safety measure introduced trade, ise the black market ‘smokie’ response to the BSE crisis. millions of Government later estimated to be worth FARM SAFETY But the UKon the plans, saying pounds to the sheep industry.agreed backtracked the UK’s In 2018, the department to age a change could affect EU, desdate the to use a fixed cut-off post-Brexit trade with teeth – European lambs instead of checkingneeding pite the fact that the it would months 12 over lambs with Commission had indicated removed as a to have the spinal cord

PICTURE: MARTIN APPS

FARM PROFILE

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Special focus on spring spraying

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36

of dragging its feet Defra has been accused sheep carcases. on the issue of splitting

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A Rural Payments Agency (RPA) survey carried out from January to March last year which showed only 4 per cent of respondents were ‘very prepared’ for the upcoming YOUR FIELD IN changes and 37 per cent were ‘not at all prepared’ was cited as eviNew writer dence of the department’s poor tells of life communication.

The research also found a mas- on the sive 41 per cent of those surveyed did not even know what theGreat Orme Sustainable Farming Incentive, PAGE 98 the first component of ELM, was.

reports, said: “While

to benefit FARMERS will stand land-based from the burgeoning worth £1.7 carbon credit market businesses billion annually, but ‘costly millcould end up with a neck if deals stone’ around their sufficient are rushed into without understanding. was sounThe note of caution of the Game ded by Joe Stanley, Trust’s and Wildlife Conservation a two-part Allerton Project, as value of report on the potential credits was UK land-based carbon Oxford launched at this week’s Farming Conference. of the Together, the two parts governreport called for proper market to ance of the carbon credit and urged make it a credible reality cutting their farmers to focus on offsetting own emissions before pollution in other sectors. Green James Elliott of the of the one Alliance, who authored

February 11 2022 |

establish any metrics or objectives which will enable it to demonstrate that the £2.4 billion-a-year schemes will provide value for money or contribute to the Government’s wider environmental goals, including the net zero by 2050 commitment.

And the MPs went on to urge Defra to ‘review its entire communications strategy’, warning it had not done enough to gain farmers’ trust, and pointing out there was still very little information in the public domain about plans for 2023 and 2024.

Concerns were raised that young farmers were less able to enter the

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Yagro Analytics helps to identify a business’ strengths and weaknesses by breaking down performance into different categories.

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 14:27

BENCHMARKING TECHNICAL

ANYTHING BUT CONVENTIONAL

Data ownership

when other farms are spending just £6/t.

“You may be drilling at 200kg/ha but the median is 170kg/ha – you might see that by reducing your seed rate to the same value you’d save £17/ha.

Just by putting a figure on it helps you see the financial impact of everything you do.”

Once there is three years’ of information from a farm, users can start to hone in on individual field performance, which could be particularly valuable as parts of the farm may be considered for new environmental schemes.

Useful However, it is the new in-season tracking feature, Tracker, which Mr Harlow says will be particularly useful this season in particular.

“With the price of everything at the moment it will help growers understand what they’ve budgeted for and what’s actually going to be cost-effective for the farm. This means users can follow the performance of their crop throughout the season and use the information provided to inform future decisions. With live commodity prices also incorporated, they can see how much of their crop has been sold, at what price and

JData is fully anonymised and amalgamated before it can be viewed by other users of the platform, with farmers retaining sole ownership. However, users can create their own virtual invite-only benchmarking groups where data is shared privately.

Within the programme growers can choose who they benchmark against, for example farms with similar yields, or look at the best performing farms and what they are doing.

Yagro’s Analytics system costs users £2.50/ha and the Tracker system is also £2.50/ha.

“The value of this is different for every farm.

We’re seeing anything from £25-£35/ha value back,” says Mr Harlow.

what they need to do to get a good margin on that crop.”

The platform also allows users to set alerts on any of the main market features.

“This means users can look at trends in the market, for example the price of glyphosate.

This will help when reporting to seniors within the business or when setting alerts to know when the price drops back below £3/litre, for example.”

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TECHNICAL BENCHMARKING

Tom Dart (centre) and his team. Lee Etherington (left) and Micky Luckham (right).

In the field Cranborne Farms, Dorset JDespite the move towards more traditional farming methods, 1,200-hectare Cranborne Farms is making the most of modern technology to support decision-making. At harvest last year, the estate achieved a winter bean cost of production of just £36/tonne according to Yagro’s data.

Beans had not been grown for a few years on the farm but with a desire to split autumn and spring cropping 50/50 to spread workload and feed barley not stacking up financially, they made a comeback in 2020/21.

With total chemical costs of £65/ha for the crop, farm manager, Tom Dart explains how he kept inputs so low.

“In February we had a couple of weeks of really cold weather which really nailed the beans.

With that and the dry March, they didn’t look like they were going to meet the potential we had budgeted for, limiting what we wanted to invest into them.

When it warmed up and they got going, they flowered well and the pod sets were fantastic.”

Weather conditions meant that Mr Dart, who is also a qualified agronomist, risked not applying a chocolate spot

32 AF May p30 31 32 Yagro TR AD RM.indd 4

spray, which he says paid off in this instance and overall fungicides were just £4/ha.

“We were keeping an eye on weather conditions that would lead to chocolate spot and held back from spraying and fortunately never needed to.

Having taken that agronomy decision in-house suits us in that we have complete control of our approach to risk.

Planning “We invested in a Metos weather system to help with planning around the weather, which should help us target our use of actives more, again using data to make those decisions.

“We are implementing new technologies rather than relying on something that has traditionally come out of a can or fertiliser sack.”

Alongside this approach, the farm is looking to integrate more traditional practices by expanding mob grazing on arable land and introducing an area of agroforestry.

“It goes back to a more traditional rotation but using modern technologies to make sure it is done as efficiently as possible,” Mr Dart says.

We are implementing technologies rather than relying on something that has traditionally come out of a can or fertiliser sack TOM DART The 80% chalk downland and 20% loamy clay estate is part of the Martin Down Farmer Cluster, which has a significant influence on cropping plans.

“There are species on the farm we are really trying to promote, including grey partridge, turtle doves and wildflowers among others. The way we lay out our cropping is all done to encourage those species to thrive here. We also actively look to avoid using insecticides where possible.

“We are looking closely at the returns we are getting on for example, fungicides. We look at the money we spend on that and see if it is adding value or if there are cultural control methods we can incorporate to get the same return on investment. We look at the science behind why you would use a product and if there isn’t enough risk to the crop to justify using a product, we don’t use it.”

The farm is also entering new markets and looking to do more direct sales, which were previously all done through grain traders.

Last season it sold 30% of its wheat direct to a dairy farm and is starting to diversify away from traditional commodity markets in multiple ways, including heritage wheat for local artisan bakers, 67ha of maple peas that go direct to the pigeon market and 20ha of naked oats growing with Flamingo peas for wasabi pea snacks. These will be harvested at the same time and split out, with the peas exported to Japan for the snack market and the oats going to bird seed mixes via Cope Seeds.

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 12:33

PRECISION FARMING TECHNICAL Cloud-free imagery advancements are set to enhance precision farming services.

Arable Farming reports on some of the latest developments.

Gaining a clear view

A

dvances in the level of accuracy for field scouting, variable rate application practices and other precision farming activities are among the claims made for Agrii’s latest precision farming offering, which is marketed as ClearSky. The company is describing ClearSky as the UK’s ‘first truly cloud-free imagery service’. It will be exclusively available to Agrii and Rhiza customers through the Contour platform and is said to remove the reliance on regular Sentinel 2 satellite images, which until now have been relied upon by all farmers in the UK, regardless of their precision farming service provider.

The ClearSky product is the result of a collaborative project between Rhiza, Origin Digital and Aspia Space and produces full-spectrum optical and infrared imagery, including NDVI and GCVI from synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data. It removes the previous reliance on optical images needing a clear line of sight.

This innovation means that farmers using ClearSky are guaranteed to receive an image

A Sentinel-2 image (left) on April 26, 2021, and a ClearSky image (right) on the same date over the River Humber.

showing them how their crop is developing every six days, whatever the weather, says Agrii. This contrasts with traditional, weather-dependent imagery which can often have gaps of several weeks between cloud-free views.

David Langton, head of research and development at Origin Digital, says: “As SAR data passes through clouds, this means that for the first time, we will be able to guarantee our customers a regular, reliable image every six days, all-year-round.

“Unlike other ‘cloud-free’ derivatives, ClearSky does not rely on intermittent clear optical imagery to calibrate predicted changes. This

enables a greater degree of confidence in the data we are supplying to customers.”

Final product Service evaluation has involved Agrii agronomists, Origin R&D and Rhiza account managers, helping the provider to refine and develop their models and shape the final product.

Across the 6,000-plus images assessed in the process, the correlation with Sentinel optical imagery has been excellent, says Mr Langton and has demonstrated that ClearSky can be used for field scouting and variable rate planning.

The first imagery product of its

kind to use artificial imagery, ClearSky will enable growers to match the application of inputs such as fertiliser with crop growth.

Sam Fordham, head of technical at Rhiza, says: “ClearSky will enable our growers to scout and plan their fertiliser applications more effectively, efficiently and sustainably than has been possible before.

“Given how quickly crops develop during the peak of spring, one of the cloudiest seasons of the year, being reliant on regular Sentinel 2 images meant there was a high risk that fertiliser applications would be less than optimal. ClearSky greatly reduces that risk meaning users X

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33 22/04/2022 14:47

TECHNICAL PRECISION FARMING can target nitrogen applications to when they will be most economically worthwhile.”

Analysis by Agrii reveals that the Sentinel 2 system produced, on average, roughly 13.3 clear images per farm in 2021. Using the ClearSky platform increased this to 60.8. This is improved further if the

cloud-free images captured by Sentinel 2 are included.

Cloudy country Jon Greenman, commercial manager at Rhiza, says: “The UK is predominantly a cloudy country.

During March 2021, 68% of the farms serviced by Rhiza hadn’t

received a clear image for more than 10 days. This serves to hinder the development of precision farming tools. ClearSky removes that barrier and will enable the advancement of a raft of new services.

“This is a hugely exciting development because it provides dependable images on a regular

basis. This will enable UK farmers to further optimise the application of fertiliser and other inputs to improve yields and endorse their sustainability credentials,” he adds.

ClearSky is available to all Agrii customers on the Contour platform from the end of March 2022.

Radar imagery investment boost for variable rate N JPrecision farming business Soyl, a division of Frontier Agriculture, introduced new image technology unaffected by cloud cover last autumn. The technology will provide growers with more consistent and accurate measurements of crop growth and development, says the company.

Delivered in partnership with agricultural satellite analysts, Geosys following a programme of trials and research, the adoption of radar is a significant development in Soyl’s variable rate nitrogen service, says sustainability knowledge exchange manager Edward Jones.

“The technology enhances our existing biomass imagery model so that growers using the service can receive regular, high-quality cloud-free images throughout the key winter cereal nitrogen application window,” he says.

“Historically, biomass imagery hasn’t been captured when cloud cover obscures the satellite’s view of the field. This means it has been much harder for growers to access up-to-date information to inform application decisions.

“Being able to access comprehensive radar image regularly means it will be much easier to monitor crop development, benchmark performance and be much more reactive when the data indicates a change of approach is needed.”

With optical satellite imagery,

34

cloud cover can sometimes obscure the image that is captured and in periods of poor weather, this can mean it is much harder for growers to access information about crop growth and performance to help with application decisions, he adds.

“It is important we invest in solutions that allow growers to adopt crop production strategies based on information from their own farms. Being able to access comprehensive radar imagery on a regular basis means it will be much easier to monitor crop development, benchmark performance and be more reactive when the data indicates a change of approach is needed.

Consistent delivery

most important and with that data they can make or change nitrogen application plans whenever they need to.”

Soyl’s variable rate nitrogen service is designed to help growers improve nitrogen use efficiency by targeting inputs to match their crops’ requirements – at a whole-farm scale but also by identifying variations within individual fields.

“Taking a varied application approach means the input matches the demand and this can reduce the amount of residual nitrogen in the soil after harvest,” says Mr Jones.

“There are environmental benefits associated with this as it means there will be less residual nitrogen that is at risk of leaching into watercourses.

Optimising applications can also contribute to a smaller carbon footprint too, with less work required at harvest thanks to improved crop consistency and quality.

“We already utilise imagery from nine satellites, which helps us to manage issues with cloud coverage and ensures a more consistent delivery of images to our MySoyl application.”

MySoyl is Soyl’s precision farm data platform, available within Frontier Agriculture’s MyFarm.

“Six of the satellites we use are tasked which means imagery is provided to us at a premium. It’s an important investment for us because unlike free public source satellites, we can retrieve quality data at specified time intervals across the growing season. This means we’re able to provide growers with regular imagery when it’s

A variable rate nitrogen plan generated by Soyl.

Complement Mr Jones adds that a Chlorophyll Vegetation Index can be used from May to complement Leaf Area Index and radar technology early in the season.

“CVI works in a similar vein to radar imagery, but it uses different wavelengths of light. This means it can be used to support final nitrogen applications, or in milling wheat, the final two in a four-split system.”

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MAY 2022

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TECHNICAL PRECISION FARMING An agricultural technology hackathon hosted by Agri-EPI Centre sought to identify solutions to enhance the safety and security of autonomous farm machines.

Teresa Rush picks out the key findings of the subsequent industry paper.

How to make autonomous vehicles safe and secure

D

evelopment and utilisation of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence to grow and harvest food is gaining traction across agriculture. Robots and AI are now advanced enough to be used for tasks such as weeding, crop sensing and fruit picking.

However, farming is complex and when developing any agricultural technology, innovators must think holistically about how it will be used on-farm, who will be involved in its use and who it might impact more broadly.

An Agricultural Technology Hackathon hosted by Agri-EPI Centre sought to identify solutions to enhance the safety and security of autonomous farm machines.

Agri-EPI ran the event with Innovate UK-funded Hands-Free Farm, a testbed for autonomous farm machinery and drones.

The participating teams originated from a range of disciplines, including robotics, AI and machine learning, drones and computer vision. They came together to address key challenges around safety, connectivity and cyber security. Kit Franklin, senior engineer, Harper Adams University, and Clive Blacker, head of business development, Map of Agriculture, provided the challenges.

Considerations An industry paper released following the hackathon raises a series of considerations around agriculture’s readiness for large scale adoption of autonomous vehicles and offers recommendations around maximising safety, improving connectivity and combating future technology threats.

Speaking after the hackathon, Mr Blacker said: “The diverse nature of agriculture and robotics operating

The biggest area of potential risk associated with autonomous vehicles is the threat of collision with people or other vehicles.

in off-road and on-road environments poses many challenges. Our aim with the hackathon was to bring great ideas from any background into agriculture that have the potential to support robotic safety.

We have been delighted and inspired by the solutions put forward.”

Visit https://agriMORE ONLINE epicentre.com/

wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ Hackathon-whitepaper.pdf

Challenge Public access and safety JAgri-EPI engaged with industry stakeholders, including NFU Mutual and Country Land and Business Association, to explore the challenges posed by autonomous farm vehicles to users of the countryside. The biggest area of potential risk is the threat of collision with people or other vehicles.

Recommendations: Artificial intelligence and machine vision should be used to identify and avoid collision with certain objects, as well as to recognise the difference between static and

36

moving objects. Static obstacles, such as pylons and trees, could be identified through a pre-route survey of the field.

Machine vision and supervision could additionally be used to identify and distinguish between objects in-field – for example a 6ft tall maize plant versus a 6ft tall human. Building a mechanism to distinguish between a deliberate collision versus an accident into the machine technology is key to ensuring safety.

There is still work to be done in terms of communicating

and raising awareness of farming practices to the public and how to safely navigate the countryside. Discussion of appropriate signage would be necessary to highlight the operation of autonomous agricultural vehicles being used to produce food.

This could include signage indicating ‘do not enter’ or ‘stay away’ zones. There is also the consideration of whether the Countryside Code would need to be reviewed to reference tech and autonomous systems.

There is a need for cross sector learning between the automotive industry and agriculture. This collaboration would help to maximise preparedness through rigorous testing of autonomous models.

Companies who brought their experience from the automotive sector included Continental Engineering and Epitomical, which have experience in developing and testing autonomous highway vehicles.

The Transport Research Laboratory also attended the

MAY 2022

AF May p36 37 Auto vehicles TR AD RM.indd 2

22/04/2022 10:13

PRECISION FARMING TECHNICAL Challenge The cyber security threat on-farm JThe agricultural industry has for a long time been viewed as at low risk from potential cyber attacks. However, with more farms adopting new technologies cybercrime is becoming an increasingly severe threat to agri-businesses.

The number of attacks is on the rise and important areas to address this include anti-fraud and anti-theft systems.

More machines and devices connecting to the internet widens the threat landscape and increases potential vectors.

Organisations commonly do not know what is connected to their network and cannot spot anomalous or malicious behaviour. The problem is only becoming exacerbated as Operational Technology (OT), such as manufacturing and production environments, are being attacked, which ultimately compromises the future of food production. The ability to take over or glean data from these systems may be a national threat to food supply chains.

In addition, there has been a rise in farm thefts relating to high value GPS kit.

Combat Recommendations: Network connectivity is wide and varied and will continue to evolve. A way to combat future technology threats is to include more ingress/ egress points and IT/OT networks which need to be secured. Compromised systems or devices can cause loss of revenue, reputational damage and loss of intellectual property. Utilising built-in cyber and anti-theft systems as part of the agritech development process will link in as well to the adoption of better technology on-farm as farmers will be able to deploy this technology safely and securely.

workshop and highlighted the need for rigorous testing and training to be included.

Another key area of focus is on improving the understanding of the integration of human operators with robots for increased performance and reliability.

And there was a strong view there should be an agricultural vehicles autonomous code of practice put forward, something already being explored by Harper Adams University and UK national standards body BSI.

MAY 2022 AF May p36 37 Auto vehicles TR AD RM.indd 3

37

Challenge Connectivity JFarms are remote and often located in rural areas with poor connectivity.

Traditional ‘over the air’ technologies, such as satellite, provide variable performance and can often have expensive usage limits. As such a move toward the Internet of Things means that more devices are using connectivity which leads to performance issues.

Recommendations: Farms need increased connectivity to support the streamlined adoption of autonomous systems in the future. Information systems infrastructure must be developed apace of new

autonomous technologies to support the rapid adoption of technology such as autonomous agricultural vehicles on-farm.

Superfast networking An example is the Hands-Free Farm which uses LoRaWAN, 4G, Zigbee, RTK and drones, which are all connected devices, to operate efficiently. The case for using 5G in farming shows promise, although the superfast networking technology is only beginning to be applied in agriculture.

5G is currently being rolled out through the 5G Rural First project.

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RESEARCH IN ACTION Achieving a better understanding of what drives wheat breadmaking quality is the aim of an AHDB-funded PhD studentship project*. Andrew Blake reports.

Exploring environmental effects on bread wheat quality

I

n theory, new varieties and processing advances mean the UK could grow all its own breadmaking wheat, according to Prof Peter Shewry, research professor at Rothamsted Research. However, the industry faces two challenges, says Prof Shewry.

“The first is growers’ reliance on high levels of nitrogen fertiliser to achieve the required protein content.

“Secondly, the environment strongly affects quality. This means that year-to-year variations linked to climate change are increasingly affecting the UK wheat crop’s suitability for breadmaking.”

High grain protein content

Variations linked to climate change are increasingly affecting the UK wheat crop’s suitability for breadmaking can substitute for low protein quality, but only to a limited extent, he adds.

Rohan Richard’s PhD project, which Prof Shewry supervises, is focused on strategies to

PROF PETER SHEWRY increase grain protein content and understanding environmental effects on processing quality.

A Phenobike – a modified bicycle with a sensor to measure crop greenness – is being used in the research.

38 AF May p38 39 RIA KH TR AD.indd 2

A population of some 100 lines is being analysed to identify the genetic areas responsible for grain protein deviation.

“We’re taking a genetic approach with studies exploiting the variation in a cross between the good, but currently outclassed, breadmaking quality varieties Malacca and Hereward.”

The cross was made by RAGT Seeds as part of HGCA Project FQS 23 ‘Improving wheat functionality through breeding and end use’, he adds.

The project exploits the phenomenon known as ‘grain protein deviation’ (GPD) to try to reduce the need for high nitrogen applications.

Grain protein content “Analyses of field trials data of varieties grown under various conditions show a clear inverse relationship between grain yield and grain protein content, allowing a regression line to be drawn,” says Prof Shewry.

However, some varieties consistently have higher grain protein content than expected – which being above the regression line is known as GPD. The importance of GPD in determining good breadmaking quality under conditions of low nitrogen fertilisation was recently demonstrated by the AHDB/ Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) LINK Project ‘Low Protein Wheat for Breadmaking’ (AHDB project report No 621).

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 09:19

RESEARCH IN ACTION Project is pushing the boundaries

Project details

Work in this latest project, and in a previous BBSRC Industrial Partnership project, found that GPD is shown by Hereward but not by Malacca, which falls on or only slightly above the regression line.

So, a Malacca/Hereward cross is being used to identify the genetic areas responsible for GPD, explains Prof Shewry.

It involves analysing a population of about 100 lines grown in replicated trials at Rothamsted Research and the University of Reading experimental farm.

Detailed genetic maps for the lines, based on almost 30,000 molecular markers, should allow the genetic areas and ‘candidate genes’ in them to be pinpointed and so help breeders select for GPD in their breeding programmes.

GPD data for two field trials has been collected and several genetic areas have been identified for protein content, grain yield and GPD, adds Mr Richard.

The underlying molecular mechanism behind GPD is also being explored by recording the rate at which the lines senesce.

“This is important as a substantial proportion of the nitrogen in the mature grain is transferred from the leaves during this phase,” Prof Shewry says.

The field experiments are being carried out at the

r*AHDB project 21130058 Exploiting variation in grain protein to determine environmental effects on processing quality (PhD) rOctober 1, 2019 – January 31, 2023 rFunding: £72,300 (AHDB) rProject leader: Rothamsted Research rScientific partners: John Innes Centre and University of Reading rIndustry partner: Heygates

University of Reading, with senescence measured using Phenobike – a modified bicycle with a sensor to measure the crop’s greenness.

The second part of the project is using pairs of lines which differ in single genetic loci for breadmaking quality.

Some novel quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for breadmaking quality were identified in the Malacca cross Hereward population in the HGCA project.

Effects “Simon Griffiths and colleagues at the John Innes Centre have since developed sets of lines which differ only in single loci, by backcrossing to either Hereward or Malacca,” says Prof Shewry.

“These sets of lines allow us to determine the effects of the individual loci in near-identical genetic backgrounds.”

Six sets are being compared in

JGlobal population growth and greenhouse gas emissions mean there is a need for more efficient, higher yielding crops but yield and wheat protein quantity are on a collision course, says Mervin Poole, who is responsible for technical and business development at flour miller Heygates.

The firm has 10 mills on four sites producing more than 10,000 tonnes of flour a week.

Mr Poole says: “The work in this project is pushing the boundaries of more than 10,000 years of wheat breeding.”

Wheat grains are simply stores of carbon from the atmosphere as starch and nitrogen from the soil as protein, he adds.

Nitrogen balance “However, the total carbon to nitrogen balance in plants is difficult to change.

“Wheat differs from other cereals in how the proteins contribute to nutritional quality and the strength and flexibility of bubbles in baked goods.

“Grain protein deviation [GDP] is seen as a route to

the project, by growing them and analysing their flour for protein composition, metabolite profiles, dough elasticity and extensibility and breadmaking performance.

“The individual loci are also being combined in various combinations which will allow us to determine additive effects.”

The loci which have significant effects on breadmaking quality will be delivered to breeders together with molecular markers to allow their selection in breeding programmes.

“This work should contribute to the development of wheat lines which perform better under varying environmental

The work in this project is pushing the boundaries of more than 10,000 years of wheat breeding MERVIN POOLE maintaining wheat qualities while achieving higher yields.

“Consistent improvements in GDP should support farm efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the UK crop’s performance in delivering the required strength, flexibility, volume and nutritional properties of bakery products.

“Most importantly, those improvements should begin to support the consistent availability of the UK crop of the correct quality for food applications and can help reduce our reliance on imports.”

conditions, by conferring higher intrinsic quality.

“The biochemical basis for the differences in quality controlled by the loci is also being explored, by comparing the composition and properties of the gluten proteins which are the main determinants of breadmaking quality.”

Extreme weather The work has been challenging due to extreme weather and working under Covid-19-safe conditions, he adds.

“We’ll only be able to draw firm conclusions when the field trials are complete and all the material has been analysed.”

MAY 2022 AF May p38 39 RIA KH TR AD.indd 3

39 22/04/2022 09:20

TECHNICAL FUNGICIDES

The effect of sedaxane (right) on early root development of wheat.

T

he main diseases which reduce yield in wheat are highly weather dependent for their development.

Any control strategy works most effectively when the fungicides are applied prophylactically.

However, fungicide applications made earlier in the crop’s lifecycle (GS31) to protect it are often made without adequate knowledge of the future weather patterns.

Dr Dawkins says: “A question I often used to be asked, ‘why do we see yield increases from certain fungicides when there appears to be no obvious disease?’

“So, I decided to conduct some research to find out what was happening.”

Recent field-based studies have shown that the yield of a wheat crop is often increased following fungicide use in the apparent absence of disease. A ‘tonic’ effect has been proposed but the mechanism for this has not been fully understood. A study conducted

by Dr Dawkins at the University of Warwick investigated ‘tonic’ effects on the wheat crop from

Dr Tudor Dawkins

40 AF May p40 Fungicides KH TR AD.indd 2

Using a SPAD meter to measure leaf 4 greenness.

Recently retired from a career in crop protection, Dr Tudor Dawkins embarked on a Masters degree, studying ‘tonic’ effects on wheat of SDHI fungicides. He shared his findings with Arable Farming.

SDHIs a ‘tonic’ for clean crops applying SDHI fungicides to the seed or to the plant at GS31.

The study investigated three of the factors that govern cereal yield; greening of plant tissues, use of water and growth of the plants, following fungicide use in the absence of disease. Benzovindiflupyr, as in Elatus Plus, applied at GS31 to pot-grown wheat plants grown in the glasshouse resulted in a significant increase in yield (23%) over an untreated control in the absence of disease for the variety KWS Extase.

The increase in yield at maturity was attributable to a higher grain number per ear.

Measurements of greenness, using a SPAD meter, for leaf 4, which was present at the time of application at GS31, indicated that the fungicide preserved the green area of leaf 4 for longer than untreated plants and it is hypothesised this may supply assimilates for an increased duration, allowing maintenance of grain sites at the developing ear.

Water balance studies demonstrated some significant increases

in water use, which probably contributed to the yield improvements found in the study, says Dr Dawkins.

Growth analysis of plants at various stages failed to demonstrate any substantial changes in growth or development. Except where fungicidal SDHI seed treatment sedaxane (as in Vibrance Duo) was used as a seed treatment on the variety Costello, no significant increases in root mass or root length were detected.

Development The study with sedaxane on Costello demonstrated that early delivery of a fungicide at the seedling development stage significantly increased root development and early seedling leaf development compared to an untreated control, which resulted in a significant increase (27%) in grain yield per pot at maturity, compared to an untreated control.

It was shown, in this study, that increases in yield can occur from using SDHI fungicides, in the absence of disease.

The main mechanism of yield increase was through delaying lower leaf canopy senescence and reducing early grain site loss.

According to Frontier agronomist Jeremy Ruff, growers recognise the need for a managed fungicide strategy to control disease in wheat varieties offering high levels of genetic resistance, but are also aware of the yield responses that are often observed in the same varieties but in the absence of any significant disease.

Mr Ruff says: “We’ve seen yield responses in Frontier’s 3DThinking trials in very low disease situations.

These responses require further investigation and explanation.

“The work done by Dr Dawkins at Warwick is proving of real value in explaining to growers that if disease levels are low there can be significant responses in terms of yield and how they can arise.

“It is interesting that applications of SDHI fungicides, made at GS31, can influence yield through non-disease control-related benefits, such as maintaining green leaf area of the lower canopy for longer.”

MAY 2022 21/04/2022 16:36

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*single application of 2 litres/ha at flag leaf growth stage; **single application of 2 litres/ha between early to mid-flowering.

AF_05_P41.indd 1

20/04/2022 13:01

TECHNICAL SUGAR BEET The Conviso Smart sugar beet system offers benefits above just weed control for one Nottinghamshire grower. Arable Farming finds out more.

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he opportunity to rid his farm of weed beet served as the attraction, but the excellent weed control and the flexibility of just a single herbicide application have since persuaded Alistair Bowring that the Conviso Smart system has more to offer.

He says: “I came at this purely for the opportunity it provided to grow beet in a high-pressure weed beet situation but hadn’t appreciated how good the all-round weed control would be.

“The Conviso One herbicide is excellent; we’ve never had cleaner beet. It has a strong residual component, but it needs good soil moisture to be effective. The contact is exceptional; nothing gets past it.

“I have seen fat hen controlled past the advised timing of four true leaves and it is highly effective

Active ingredients rConviso One (foramsulfuron + thiencarbazone-methyl) rDow Shield (clopyralid) rCruiser SB (thiamethoxam) rSpitfire (florasulam + fluroxypyr)

against all the weeds on the label, including volunteer potatoes, field bindweed, grass-weeds and, of course, non-ALS tolerant beet.

Targeted “It is less effective against any un-emerged potatoes, but where they are through at the time of spraying, they are controlled.

This has largely removed the need for targeted herbicides such as Dow Shield.”

Despite the strong performance, Mr Bowring has previously favoured a pre-emerAlistair Bowring’s weed beet control in Conviso Smart.

42

gence spray of Goltix 70SC (metamitron) + Efeckt (ethofumesate), but this is more to buy time in controlling broad-leaved weeds and annual meadowgrass before the weed beet came through.

“Weed beet is my priority but were it not an issue I may do things differently. Based on my experience of the past two years, I don’t plan to apply a pre-emergence.”

He concedes that were it not for weed beet, it is unlikely he would be growing the ALS-tolerant varieties that make up one half of the Conviso Smart system but has since come to value the wider benefits.

“I can spray the crop when I want to. I don’t need to push it.

If I want to wait for a better day I can and I put weed control first while knowing the crop safety of the system will be good.”

This season will be a good test. On tenanted land next door, he has a further 42 hectares of standard beet which will provide a fair comparison to assess the two systems.

“There’s no weed beet problem, but a high weed burden means I am expecting to apply a pre-emergence spray of Goltix 70SC and at least three post-em sprays, probably including Debut and Dow Shield, and possibly a fourth spray of some kind. If I can’t achieve a comparable level of weed control with classic herbicides, then it will likely go over to Conviso Smart too from next season.”

After three years, the rotation has been adapted to reflect the restrictions on following crops.

The flexibility the Conviso One herbicide delivers around application timing is not to be overlooked ALISTAIR BOWRING

PICTURE: ALISTAIR BOWRING

Smart system provides flexible weed control

He says: “We always follow Conviso Smart sugar beet with two years of cereals, either winter wheat or spring barley, depending on the lifting date. This overcomes the herbicide restrictions in potatoes and forage maize and means we can use Cruiser SB without breaching restrictions on flowering crops.”

Rotation For this reason, beans are only grown on the heavy land and away from the sugar beet, while a one in 10-year rotation for carrots and one in five for potatoes helps to avoid crop damage or over-reliance on certain modes of action in following crops. Bolters too are taken seriously and rogued as needed.

“I am wary of exchanging one form of weed beet for another. In 2020 we had no more than 20 bolters in one 10ha field. In 2021 we experienced a few more, but these were rogued and destroyed. Where weed beet appears in the following cereal, it is controlled with Spitfire.”

While there are occasions when the weeds may be past the advised growth stage for

MAY 2022

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Conviso One, Mr Bowring is careful to promote efficacy by applying in good conditions.

“I’m also wary there is a risk that I may be promoting herbicide insensitivity among my weed population, so while I might wait until there is a good flush of weeds through before I spray, I’m careful to make sure I apply in good conditions. The flexibility the Conviso One herbicide delivers around application timing is not to be overlooked.

“An advantage of a single application is it can be timed for maximum benefit according to your situation. The single application of one litre/ha is sensible from a resistance management perspective.”

For the past two seasons, the Conviso Smart crops – first Smart Janninka KWS and then Smart Rivetta KWS – have produced adjusted average yields of more than 80t/ha. Others may produce higher yielding crops, but it’s not a simple comparison, believes Mr Bowring.

“In 2020, a season many may care not to remember due to drought and virus, our 44ha of

Conviso Smart beet averaged 81.51 tonnes/ha. This is above our five-year average and was more than enough to meet our contract tonnage of 3,400t.

“Adjusted yields in 2021 were broadly similar but with higher sugar contents of 17.9-18.3%. I appreciate that some standard varieties may yield higher, by my weed beet situation means I would not achieve anywhere near that. Factor in the savings on other herbicides, for instance Dow Shield and Debut, or other post-emergence sprays and the costs of the Conviso Smart system don’t look so high.”

The rising cost of all crop protection products and of applying them is another factor Mr Bowring believes supports the Conviso Smart proposition.

“I don’t have a lot of road work to consider, but only having to make one herbicide application rather than four or five has obvious benefits. I also have a beef enterprise which, along with the potatoes, often takes more time than I can spare. It is at these times I truly appreciate the flexibility the Conviso One herbicide offers.”

MAY 2022 AF May p42 43 Tech Sugar Beet AD TR RM.indd 3

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43 21/04/2022 16:38

TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT As the six-year Assist project comes to an end, the researchers behind the work presented some of the preliminary findings. Alice Dyer reports.

Achieving sustainable agricultural systems

A

move towards ‘system thinking’ rather than ‘industrial thinking’ may cost more in the short term, but robust systems will start to pay in the long run, Julian Gold, farm manager at the Hendred Estate, Oxfordshire, told the meeting. He has been taking part in the Assist project for a number of years as part of the experimental farm network.

He recalled how the Assist biodiversity-boosting, in-field flowering strips were ‘a bit of a eureka moment’, and he has now rolled these out across the

800-hectare estate as AB8 and AB1 in Countryside Stewardship.

He said: “A personal positive for me was it’s an obvious way to bring in-field biodiversity which doesn’t detract from productivity as long you don’t run them to the headlands which would be impractical. They are a good way to break up fields and wheat prairies.”

However, he does feel the economics need to be tackled better, with the model costing him around £900/ha in lost crop.

“In the short term they cost a fortune on this 12 tonnes/ha wheat land. We are only getting around

Assist project JAssist is a six-year £12 million research programme running from 2016 to 2022. It is exploring how to feed growing populations without causing unacceptable environmental damage.

The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in partnership with Rothamsted Research and the British Geological Survey are developing systems in collaboration with industry and stakeholders to: rIncrease efficiency of food production rImprove resilience to extreme events rReduce the environmental footprint of agriculture

£500/ha from Countryside Stewardship [for the flowering plots]. [The losses] are worse this year with the high wheat prices.”

At the estate, collembola (springtails) and predatory ground beetles which eat slugs were more abundant in fields with in-field strips. But measuring yield benefits was more complex, said Mr Gold.

Preliminary evidence However, across the whole Assist farm experimental network, which consists of 18 sites studied over four years, good preliminary evidence is emerging for how two sustainable management systems can boost yields.

With a focus on cereals and OSR, three models were explored – business as usual; the integration of cover crops and flowering margins; and the integration of cover crops, flowering margins, in-field strips and compost/farmyard manure.

How crop nutrition strategies can cut greenhouse gases JWith two-thirds of the UK’s nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions coming from agriculture, the Assist project has been exploring how to minimise emissions from soil through nutrient management, while maintaining productivity.

The study used innovative robotic sampling to capture variability in carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide efficiency from up to 36 plots.

Last year’s work explored how biochar could limit nitrous

44

oxide emissions in spring barley. Nitrogen fertiliser was applied across the plots, with half receiving biochar. However, unexpected heavy rainfall during establishment yielded some interesting results.

Although N2O emissions were very high in both treatments, where biochar was present the gas was suppressed by around 50% without any difference in crop productivity.

Presenting the findings, Prof Niall McNamara, group leader,

plant-soil interactions at UKCEH, said: “It may be that biochar interacts with microbial N cycling processes and by doing so there is evidence it could mitigate N2O emissions.”

In winter wheat strip treatments, nitrogen was applied at three different rates – two applications of 125kg N/ha; four applications of 62.5kg N/ha; and six applications of 41.6kg N/ha.

However, the split applications had no effect on cumulate N2O

emissions or crop yield. Rainfall seemed the major determinant in driving N2O emission peaks, exacerbated by the dry weather during the experiment, said Prof McNamara.

In another example where winter wheat was undersown with white clover to minimise mineral fertiliser use, the results showed that where white clover was in place and N reduced by 25%, crop yield was maintained but N2O emissions fell by 20% due to lower soil inorganic N.

MAY 2022

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22/04/2022 14:21

ENVIRONMENT TECHNICAL Climate change impact on nutrient leaching

In fields with integrated cover crops and flowering strips, yield increases of more than 15% were seen over time.

Dr Ben Woodcock, ecological entomologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), said: “We see it takes time for these biological processes to respond, but both sustainable systems have yield benefits.

“For [the fields] with cover crops and field margins, we see by year

JClimate change alone could lead to reduced leaching of nutrients into the UK’s rivers, according to modelling of the UK landscape built by UKCEH and Rothamsted. The modelling explored possible future river pollution scenarios including more intensive or extensive crop management, as well as changes to rotations and different climate scenarios.

Over the past 200 years, intensification of farming methods has influenced the

quality of rivers. Since 1800, N and P fluxes in rivers have more than doubled and agriculture is currently responsible for 78% of nitrogen, 44% of carbon and 28% of phosphorus inputs in rivers, UKCEH’s Dr Vicky Bell said.

Part of the Assist project has been exploring how landscape change could affect the quality of rivers in the future.

By 2050, according to UK Climate Projections UKCP18

climate models, the UK is set for warmer air temperatures, wetter winters and drier summers.

Dr Bell said: “If we keep farm management the same and only change the climate it could have quite a big impact on nutrient run-off into our rivers.

Early model results suggest from 2020-2050 climate change could alone lead to reduced farmland nitrogen run-off to rivers. This is because crops will grow better with high yields.”

four, which is the time it takes for populations of beneficials to increase, a 16.3% increase in yield. For the more complex system yield increases are slightly higher at 17.9%.”

And while there is far more to sustainable intensification than yield, it is a crucial factor, he added.

“Preliminary results suggest

sustainable intensification shows promise to support yields under real world conditions. Yield increases can be achieved using flexible and simple management options that can be imposed over a range of farming systems. But these do have running time before results occur which is likely to be a

socio-economic barrier to uptake in future.”

JTo mark the end of the ASSIST programme members of the project team presented their preliminary results to the research community, policymakers and representatives of the agricultural sector. To watch the event visit assist.ceh.ac.uk

Exploring

MAY 2022 AF May p44 45 Tech Environment TR AD RM.indd 3

45 21/04/2022 16:41

PRODUCT news Report examines folpet’s benefits

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new ADAS report indicates that the inclusion of folpet in wheat fungicide programmes consistently provides yield and margin benefits by improving septoria control.

The report, which was commissioned by Adama and Syngenta, evaluated the effect of adding the multisite fungicide to a range of ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ base programmes, with a weak programme defined as one which contained older single site active ingredients, and a strong programme defined as one which contained any new chemistry, or Revystar XE (fluxapyroxad + mefentrifluconazole) at +0.75 litres/hectare.

A total of 15 trials held over three years (2019-2021) assessed 55 situations where folpet was added at varying rates and timings to a range of

varieties susceptible to target disease septoria tritici.

Rebecca Joynt, the report’s author, says: “Any input cost has to be justified with a clear improvement in yield and margin.

“In all scenarios, the inclusion of folpet consistently improved yields, with the clearest benefits seen when a single one litre/ha application of folpet was made at T1, or when two applications of one litre/ha were made at T1 and T2.”

Yield improvement The inclusion of folpet delivered an average yield improvement of 0.31 tonnes/ ha across the range of trials with the biggest benefit seen when folpet was added to weaker programmes. The largest yield response recorded was 1.1t/ha.

Ms Joynt adds that 78% of the treatments assessed resulted in a

positive yield response, with those that did not produce a yield improvement not statistically significant, and likely due to seasonal factors.

“In strong and weak programmes alike, the addition of a single application of folpet gave the greatest yield response when applied at the T1 timing, with two applications (at T1 and T2) further increasing yield response.

“Additional yield improvements were also seen when folpet was added to weak programmes at three application timings (T0, T1 and T2) although this data was limited.”

In economic terms, the addition of folpet to weak programmes (one litre/ha at T1 and T2) gave a return of £110/ha, based on wheat at £250/t.

A viable return on investment was also achieved when folpet was added to strong programmes at

Inclusion of folpet delivered an average yield improvement of 0.31t/ha across the range of trials, with the biggest benefit seen when added to weaker programmes.

one litre/ha at T1 and at one litre/ ha at T1 and T2, with the latter giving a return of £77.50/ha.

“The economic benefit of adding folpet to strong programmes was less than for weak programmes but in all cases, there was a clear yield and margin gain to be had,” says Ms Joynt.

For more information or MORE ONLINE to view the ADAS report in full visit adama.com/uk

Boost for crown rust control JOat growers have a new fungicide option for 2022, with the SDHI + triazole fungicide Elatus Era (benzovindiflupyr + prothioconazole) now approved for use on the crop.

Notably, Elatus Era provides label approval for control of crown rust, a major disease that has increased as oats have become more popular, says

46 AF May p46 Prod News TR AD RM.indd 2

Syngenta regional technical manager Joe Bagshaw, but against which a number of fungicides have been, or are being, lost.

“In an ADAS oat trial in a high disease pressure situation in Devon, a single application of Elatus Era at the important T2 timing boosted yield by more than three tonnes per hectare

over the untreated as well as by 1.9t/ha over a triazole and by 1.6t/ha over a strobilurin-based fungicide.

Reduced brackling “Another big benefit seen with Elatus Era in the trial was reduced brackling,” says Mr Bagshaw.

As well as crown rust control, Elatus Era has shown good

control in trials of the other important oat disease, powdery mildew, and increased yield in mildew situations, he adds.

Elatus Era can be applied once per oat crop at a maximum dose of one litre/ha/crop, and with a latest time of application of up to and including the end of heading: inflorescence fully emerged (GS59).

MAY 2022 22/04/2022 10:15

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22/04/2022 11:05

TECHNICAL SOIL HEALTH Growing cereals in strips between soil health-enhancing herbal leys is a technique that is evolving on a Norfolk farm, using existing, adapted and purpose-built equipment. Jane Carley reports.

Pastures new for cereals

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oving to farming more sustainably is helping to boost margins at Wild Ken Hil, Snettisham, while also tackling the soil and climatic challenges faced when growing crops.

A coastal farm spanning 1,600 hectares, Wild Ken Hill is mainly on light, silty soils and has traditionally grown cereals and non-irrigated root crops in a conventional regime, although owners the Buscall family embraced stewardship schemes from the start and have been progressively reducing chemical use.

Farms and estate manager Nick Padwick says: “I thought there had to be a better way, by improving the soil’s ability to support crops. So, three years ago we introduced clover leys to boost soil health. This has now evolved into pasture cropping, whereby crops are grown in strips between bands of herbal leys.”

During the 2020 lockdown, Mr Padwick joined a webinar on pasture cropping by musician turned regenerative farmer Andy Cato of Wildfarmed, a business that brings together farmers, food businesses and consumers while restoring soil and biodiversity on agricultural land and conveying that message to end consumers through their flour product. The pair have since worked closely together to further develop the Wildfarmed strip-till pasture cropping technique.

The farm was already in a controlled traffic farming system

48

We’re aiming to reduce cultivations and establish crops into soils that are repairing themselves NICK PADWICK using RTK to guide machinery travel in set wheelways and strip tillage was being used to establish sugar beet.

Intensive “Sugar beet had moved from a regime of plough, press and cultivate, followed by frequent spraying. This intensive working led to blow and soil loss. By swapping to strip-tilling the seedbed, we reduced the chemical applications needed, eliminated blow and retained moisture, with no impact on yields,” says Mr Padwick.

Initially a clover ley was established in autumn and wheat direct drilled into it in bands the following spring using a Horsch Avatar. The Avatar is set to work in two-metre wheelings with 16.7cm coulter spacings fitting into the 50cm rows, placing seed into a 20cm band between 27cm wide herbal ley strips.

“There was no clover visible during the crop’s growing

season, but post-harvest we discovered an understory of clover. It was allowed to grow and then grazed off with sheep – as the crop had not received any artificial nitrogen, there were no issues with bloat.”

The grazed-down ley was then strip-tilled and drilled with oats, resulting in strips of clover and strips of spring oats which were grown without inputs.

“The farm eliminated insecticides 10 years ago and we have not used PGRs for three years or fungicides for the last two,” says Mr Padwick.

In 2021, spring barley was added to the range of crops being trialled in the Wildfarmed system and progress continued with examining which pasture crops can be grown alongside cash crops.

“We have rotational options as part of our stewardship plan, and for AB11 we can establish legume mixes in spring, which gives them time to establish

Herbal leys or cover crops can be established directly after harvest using the farm’s Horsch Avatar drill.

ahead of an autumn cash crop, or the herbal ley can be put in after harvest using the Avatar and allowed to grow on,” Mr Padwick says.

“This spring we’ve given the established leys a quick pass with a harrow to pull out weeds and then planted a polycrop of spring wheat and peas in a 6in band between the strips using the Horizon strip tiller.”

Marketed as a cultivator, the Horizon SPX row unit is supplied with a wavy opening disc with depth wheels either side, followed by pneumatically-engaged row cleaners ahead of a deep working tungsten carbide leg and point and a pair of packing wheels.

Bespoke At Wild Ken Hill, the bespoke nature of the implement, which also allows it to be used at a range of row spacings, is exploited. The leg is replaced for drilling with a seeding tine, a pair of guards fitted to protect the ley strips from the leading disc and a distributor head and front tank fitted.

Satellite positioning is simply moved over 25cm from the guidance map used to establish the leys.

The Avatar remains a key part of the armoury, not least for its ability to plant cover crop seeds packed by size at a different depth via its split tank and a separate small seed hopper; the rubber

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Pasture farming is being developed as a technique to establish cereals at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk.

depth wheels behind the coulters provide seed-to-soil contact for clovers sprinkled on top of soil.

“We may also be able to use the Avatar with every third coulter blocked off, although planting in a band as we do gives competitiveness,” Mr Padwick says.

The mix of peas and wheat is treated as one crop, harvested together and separated with a grain cleaner.

“We want to move away from monocultures, but we’re trialling peas and wheat alone as well as peas and wheat together to study how they fare in this system. At the moment, the soils are bacteriarich due to the loss of beneficial fungi from the effects of chemicals and too much cultivation. We’re aiming to reduce cultivations and establish crops into soils that are repairing themselves.”

Examining the soil below the herbal ley strips reveals the impact they are already having: a mass of fine roots which also penetrate out of each side, encouraging microbial diversity which helps to rejuvenate soil health and minimise the need for chemicals to grow crops.

Trials are also ongoing to compare the impact of strip tilling alone without herbal

leys with the pasture cropping system.

“We soil sample between the rows of each and we’ve seen that the pasture cropped parts of the field have more aggregates and more air in the soil, giving improved water holding capacity,” says Mr Padwick.

After harvesting the cash crop, the ley can be planted into again, left over winter for a spring X

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MAY 2022 AF May p48 49 50 NEW Drills Cropping TR TW RM.indd 3

49 22/04/2022 13:29

TECHNICAL SOIL HEALTH crop or grazed off, and an established ley is expected to last around five years.

Sugar beet has slotted into the system nicely, planted into cover crops that have been grazed off, using the Horizon SPX in its conventional cultivator guise followed by a Vaderstad Tempo precision drill.

Oilseed rape has also been strip tilled, using a low-input regime which still brought yields of 2.5 tonnes/ha, although dry weather at establishment scuppered the first attempt into a clover ley.

Managing the herbal ley strips during the growing season to prevent them outcompeting the cash crop can also be achieved by grazing with sheep, or more selectively, with a strip mower developed from Andy Cato’s experiences with growing cereals into buckwheat strips in France.

Working with contractors using RTK guidance brought the row spacings down to the current 50cm rear-mounted layout and increased the precision of the operation. Mr Padwick is also exploring using a front mower toolbar with the strip tiller on the back.

Wild Ken Hill is moving towards being more sustainable, not just from an environmental perspective, but also financially.

“By going away from the plough we’ve saved £45,000 on fuel alone and a further £39,000 on wearing metal. We need less horsepower – three tractors have been sold

Peas and wheat planted together between the rows of herbal leys.

and the remaining two are around the 250hp mark, simply to give the size and lift capacity to handle 6m wide implements.”

The pasture-cropped areas receive no nitrogen or pesticides and he has been extending the approach to the rest of the farm.

Disease resistance Fungicide costs have been significantly reduced by growing disease-resistant varieties on the main arable acreage – in the case of wheat, 2021’s crops were Graham, KWS Extase, KWS Siskin and KWS Crispin – using a Pessl Instruments Metos weather station and accompanying software to predict risk.

Pessl’s FieldClimate platform provides fungal disease monitoring to inform fungicide applications and in 2021, the data fell below the criteria that Mr Padwick required for spraying, so no applications were made.

Cereals establish well between the strips, sown in a band using a coulter fitted to the Horizon strip tiller.

50

Soil below the herbal ley strips, showing the mass of fine roots which improve water holding capacity and encourage microbial diversity.

We’re working with other local farms that have embraced this approach, charging only for the tractor and labour NICK PADWICK

a wildlife corridor in the centre of the field.

North Norfolk’s coast road lies between the grain store and the arable land and to the west of this, former arable fields on sandy soils have been rewilded, with cattle, Exmoor ponies and pigs grazing the 420ha of land, which also includes unfenced woodland.

Closer to the sea, approximately 200ha of low-lying marshland has had a water penning structure (soil bank) built around the west side of its boundary, allowing the estate to control water levels for wildfowl and waders.

“We want to avoid spraying where possible as it can also kill favourable fungi, so we’re moving away from the standard approach of making applications according to crop growth stage and calendar.

I know it’s not for everyone, it depends on whether the focus is on yield or cutting fixed costs – ours have reduced from £500/ha to £300/ha and I’m confident we can go even lower.”

The Wildfarmed pasture farming approach sits well with the farm’s other developments.

Alongside 800ha of crops, 180ha is now under stewardship, with fields cropped in ‘rectangles’ avoiding short work and making use of field corners to encourage biodiversity. In the same vein, 6m grass strips have been established around telegraph poles, which also give

Yield “The aim is to get the soils back to where they will sustain farming in the future. Yield is still important, but so is net margin – we need to get this up and running while we still have BPS as it will become even more important once the payments are gone.

“We’re working with other local farms that have embraced this approach, charging only for the tractor and labour as the drill and mower have attracted a Farming in Protected Landscapes grant.

“The aim is to build a collective of like-minded farmers working with Wildfarmed, which offers a fair premium for crops grown in this pioneering, sustainable method, and whose consumer-facing brand helps get the message across,” says Mr Padwick.

MAY 2022

AF May p48 49 50 NEW Drills Cropping TR TW RM.indd 4

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MACHINERY SAFETY

360-degree camera systems stitch images together to provide a bird’s eye view of the vehicle and the area around it.

Liebherr wheeled loaders can be equipped with active personnel detection at the rear of the machine.

Dealing with deadly blind spots around tractors and telehandlers could help to prevent death or serious injury to those who share space with mobile machinery. Geoff Ashcroft looks at how approaches adopted by the construction industry could make farm life much safer.

Tech to boost safety on-farm

T

he danger of being struck by farm machinery is an ever-present one. All it takes is a momentary lapse of concentration, either from the operator or a worker close to the machine. It is all too easy for a worker to assume that a machine operator has seen them, and their visibility can be restricted by a vehicle’s shape, size, load and operator position.

Reversing cameras and back-up alarms are only as good as those who

use and respond to them. And all too often, these are easily ignored as workers grow accustomed to the repetitive noise patterns.

Operator awareness While we are all responsible for our own safety, there have been recent advances in technology to increase operator awareness of personnel hazards. Much has been driven by the construction industry’s pursuit of zero harm, while the commercial vehicle sector is reducing blind spot incidence with a host of driver

Also in this section 56 60 67

Super-sized handler giving efficiency a lift A no-till drill for clay?

Accessible no-till

52

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AF May p52 53 54 Mach Safety TR TW RM.indd 2

assistance developments and on-board cameras.

While these clever systems are ultimately no substitute for safe working practices or operator awareness, they can provide an extra layer of operational safety.

Many construction machinery manufacturers now offer 360-degree camera systems that can be used on excavators and wheeled loaders. By using a series of cameras on excavators for example – typically four, wide-angle digital cameras mounted in strategic locations around the machine – images can be digitally stitched together to provide a top-down, bird’s eye view of the vehicle and the area around it.

Hyundai Construction Equip-

ment provides all around view monitoring (AAVM) on its excavators which creates a 360-degree image that can be seen on an in-cab monitor. The operator can also select the view from each camera to look at the different working angles of the machine.

But perhaps more importantly, the use of cameras with radar capability has enabled Hyundai to develop intelligent moving object detection (IMOD). IMOD warns the operator when people or objects are within proximity of the machine.

That proximity starts with an initial recognition distance of around five metres, and is illustrated by a green line shown on-screen, drawn around the excavator.

Depending on the view selected, blue flashing arrows on the in-cab screen offer the first line of warning to the operator, depending on which camera has picked up the intrusion.

As the object gets within 2m of the machine, the arrows flash red and increase in number.

But it does not stop there. The system emits warning beeps too, so there is no need to constantly glance at the screen, looking for signs of intrusion. And the audible alarm serves to alert the operator to then check the screen and look around.

There are camera monitoring

22/04/2022 13:45

SAFETY MACHINERY eye view, the firm’s L526-L586 XPower loaders can be equipped with active personnel detection at the rear of the machine. This optional system constantly monitors the area behind the loader and automatically warns the operator both visually and audibly.

systems available for wheeled loaders too and Liebherr has taken obstacle detection a step further than just camera views. The German maker has developed a range of

intelligent assistance systems for its wheeled loaders, which have been made possible by using the latest advances in camera technology.

In addition to a 360-degree bird’s

Brake assistant Cleverly, active personnel detection distinguishes between people and objects without people needing to wear transponders or sensors. This feature can be combined with a new feature called brake assistant, which immediately slows the wheeled loader to a standstill once a source of danger has been detected.

By initiating the braking process much earlier, Liebherr claims there is almost no delay in slowing the machine when compared to an operator’s reaction time. Importantly, this provides a reduction in the machine’s stopping distance, with the potential to dramatically reduce the frequency and severity of accidents.

A secondary function of active personnel detection is the incident map. Each time the detection process issues a warning signal, the system transmits a GPS signal to LiDAT – Liebherr’s in-house fleet management software.

This generates an incident map showing risk zones and potential sources of danger on-site, which the operator can use to take additional measures to improve safety. This could, for example, lead to cordoning off specific areas or altering dangerous work sequences to avoid repeat incidents.

Spillard Safety Systems, a supplier of vehicle and machinery safety systems, has developed a 360-degree camera system that remains active even when an operator is not manoeuvring the machine.

Its HD 360-degree camera system is claimed to eliminate blind spots and provide a high-definition image even in low light conditions. It is a safety system that can include intelligent video telematics for X

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MAY 2022 AF May p52 53 54 Mach Safety TR TW RM.indd 3

53 22/04/2022 13:45

MACHINERY SAFETY Useful contacts rSpillard Safety Systems rTrailer Vision rBrigade Electronics rFTC Group

live monitoring, reporting and safety management.

Taking detection a step further is the company’s Human Detection System (HDS). HDS is focused on improving safety for HGV drivers and provides side view cameras with the ability to detect human shapes and form. This includes pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

The company says that blind spot technology such as left-side mirrors, cameras and side sensors tend to pick up every aspect of street furniture, creating more false alarms and distractions caused by more basic systems.

HDS also visualises the distance from vehicle to person and illustrates this with a colour-coded box

highlighting the danger on an in-cab monitor. Green indicates safe distances of up to 20m, with yellow and red used as the danger gets closer, accompanied by an audible alarm.

Spillard Safety Systems says the high detection accuracy of HDS affords more reaction time for drivers and also captures the event in full colour, with high-definition video output.

Network HDS can be installed as forward, side and rearward facing, to detect pedestrian shape. The system can be integrated with Spillard Live, so captured footage with GPS data can be used to eliminate false claims.

ZoneSafe by Brigade Electronics uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to create detection zones around vehicles and mobile machinery. Using a network of vehicle- mounted RFID antennas, ZoneSafe detects pedestrian tags worn by workers.

As a vehicle detects a tag, the wearer is notified by short bursts of

Using a network of vehicle-mounted RFID antennas, ZoneSafe detects pedestrian tags worn by workers.

vibration. This also alerts the machine operator to the danger.

The driver tag works in the same way, but with the added benefit of activating a vehicle control unit. This control unit emits an audible and visual alert to the driver, warning that a pedestrian is near the vehicle.

Each vehicle antenna can be programmed to detect a pedestrian tag from a distance of 0-10m from the vehicle. Tags can be wirelessly charged within two hours, says the company, with a tag remaining operational for up to three months between charges.

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MAY 2022

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22/04/2022 13:58

MACHINERY MATERIALS HANDLING With the emphasis on improving handling performance, one Lincolnshire grower opted for a Manitou MLT 961 telehandler, which packs a nine-metre lift height and six-tonne lift capacity. Geoff Ashcroft looks at what this machine brings to the business.

Super-sized handler giving efficiency a lift

W

hile the telehandler has revolutionised materials handling tasks around many farms, the bulk of sales account for machines with a lift height of seven metres, and a capacity of 3.5 to four tonnes.

Traditional buildings and yard spaces tend to dictate physical machine size. So when it comes to high-capacity handlers, only grain merchants and straw contractors seek the extra muscle – and the latter favour lift height over lift capacity.

But for Dunmore Hind, having a super-sized handler has transformed the way his family farm now operates.

“In the middle of harvest, when everyone is flat out, the last thing you want to do is stop what

With 4.5t of grain in every bucket full, it is a bit of an animal. But you would not know it was lifting that much DUNMORE HIND you are doing and find time to load a lorry,” says Mr Hind.

“This amount of downtime does stick in your mind, so I thought about how we could reduce it.”

From Counthorpe Lodge Farm, Grantham, Lincolnshire, J.

Hind and Son grows about 800 hectares of combinable crops.

Storage capacity amounts to 8,000t, but is spread across three locations, some five miles apart.

The farm had been using a Manitou MLT 741 for the task, with its modest 7m, 4t lift

capacity enabling the farm to get on with the job.

“What I found was its lift capacity was eroded by the weight of the bucket,” adds Mr Hind.

“And depending on grain weight, you would be lucky to get 3t into a bucket that this

Auto-greasing extends to the headstock pins and bushings.

56

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21/04/2022 16:43

Manitou MLT941-145 V+ L specification

The MLT 961’s 9m, 6t lift capacity has improved materials handling productivity at Counthorpe Lodge Farm.

machine could comfortably handle. That could mean 10-11 passes to fill a lorry trailer.

“It just seemed logical to look at improving logistics around all our yards,” he says.

“You do not think twice about investing in more combine capacity, a bigger drill, a wider sprayer and larger trailers, for example – the telehandler is an area where more performance and productivity can easily save you time.”

Having tried a selection of comparable-sized machines, the answer he was looking for came from Manitou’s MLT 961-145 V+ L, supplied by local dealer Chandlers Farm Equipment.

This industrial-biased machine offered a 9m lift height, and a muscular 6t lift capacity.

It required investment in an

The one-piece cab door includes an electrically raised and lowered window.

Albutt 5.68cu.m bucket, though the payback is filling grain lorries in just seven passes.

“We have shaved 50% off the time it used to take to fill a lorry,” he says.

“With 4.5t of grain in every bucket full, it is a bit of an animal.

But you would not know it was lifting that much, it is effortless.”

Capability The MLT 961 came with a beefed-up set of pallet forks to match its capability, but Mr Hind has since bought a pair of standard 4t forks that can be left at different yards, to simplify materials handling duties. A second grain pusher has been purchased, along with an extension for the farm’s existing 4.3m version.

“I bought a 1.8m extension to let us push grain up to 4.8m high in our newest store, which makes the most of the telehandler’s 5.3m maximum outreach,” he says.

All our other attachments simply slot onto the 961’s beefed up carriage DUNMORE HIND

“All our other attachments – man basket, grab and bucket – simply slot onto the 961’s beefed up carriage. Only the new grain bucket makes the most of the handler’s capacity.

“The bucket weighs 1.25t, so with 4.5t of grain, we are getting close to the limit. It will reach over the side of a grain lorry without having to

rLift height: 9m rLift capacity: 6t rPower: John Deere 141hp, four cylinder turbo rFuel tank: 135 litres rTransmission: M-Vario Plus hydrostatic 40kph rWeight: 11,800kg

extend the boom and does not provoke a response from the safe load indicator.

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MAY 2022 AF May p56 57 58 Mat Handl TW TR RM.indd 3

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MACHINERY MATERIALS HANDLING is phenomenal, although you can stall the engine at tick-over if you summon too much from the crowd ram. But with just 1,200rpm, it is very quick with cycle times for the boom and bucket – it is not a lazy machine.

“That said, the handler weighs nearly 12t and travelling between farms at 40kph is where it probably would benefit from a bit more power.

“140hp is not quite enough and we do fill the diesel tank more often than we did with our previous model.”

He says that despite the extra muscle, bags of fertiliser and seed are still handled the same way and in the same quantities.

“But now it is really easy to fill our 8m drill’s hopper, thanks to the forward reach,” he adds.

“We do not have to look for the right position or the right angle to reach the seed tank.”

He says he was initially sceptical about the one-piece door and its integral electric window, but time in the cab has proved it to be an improve-

Lincolnshire grower Dunmore Hind says the 5.68cu.m grain bucket holds 4.5t of wheat.

ment. And the scalloped cab floor design contributes to easy access to and from the seat.

Auto-greasing “I also like the automatic handbrake, which means no more trapped fingers, and the built-in auto-greasing mechanism is a no-brainer,” he says.

“There are no more argu-

Cab layout includes RDS Weighlog and dual camera views.

58

ments over who greased – or did not grease – the handler.”

He says the standard threeyear/3,000-hour warranty has been extended to five years/4,000 hours, keeping a lid on costs during the first half of its working lifetime at Counthorpe Lodge Farm.

“A telehandler is a 10-year purchase for us, so the additional cost over and above a 4t, 7m machine was not that much more, given the capacity we now have,” says Mr Hind.

Since arriving for harvest 2021, the machine has had a couple of modifications.

“The diesel tank filler cover needed the ignition key to access it, so that has been changed to make life easier, and the off-side front mirror arm has been strengthened by the dealer to remove vibration,” he says.

“I also opted for a pickup hitch, so we can move seed and fertiliser to the fields using a trailer behind the Manitou.”

The cost of convenience also required an extra camera to be fitted to the pickup hitch.

“I have had to fit a camera directly on top of the hitch ram – you just cannot see the hook from the cab,” he says.

“Fortunately, the handler comes with two cameras – one provides

a general rear-view perspective and the other one looks down the right-hand side of the chassis.”

The MLT 961 also comes with hydraulic chassis levelling, which Mr Hind says is of no use to the farm, but its industrial block-tread Michelin 500/71 R24 tyres get a big thumbs-up.

“The tyres are much better around the yard than cleated tyres. They are also stiffer, which adds stability when working at height,” he says.

“This is not a handler that spends its time in fields – it is a yard machine. And we are thrilled with it.”

Convenience To add to the convenience, Mr Hind has fitted an RDS Weighlog in the cab, which gives a cumulative bucket count and provides an easy cross-check of total tonnes loaded compared to on-board truck weighing systems.

“Yes, it is a big handler, there is no denying that. But we are not working with small, tight buildings and we have all got used to the much longer wheelbase.”

“That longer footprint has slightly compromised manoeuvrability, but the whole machine feels more planted; more stable; and is far safer with every materials handling task we do,” he says.

MAY 2022

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AF_05_P59.indd 1

20/04/2022 13:02

MACHINERY DRILLS A drill demo day organised by Agrii at Roy Ward Farms, Leadenham, provided growers with an insight into the performance of a range of systems on the farm’s clay soils. Alice Dyer and Toby Whatley report.

A no-till drill for clay?

L

incolnshire grower Andrew Ward is only direct drilling on around 10% of the 700-hectare farm but he is moving less and less soil, recognising the need to move towards zero-till in this new carbon-centric world. However, with soils containing around 50% clay and 30% silt, this is no mean feat.

Mr Ward’s long-term aim is to transition to a low-tillage system, but the heavy soils need to time to adjust and he is finding that not all systems perform equally.

Agrii cultivations expert, Steve Corbett who, in conjunction with Mr Ward and the farm’s Agrii agronomist Fred Fowler, organised the direct drill demonstration day on Mr Ward’s farm near Lincoln,

says: “That soil combination is really quite tricky and different to deal with.”

The trials field is typically deep cultivated to a depth of 150175mm using a Simba Solo, with soil left to weather over winter and then drilled using the farm’s eight metre Freeflow drill, which has worked well in the past.

Transition This year the field was left as stubble. Mr Corbett says this quick transition will push the drills’ capabilities to the limit, with heavy soils requiring long-term investment into roots and cultivations to get them into a more friable working state.

“They all need friability at drilling depth, so we put them in an unfair situation in a way. But there are a lot of farms in that situation. In the early years on

heavy soils we might still need a very shallow cultivation.”

The soil was quite moist, leading to challenging conditions on the day of drilling but all the drills put seed under the surface. However, with rain just after drilling and then prolonged dry conditions, the soil quickly baked, leaving the seed that went through disc drills potentially sat in open slots due to soil shrinkage.

“If the land had some root matter or fibrous roots for soil structure in the top zone the disc drills would have worked better,” Mr Corbett says. “After some rain the soil has turned like concrete.

The slots have opened as they have dried so until they get rain to close that slot again, germination will be affected.”

To try and rectify this, an area through all the plots was

harrowed with a straw rake to close the slots before the field was rolled, but the success of this will not be known until emergence.

Areas worked on by the narrow tine drills – the Weaving, Simtech, Dale and Amazone, which move a small amount of soil – have not dried so open, Mr Corbett adds.

Cultivation “However, strip till machines like the Claydon and the Sumo do quite a bit of cultivation but the problem for the Claydon is the front tine makes a deep slot that has dried open.

“The A-share has put the seed onto a shelf next to the slot which hasn’t worked either. The better performing machines in those conditions on the day was something that moved a bit of soil and placed it around the seed. It means as things have

Amazone Cayena 600 JThe Amazone Cayena is offered only as a six-metre trailed drill with a 4,000litre split tank. Wavy edged opening discs are followed by 36 tungsten tines with seeding tubes arranged over

60

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22/04/2022 14:07

DRILLS MACHINERY

Weaving Sabre Tine 6000M JOffered in working widths of three to eight metres, the Weaving Sabre Tine drill uses four rows of double tungsten tipped opening legs and seeding tubes positioned at 166mm centres, followed by ground-following zig-zag harrows.

Working depth is controlled

dried we’ve still got some soil around the seed.

“Conditions on the day were very challenging. The dry weather

by hydraulic depth wheels with cylinder spacers.

The fully mounted drill uses a floating frame to allow the coulter frame to ground follow independently of the tank and chassis. A front tank and rear toolbar is available for machines with a working width of 4.8 to eight metres.

since will have an impact on crop germination and what looked good at drilling might well not give the highest plant count at emergence.”

More profiles of the drills at work on pages 62-66.

ena 6001-C the working width at 166mm centres.

Following the tines, a set of zig-zag harrows levels the seedbed before consolidation with the packer wheels.

The design of the wheel

shoulders aligns the rib with the seeded row to improve seed to soil contact. Depth control is managed using the packer wheels and opening discs with hydraulic cylinder spacers.

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61 22/04/2022 14:07

MACHINERY DRILLS

Dale Drills Eco M 6m JDale Drills offers a wide range of working widths, from three to 13.5 metres in both mounted and trailed designs.

The system used a series of parallel linkages fitted with two forward facing tungsten legs, with integrated seeding boot.

Row spacing can be adjusted by moving the leg position on the carriage.

Following the carriage a spiked, shouldered consolidation wheel works either side of the planting zone, which also offers

contour following and pressure control.

The drills are available with single or split hoppers.

Carriages can be individually adjusted for seeding depth. A single row of covering tines is used at the rear of the unit.

for trash clearance, with the assemblies followed by paddle levelling boards and a single row of covering tines.

The disc, cultivation leg, A-share and levelling design offer a deeper drainage channel from which the

seed is placed either side.

The paddles and levelling tines are positioned to produce a covering tilth across the seeds to improve seed to soil contact. Working depth is controlled by centrally mounted pneumatic depth wheels.

Claydon Hybrid T6C JThe trailed or mounted Claydon Hybrid ranges from three to eight metres and uses an optional single row of fixed discs ahead of a deeper working opening leg. This is followed by a 170mm A-share coulter delivering two bands

62

of seed either side of the cultivated strip. The coulter is designed to deliver seed and fertiliser from the twin tank machine.

The combination of opening leg and coulter is arranged in two staggered rows to allow

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22/04/2022 14:07

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20/04/2022 13:03

MACHINERY DRILLS Sumo DTS 3M JThe compact, mounted Sumo DTS is available in working widths of three and four metres, with the option of a rear-mounted toolbar, front hopper and metering unit.

The design comprises a shouldered opening disc ahead of a deeper working cultivating leg. Following this, a shallower seeding coulter with twin outlet seeding boot establishes the crop either side of the cultivated area.

Angled, free-floating

covering discs move soil back over the seeded strip before reconsolidation by staggered pneumatic press wheels.

Each assembly is carried on a hydraulically pressurised parallel linkage, which is claimed to offer consistent ground following and depth control.

The hydraulic downforce of the coulter pressure is operated separately to the cylinder, applying load to the opening disc and leg.

Horizon DSX 60-18 JSupplied in working widths of four to nine metres, this drill offers up to three individual tanks for a combination of seed, fertiliser and companion cropping, or multi-species cover cropping applied at different rates.

The coulters are arranged in two staggered rows, which can be repositioned across the

64

frame, with each coulter using a parallel linkage to control the working position and offering contour following.

A claimed 320mm of vertical travel is offered from the 10-degree angled disc.

The linkage includes adjustable hydraulic downforce offering up to 235kg per coulter. Following the coulter,

a pneumatic loaded notched press wheel is positioned to close the slot after establishment. The downforce applied to the press wheel can be adjusted from the cab and offers up to 100kg per unit.

Individual disc depth control is achieved with a manual notched positioner on the side of the assembly.

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22/04/2022 14:09

DRILLS MACHINERY

Horsch Avatar 6.16 SD JThe Avatar range of trailed drills offers working widths of three to 18 metres and can be supplied with up to four different hoppers. Different seed rates and working depths can

be delivered to individual disc coulters across the machine.

The disc coulter assembly is positioned at a six-degree offset angle and two-degree vertical offset. Located either

side of the coulter, two rubber press wheels are mounted on a trailing arm followed by a notched closing wheel at the rear of the assembly. Working depth and coulter operating

pressure are adjusted through the in-cab terminal, with a maximum load of 350kg/ coulter. Downforce of the closing wheel is adjusted using a notched, spring-loaded assembly.

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65 22/04/2022 14:09

MACHINERY DRILLS

Sky EasyDrill HD 6m JThe trailed range from Sky covers working widths from three to eight metres, with the smallest model using gravity feed for the seed and fertiliser delivery. Up to four tanks can be specified with the machine The coulter assembly uses a large diameter front press prior to the single notched

disc and seeding coulter, which is followed by a smooth steel press wheel.

Each carriage assembly supports two disc coulters and consolidation wheels behind the singe press wheel.

Operating depth is manually controlled using a screw thread adjustment.

In use, the rear transport wheels lift free from the ground, transferring all the mass onto the drill itself, which is supported by the front and rear presses. Adjustments with the machine balance allows weight to be transferred between the front and rear to adapt to the conditions.

Simtech T-Sem 3m JThe T-Sem is a gravity-fed mounted drill which uses a spring-loaded tine coulter with duck’s-foot seeding boot operating behind a straight opening disc with the tines arranged at 150mm centres.

The surface is reconsolidated by cage press wheels and levelled using a drag chain running over the

66

surface. The design claims to create a seeding cavity below the opening slot where the reconsolidation brings seed to soil contact and drainage.

Operating depth is manually adjusted through the working position of the press wheels and opening discs.

The drill uses a unique mechanical metering system

where the seed is pulled from the 900-litre hopper and released to the coulter by a rotary sponge, which is spring loaded against the metering body.

Working widths of three to eight metres are offered in mounted and trailed variations.

Larger models use pneumatic metering.

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22/04/2022 14:09

DRILLS MACHINERY The concept of a direct drill as a power-hungry monster is a thing of the past as more farms look to the benefits of no-till. Jane Carley looks at some three-metre options.

Accessible no-till Sky 3010 JThis box drill benefits from the same HD coulter seeding line as its pneumatic big brothers but uses a simple Ultron MS control box.

The distribution system uses peg wheel metering with a fluted roller for the fertiliser system. Row width is Sky’s standard 16.6cm.

The 2,500-litre hopper is split to accommodate grain and fertiliser, or another product, and can be set at 1,350:900 litres or 2,000:250 litres, or the divider moved aside for grain only.

A dual distribution system ensures product from each hopper is fed into a separate

coulter, allowing for two or more products to be planted at two different depths in the same seeding row.

HD coulters have up to 250kg coulter pressure per

and ensure good slot closure.

The 3010 Fertisem can travel at 6-12kph, depending on conditions, and requires 75-105hp.

Prices from £71,848.

disc, while hydraulic weight transfer allows for weight to be distributed between the front press wheel and the chamfered rear closing wheel to suit weather conditions

Weaving GD JAvailable as a three-metre trailed model with 4,000litre grain/fertiliser hopper featuring a volumetric metering unit accompanied

by RDS iSOCAN controls.

The tank can be configured to include two integral micro granular hoppers.

The GD coulter design is based on a double disc arrangement, mounted at 25 degrees to the vertical.

The large leading disc cuts a slot while the smaller inner disc forms the opening for the seed to be placed, said to minimise side wall compression and make slot closing more effective and consistent. The lifted wall of soil is firmed by a single press wheel, which also controls

coulter working depth. There are two rows of coulters with 166mm spacing and inter-row clearance of 1m enables work in trashy conditions.

Pressure A closed hydraulic suspension system provides individual coulter pressure of up to 300kg, helping to maintain consistent sowing depth across

undulations, and the drill is fitted with a Category 3 linkagemounted drawbar, allowing for tight headland manoeuvres.

A guide of 35hp per metre is recommended.

The GD is also available as a mounted model, with slim 1,600-litre tank fitted with volumetric metering unit and

RDS Artemis Lite controls. The same hydraulic suspension system gives up to 200kg per coulter pressure for the two rows of coulters with 166mm spacing; tractors from 120hp are recommended.

Prices are from £48,800 for the mounted version and £57,000 for the trailed model.

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MACHINERY DRILLS Dale Drills Eco M JTine assemblies are spread over three rows, with 750mm between assemblies on the same row for improved trash flow.

The drill has the same low weight-per-metre ratio as the larger models offered by the company for minimal compaction and a suggested horsepower requirement from 20hp/m. Land wheels

are positioned between the first and second row for manoeuvrability, with space for a wide footprint, low ground pressure 600/40-22.5 tyre.

Hopper capacity is two tonnes, located at the front of the drill and available with a split tank facilitating fertiliser placement drilling as an option. The 3m Eco M starts at £54,900.

Claydon Evolution JReplacing the Hybrid drill range for this autumn, Claydon’s Evolution is available in a three-metre seed only and seed and fertiliser versions, designed for direct strip seeding with nine tines and a 1,910 litre or 2,700 litre (grain and fertiliser) 50:50 split hopper.

Standard features on all models include a hydraulic fan, Artemis metering control, tramlining facility and front tine/seven-inch A-share configuration. Front discs, operated hydraulically from the tractor seat, can be specified

for seeding into high residue situations. Quick-fit knock-on/ knock-off coulter options for the standard leading tine and A-share include low disturbance twin discs and tines.

Seed depth adjustment is now controlled hydraulically and improved access to the metering unit allows easier calibration.

Daily output is 20 hectares for the 3m Evolution which requires a tractor of at least 150hp.

Prices are yet to be announced.

Horsch Avatar JThe Avatar SD is a compact seed drill designed for low disturbance seeding, using a single disc coulter with high tare weight needed for direct working.

Coulter pressure of up to 350kg guarantees penetration into the soil and the strong coulter frame eliminates sideways movement, designed to ensure the coulter keeps to the set sowing depth. A press wheel then closes the seed

furrow and consolidates the seed row. Ground following of coulters is via the proven rubber suspension of the Pronto DC. The Avatar SD also uses the hopper and metering components of the Pronto DC seed drills. A 2,800-litre hopper can be replaced with a double hopper version (3,800 litres) for grain and fertiliser and a 200-litre micro-granular unit is available with either

hopper version. The machine is controlled and monitored by a standard IsoBus terminal.

Power requirement is from 125hp.

Prices are from £53,250.

Sumo DD JVersions are the DD3 (with tank on top of drill) and DD3 Toolbar with front tank, designed for zero-till systems where seed placement with minimal disturbance is required.

With 16 rows using angled disc coulters with independent contour following at 187.5mm spacing, the DD3 Toolbar offers generous clearance for

68

trash and can be paired with Sumo’s 1,900 litre capacity front hopper, which has a Sumo Orga metering system and hydraulic fan. Power requirement is from 120hp.

The mounted DD3 has the same row spacing and 1,900 litre hopper, also requiring from 120hp.

Prices are available on application.

C e fo

Fo c

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22/04/2022 14:49

DRILLS MACHINERY Amazone Primera JPurpose-built to have individual coulter contour following, with 16 chisel tine coulters on 18.75cm row spacing plus stone breakaway protection and a choice of covering hoop rollers, rear covering harrow or roller harrow.

With generous clearance between openers and simple

depth adjustment, the individual coulter following means it will drill the same depth in a tramline as on a mound, so it is said to be ideal on more undulating or difficult ground.

The Primera DMC 3000 comes with a 4,200-litre hopper extendable to 5,000 litres, split tank option for

fertiliser application, electrically-driven metering system with remote calibration and IsoBus control.

Amazone’s GreenDrill 501 seeder can now be added to give a third hopper for

cover/companion plants or Avadex.

The three-metre version starts at £65,565

Simtech T-Sem The arable/mixed farm Simtech T-Sem 300 and 300A box drills have a 900-litre hopper capacity and are priced around £25,000, depending on row spacing, which is 15cm or 18.75cm respectively.

Pneumatic versions of the latter with electronic controls, monitoring and tramlining top out at £32,450.

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JSimtech’s T-Sem drills feature a pre-slicing row of discs aligned with each inverted-T boot mounted on a spring tine.

Weight is not necessary to achieve penetration, so horsepower requirement remains low – three-metre models weighing 1,450-1,900kg, need 80-125hp.

O YOUR S

Less till, less fill.

Claydon Opti-Till®. With fewer passes needed, you save on fuel bills, man hours, even equipment. In fact, it’s the most efficient way to create the ideal growing environment for healthy, high-yielding crops. So why plough on with the same old methods?

For a more in-depth look at the Claydon system visit: claydondrill.com, contact your local dealer, or Claydon on 01440 820 327

AF May p67 68 69 70 NEW Drills TR TW RM.indd 4

Establishing a better way

22/04/2022 13:40

MACHINERY DRILLS Cross Slot from Primewest JContractors and engineers Primewest manufacture threemetre no-till drills incorporating Cross Slot technology with 15 openers at 210mm spacings, using a front disc and seed blade which creates an inverted T-shape slot.

Designed to minimise soil and crop residue disturbance, the Primewest

drill automatically adjusts downforce using a hydraulically-pressurised ram to match soil hardness.

Hopper capacity is 2,500 litres, with liquid fertiliser and microgranule applicators as options and there is a choice of Accord/RDS or Topcon control systems.

Prices are from £85,000.

Mzuri Pro-Til JThis design uses an autoreset leading leg to target tillage to the seeding zone.

Central reconsolidation wheels, staggered to improve trash flow, remove air pockets before seeding with nine tine coulters and reconsolidating for a second time, minimising moisture loss.

Individual patented pivoting coulters are designed to ensure each seed is placed accurately in bands 150mm apart with 333mm row spacing.

The Pro-Til is available in mounted and trailed three-

metre models and as a trailed Dual version which gives band placement of fertiliser.

Hopper capacity is 1,200 and 2,800 litres for mounted and trailed seed-only versions respectively and 3,400 litres for the grain/fertiliser Pro-Til T Dual.

The metering unit consists of a variable speed electric motor and a gearbox driving a specific seed roller, with rollers for all seed types. Tractor power requirement is from 180hp.

The Pro-Til 3 is priced from £39,150 and the Pro-Til 3T from £49,971.

In the field Allan and Fraser McNicoll, Bedfordshire JAllan and Fraser McNicoll have purchased a three-metre Ma-ag SSP direct drill to cut establishment costs on their Bedfordshire farm and for contract work, with the aim being to move away from a power harrow drill combination.

Imported by Ryetec, the Ma-ag design incorporates floating disc coulters with individual pressure adjustment and depth control and each coulter is mounted on a parallel linkage for uniform seed placement across the full width of the drill on undulating land.

Drill coulters are spaced with alternate rows at the front and rear of the drill frame to give maximum clearance to work in high trash conditions.

Allan McNicoll says: “Although the land is not all heavy, we get high rainfall, which seems to cause more compaction than field traffic.

“We’re aiming to use a low-disturbance subsoiler behind the combine and then spray off and drill six to eight

70

weeks later, minimising soil disturbance and passes to tackle black-grass.”

Some of the land needs surface work to incorporate FYM, but the Ma-ag has also been used to put cover crops straight into stubble.

“We had demonstrations of the Ma-ag, which is a disc drill, and a tined direct drill in the same field as our power harrow combination in April 2020. The disc drill gave three-quarters-of-atonne more yield than the tined drill on spring barley. Looking at the drilled slot, you can see the seed growing into the side wall and establishment is very quick.”

Conditions That autumn, Mr McNicoll found himself drilling into ‘very wet’ conditions.

“It was not ideal as the land gets very sticky and maybe we’d have been better with a tine at that time, but the crop still came up.”

He adds that while there are

Allan and Fraser McNicoll’s Ma-ag direct drill has proved frugal as well as effective, working behind a 155hp Deutz.

heavier drills on the market, demonstrations suggested they would move too much soil.

Another plus is the frugal power requirement – while the drill is generally pulled by a 170hp tractor, it can also be handled by the farm’s 155hp Deutz Agrotron 165.

“The CVT gearbox keeps the revs at around 1,1001,200rpm at a forward

speed of 10-12kph,” Mr McNicoll says.

The compact size of the outfit also boost versatility, giving the manoeuvrability for work, such as drilling grass in horse paddocks, and the drill has been used on cultivated ground.

“On some land that had been ploughed, the results looked as good as our power harrow drill,” adds Mr McNicoll.

MAY 2022

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22/04/2022 13:40

Latest show features at #LAMMA22 4-5 May 2022 at the NEC, Birmingham

The Spring edition of LAMMA is beginning to take shape with brand new show debuts across both event days.

Featuring alongside LAMMA’s annual machinery launches, UK debuts & global manufacturers are two new zones!

NEW: Speaker Zones

NEW: LAMMA365 Dealer Zone

Featuring two speaker zones where visitors will be able to drop in for updates on the latest industry developments and ask questions to a panel of experts from the NAAC, HMRC and more.

In association with BAGMA, this zone showcases the country’s most influential and market-leading dealers. Visitors now have the opportunity to see a wide range of new and used machinery.

Topics being discussed include Red diesel, Farm security, Second-hand machinery, New product developments, Legislative updates, Farmer health and Careers in the ag machinery sector.

Created in recognition of the key role the UK dealer network plays in the agricultural sector, the zone also increases purchase options for visitors looking to buy machinery at the show.

Sponsored by:

Supported by:

Register for your FREE ticket at lammashow.com AF_05_P71.indd 1 AF_DF_lamma40_fp_whats_on_zones.indd 1

20/04/2022 13:08 12/04/2022 12:00:10

TALKING POLICY

MATT Culley The whole industry should be commended for working to change the course of Defra’s urea ban

O

n March 30, Defra and the Government made two significant announcements that affect our industry, unusually both in a positive way.

Firstly, the long-awaited response to the Government’s 2021 urea consultation, which for the time being agrees with the views of the NFU and our industry partners who have argued for self-regulation and our continued ability to responsibly use uninhibited solid and liquid urea products.

Importantly, Defra’s response will include its support for a new Red Tractor standard to help reduce ammonia emissions from urea-based fertilisers while allowing the use of untreated products between January 15 and the end of March each year.

Everyone should see this as a positive step

About the author rNFU crops board chairman Matt Culley is a fourth-generation farmer from Hampshire working in partnership with his parents and brother rThe 720-hectare enterprise produces wheat, barley, oilseed rape, forage maize and rye for anaerobic digestion across varying soil types, from chalk and chalk loam to clay cap. This includes 170ha of owned and rented land and 540ha of contract farming agreements rThe family also runs a pick-your-own soft fruit and summer vegetables business

72

forward. Government was insistent on change to meet its emissions targets, so much so that a complete ban on all uninhibited urea-based products was a stark reality facing UK farmers.

The whole industry should be commended for coming together and working to change the course of Defra’s preferred option which would have seen us lose uninhibited solid urea.

Given the state of fertiliser markets we argued for the policy implementation to be postponed for a year so the standards should not be published until April 2023 and that compliance checks should not start until the autumn of that year.

Government will continue to monitor emissions and the effectiveness of the policy, and we will continue to stress the importance of urea fertiliser. Importantly, Government will introduce more regulatory burdens if ammonia reduction targets are not achieved, and as early as 2026.

So, through the involvement of Red Tractor, we have successfully avoided the proposed outright ban of urea fertilisers, and their continued proper use as part of a balanced and integrated nutrient management plan should be retained for the foreseeable future if we all play our part in meeting the new requirements.

Hot on the heels of the urea announcement, Defra published its new guidance for Farming Rules for Water. After months of concerted work and lobbying by the NFU and other industry stakeholders, the new guidance clarifies that Government does not intend to ban summer and autumn manure applications.

We now know that the guidance will give growers who have nutrient management plans in place a process to follow a risk-based

approach in planning manure applications for crop or soil needs and that they won’t cause significant risk of pollution in doing so.

A wide range of simple tools are already available to allow growers to calculate, plan and tailor applications to crop requirements, so this task should not be an onerous one. However, in most cases a grower will be expected to have established a crop or cover crop where manures have been applied.

Importantly, the new guidance will distinguish between high- Readily Available Nitrogen (RAN) and low-RAN manures. Products such as slurries or liquid digestates of 30% or above will be limited to a maximum rate during each application of 30cu.m per hectare and highRAN poultry manures to eight tonnes per hectare. Low-RAN manures (less than 30% available N) such as FYM or solid digestates will remain under existing spreading limits in accordance with product analysis. Either industry standard figures or specific test figures can be used by growers to establish nutrient content of the manures being applied.

Some changes to current practices will be required under the new guidelines so I would urge growers to visit the Defra website and keep an eye out for industry guidance to establish what they need to do for this summer and autumn. This is our chance to show how important organic manures are in improving soil health and delivering crop nutrients, but to do so, we must all use them responsibly. It is now vital our industry adheres to the new guidance if we are to retain practical use of valuable manures in the future.

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21/04/2022 16:28

PODCAST

Cutting the chemicals from pest control

I

n the final episode of the Crop It Like it’s Hot three-part series looking at managing crop inputs this season and beyond, Arable Farming journalist Alice Dyer hones in on pest control.

With insecticides under increasing levels of political scrutiny and some suffering from dwindling efficacy, the panel of three expert guests give their views on

Get CPD points JMembers of the BASIS register can now receive one CPD point for tuning into the podcast.

Listen in to the podcast to find out how.

the future of crop pest management.

Tune in to hear what kind of

aphid pressure to expect this season from entomologist Dr Alan Dewar of Dewar Crop Protection, how Cambridgeshire arable farmer Martin Lines successfully eliminated pesticides from his farm eight

years ago, and what role biopesticides could play going forward from Harper Adams PhD student Claire Hoarau.

Speakers: rHarper Adams University PhD student Claire Hoarau. rEntomologist Dr Alan Dewar of Dewar Crop Protection. rMartin Lines Cambridgeshire arable farmer and chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

More information

Dr Alan Dewar, entomologist at Dewar Crop Protection.

Social media JFor the latest news and updates, follow us on social media: LinkedIn: rThe CropTec Show

Claire Hoarau, PhD student at Harper Adams University.

Twitter: r@ArableFarming r@CropTecShow r@AliceInWellies Facebook: rCropTec Show rArable Farming

JCrop it Like it’s Hot is produced by Arable Farming and CropTec Show. It aims to provide an alternative way of keeping up with agronomy and arable developments.

Martin Lines Cambridgeshire arable farmer and chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

Listen in JThe podcast can be downloaded via croptecshow. com/crop-it-like-its-hot-podcast, or you can listen through Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or your favourite podcatcher.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY...

MAY 2022 AF May p73 Podcast AD TR RM.indd 2

73 21/04/2022 16:30

BASIS news

The latest news for BASIS and FACTS-qualified farmers and advisers.

Volunteer with BASIS

E

xaminations conducted by experienced members of the BASIS Professional Register ensure trainees have gained both knowledge and an understanding of how to apply it in the field.

Now BASIS is looking for more volunteers to play their part as demand for examinations soars.

This spring has seen unprecedented demand for examinations as more people seek to build a career in agronomy, with the end of Covid-19 restrictions enabling in-person examinations to take place once more.

Sue Mason, examinations and training manager at BASIS, says that in the first four days of March alone there were requests for 13 examinations to be scheduled.

As each examination for the BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection requires two examiners, the search is on for more volunteers. There is also a need for more examiners in specialist areas, such as soil and water, FACTS, Nutrient Management Planning and specialist crops.

The search is on for volunteer examiners for BASIS’ crop protection courses.

Any member of the professional register with several years’ experience in the relevant subject is eligible to help. In return for giving up a day, examiners can gain four CPD points.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend and observe an examination or participate in ‘mock’ examinations which are held to help candidates

I find it really rewarding to see enthusiastic people coming forward to play their part JAMES TAYLOR

74 AF May p74 Basis AD TR RM.indd 2

and examiners prepare for the real thing.

A relatively new examiner is James Taylor, who is part of the small team at Agronomy Connection who passed his BASIS examination some seven years ago.

Practical experience Mr Taylor gained his formal education from Bishop Burton College and then gained practical experience, followed by his BASIS Certificate in Crop Protection through a distributor graduate training programme, prior to joining Agronomy Connection during its establishment two years ago.

Today he works within East and North Yorkshire, dealing with a range of combinable crops along with sugar beet, potatoes, and vining peas.

He welcomed the opportunity to become an examiner as a

chance to ‘put something back’ into the industry.

“I can still remember preparing for my BASIS exam,” he says. “It was one of the most challenging moments of my life.

“BASIS training and qualifications are the foundations for a rewarding career. As an examiner, I want to do my bit to put new entrants – young or old – at ease and get onto the agronomy pathway.

“I find it really rewarding to see enthusiastic people, whether they intend to be agronomists, farmers or farm managers, coming forward to play their part in advising to grow crops profitably and sustainably.”

With examination numbers increasing, BASIS is looking for more qualified agronomists with several years of experience in the field to help.

FIND OUT For details of what is involved, contact Sue MORE

Mason at sue@basis-reg.co.uk

MAY 2022 21/04/2022 16:32

SUPPORT YOUR FARM’S FUTURE WITH THE UK’S LEADING RURAL INSURER Our Agri-Tech report features expert advice on how agricultural technology could help your farming business.

Download a copy by searching ‘NFU Mutual Agri-Tech report’ or contact your local agency.

The National Farmers Union Mutual Insurance Society Limited (No.111982). Registered in England. Registered Office: Tiddington Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire CV37 7BJ. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. A member of the Association of British Insurers.

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FarmersGuardian AgriT 195x280.indd 1

22/04/2022 14:38

15/02/2022 11:29

In print. In pocket.

Informed. In profit.

Farmers Guardian

App Edition

News Feed & Pocket Magazine

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22/04/2022 14:25