Arable Farming articles from August 2004

Arable Farming archives from August 2004

Conditions building for BYDV.
August 16, 2004... Cereal growers are being warned to be on their guard against early Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) attacks in this autumn's wheat and barley. Current high levels of soil moisture look set to provide ideal conditions for seed shed during...

Where's the edge of the hedge?
August 16, 2004... Debate over the inclusion of field margins has ended with minister Margaret Beckett's announcement that they will be included as a cross compliance measure. Farming Unions were mollified when they learned that the measurement will be taken...

Charity call.
August 16, 2004... Put old mobile phones and printer cartridges to good use. The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation will recycle them and use the proceeds to help fund research into the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer as well as...

Tough export arena for 2004 harvest.
August 16, 2004... The export arena is tough this year and growers will need to do all they can if we are to compete, says Grainfarmers wheat director Gary Sharkey. Speaking at a trials day for millers, he said: "While it is still too early to say whether...

Brewer approval.
August 16, 2004... THE British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA) has added the diatomaceous earth dust Silico-Sec to its list of products approved for surface treatment control of insects and mites in stored malting barley. The dust provides a non-chemical...

Correction: Fanfare barley.(Correction Notice)
August 16, 2004... Fanfare is fully approved on the IoB's list of winter malting barley for the IoB southern region, and has not been removed as stated on p20 July 12 issue of Arable Farming. Our apologies to breeder Advanta. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

New OSR herbicide.
August 16, 2004... BASF has gained approval for Novall, a new broad-spectrum herbicide solution for winter oilseed rape, based on the active ingredients metazachlor and quinmerac. "Novall is a step up from using straight metazachlor. It covers the broad...

HGCA board appointments.
August 16, 2004... UK agriculture ministers have appointed two new members and re- appointed one existing member to the board of the Home Grown Cereals Authority. The new appointments are Ivor Murrell, the director general of the Maltsters Association of...

Key guidelines on lime.
August 16, 2004... There are few improvements so easily and cheaply carried out which can have so fundamental an effect on the success or failure of crops and farming as the application of agricultural lime, says the Agricultural Lime Association (ALA). To...

Avadex is back.
August 16, 2004... Avadex (tri-allate) will be available to UK growers this autumn, says the brand's new owner, Gowan International. `Significantly limited quantities' of Avadex Excel 15G will be available through Banks Cargill Agriculture, Masstock Arable...

Organic storage guides.
August 16, 2004... THE Soil Association has produced two new guides to organic cereal production. `Storage of Organic Combinable Crops' aims to ensure that organic farmers are provided with sound, practical information to enable safe, efficient and effective...

Smith's Soapbox...: Spectre.
August 16, 2004... Harvest is in full flight. Having had the latest start date (July 28) for decades, we worry if we will get the missing week back at the other end. The barley harvest was nothing memorable. We did not have a colossal amount of barley (30 acres)...

Smith's Soapbox...: Sundance kid.
August 16, 2004... GM plant breeding has never really worried me but I am sure I just heard something say "Come on boys we've got him surrounded". We planted an acre of sunflowers in one of our little meadows this spring. Unlike the sunflowers in the...

Smith's Soapbox...: The gas man cometh.
August 16, 2004... Bugs in the grain store were a problem last year. With two loads rejected by May, I bit the bullet and called in the gas boys to fumigate the last 200 tonnes in-store. Gassing wheat is a first for me and I was impressed by the service given by...

Securing future water supply for farming.
August 16, 2004... Irrigation kit has been in full use in the recent dry spell. But is your water supply secure? Are you fighting your corner to ensure water supplies remain uninterrupted in coming seasons? The British Potato Council says that potato growers need...

Agronomy: Two-metre strip set to increase ergot threat?
August 16, 2004... Weed or cultivated grasses present in sown headland strips or natural regeneration may be making a significant contribution to increasing levels of ergot in UK cereal crops, according to a leading plant pathologist. Teresa Rush reports. ...

Establishment techniques on trial.
August 16, 2004... Trials at Harper Adams University College have studied establishment techniques for winter wheat and spring barley. Joanna Baker reports. A two-year field trials programme completed on behalf of machinery manufacturer Lemken at Harper...

Establishment: New guidance for better slug control.
August 16, 2004... With low seed rates and early drilling of winter cereals fast becoming standard practice, slug damage at establishment cannot be risked, as every seed counts. New guidance on slug risk assessment and integration of seed treatment with...

Establishment: Master of min till.
August 16, 2004... Graeme Kirk reports on one pass min-till on a Leicestershire farm. With more than 2,000 acres of arable land to cultivate each year in and around the village of Rothley, Leicestershire, Bill Wright and his son Jack have a keen interest in...

Establishment: Putting drill prize through its paces.
August 16, 2004... Shropshire farmer John Owen won two years of free drilling with a new RD300 S cultivator drill with System Disc in the Vaderstad survey prize draw competition. Arable Farming visited him to check on progress and ask him to comment on...

30 years of progress: Progress in the parish and Poland.
August 16, 2004... A Northamptonshire family farm has come a long way in 30 years - from traditional mixed farming to an arable-based system, composting and Polish farming interests, as Edward Long discovers. Thirty years ago, Mervyn Humphrey was farming 750...

Weed control: Back to reality with residual herbicides?
August 16, 2004... Good performance from pre-emergence black-grass herbicides gave extra breathing space when it came to post-em sprays last autumn. But could that have lulled growers into a false sense of security? Pre-emergence herbicides did a good job for...

Grass weeds: Pre-em sprays vital for control of black-grass.
August 16, 2004... Treat all black-grass as resistant and view pre-emergence herbicides as absolutely vital, says H.L. Hutchinson technical manager Dick Neale. With black-grass continuing its relentless spread across the country, growers are being advised to...

Resistance: Delaying dependence day.
August 16, 2004... It's not a case of 'if' but 'when' for resistance to strike in all the available grass weed chemistry, according to a leading scientist. With no new chemistry to move on to, growers must use all the techniques at their disposal to delay that...

Resistance: Trials mix and match for best result.
August 16, 2004... A robust rate of an effective pre-emergence herbicide ensures the best protection from grass weeds. This is the key conclusion drawn from BASF herbicide trials in Cambridgeshire. The trials are in winter wheat, drilled October 3, after...

Agronomy: A liberated approach to black-grass control?
August 16, 2004... Cereal growers engaged in the black-grass battle have another pre- emergence herbicide to add to their armoury this autumn following approval of the flufenacet+diflufenican co-formulation Liberator. Teresa Rush reports. Unlike its...

Environment schemes: Points for petals.
August 16, 2004... Rare arable plants should not be overlooked when planning for the Entry Level Scheme. Alison Lea reports. Post-MTR, there will be two distinct kinds of arable weeds: those that farmers strive to eradicate (black-grass, brome, wild oats et...

Plough maintenance: Keeping the plough performing.
August 16, 2004... Suitably matched to the tractor up front and the land beneath, there is no reason why a plough should not give many years of faithful service. However, for the implement to reach old age in good condition, it is important that regular...

Talking Arable...with our Shropshire-based farmer Arthur Hill.
August 16, 2004... We now know the major details of cross compliance for triggering the single farm payment. It's not particularly good news, but it could have been worse. We lobbied very hard for the removal of the proposed 2- metre margins into E.L.S. but...

Talking Arable: Kit Papworth.
August 16, 2004... From our North Norfolk-based farmer Kit Papworth of L. F. Papworth Ltd, Lower Farm, Tuttington, Norwich. June and July are usually two of our quieter months, but this year has certainly been an exception. Since my last article in June, our...

Sulphur protects milling premiums.
August 16, 2004... Kemira GrowHow agronomist Allison Grundy looks at the role of sulphur in milling wheat. Wheat grown under sulphur-deficient conditions is unlikely to satisfy millers' requirements. There are a number of reasons for this. Sulphur plays an...

Disc harrows: Plenty of choice in a shrinking market.
August 16, 2004... Steve Vale rounds up what is available on the disc harrow market. While sales of ploughs and power harrows are reported to be up by as much as a third this season, the disc harrow market continues to slide. But finding out by just how...

Two metres around every field with hedge or ditch!
August 16, 2004... Colin Myram's Crop Talk East Anglian-based Colin Myram is a consultant to the agricultural industry, including farmers and suppliers. `Fiasco'. This seems to be an eminently suitable word to sum up the inclusion of a mandatory...