Arable Farming articles from June 2004

Arable Farming archives from June 2004

Protect high yield potential.
June 7, 2004... High yield potential but soaring disease pressure after the wet spring will make it essential to keep wheat crops disease-free towards the end of this season, according to Syngenta technical manager Chris Rowsell. "With up to 50% more rain...

Export branding category for wheat in Recommended List.
June 7, 2004... Export branding categories for UK wheats will be introduced by HGCA this autumn in response to requests from overseas millers. The announcement was made at the HGCA's bread-baking workshop which attracted millers from North African...

Magnesium memo to wheat growers.
June 7, 2004... Don't allow magnesium deficiency to affect yield and quality this year, says Dalgety's Colin Lloyd. Magnesium applications with the flag-leaf spray are essential if yield and protein are to fulfil expectations - tissue analyses show low...

Summer pool.
June 7, 2004... Grainfarmers has launched a Late-Entry Pool in response to farmer demand and increased price volatility - old crop prices have tumbled #20/t in a month. The new pool will suit growers who have yet to commit a significant tonnage and who...

Buenas dias Poncho.
June 7, 2004... Poncho Beta, a new sugar beet seed treatment from Bayer CropScience, has gained regulatory approval in good time for the 2005 season. It is a co-formulation of new active ingredient clothianidin with beta- cyfluthrin. Like predecessor...

Farmers and growers face soil challenge.
June 7, 2004... The NFU has announced that it will be seeking an active role in a stakeholder group advising on the implementation of Defra's Soil Action Plan for England. The action plan outlines activities for the Government and its agencies to...

Indicator farms will show VI way forward.
June 7, 2004... Eleven farms from across the UK have volunteered to help the Voluntary Initiative (VI) demonstrate how best practice can deliver environmental improvements. Progress will be helped by Farming and Wildlife Advisor Group (FWAG) which will be...

Nematodes.
June 7, 2004... Dry conditions have helped to limit the spread of stem and bulb nematode in field beans, says PGRO. The pest continues to be a problem in field bean crops throughout the UK; 10% of seed samples tested between August 2003 and March 2004 were...

Farm-saved seed royalties.
June 7, 2004... Defra has launched a consultation on royalty payments for farm-saved seed. 'Prior use exemption from plant breeders' rights for farm-saved seeds' is concerned with royalty payments on farm-saved seed. Farmers' liability to pay royalties on...

Opti option for barley.
June 7, 2004... A new fungicide launched earlier this year to help winter wheat growers manage resistant Septoria tritici has now also been granted official approval for use in barley. Amistar Opti, from Syngenta, combats disease with two different active...

SMITH'S SOAPBOX: The dough that didn't rise.
June 7, 2004... I will have to come clean about the disastrous way I sold grain this year. I sold quite a bit off the combine only to watch the price take off in September and October. I sold a bit more (but not nearly enough) when the price topped #100 around...

SMITH'S SOAPBOX: When collaborators were shot.
June 7, 2004... My father is one of those wise old owls who is prepared to give youth its head. When I came back to the farm in my mid 20s he allowed me to market the farm's grain but there was always one codicil - no selling to the co-op. Our local co-op in...

SMITH'S SOAPBOX: Who's taking the pizza?
June 7, 2004... The question the maltsters, millers and compounders must be asking themselves now is; what are farmers going to do with their SFPs? If farmers treat the SFP as a financial licence to produce at below the cost of production then our customers...

Who will be the 2004 Arable Farmer of the Future?
June 7, 2004... Arable Farming magazine has teamed up with sponsors CPB Twyford, Kemira GrowHow, NatWest and Syngenta to find an outstanding young arable farmer who shares our commitment and enthusiasm for the future of farming in Britain. The award will be...

BUSINESS QUARTER: Reducing a risky business.
June 7, 2004... One of the key consequences of CAP reform is the shift of price risk from the Government to the grower. Gerald Mason, chief economist at HGCA, discusses how futures and options can help to reduce that risk. Society has traditionally asked...

BUSINESS QUARTER: Avoid the VAT trap.
June 7, 2004... Neil Owen, VAT Associate with Langdowns DFK explains some do's and don'ts on farmhouse VAT recovery. A perennial VAT issue for farmers is the recovery of VAT on work carried out on the farmhouse. Can VAT be reclaimed at all? And, if so,...

POTATOES: Sources of store advice.
June 7, 2004... Most storage advice received by potato store managers is via word of mouth or local experience, according to a British Potato Council survey of store managers. One in ten store manager sought advice through their supply chains, the survey...

POTATOES: Get to grips with store costs.
June 7, 2004... Potato growers and store managers are being urged to get to grips with their storage costs sooner rather than later after a British Potato Council survey revealed that just 15 per cent knew what their storage was costing. Speaking at...

POTATOES: Research aims to cut contamination risk.
June 7, 2004... Research under way at the University of Glasgow aims to reduce the risk of CIPC contamination of untreated crops. Contamination can occur when untreated crops are stored in CIPC-treated buildings, held in treated boxes, washed in the same...

POTATOES: Same-day bruising prediction.
June 7, 2004... A new diagnostic kit being developed at the University of Durham could help potato growers predict the bruising susceptibility of their crops within two to three hours, rather than one to two days. Dr Ron Croy told visitors to the Potato...

POTATOES: Safer store loading.
June 7, 2004... The British Potato Council and the Potato Processors' Association have joined forces with SkillEDSolutions to produce an interactive DVD addressing safe handling of potatoes. The DVD is aimed at fork lift and HGV drivers responsible for...

POTATOES: Invest in quality control.
June 7, 2004... Regular and consistent in-store sampling is a vital requirement for all potato growers selling crops for processing. That's according to the British Potato Council, which is urging growers and store managers to obtain copies of its fry...

POTATOES: Battling to beat potato bruising.
June 7, 2004... Bruising is estimated to cost potato growers around #200/hectare each year but there are still no procedures in place to manage the problem. Presenting the results of BPC's 2004 National Bruising Survey, Fraser Milne of SAC said that last...

POTATOES: Check now for store damage.
June 7, 2004... Use the weeks after planting to make a thorough assessment of stores, looking out particularly for damage caused by unloading, potato growers were advised. Visitors were shown the practical steps required to inspect external and internal...

POTATOES: Forklift designed for potato stores.
June 7, 2004... Specifically designed for potato growers to facilitate moving and stacking boxes into storage, the D33S-3 forklift truck from Daewoo has been launched in the UK. Daewoo has been producing forklift trucks in the UK for many years -...

POTATOES: Gentle handling of crop.
June 7, 2004... Pro-Pak Binmaster from Bourne-based PACE Mechanical Handling provides a box filling system which can be integrated into existing grading lines and provides gentle handling of the crop. The company's Nick Cesare says that two transverse...

POTATOES: Eight-chute box loader now stronger.
June 7, 2004... Since its launch at the BPC's Potato event last September, Richard Larrington's Guardian Box Loader has undergone strengthening and other upgrades to deal with the strains and stresses encountered during potato harvest. The Box Loader, a...

Talking Arable with our North Lincolnshire farmer Ambrose Fowler.
June 7, 2004... May 23, 2004 Forms, forms, forms. Having submitted our IACS application at the last minute again, it was amusing to receive the mark 2 version of our new data maps on the same day. Mark 1 had quite a few errors, including losing a field...

VARIETIES: Making the right seed choice.
June 7, 2004... A comprehensive and well-attended demonstration at Joseph Camm Farms at Babworth near Retford last month - the first in a series by the BBRO - covered just about every aspect of sugar beet agronomy. With seed order decisions to be made over...

Variety update.
June 7, 2004... A snapshot of which cereal and OSR varieties are finding favour. Alison Lea talks to Dalgety Masstock's Barry Barker. Winter wheat Interest is very evenly divided between four of the new 2004 Recommended List winter wheat varieties,...

Hybrids `will take over feed market'.
June 7, 2004... The first hybrid barley, Colossus, from New Farm Crops' programme joined the 2004 Recommended List with the highest-ever recorded yields at 111% of controls. It's a 6-row feed variety, and NFC head of sales Robert Hiles, argues that...

MIN-TILL: Practice makes perfect.
June 7, 2004... Independent tillage and soil husbandry consultant Steve Townsend provides practical min-till observations and advice from the specialist field-scale trial site he runs with Oxfordshire grower, Duncan Jack, and addresses Arable Farming readers'...

MIN-TILL: Min-till question time.
June 7, 2004... How can I manage a serious brome infestation with minimum tillage? Sterile brome, in particular, has become a very much greater problem for many growers in recent years. The key to controlling it in any system is to exploit its Achilles...

MIN-TILL: The furrow to min-till utopia.
June 7, 2004... The road to successful min-till has been a long and complex one for Hampshire grower Jon Harley. But have the results been successful? Geoff Ashcroft looks at the progression of min-till at Roundwood Estate over the last eight years. The...

MIN-TILL: Glyphosate resistance: a looming concern.
June 7, 2004... Around 750 min-tillers attended a conference at Des Moins in the USA in February to glean all they could on the subject of min- and no-till. Jim Bullock, our own min-tiller, brings back this, the second of two special reports. The...

OSR VARIETY: Cross channel colza.
June 7, 2004... Remember Jet Neuf and Bienvenue? French OSR (`Colza' in French) breeding programmes still have much to offer UK farmers. Alison Lea reports. A miss is as good as a mile, they say, though this has not proved entirely correct for non-Listed...

Don't confuse pride with profit.
June 7, 2004... Talking Arable with our Bedfordshire grower David Felce Just when I had dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back, the devil (or in this case, black-grass) has raised two fingers at what I had believed was a very good level of weed...

SUGAR BEET: Yield is even more crucial.
June 7, 2004... SWEET TALK with Simon Fisher I am sure I can detect sighs of relief now that the beet crop has established and weeds are under control. Cynics might say that it is all down hill from now onwards! Perhaps it is a bit early to shut the gate...

SPRAYERS: High speed axles and new tank profiles.
June 7, 2004... With high-speed axles and tanks capacities of 4,200 and 5,200-litres the UX range of trailed sprayers from Amazone also have wider boom designs. The new tank profiles have a deep sump so less spray needs to be disposed of when empty. There...

SPRAYERS: One nozzle for all tasks.
June 7, 2004... One spray nozzle for all jobs is the basis of the Micron Optispray nozzle, which was developed by Spray Smart Enterprises of Australia. The nozzle can be adjusted to produce very fine or coarse spray quality by altering the amount of air...

SPRAYERS: More self-propelled and trailed sprayers.
June 7, 2004... Gambetti Barre is expanding its range of self-propelled and trailed sprayers. The MAC1000E is a lightweight machine with a 1000-litre tank and weighs 2900kg. It uses an 85hp Cummins engine that powers Poclain hydrostatic drive motors and...

SPRAYERS: More power, larger tank and wide booms.
June 7, 2004... More power is available for the Knight Farm Machinery self-propelled sprayer. The original 157hp model is now joined by 175hp and 200hp versions both available with 3,000 or 3,500-litre tanks and booms up to 36m wide. Full hydrostatic...

SPRAYERS: Designed for uneven terrain.
June 7, 2004... By fitting a 24m front-mounted boom and 2,500-litre rear tank Knight Farm Machinery has been able to meet the requirements for growers on difficult terrain. The spraying outfit is based around a John Deere 6400 and replaces a front and...

SPRAYERS: Trailed sprayer makes its marc.
June 7, 2004... Landquip is extending its range of trailed sprayers with the Spraymarc range. Unlike the Electrac and Trailblazer tracking trailed sprayers a conventional drawbar is offered as standard for farmers wanting a simpler machine. Tank capacities are...

SPRAYERS: Big sprayer a winner.
June 7, 2004... A trailed sprayer with a 6,500-litre capacity tank, 40m boom and air suspension axle allows Butler Martin Farming to easily spray up to 130 hectares a day. While most large arable growers would choose to operate a self- propelled machine...

Major savings in crop inputs.
June 7, 2004... The use of a new tractor-mounted electronic monitoring device is providing a way for a small number of German farms to cut fertiliser and spray inputs without loss of yield or quality. Steven Vale discovers that the silver medal winner at last...

COLIN MYRAM'S CROP TALK: Potato volunteers getting worse?
June 7, 2004... East Anglian-based Colin Myram is a consultant to the agricultural industry, including farmers and suppliers. 20/5/2004 Recent observations around the countryside are indicating that the carryover of volunteer potatoes during the last...

Four million seeds from one weed!
June 28, 2004... The British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO) was focussing on the penalties of poor weed beet control at this month's Cereals event. Using mathematical modelling, it calculated that a single weed plant shedding seed in sugar beet would result...

Climate change influence on grain store practice.
June 28, 2004... Climate change has implications for the ways in which stored grain is managed, says the Central Science Laboratory. Current predictions from the Tyndall Centre for climate change studies at the University of East Anglia include the earlier...

Residential no-spray buffer zones rejected.
June 28, 2004... Compulsory no-spray buffer zones have been rejected by Government, despite vigorous lobbying by campaigners who said that people's health has been affected by spray drift. The announcement results from a formal consultation designed to obtain...

Tailor-made Variety guidance.
June 28, 2004... Seeds director Tim Hirst says that Grainfarmers' new Seed Selector leaflet, produced in collaboration with UAP, is designed to provide farmers with more guidance on which varieties will suit their farms and the market opportunities in their...

On-farm soil action plan demonstration day.
June 28, 2004... The Soil Management Initiative (SMI) is hosting an event featuring field demonstrations and discussion to provide farmers and agronomists with guidance on the implications of the new soil action plan, and cross compliance as it affects soil...

BPC website revamped.
June 28, 2004... A combination of potato growers, buyers and consumers has increased the number of visits to the British Potato Council's (BPC) website www.potato.org.uk to around 10,500 each month. The website has recently undergone a revamp designed to...

Buy early to save money.
June 28, 2004... Terra Nitrogen is forecasting that the early nitrogen buyer will make a significant saving over the farmer buying in the spring. Farmers who committed and took early delivery last season saved a massive #24 per tonne over the March buyer - and,...

Organic centre.
June 28, 2004... The Soil Association has launched the Northwest Organic Centre at the Rural Business Centre in Myerscough College, near Preston, Lancashire this month. This new service will provide impartial information and support to all organic farmers and...

Half of winter wheat acreage is affected by black-grass.
June 28, 2004... National Farm Research Unit data shows that around 50 per cent of the UK winter wheat acreage is affected by black-grass. The eastern counties are the worst affected, with black-grass present on over 60% of the combinable crop acreage, followed...

SDF deal.
June 28, 2004... Tractor manufacturer Same Deutz-Fahr has signed a 10-year contract with driveline specialist ZF to supply both powershift and stepless transmissions for tractors over 100hp. The tractor manufacturer that produces Same, Lamborghini and...

Two year crop protection plan.
June 28, 2004... The NFU has launched the latest Crop Protection Management Plan, covering the two years from August 2004 to August 2006. The continued commitment of all farmers and growers at this stage of the Voluntary Initiative is the key to making it a...

Value up.
June 28, 2004... Total sales of CPA members' Plant Protection Products declined 3% by weight of active ingredient compared with the previous year, with value up 2%. The 14% increase in sales of agricultural products in 2003 was due to two major...

Water protection.
June 28, 2004... Water protection is the focus for the Voluntary Initiative's latest campaign, H2OK? Think Water, launched at Cereals 2004. It will also involve amenity and infrequent users. H2OK? will provide farmers, operators and other pesticide users...

Smith's Soapbox: Call in the cavalry.
June 28, 2004... This year does seem to have been a long and expensive war of attrition against the weeds. "There is no such thing as a weed," a lady gardener once told me, "it is merely a plant in the wrong place". The funny thing is I have never come...

Smith's Soapbox: Apocalypse for the midge.
June 28, 2004... So for the third year running the orange peril duly arrived mob-handed as the wheat ears emerged and too many litres of Chlorpyrifos were duly applied. As I sniffed the insecticide garnished air of the still mid- summer evenings I was reminded...

Thirty years of challenges.
June 28, 2004... As part of a celebration of progress over the past three decades of farming, Edward Long reports on a farm in Hargrave, Northamptonshire. The biggest difference between 1974 and 2004 is the shift from food production at all costs to farming...

GLOBAL REPORT: Bizarre viewpoint of British nimbys.
June 28, 2004... From our Spain-based farmer/columnist Richard Smith Spain has had one of its wettest winters on record, with some areas receiving double the annual rainfall in the first four months of the year. There is vigorous debate between farmers and...

CONSERVATION: SAFFIE plots to save the skylark.
June 28, 2004... Novel ways of helping wildlife - without causing farming headaches - are being developed to integrate into agri-environment schemes. Alison Lea attended a science day at ADAS Boxworth to find out how. Is it the result of a faulty drill? a...

Variety royalties - 'lifeblood' for UK breeding.
June 28, 2004... If you don't pay up for royalties there is a lot to lose, both for individual farmers and the whole UK agricultural industry. Alison Lea reports. Between #2 and 3 million per year is still being lost to plant breeders through evasion of...

National List system reform.
June 28, 2004... BSPB is working on major reform of National List trials with Defra in a bid to improve the quality of data and reduce costs - Defra charges for all its costs from its involvement in National List trials and these costs have been becoming...

AGRONOMY: Midge threat is here to stay.
June 28, 2004... Wheat blossom midge and Septoria were just two of the topics up for discussion at an HGCA/TAG agronomy field day at TAG's research headquarters in Norfolk. Teresa Rush reports. Experts are predicting that this season could be one of the...

AGRONOMY: Better resistance at yield expense.
June 28, 2004... Winter wheat varieties of the future may offer improved disease resistance but it may be at the expense of yield. That was the message from Bill Handley of the HGCA Recommended List team to growers attending the field day. Varietal...

WHEAT VARIETIES: Milling wheat majority.
June 28, 2004... With Euro 2004 in full swing, it might not be a good time to look at the French structure of bringing new wheat varieties to market, but this year is also the anniversary of the 'Entente Cordiale', so Alison Lea visited a breeding station in...

MILLING WHEAT: Raising the protein bar.
June 28, 2004... Solstice may be a Group 2 at 12.1% protein, but that's not set in stone. Alison Lea reports Group 2 milling wheat Solstice has a superior ability to accumulate nitrogen, trials by United Agriproducts have found. Trialled alongside...

OILSEED RAPE: Patchy year for yellow.
June 28, 2004... It's a patchy picture for oilseed rape, both regionally and within individual fields, Alison Lea finds. Overall, oilseed rape crops are looking good this year, but growers in the Midlands and East Anglia should perhaps avoid flying out of...

OILSEED RAPE: In trial plots, look out for.
June 28, 2004... Nine varieties have been selected as candidates for the 2005 HGCA Recommended List. Several of these look as though they could challenge Winner's market dominance - pending harvest results, according to Simon Kightley. His eye is caught by...

OILSEED RAPE: Low bulk is a variety strength.
June 28, 2004... If you go for very high OSR yields, you will probably have to cope with a high biomass of straw too. Time to consider another approach? Alison Lea reports. Apex was favoured for years beyond its sell-by date as far as gross output...

OILSEED RAPE: TAG doubles its agronomy team in takeover of ADAS.
June 28, 2004... Arable farming consultancy business ADAS Arable has been taken over by The Arable Group (TAG) in a move that will more than double TAG's agronomy team. The new business will trade as TAG Consulting 2004, a new company within the TAG...

CEREALS 2004: Triazole timing flexibility on the wane?
June 28, 2004... Cereals 2004, organised by RASE and staged at Heath Farm, Leadenham, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, featured a vast array of technical information, living up to its reputation as the UK's showcase arable event. Over the following pages we look at...

CEREALS 2004: Software nutrient plan launched.
June 28, 2004... A computerised version of Defra's industry standard fertiliser recommendations, RB209, was launched at the event by Defra and the Environment Agency. The newly-developed PLANET nutrient management system claims to provide farmers and...

CEREALS 2004: Agronomy advice based on model.
June 28, 2004... A new predictive modelling system based on information gathered from over one million acres of arable land will provide growers with individual agronomic advice specific to their farming situation, say its developers. The 4cast system,...

CEREALS 2004: Grain market to become more volatile.
June 28, 2004... Grain markets in the UK will become increasingly volatile, according to David Sheppard, trading director of Gleadell Agriculture. Speaking at a `pre-harvest' technical briefing at Cereals 2004, he said: "Volatility is the key word of the...

CEREALS 2004: Grass weed weapon launched.
June 28, 2004... Bayer CropScience has added another cereals grass weed product to its herbicide portfolio. Liberator, a combination of flufenacet and diflufenican, will be positioned as an ideal inclusion in programmes with the company's recently-launched...

CEREALS 2004: Banking on the value chain.
June 28, 2004... HSBC bank is backing initiatives that encourage arable farmers to work more closely with other players in the value chain. Michael Summers, senior agricultural manager, said the roller coaster movement in both spot and forward cereal prices...

CEREALS 2004: Greenergy doubles oilseed contracts.
June 28, 2004... Biofuel oil company Greenergy announced, at Cereals 2004, its intention to double the number of Field to Forecourt rapeseed-for-biofuel contracts issued for the 2004/3005 growing season. Greenergy chairman Andrew Owens also confirmed that...

CEREALS 2004: Collaboration: the future for growers.
June 28, 2004... Growers can gain real benefits from collaboration, according to a series of case studies profiling 20 successful Farmer Controlled Businesses (FCBs) launched at Cereals 2004, by the English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP). As part of...

CEREALS 2004: Nickerson scoops two awards.
June 28, 2004... Plant breeder Nickerson Seeds picked up two awards presented at the Cereals event. Winter barley Pearl was awarded the prestigious NIAB Cereal Cup, which is given to the variety that is regarded as having contributed the most toward improving...