Arable Farming articles from March 2004

Arable Farming archives from March 2004

Future farm support unveiled.
March 1, 2004... The shape of future support for England's farmers has been announced by Margaret Beckett. Key elements are: * England will decouple fully in 2005 and move towards a flat rate Single Farm Payment. * Only farmers active in 2005 will...

GM crop green light.
March 1, 2004... As Arable Farming went to press, the national press was buzzing with news that Government is set to go ahead with GM crops. Minutes of a cabinet meeting leaked to the BBC indicate that the government will announce permission for the first...

Progress on VI target.
March 1, 2004... The VI steering committee has released details of the progress it is making towards achieving its headline targets (target date: March 31 2004). Latest figures (as at February 20) show that the VI has received Crop Protection Management Plans...

`Farmhouse' is misleading.
March 1, 2004... A survey by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) spotlights the high level of misleading labelling still prevalent in the UK food industry. The survey reflects the concerns raised by the NFU in its response to the FSA consultation on the use of...

Inspection intercepts brown rot.
March 1, 2004... The bacterium Ralstonia solanacearum, which causes brown rot, has been found during annual survey checks in a consignment of seed potatoes at a farm in Lancashire. The potatoes had been imported from the Netherlands and were due to be...

New fungicide wins later use approval.
March 1, 2004... A new winter wheat fungicide launched at the end of January to help growers manage Septoria tritici resistance has been granted approval for later season use. Amistar Opti from Syngenta combines the broad-spectrum strobilurin fungicide...

Not missiles, but milling wheats.
March 1, 2004... It is more than 40 years since president Khrushchev almost managed to export Russian nuclear missiles to Cuba in 1962. Thankfully, Cuba is now interested in peaceful concerns such as feeding its people. A Cuban delegation recently visited...

Bravo!
March 1, 2004... PSD has granted approval for the use of Bravo 500 (chlorothalonil) for control of barley `spotting'. Bravo is the only product to have label approval for control of this disorder, according to manufacturer Syngenta. Barley spotting has...

Cruiser into Germany.
March 1, 2004... Syngenta's thiamethoxam seed treatment Cruiser has received full approval for use on oilseed rape in Germany. Cruiser is the trade name for thiamethoxam seed treatment in Europe. The company hopes to introduce a range of seed treatments...

New form for pendimethalin.
March 1, 2004... The first UK approved, water dispersible granule (WDG) form of the herbicide pendimethalin, for use in cereals and a range of other crops is available from Makhteshim Agan. Containing 400g/kg of active ingredient, the new herbicide,...

Exemptions end.
March 1, 2004... Waivers in annual charges in relation to groundwater authorisations in England and Wales will be phased out from 1 April 2004, Defra has announced. Groundwater authorisations allow disposals of substances, including spent sheep-dip and...

No worry about DON rules.
March 1, 2004... Wheat growers should not worry about future legislation limiting levels of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) on grain as current levels are a fraction of the proposed limit, Jim Shine of RHM has told the agricultural press at a briefing held...

Presidents elected.
March 1, 2004... Tim Bennett, a livestock farmer from Carmarthenshire in Wales has been elected as the new president of the NFU. Born and brought up in the West Midlands, he studied agriculture at Seale Hayne College. He runs a 200-acre grassland farm in a Less...

Bright outlook for oilseeds.
March 1, 2004... Oilseed rape prices are likely to remain high for the rest of this season as global consumption is expected to outstrip production, as it did last year, economist Josh Dadd told HGCA oilseeds conference. Soya prices are soaring as US stocks...

Smith's Soapbox: Double Jeopardy.
March 1, 2004... The latest announcements about the Single Farm Payment have put the phrase "agricultural subsidies" back in the media spotlight. If there is one word that makes a farmer cringe it is the word "subsidy". In popular parlance they are...

Smith's Soapbox: To be a farmer's boy.
March 1, 2004... As a father of three under 14 year olds, I can think of nothing worse than losing a child. Farms are unusual places in as much as they are homes and places of work. Where you would never see children on a building site or in the middle of a...

Regime change puts focus on sugar beet inputs.
March 1, 2004... Sugar beet growers need to focus on inputs and reduce crop acreage in order to maintain rotational gross margin potential, says DuPont sugar beet specialist Bob Ayres. "With recent WTO talks and MTR, a change to the UK sugar regime is...

AGRONOMY: New seed treatment option for 2004?
March 1, 2004... Thiamethoxam (TMX) is a systemic, neonicotinoid insecticide providing activity against a range of soil and early season sucking and feeding insect pests, including aphids, wireworm, frit fly, springtails leaf miner, flea beetles, millipedes,...

AGRONOMY: Watch out for wireworm.
March 1, 2004... Potato growers across the country are being urged to assess the risk posed to their crops by wireworm in the run up to planting this season, irrespective of whether they have grass in the rotation or a previous history of wireworm on the farm....

TALKING ARABLE with our Cambridgeshire grower David Felce.
March 1, 2004... Who said winter was a quiet time on an arable farm? Looking back through my diary, the days have been well filled. I have taken out a few entries to show what we have been doing: Jan 6 - Request from LEAF office for interview with Anneka...

SENTRY CONFERENCE 2004: Single Farm Payments are "transitional".
March 1, 2004... Whatever the basis chosen for farm payments in the MTR, it will only be a transitory mechanism lasting a few years. Farmers should not allow themselves to be overly distracted by it. They must focus on the bigger picture. This was the advice of...

SENTRY CONFERENCE 2004: New US Farm Bill improves domestic farm policy.
March 1, 2004... The US Farm Bill did not improve incomes for American farmers in 2002 - the first year after it was introduced. They were slightly the reverse, declared Texan farmer and president of the American Farm Bureau Federation Bob Stallman. "I want to...

SENTRY CONFERENCE 2004: The Environment Agency - partners or police?
March 1, 2004... Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency (EA) made an eloquent case for partnership with the farming community towards shared environmental goals but, behind the rhetoric, he didn't attempt to veil the very real threat of further...

TRACTOR GUIDE: Farmers pay for cleaner engines.
March 1, 2004... The need for tractor makers to include new emission compliant engines has led to an unprecedented array of new tractor developments during the past 12 months, writes Steven Vale. Known as Euro II or Tier II, many of the tractors listed in...

TRACTORS: Tractor gets telescopic arm.
March 1, 2004... The telehandler has become a valuable tool on many arable and contracting businesses where it is used for a wide range of tasks such as shifting straw bales, loading drill and fertiliser spreaders and handling grain and root crops. However, for...

MACHINERY: Heavy duty newcomers.
March 1, 2004... Two new `heavy duty' tractors are being introduced at the top end of Massey Ferguson's 6400 Series. Howard Walsh reports. Replacing the MF 8240 Xtra and MF 8250 Xtra Dynashift, and officially launched at the Brussels AGRIVEX Show, the...

OILSEEDS: Pesticides a key issue for customers.
March 1, 2004... Pesticide residues looks set to become an important issue with customers within the next few years, ADM Direct manager Martin Harrow warned. For this reason the company is keen to identify agro chemicals applied to UK crops that are...

OILSEEDS: Non-GM premium would be lost if GM crops grown in UK.
March 1, 2004... If GM varieties are grown in future in the UK, the country's rape growers would probably lose the 20 per tonne premium they currently enjoy. This is because difficulties keeping GM and non-GM rapeseed segregated through the crushing plant...

OILSEEDS: ADM factfile.
March 1, 2004... Archer Daniels Midland Company * One of the world's largest processors of oilseeds, corn, wheat and cocoa * 270 processing plants worldwide * Net sales of over US $30 billion * Processes one third of European rape seed crop...

OILSEEDS: Delivering on time.
March 1, 2004... Erratic delivery of rape seed from growers to the crushing plant is one of our most problematic issues, according to Mr Harrow. ADM's plant at Erith in north Kent crushes 30% of the UK crop. The plant operates from 6am to 10pm and requires...

OILSEEDS: Trans fatty acids.
March 1, 2004... Trans fatty acids, proven to be a major contributor to coronary heart disease, have become a consumer issue. Ultimately this may impact on the varieties of oilseed rape grown in the UK. Otherwise refiners will be forced to reformulate their...

Spring OSR area will fall short of predictions.
March 1, 2004... Although Dalgety's spring oilseed rape seed sales are double what they were this time last year, national seeds manager Barry Barker reckons the final figure will only be around 10% up on last year. Increased early demand for spring rape...

Alternative crops specialist expands HEAR area.
March 1, 2004... Coggeshall-based alternative crop specialist John K. King and Sons is seeking to place a new contract for several thousand hectares of spring high erucic acid rape (HEAR), for use in the plastics industry. The contract, which is available...

Einstein, a brilliant wheat?
March 1, 2004... Within just a year of commercial launch, Group 2 wheat Einstein appears to be on course to take 15% of the market for 2004 sowings. Edward Long takes some advice on how to get the best out it and tap into the markets. To fully exploit...

WHEAT: Better quality, better prices?
March 1, 2004... By improving wheat quality, UK growers could benefit from wider market opportunities and an increase in the basic price to boost profits. This is the view of Charlie Whitmarsh, seed director and agronomist for Banks Cargill, who is...

MIN-TILL SPECIAL: Far-reaching benefits of a no-till system.
March 1, 2004... What does the US mid-west farmer do in early January when it's -14 degrees C outside? Head for Des Moines and meet up with 750 fellow no- tillers for four days of non-stop no-till learning. Jim Bullock sent us this report. Every no-till...

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: Shallow is key for min-till weeds.
March 1, 2004... Steve Townsend provides practical min-till advice from the specialist field-scale trial site he runs with Oxfordshire grower, Duncan Jack, and addresses Arable Farming readers' tillage questions. If we really wanted to put weed control...

Talking Arable.
March 1, 2004... From our North Norfolk-based farmer Kit Papworth of L. F. Papworth Ltd, Lower Farm, Tuttington, Norwich. I recently took three weeks away from the farm to attend the Advanced Course in Agricultural Business Management. This annual...

OILSEED RAPE: No-plough benefit in dry summer.
March 1, 2004... Few oilseed rape growers would wish for the very hot, dry weather that prevailed when this season's crops were being drilled. But, for those using Autocast, late summer 2003 provided ideal conditions to test the claims of the technique's...

One cultivation pass needed?
March 1, 2004... Hertfordshire farm business partners Michael Watson and Edward Hitchcock have cut establishment costs with Autocast but have come to the conclusion that one cultivation pass is needed for optimum results. The two men jointly run Pelham...

NVZ ADVICE: Know your starting point.
March 1, 2004... Fertilising to crop requirement is one of the key factors for NVZ compliance. It is also good economic sense to make sure that any nitrogen applied, whether it is from organic manures or bagged fertilisers, is going to be useful to the crop....

BACK CHAT: Horses left hungry for sugar beet.
March 1, 2004... Last year's drought has been blamed for all kinds of ills. Equine magazine Horse and Hound reports that there is a Europe-wide shortage of sugar beet pulp, forcing horse feed compounders to import from America. The magazine says that pulp...

BACK CHAT: Get 'em young onto 'five-a-day'.
March 1, 2004... Parents on low incomes will be able to apply for vouchers worth at least #2.80 to buy their toddlers fruit and vegetables. The scheme, to be known as Healthy Start, will also offer parents of children younger than one year of age vouchers...

A-maizing grace.
March 22, 2004... Government has taken a significant step in the commercialisation of genetically modified crops in the UK by giving the green light to herbicide-tolerant GM maize variety Chardon LL. Farmers growing the variety will have to comply with...

Scotland's spring crops at risk.
March 22, 2004... The risk from leatherjackets is low in England this spring, but Scotland could be facing an epidemic, according to Dow AgroSciences. Dow's PestWatch monitoring service, in conjunction with SAC Auchincruive, has flagged up very high levels...

Big and beautiful?
March 22, 2004... Big and beautiful? The Alpha Plus self-propelled sprayer is Hardi's biggest launch ever in the UK, says the company. This 3500 and 4100 litre capacity beast puts the company right up there with existing big players in the self-propelled sprayer...

New List for sugar beet.
March 22, 2004... NIAB has announced the new Recommended List for sugar beet. Aspect and Radar (Advanta) are both rhizomania resistant varieties that have shown higher yield levels than the best recommended resistant varieties. Anemona (English Sugar Beet Co) is...

N monitoring on-line.
March 22, 2004... Soil mineral nitrogen data from over 30 sites across England are now available to farmers, with accompanying interpretations and advice on fertiliser requirements, through Terra Nitrogen's new on-line Service Centre. Samples are analysed...

Breeder leaves CPB.
March 22, 2004... CPB Twyford managing director and head wheat breeder, John Blackman has left the Cambridgeshire-based plant breeding business. Non-executive director, Ray Spreadbury, a previous managing director of the business, is, in the interim, acting...

BETA training for agronomists.
March 22, 2004... A new modular environmental training scheme specifically designed for BASIS-trained agronomists, has been devised by the Allerton Project - the Game Conservancy Trust's demonstration farm, at Loddington in Leicestershire. The new course,...

Time out for obsolete pesticides.
March 22, 2004... Check your pesticide store NOW for unapproved products. The Obsolete Pesticide Disposal Campaign, to help farmers and growers dispose of obsolete stocks of pesticides safely, ends on March 31. After this, farmers will no longer be able to take...

New edition.
March 22, 2004... The 2004 edition of The UK Pesticide Guide, available as a book and CD- ROM, includes information on more than 1,400 pesticide products. There are over 130 new product entries along with 13 new active substances, or mixtures of active...

Grain intake feedback.
March 22, 2004... Banks Cargill has announced that it will provide farmers with instant feedback on grain deliveries through its website. Feedback on incoming loads will go onto the web straight after measurements have been taken at the intake point,...

PRODUCT NEWS.
March 22, 2004... This spring, winter OSR growers have a new product to tackle difficult weeds with the launch of Galera, post-emergence product (a.i.s are clopyralid and picloram), from Dow Agrosciences. According to Dow, it offers excellent control of...

SMI wants your suggestions.
March 22, 2004... The Soil Management Initiative is planning a number of farm demonstration events in July. Topics will include cultivation practice and dealing with wheelings and trafficking. However, SMI is keen to tailor course content to suit farmer...

Our man at the NFU.
March 22, 2004... Arthur Hill, who farms at Much Wenlock, Shropshire and is a regular contributor to Arable Farming magazine as a Talking Arable columnist, has been appointed the NFU's chairman of the combinable crops board, with Paul Temple, Driffield, East...

Smith's Soapbox: One fat form.
March 22, 2004... There were some contradictory messages floating around at this year's NFU AGM. Mrs Beckett was keen to stress that she was determined to lift the yoke of bureaucracy from our shoulders. She seemed to sympathise with those farmers who are pig...

Smith's Soapbox: Claptrap corner.
March 22, 2004... Many thanks to a reader who sent me a cutting from his cycling magazine "Cycling Plus". Page 43 has an article by Dr Chris Fenn who is "an accredited nutritionist". In the article Dr Fenn warbles on about how the food from today's farms is not...

Smith's Soapbox: E-I-E-I-O mail.
March 22, 2004... I like the idea of submitting my IACS form to Defra electronically. Last time I looked into the possibility it was such a farce that I gave up. It is clear that in the future we are going to have to submit more and more information to Defra....

LINK partners press for midge resistance rating.
March 22, 2004... A three-year, #400,000 Arable LINK project has been investigating prospects for integrated control of wheat blossom midge. Teresa Rush reports on key findings. Winter wheat varieties could soon be rated for resistance to wheat blossom...

Wheat disease options.
March 22, 2004... Farmers and agronomists have tried out the long-awaited Wheat Disease Manager computer software at eight workshops, organised by ADAS in conjunction with the Central Science Laboratory, Rothamsted Research and Silsoe Research Institute. The...

Route to better lodging control.
March 22, 2004... Lodging control is changing. Previously, variety lists described how likely a variety was to lodge, but not why. Recent research now means it's possible to pinpoint individual variety weaknesses in order to target growth regulation to better...

IRRIGATION: What's in the pipeline?
March 22, 2004... Irrigators are facing major changes in water abstraction legislation. At a recent conference held by the UK Irrigators' Association, Alison Lea found out what's coming and how to prepare. Water pressure is increasing: Demand for water for...

Talking Arable with our North Lincolnshire farmer Ambrose Fowler.
March 22, 2004... March 7, 2004 I haven't written about our short rotation coppice (SRC) for some time, in fact not since the demise of Arbre with its biomass power station. It left we growers thinking "Oh no, what now?" Well, most of the growers joined...

PEST MONITORING: Technology to track pests and diseases.
March 22, 2004... We've got the technology - but is it being used? Alison Lea asks if pest and disease monitoring services are what growers and agronomists want. As communication technology becomes ever more sophisticated - mobile phones, for instance, are...

First safe spraying targets met.
March 22, 2004... The Voluntary Initiative is meeting its first set of targets for involving farmers in safe spraying strategies and improving operator training. Growers in the Assured Produce Scheme (APS) will also, this year, for the first time, be asked...

Residue-free food calls: warning to growers.
March 22, 2004... A leading scientist has warned that supermarket calls for lower or zero pesticides residues in food could drive farmers to spray earlier than necessary and switch to products that can't be detected. Professor Garth Foster of the SAC also...

Potato research spending: benefit is questioned.
March 22, 2004... Concerns that much of the money spent on potato research is aimed at targets that don't obviously benefit growers were voiced in Dundee. David Piccaver, former chairman of the BPC's R & D committee, questioned why #3.8m was spent...

Cutting costs precisely.
March 22, 2004... Two ways in which precision farming techniques can be used to cut costs were outlined to the Dundee conference. Angus farmer Robert Ramsay explained how he is aiming to reduce energy use and his farm's contribution to global warming, and...

Aggressive weed control.
March 22, 2004... Aggressive wheat crops could be the key to cutting weed control costs without using more herbicide. The Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) is taking part in a Europe-wide project to identify the nature of wheat varieties that can suppress...

CONTRACTOR: New methods to spread the weight.
March 22, 2004... * Grimme was one of the first companies to use rubber tracks on its SF300-15 four-row potato harvester (now called Tectron 415), and more recently on the SF 6.20 six-row. A 635mm-wide rubber track unit fitted is fitted as standard to the...

CONTRACTOR: Flagship tyre makes its footprint on the market.
March 22, 2004... By driving home the message to farmers that it pays in the long run to buy a better tyre, Bridgestone Europe is set to put another 3% market share on top of the existing 17% share which its Firestone brand currently enjoys on European farms....

CONTRACTOR: Keeping up the pressure.
March 22, 2004... Tyre pressure - does it really matter that much? Most definitely yes, says Bridgestone UK's Barry Coleman. "What many people do not realise is that, whatever other consequences of under-inflating tyres might be, excessive wear is an...

CONTRACTOR: Groundwater.
March 22, 2004... As part of the Landfill Directive, a groundwater authorisation in future will be needed for the disposal of a range of substances into or onto land, including pesticides and sprayer washings. An authorisation may be needed for other disposals,...

CONTRACTOR: Legal service for contractors launched.
March 22, 2004... A new legal service launched this month by the NAAC aims to help contractors through the legal minefield that exists for all contracting businesses. NAAC has teamed up with Hunt and Coombs, a group of lawyers which specialise in the legal...

CONTRACTOR: Pesticides.
March 22, 2004... The NAAC has alerted members that the annual charges for authorisations for contractors involved in pesticide application - waived in recent years in England and Wales - are about to be re-instated. Apply by March 31 and you can stay within the...

CONTRACTOR: Chemical and waste info day.
March 22, 2004... NAAC corporate member, Syngenta Crop Protection, recently hosted a day for crop and amenity sprayer operators, devoted to the current issues surrounding chemical application and waste management. They caught up with all the latest news and...

CONTRACTOR: Agricultural transport advice.
March 22, 2004... Professional help comes to NAAC members by many routes. During February alone, for example, contractors combined business with pleasure when they had the benefit of ex-policeman Mike Braithwaite's vast experience with the problems of...

SPRAYERS: A self-propelled market challenger.
March 22, 2004... The introduction of the Alpha Plus is the biggest thing to happen to Hardi in the UK, says the company and is set to put the sprayer manufacturer right up there with existing big players in the self- propelled sprayer market. Tia Rund reports....

COMBINES: Combine harvester out-of-season checks and maintenance.
March 22, 2004... If your combine harvester was put away at the end of last season without being thoroughly cleaned, checked over, repaired and serviced, do not delay any longer before carrying out these vital jobs. With spring field now underway, you'll find...

The sky's the limit!
March 22, 2004... GLOBAL REPORT: From our Australian farmer columnist Neil Unger Almost March, and little has really happened since harvest which did actually finish by Christmas after a late start in the second week in November. Whilst I would like to claim...

Talking Arable with our Shropshire-based farmer Arthur Hill.
March 22, 2004... New Zealand is a wonderfully young and vibrant country. The scenery is spectacular and the language of expression is free from all the impediments that the politically correct see as necessary over here. Even the word bugger appears regularly...

COLIN MYRAM'S CROP TALK: Septoria rampant on all wheat varieties.
March 22, 2004... East Anglian-based Colin Myram is a consultant to the agricultural industry, including farmers and suppliers. Inspections of wheat and barley crops coming out of the winter have shown high levels of disease and this is in spite of the late...