Arable Farming articles from March 2006

Arable Farming archives from March 2006

Which way with weeds?
March 6, 2006... Jim Orson (Letters AF Dec 12) takes Guy Smith to task over his reliance on a single spring dose of Atlantis to control black-grass. He argues that using other modes of action in sequence with Atlantis will slow down the progress of resistance....

Spanish show the way in wanting feed wheat for fuel.
March 6, 2006... A spanish bioethanol producer is looking for English farmers to grow crops to meet its expanding biofuel markets. In a boost to UK grain growers looking for a competitive biofuels sector, Abengoa Bioenergy has said it wants to secure at...

Organic arable farmers need to collaborate to succeed.
March 6, 2006... Organic arable producers need to work together better than they currently do if they are to tackle a raft of strategic issues facing the sector, according to the Organic Arable Marketing Group's, Andrew Trump. Speaking to delegates at an...

ARABLE BRIEFS: Low crop prices bad news for Danish.
March 6, 2006... Danish potato growers are currently suffering as a result of lower than average prices for last season's crop. In fact, the situation is so critical that the country's Dansk Landbrug farmers union claims that average potato incomes are down...

ARABLE BRIEFS: Wheat exports.
March 6, 2006... UK wheat exports in December 2005 totalled 0.288 million tonnes (Mt). This brings cumulative wheat exports for July to December 2005 to 1.239Mt, some 1.229Mt to other EU countries and just 9,507t to non-EU countries, says the HGCA. ...

Halting the decline of the grey partridge.
March 6, 2006... A new guide, produced as part of the Voluntary Initiative, provides farmers and landowners with practical advice developed by The Game Conservancy Trust on ways to restore grey partridge populations in Britain. The new `Biodiversity...

ARABLE BRIEFS: More spring crops in the east.
March 6, 2006... The Ukrainian arable sector looks set to drill more spring crops this season. That is the only conclusion that can be made following the release of autumn drilled crop data which shows that the winter wheat area is down by 19% to 5.14 million...

ARABLE BRIEFS: GM rules.
March 6, 2006... The WTO has ruled that the EU is breaking international trade rules by barring GM crop imports. Around 80% of Canadian canola is grown from genetically-modified varieties and so Canada has been unable to export canola onto the EU market since...

Multidrive lives on with Kellands.
March 6, 2006... Kellands Agricultural has purchased the Multidrive business after the manufacturer went into receivership in January. Production of the self-propelled power units moved from Thirsk, North Yorkshire where the company was founded 10 years ago...

ARABLE BRIEFS: Organic and Germanic.
March 6, 2006... Some 4.6% of the total German arable area is now worked organically. This year, the area is up to 784,000 hectares, a 60% increase on the 295,000 hectares recorded in 1999. What's more, the number of German organic farms now stands at...

Climate change could help crop yields.
March 6, 2006... With average temperatures on Earth set to rise by anything up to 5.8+C by the end of this Century, we can expect changes in crop yielding patterns as early as 2020, said Dr David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia....

ARABLE BRIEFS: Regulations unravelled.
March 6, 2006... The Environment Agency has launched a new internet registration tool, `Netregs', which, it claims, helps farmers to keep up to date with changes to environmental legislation. Farmers can register by logging onto www.netregs.gov.uk to receive...

Smith's Soapbox: In pursuit of the hare.
March 6, 2006... Farming opinion from Essex-based Guy Smith I seem to spend a good part of the winter and spring at war with the wildlife on my farm. No sooner have I launched another rocket attack on the strategic occupation of rape ground by pigeons,...

Health and safety: Get the health and safety habit.
March 6, 2006... To get to grips with health and safety, it has to become a habit, or culture, for everyone on the farm. Alison Lea looks into how to achieve this. The old ladder with a wobbly rung. The guard on the auger that came off and you haven't had...

Health and safety: Seeing it from farmer's view.
March 6, 2006... Even having studiously tackled H&S, it is still easy to overlook something. Some farmers struggle to get round to tackling H&S - daunted by the apparent size of the task. Or struggle to get everyone on the farm to adopt the right approach. Or...

Agronomy update: Keeping chemistry kicking.
March 6, 2006... It's a juggling act to keep available fungicide chemistry alive and kicking. Alison Lea reports from HGCA's recent R&D conference. Not enough growers are changing their fungicide strategy in the wake of loss of performance of available...

Agronomy update: Improved formula.
March 6, 2006... DuPont has launched Ally Max SX - a new improved version of Ally SX but with the extra contact activity of tribenuron, giving improved control and a wider weed spectrum at no extra cost. "Ally Max will provide weed control which is equal or...

Agronomy update: Blight and aphid options increased.
March 6, 2006... This season sees the introduction of new chemistry for the control of aphids and blight in potato crops. Options for blight and aphid control in potato crops will increase this season, following Bayer CropScience's announcement that it has...

Getting away from the greening effect.
March 6, 2006... The move away from the oilseed rape variety Apex appears to have alleviated the greening problems seen with rapeseed in 1999 and 2000. Speaking at an HGCA oilseed rape workshop, held in conjunction with Arable Farming's sister weekly...

Holding back the OSR yields.
March 6, 2006... Oilseed rape yields are being held back by shortening rotations, fungicide resistance and crop safety limitations. SAC plant pathologist Dr Fiona Burnett said that in 1990 8% of rapeseed crops were grown in a one in three rotation. By 2003 that...

Invest in crops early.
March 6, 2006... Robigus growers are being advised that this is a year to invest in crops. The season will be one of high disease pressure but crops are well- tillered, soils are warm and the yield potential is high. "This is not the year for 0.5l/ha...

Back to basics with OSR.
March 6, 2006... Yields of oilseed rape in the combine tank at harvest fail to reflect the year-on-year improvements to the genetic potential of the new and highly productive varieties. Here, Edward Long looks at on-going trial work that aims to shift the yield...

Direct-to-farm approach pays dividends in spare parts' trade.
March 6, 2006... With 30,000 farmer customers, Spaldings says that investment in quality is paying off. Dominic Kilburn reports. With a turnover of #17 million and 150 employees, Spaldings claims to be the largest independent direct supplier of agricultural...

Updated Flatlift adds extra width.
March 6, 2006... Spare parts and equipment supplier, Spaldings has introduced an updated version of its long-established Flatlift one-pass cultivator/ seeding unit. The Lincoln-based company has extended the cultivating and seeding width of the implement to 3m,...

`Central beam' harrow design.
March 6, 2006... KUHN has added a 5.65m working width model to its intermediate range of Discover heavy cultivation and straw incorporation disc harrows. The XM 48 is suitable for tractors in the 85-160hp bracket and extends the range to six models,...

Essential Guide to tractors.
March 6, 2006... The continued tightening of regulations concerning tractor engine emissions has fuelled the launch of a whole range of new tractors during the past 12 months. Here, Steven Vale provides an Arable Farming Essential Guide to high horsepowered...

Spring barley: Breakfast in bed.
March 6, 2006... Fertiliser timing for spring barley turns winter crop wisdom on its head, Alison Lea finds. Traditionally, English malting barley crops receive 50% of nitrogen around the one-and-a-half leaf stage, and the remaining 50% 10 days later....

The Conference centre: Invent your future - it's more fun!
March 6, 2006... Alison Lea reports from The Farmer and Conservation Group conference. If you can't budget to crop profitably at 50%, and less, of this year's Single Farm Payment then you should ask yourself if it is worth staying in production. This was...

The Conference centre: Our food is cool Britannia.
March 6, 2006... Local and regional food has become a by-word for British, according to Food From Britain (FFB) UK director Charlotte Lawson. Speaking at HGCA's Processor conference in London, she said. "There has been a quiet revolution in Britain from ten...

The Conference centre: Soil and water focus at Loddington.
March 6, 2006... Doing his Soil Protection Review was an hour well spent, according to Phil Jarvis, farm manager at the Game Conservancy Trust's farm at Loddington, Leicestershire. He said that filling in the form for the 319ha mixed farm had been very...

The Conference centre: Increased demand for top quality wheat.
March 6, 2006... The increased opportunities for top quality breadmaking wheat and a more collaborative approach to the milling wheat supply chain were among the topics discussed at the joint HGCA/National Association of British and Irish Millers conference at...

The Conference centre: More collaboration required.
March 6, 2006... A less adversarial and more collaborative approach to the milling wheat supply chain was advocated by Alastair Dickie, HGCA's director of crop marketing. This meant getting the farming industry to understand that consumers knew what they...

The Conference centre: Find niche or get intensive.
March 6, 2006... Now that fertiliser and genetics allow much greater yield, in theory you can feed the world from a multi-storey, artificially lit, hydroponic greenhouse the size of Wales - and turn the rest over to wilderness! These were some of the key...

The Conference centre: Promotion of food key to UK success.
March 6, 2006... There has never been a better time to promote British food. More than ever before British consumers want British food and the time has come for `promotion'. These were the views of British Food Fortnight founder Alexia Robinson, speaking at the...

The Conference centre: Commodities under threat from exporters.
March 6, 2006... The UK and other European Union member countries have held up well in the exporting of processed or `added value' food products, but, when it comes to raw commodity, we are lagging way behind the developing countries of the G20, said John...

Talking Arable with our South Devon-based organic farmer David Pearson.
March 6, 2006... Cash flow is probably high on the agenda for many farm businesses at the present time and, although there is still no sign of the SPS cheque, we have received both our Countryside Stewardship payment and the first tranche of our Organic Entry...

Continental column: Switzerland bans GM crops.
March 6, 2006... The use of GM crops has been banned for the next five years in Switzerland. The move is the result of a referendum on the subject and now means that the country has one of the strictest laws relating to GMOs in Europe as no GMO products are...

Continental column: Record German oilseed crop.
March 6, 2006... The oilseed rape area is up by 104,000 hectares (7.8%) to 1.43 million hectares. This is the highest level ever and is driven by increased demand from the biofuel sector. Winter barley is another popular crop on German arable units this season...

Continental column: Major boost for Swedish area.
March 6, 2006... It is not just in Germany where oilseed rape popularity is on the increase, as the Swedish area is up by a whopping 42% this year to in excess of 50,000 hectares. What's more, this figure is 62% higher than the average of the past five years....

Continental column: Spain prepares for dry summer.
March 6, 2006... Lower than average winter rainfall means that Spanish arable units are preparing for one of the driest years on record. Winter rainfall is crucial in many areas for crops to survive the spring and summer. Southern areas are particularly hard...

Continental column: Decline in Dutch beet growers.
March 6, 2006... Sugar beet accounts for 5% of the Dutch arable area and self-propelled sugar beet harvesters from the likes of Vervaet and Agrifac have always benefited from a healthy number of sales to the home market. During recent years, however, the number...

Continental column: Polish cereal production falls.
March 6, 2006... The figures have taken a long time to filter through but it has just been confirmed that Polish cereal production fell by 9% last year to 26.9 million tonnes. Grown on an area estimated to be around 8.3 million hectares, average yields are...

Sprayers: A self-propelled stance.
March 6, 2006... Hardi is keen to increase its share of the sprayer self-propelled market with the introduction of the Alpha VariTrack. Hardi wants to increase its share of the self-propelled sprayer market with the introduction of the Alpha VariTrack. ...

Talking Arable with our Borders-based farmer Guy Lee.
March 6, 2006... Having just returned from a week in New York visiting the eldest daughter who is doing an internship in the Big Apple, one appreciates the benefits of living in a rural community. I should not have been surprised but I was still amazed at the...

Global view: Danish pesticide tax.
March 6, 2006... As the Voluntary Initiative draws close to the end of its five year campaign to stave off a pesticide tax it's perhaps not surprising that there were several raised eyebrows at the HGCA R&D conference recently after Danish scientist Dr Lise...

Crop Comment: A timely tonic.
March 20, 2006... The imminent lifting of the ban on British beef exports is a timely tonic for new NFU president, and arable farmer, Peter Kendall. There you go - a few weeks into the job and the livestock sector can look to export markets once again. It's hard...

Smithfield `no longer met the needs of working farmers'.
March 20, 2006... The Royal Smithfield Show failed because it no longer met the needs of working farmers, according to a leading machinery manufacturer. Robert Willey, managing director of Househams Sprayers, said that he had mixed feelings about the...

Fears rise over entitlements.
March 20, 2006... As Arable Farming went to press two-thirds of the entitlement statements sent to farmers since February 14 were unvalidated. The Rural Payments Agency confirmed just 39,000 of the 117,000 entitlement statements issued were fully validated,...

Mind the mildew.
March 20, 2006... Plentiful crop nitrogen and forward crops are providing ideal conditions for mildew, warns Procam technical director Dr David Ellerton. "Higher soil nitrogen resulting from the lack of rainfall over winter and the relatively mild...

Combinable crops turn up heat.
March 20, 2006... HGCA has launched a project in partnership with Rural Energy Trust that could create a market for grain and grain co-products as a biomass fuel. "There has been a lot of interest in the feasibility of using grain as fuel," said Dr Roger...

ARABLE BRIEF: Prices down.
March 20, 2006... DuPont has announced a 15% price reduction in its sugar beet broad- leaved weed herbicide Debut (triflusulfuron-methyl). Debut has been the backbone to many conventional sugar beet herbicide programmes and is best used in conjunction with a...

ARABLE BRIEF: Blight performers.
March 20, 2006... Ranman TP and Shirlan (fluazinam) have emerged as consistent performers against tuber blight in independent fungicide evaluation trials. These two products came out on top in three years of British Potato Council funded trials, conducted...

ARABLE BRIEF: Agchem link up.
March 20, 2006... Agrochemical manufacturers Syngenta and DuPont have announced an agreement that will broaden each company's crop protection product range. Syngenta has acquired an exclusive worldwide license to develop DuPont's new insecticide rynaxypyr in...

ARABLE BRIEF: OSR boost.
March 20, 2006... A new concentrated foliar liquid nitrogen product to be used on oilseed rape crops during pod fill can help to maximise crop performance and boost yields by at least 0.5t/ha, it is claimed. Oilseed Extra from Omex also contains magnesium,...

EU sugar quota cuts.
March 20, 2006... EU sugar quota will be cut by 2.5 million tonnes (13.6 per cent) for the 2006/07 cropping year, euro ministers have agreed. The one-off reduction will see UK quota reduced by 11.66 per cent (132,764 tonnes) but the NFU has secured a deal...

ARABLE BRIEF: Boom swing.
March 20, 2006... New Dutch research, revealed at the British Potato Council Blight Forum in Peterborough, has found that sprayer boom swing can have a dramatic effect on late season blight control. "Relatively small movements of the sprayer boom can mean...

ARABLE BRIEF: Money isn't enough.
March 20, 2006... The results of the elections for NFU national office holders proves that spending money is not enough to ensure a victory in the polls, according to union past-president Sir Ben Gill. Speaking at a meeting recently, Sir Ben commented on...

Smith's Soapbox: Winter survival.
March 20, 2006... Farming opinion from Essex-based Guy Smith When out in the fields `Ragwort' the dog usually comes with me. She travels in the back of the of the pick-up and gets so excited about the prospect of a run that she has the unfortunate habit of...

Smith's Soapbox: Super-green stubble.
March 20, 2006... Over the years we have messed with rape establishment techniques on our heavy marsh clays and I have yet to find a reliable one. Broadcasting into a standing crop; direct drilling; thorough straw incorporation; tine or power harrowing - all...

Smith's Soapbox: Bush correspondent.
March 20, 2006... On the subject of overwintered stubbles, I must thank a Herts farmer for some correspondence. A couple of months ago I wrote a piece about hedge management. I made the point that, before ELS came along, we didn't pay much attention to hedges;...

Biofuels: Rape for fuel, no compromises.
March 20, 2006... The rocketing price of mineral-based fuels is providing the biggest boost so far to interest in rape-sourced biofuel. It is likely that this will provide arable farming with the just-in-time lifeline of another potentially huge market. But...

Biofuels: Boost for OSR yields.
March 20, 2006... Pre-flowering applications of the strobilurin fungicide azoxystrobin can boost oilseed rape yields by an average of 0.35 tonnes a hectare in low disease risk situations by increasing green leaf retention, claims Syngenta. In ADAS trials at...

Disease control: Helping crops to help themselves?
March 20, 2006... Can plants really protect or defend themselves? Is it possible that they recognise invading disease and react to it? And what are the implications of this for the crop protection industry? Professor Dale Walters, of the SAC Crop and Soil...

Disease control: Too early with T1?
March 20, 2006... T1 sprays in winter wheat are going on too early and are missing the final leaf 3 target, a leading cereal disease expert has warned. Joanna Baker reports. Growers are being too careful and applying the T1 fungicide spray too early in...

Disease control: Same disease control for less.
March 20, 2006... A new fungicide, formulated using existing active ingredients goes on the market this spring. It brings no great technical advances in disease control - its performance is claimed to be on a par with the current standards - but it does bring...

MACHINERY MATTERS: Artic Challenger.
March 20, 2006... Agco used the US National Farm Machinery Show to reveal the commercial version of its long-awaited articulated Challenger tractor. Known as the MT 975B, and boasting a maximum output of 570hp, the range also includes the MT945B (430hp),...

MACHINERY MATTERS: Tracked plans.
March 20, 2006... We are still not sure with this one, but this picture suggests New Holland is to develop a tracked version of its articulated TJ tractors. Our source suggests that it concerns an official New Holland development. This seems odd when you...

MACHINERY MATTERS: Bigger combines.
March 20, 2006... The demand for higher outputs means combine harvesters will continue to get bigger and by 2020 average engine size will top 408hp in straw walker combines and 544hp in rotaries. That is the view of Prof Stefan Bottinger of the agricultural...

MACHINERY MATTERS: Claas 8 combine.
March 20, 2006... The recent US National Farm Machinery Show was also the launch pad for a brand new Challenger combine. Called the 680B, and billed as the biggest Challenger combine so far, this new top-of-the-range Claas 8 machine is powered by a 425hp Cat C13...

Environment: VI's success is `a sound investment'.
March 20, 2006... As the Voluntary Initiative completes five years, Arable Farming assesses what has been achieved to date and what happens next. The VI was created five years ago in response to a threat of a pesticide tax but over that time the focus has...

Environment: What has the Voluntary Initiative achieved?
March 20, 2006... Sprayers and sprayer operators The National Sprayer Testing Scheme (NSTS) operates nationally and is a requirement of a number of assurance schemes. Since its launch more than 14,500 machines have been tested, and it is estimated that 8000-...

Environment: What happens now?
March 20, 2006... In the face of change - particularly CAP reform, the Water Framework Directive, the National Pesticides Strategy and New Codes of Practice - the VI Steering group believes the farming industry can ill afford to lose the benefits which the VI...

Environment: You cannot relax yet!
March 20, 2006... The end of March 2006 deadline does not mean everyone can sit back and relax, says the Steering Group. In particular, it is important to continue to gather evidence on the success of the VI, in the form of Crop Protection Management Plans. ...

Environment: Pesticide tax.
March 20, 2006... `A pesticide tax would be a crude, blunt instrument' - Alun Michael The House of Commons Efra Select Committee enquiry of 2005 was a major milestone for the VI. Ahead of its March 2006 deadline, the Committee took evidence on the progress...

Irrigation: Less water and more licence uncertainty.
March 20, 2006... Alison Lea rounds up some of the key points made at the UK Irrigation Association's spring seminar. Look after litres for your licence Efficient irrigation may not be a legal requirement, but if you are not able to show that it is a...

Irrigation: UK water is society's water.
March 20, 2006... 'Ecosystem services' is a term used to coin anything that contributes to human well being, such as security, and elements for a good quality of life and good social relations. Water falls into many categories, and governments start to intervene...

Irrigation: A lighter environmental footprint.
March 20, 2006... Benchmarking would strengthen UK irrigators' case in demonstrating that the environmental impact of UK produce is less than produce from abroad, said water use consultant Martin Burton. "A selling point for UK growers is the lower environment...

Irrigation: And you thought we were short of water.
March 20, 2006... This year, there has only been 20-30% of normal winter rainfall in Andalucia in southern Spain, so there has been no replenishment of dams that were already dry from abnormally low rainfall over the past two years. "So, we are going into next...

Pest control: Look out for leatherjackets.
March 20, 2006... A winter survey of leatherjacket populations in grassland, funded by Dow AgroSciences shows that there has been a continued recovery in numbers compared with the low populations in harvest years 2003 and 2004. Of the 47 fields sampled, 39...

Pest control: Midge messages start emerging.
March 20, 2006... Pheromone trap catches indicate the timing of emergence and numbers of male orange wheat blossom midge within the field in which they are placed. However, the relationship between these catches and damage to a wheat crop varies according to how...

Pest control: Virus yellows forecast low.
March 20, 2006... The virus yellows risk will be relatively low in sugar beet crops in most areas this year, Broom's Barn is forecasting. Cold weather during the first few weeks of the year - almost 2degC colder than the same time last year - is the main...

NFU national conference: Biofuels offer change.
March 20, 2006... Biofuels offer an opportunity to change government and public perception of farming, whilst securing a market for surplus wheat and sugar beet or oilseed rape grown on set-aside. That was the message from several advocates for green fuels...

NFU national conference: Rivers are at risk.
March 20, 2006... Seventy-five per cent of rivers are at risk of failing to achieve the Water Framework Directive objectives through diffuse pollution, said Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency. The problem is both urban and rural, said Sir...

NFU national conference: Lost GM opportunity.
March 20, 2006... The closure of much of UK's GM research is a lost opportunity for British farming said chief scientific advisor to the government Professor Sir David King. Scientifically and economically, GM crops have a future role in UK farming, he said. "GM...