Arable Farming articles from November 2004

Arable Farming archives from November 2004

Crop establishment: The definitive guide.
November 22, 2004... Many readers of Arable Farming are in for an early Christmas present when they receive their December 20 edition of the magazine. Being sent out free with the next issue will be a limited number of copies of the definitive guide to crop...

Be aware of increased run-off risk.
November 22, 2004... The Crop Protection Association is urging farmers to keep up the good progress made by the VI by following best practice when there is increased risk of field and yard run-off. The CPA's Patrick Goldsworthy said: "Wet weather means growers...

Stay ahead of legislation on tractor safety.
November 22, 2004... Tractor owners will have to carry out safety checks that will be enforced by the Health and Safety Executive on farms and road checks by the Department of Transport if they are to avoid a compulsory MOT-type scheme. This has been the...

First bio-energy farmer contract for willow.
November 22, 2004... ESD Biomass, which supplies the energy industry, has announced its first commercial farmers' contract, called the `Power Plant Contract', to secure specifically-grown crops for power generation. UK energy business RWE npower has signed the...

700 species of weed.
November 22, 2004... The stand of weed growing company Herbiseed at the British Crop Protection Conference highlighted one of the conference themes, `Sustainable Water in Agriculture'. Dr Martin Parham of Herbiseed, who is pictured on his stand at the event in...

ARABLE BRIEF: Rhizomania.
November 22, 2004... More new cases of Rhizomania have been confirmed following the annual aerial survey of sugar beet crops conducted during August. From the air a total of 170 suspect fields were spotted. Subsequent follow-up checks confirmed the virus was...

ARABLE BRIEF: LEAF audits.
November 22, 2004... In support of the work of the VI, LEAF has demonstrated how many farmers have voluntarily adopted best practice to achieve meaningful change on farm over the last 10 years, since the first LEAF Audit was introduced in 1994. "LEAF farmers...

ARABLE BRIEF: Plastic waste.
November 22, 2004... Farming organisations, the Environment Agency and government recently got together to consider how to achieve the sustainable management of plastic waste from farms. Farms produce more than 80,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year, including...

Eyespot risk model.
November 22, 2004... Scientists have developed a risk model to help growers decide whether or not they need to spray winter wheat crops against eyespot. "Using a table, growers can calculate a total risk score for their crop. They can then make a decision on...

Fewer pesticide complaints.
November 22, 2004... Eight out of 204 complaints received relating to pesticides incidents in 2003/04 resulted in convictions, with an average fine of #1,824, according to the HSE's latest Pesticide Incidents Report. This is 11 lower than 2002/03, but eight...

ARABLE BRIEF: e-manual.
November 22, 2004... The latest version of the e-Pesticide Manual has been launched. The new version, edited by Dr Clive Tomlin, updates the printed 13th edition of the Pesticide Manual and CD, providing new data and a new screen layout which now operates via...

ARABLE BRIEF: Grain partnership.
November 22, 2004... A 'nutrition management partnership' launched by Grainfarmers/UAP and Terra Nitrogen aims to pool marketing, agronomy and fertiliser use expertise from each organisation to benefit farmer customers. `Ultimately, we are the customer of the...

Smith's Soapbox: What price hindsight?
November 22, 2004... As the winter conference season kicks off I have found myself sitting in darkened rooms gawping at various graphs and charts. I swear I will have some sort of mental seizure if I hear one more market guru tell me I should have sold forward this...

Smith's Soapbox: The game they call farming.
November 22, 2004... A programme on the box caught my attention recently. "The Farm" on Channel Five made interesting viewing especially if one just watched the highlights. In the programme some unknown celebrities were cooped up on a farm for a few weeks and given...

Smith's Soapbox: Queue barging.
November 22, 2004... I note that Defra has announced that, as they had a tricky harvest, arable farmers in Yorkshire and the north-east should be brought to the front of the queue when it comes to paying IACS money out. Forgive my dog in the manger, but isn't...

CROP PROTECTION: Low doses, less resistance build-up.
November 22, 2004... The idea that low doses of fungicides increase the risk of resistance was dismissed by Dr Michael Shaw of the University of Reading. He said that, in most situations, reduced doses reduce selection pressure and thus result in less...

CROP PROTECTION: Call for a ban on IPU?
November 22, 2004... Thames Water Utilities' Dinah Hillier said that her company is likely to ask for IPU to be banned. The call follows a concerted effort by the company for several years to work with farmers in the Cherwell valley catchment in Oxfordshire,...

CROP PROTECTION: Scottish water reform praise.
November 22, 2004... Praise for the Voluntary Initiative's achievements by the Scottish Executive has encouraged policymakers there to believe that ministers and the Commission can be persuaded to see that codes of practice can work and are preferable to...

CROP PROTECTION: Precision herbicide spraying questioned.
November 22, 2004... The Arable Group's Dr Jim Orson questioned the use of GPS and precision systems for herbicide spray applications. Growers were reluctant to use weed maps because of the high risks involved in getting it wrong, he said. He pointed out...

CROP PROTECTION: Plant Protection Congress.
November 22, 2004... The International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences' 16th International Plant Protection Congress will be hosted by BCPC at Glasgow in 2007. It will run in association with BCPC's Crop Science and Technology conference. ...

CROP PROTECTION: Implications of the WFD across Europe.
November 22, 2004... Full recovery of the cost of managing water supply has been recommended by the EU Commission in the Water Framework Directive, but Professor Juan Sagardoy, of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), cautioned that farm incomes must be...

CROP PROTECTION: Fears over new controls on farming are `unfounded'.
November 22, 2004... Fears that new controls to agriculture from the new Water Framework Directive (WFD) will be "the end of European farming" will be unfounded, because of the caveat that they must be economically realistic, Environment Agency agriculture policy...

CROP PROTECTION: `Apply better scientific reasoning'.
November 22, 2004... A heartfelt plea for better scientific reasoning to be applied to water quality controls came from Bayer CropScience's Dr Chris Leake. He said that the cost of the imposition of non-scientific standards is very expensive for ag-chem...

PROGRESS: The next 30 years.
November 22, 2004... To complete our '30 years of Progress' series in association with Monsanto and Roundup, we ask six industry experts what we might expect for agriculture in the next 30 years. Edward Long reports. Jim Orson: Farmers should not assume...

AGRONOMY: N rate route to yield and protein success?
November 22, 2004... Increased nitrogen fertiliser rates could be the key to achieving consistently high yields and grain protein levels from the latest Group 1 and 2 winter wheats, according to one agronomy advice organisation. Teresa Rush reports. The...

SOIL MANAGEMENT: `Cut diffuse pollution'.
November 22, 2004... Soil management and nutrition were the focus of a conference jointly organised by the HGCA and Rothamsted Research Association. Joanna Baker reports. There is a need to reduce diffuse pollution on farm, says Peter Costigan, scientific...

Soil structure is fundamental.
November 22, 2004... Good soil structure is fundamental to both quality production and environmental protection. That was one of the main conclusions from the HGCA's Soil2Crop initiative, which aimed to improve farm profitability through better understanding...

Soil2Crop: Conclusions from the initiative.
November 22, 2004... * Soil examination is necessary to identify, overcome and rectify soil problems of degradation and compaction; this is best done in late spring. * Reduce the intensity and number of cultivations; consolidate after cultivation and...

ROYAL SMITHFIELD SHOW: Machinery innovations.
November 22, 2004... Reco will be showing the Agrisem range of cultivators for the first time at this year's event. The French built line-up includes the Disc-O- Mulch shallow disc cultivator with each of the serrated discs mounted on pigtail tines. There is...

ROYAL SMITHFIELD SHOW: Funnel to minimise potato bruising.
November 22, 2004... A spring loaded funnel is the latest device from Richard Larrington to help minimise potato bruising. Designed for the Lincolnshire firm's range of box filling trailers the system can be positioned on the canvass funnel or onto the end of a...

ROYAL SMITHFIELD SHOW: JCB to show new Fastrac series.
November 22, 2004... JCB will be showing the new generation 3000 series Fastrac models along with its latest compact and mid-range Farm Special Loadalls. The British company will also be offering advice on JCB farm finance as well as merchandise that could prove...

ROYAL SMITHFIELD SHOW: Machinery innovations - Massey Ferguson.
November 22, 2004... Massey Ferguson will be showing its first 300hp plus tractor at Smithfield in the form of the 8480. With a maximum output of 315hp this model is the flagship of the four-tractor line up, which starts at 215hp. The 8400 range uses the...

WHEAT: Speedy, smarter breeding.
November 22, 2004... A new player is poised to enter the winter wheat variety market. Alison Lea reports. Syngenta hopes to enter the winter wheat seed market within the next two or three years with the first of its varieties from major investment in breeding...

FUNGICIDES: Query delays launch.
November 22, 2004... A Pesticides Safety Directorate query relating to clarification of technical data has delayed BASF's launch plans for its new epoxiconazole+ boscalid fungicide. But the company is confident the new product will be available in good time for the...

FUNGICIDES: `No cut in field performance'.
November 22, 2004... A slight decline in the efficacy of the triazole epoxiconazole measured in laboratory tests will not translate into a reduction in field performance against Septoria. That's according to BASF fungicides manager Tony Grayburn, who says that...

FUNGICIDES: Competitor in market for Septoria control.
November 22, 2004... The triazole newcomer prothioconazole will be a strong competitor to market leader epoxiconazole in terms of Septoria tritici control. That is according to epoxiconazole manufacturer BASF, which says that prothioconazole `can match Opus...

Talking Arable with our Borders-based farmer Guy Lee.
November 22, 2004... November 9 2004 I was feeling rather pleased with myself, having drilled all the wheat, bar two hectares, before the deluge in October put paid to any more thoughts of getting a hovercraft on the ground, let alone a tractor. This...

Sulphur matters.
November 22, 2004... Kemira GrowHow agronomist Allison Grundy stresses the importance of sulphur in oilseed rape. It is now widely accepted that sulphur should be part of the routine agronomy of oilseed rape even on the heaviest of soil types. The current...

Global Report: Bone dry farming.
November 22, 2004... From our Australian farmer columnist Neil Unger Grower Neil Unger reports from Australia where rain has fallen just in time to save some crops - but the drought still hasn't gone away. All right, back off all the `phone calls, I am...

SPRING BARLEY: Drill up before ordering the turkey!
November 22, 2004... Get your spring barley in before Christmas, and higher yields, more stable grain nitrogen and fewer screenings could be in your Christmas stocking. Alison Lea reports. Been there, tried that! This may be the response to the suggestion that...

CONTRACTOR: Tick the box for safe nematicide application.
November 22, 2004... Risk assessments and hazard analysis are routine in food production factories. Now they are a regular part of production protocols for potato growers in order to help them meet their obligations. Potato growers are going to have to be far...

CONTRACTOR: The only way is up for tractor HP.
November 22, 2004... British arable farms continue to seek bigger equipment and bigger tractors. That is on the evidence of AEA figures that show that numbers of 200hp+ tractors on the market continue to rise. Steven Vale looks at the figures, a number of new...

CONTRACTOR: Keeping the big horses in fine fettle.
November 22, 2004... Treating the farm's biggest tractors to a little TLC before parking them up for the winter will pay dividends when the time comes to head out onto the land once again. Mike Bird runs through the essential maintenance points that will help...

FUEL STORAGE: Trouble in store?
November 22, 2004... With thousands of fuel storage installations receiving little more than a cursory glance each time a farm vehicle or machine is re-fuelled, many farmers and contractors are ignoring a potential problem which could, without any warning, prove...

Talking Arable with our South Devon-based organic farmer David Pearson.
November 22, 2004... November 7 2004 Deciding not to start sowing winter wheat until early October seemed a remarkably sensible option, especially sitting in the comfort of the office. But, with several fields unsown, I am starting to feel uneasy. The...