Arable Farming articles from October 2004

Arable Farming archives from October 2004

Pink grain study finds low mycotoxin levels.
October 18, 2004... HGCA and the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) has found no correlation between pink grains in feed wheat samples - predominantly from East Anglia and Lincolnshire - and levels of Fusarium mycotoxins, such as deoxynivalenol (DON). ...

Ascochyta - bean seed testing advisable.
October 18, 2004... Bean crops are showing the highest Ascochyta infection rate since 1997, warns NIAB. Samples tested by NIAB's laboratories in Cambridge show that 7% of samples cannot be used because infection levels are too high for successful treatment of...

Egyptian export hope.
October 18, 2004... Representatives from the UK grain industry have met their Egyptian counterparts, bringing export of UK wheat to Egypt a step closer. "We are delighted to have been invited to promote UK wheat to an audience that represents all sectors of the...

Winner of Silver Lapwing Award.
October 18, 2004... Hall Farm, Market Stainton in Lincolnshire is the winner of the England Silver Lapwing Award. The judges praised farm manager Chris Dowse's high standard of commercial, sustainable farming and clear vision and strategy for the future. According...

Nozzle hits the spot.
October 18, 2004... The new Hawk Nozzle, developed by Syngenta with Silsoe Research Institute and Hypro EU Ltd, for the herbicide Hawk, is available in time for use this autumn. The specially designed nozzle increases the amount of spray deposited on...

Two-day unloading.
October 18, 2004... Potato growers now have greater flexibility to respond to the needs of their market following the approval of a new in-store sprout suppressant, says manufacturer Luxan. Gro-Stop 100 is the first chlorpropham (CIPC) formulation to be...

15.8m tonne estimate for UK wheat harvest.
October 18, 2004... This year's wheat harvest is 15.8 million tonnes, according to NFU estimates. Average wheat yield in England was 7.9t/ha (3.1t/acre), but this year is exceptional in producing a wide range of regional results as output was affected to different...

Rhizomania alert.
October 18, 2004... Rhizomania has been identified at Broom's Barn Experimental Station in Suffolk for the first time. Scientists at the station found and tested suspect beet from small areas in two fields. Tests confirmed the presence of rhizomania. Further...

Back us with cash - VI boss.
October 18, 2004... The chief executive of the Crop Protection Association (CPA) which runs the Voluntary Initiative, has called for funding from Government to boost the successful start made by the VI. Peter Sanguinetti said: "The Voluntary Initiative has...

Welford is stiffest strawed variety.
October 18, 2004... Analysis of 50 trials from the 2004 harvest has shown Welford to be the stiffest strawed variety on the HGCA Recommended List. Some lodging was noted in 30 of the trials and in these Welford had considerably less lodging than Solstice,...

Smith's Soapbox: What, no Shergar?
October 18, 2004... If there was a lesson to be learned from last year it was that there is nothing to fear from drilling wheat late. We drilled into dust in the autumn of 2003, nothing much came up until December and yet we had our best yields ever. Late sown...

Smith's Soapbox: Owls of delight.
October 18, 2004... While farming in the present depressed climate is not much fun, success with my owl boxes is one little ray of sunshine. Pictured above are pig farming neighbour David Wilkin and me checking this year's broods. David is a licensed ringer and...

WATER USE: Are you prepared for licence renewal?
October 18, 2004... Continuing our series of articles to help prepare for tighter water regulations, Alison Lea gets advice from Mark Prentice of the British Potato Council on demonstrating responsible water use. Renewal of water licences is set to become less...

The CAMS process.
October 18, 2004... The CAMS (Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy) process, explained in recent issues of Arable Farming, is critical in the licence renewal process. England and Wales has been split into 129 CAMS. They will determine licence...

The economic value of irrigation.
October 18, 2004... * On its leaflet, 'Securing future water use - are you prepared?' the British Potato Council has produced figures that estimate the contribution irrigation makes to farm businesses for potato growers. The figures look at the effect on...

Wanted: arable weeds!
October 18, 2004... The conundrum for arable plants is that they do not thrive in modern farming systems - but they can't do without farming either. Seed cleaning, herbicides and winter cropping are the main agents of their decline but, in order to...

Special measures in the margins: do they work?
October 18, 2004... Nigel Critchley of ADAS reported findings from a study that looked at how well arable plants can survive in non-cropped field margins under two management regimes: * Six-metre field boundary strips, annually or bi-annually shallow...

No profitability lost.
October 18, 2004... Conference delegates toured Manor Farm, Eddlethorpe in the Yorkshire Wolds with with Marek Nowakowski of the Farmed Environment Company. The farm has been at the forefront of farm conservation for over a decade, exploring ways of managing...

Project focuses on arable flora.
October 18, 2004... The level of loss of plant biodiversity in arable fields is so high that a special project, run by Plantlife (a charity concerned with UK flora), aims to identify many of the important places in Britain for arable plants. "We don't have...

Assessing risks of weed control on wider biodiversity.
October 18, 2004... A risk assessment scheme for pesticides, to assess how non-target in- crop wildlife will be affected and also assess indirect effects on wildlife through the food chain or through changed habitat, is being developed. Dr Nigel Boatman of...

DISEASE CONTROL: `High probability' of BYDV outbreak.
October 18, 2004... A new risk prediction model may soon be available to help cereal growers optimise their use of barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) sprays. The Central Science Laboratory, in conjunction with Rothamsted Research, ADAS and SAC, has developed an...

POTATO STORAGE: Fog clears on residues?
October 18, 2004... A new EU directive on pesticide residues is on its way. We take a look at how this may affect the application of pesticides in potato stores. You can expect to hear a lot about Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) in the coming months. But, just...

Insuring against potato storage diseases.
October 18, 2004... Good management alone may not be enough to protect in-store potatoes from key storage skin diseases. We seek advice on effective fungicide application Much of the #8 million - thought to be lost by the potato industry through poor skin...

POTATOES: Storing up problems?
October 18, 2004... This season's wet weather could result in problems in potato stores. Teresa Rush went along to Sutton Bridge Experimental Unit to find out why While the potato harvest has progressed well, August's prolonged rainfall resulted in some...

Preventing nitrate leaching.
October 18, 2004... Kemira GrowHow arable agronomist Allison Grundy highlights the results of new research into nitrate leaching. Results from our two-year study at the Royal Agricultural College show that straw incorporation reduces nitrate leaching. In year...

Complexities clarified for potato growers.
October 18, 2004... CAP reform is not straightforward at the best of times but if you grow potatoes, particularly on rented land, you are likely to be more confused than most. The British Potato Council has issued the following advice to potato growers to clarify...

Blackleg: Genome of potato pathogen Erminia analysed.
October 18, 2004... Scientists at the Scottish Crop Research Institute in Dundee and the Sanger Institute in Cambridge have sequenced and analysed the 5 million DNA sub-units that make up the genome of the potato pathogen Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica...

OSR disease: Conditions are ideal for phoma spread.
October 18, 2004... Look out for the DuPont/Arable Farming oilseed rape disease testing scheme envelope with this issue.The delayed harvest, mild and wet weather and early signs of phoma infection throughout the UK means identification of disease must be a key...

Talking Arable: Kit Papworth.
October 18, 2004... From our North Norfolk-based farmer Kit Papworth of L. F. Papworth Ltd, Lower Farm, Tuttington, Norwich. The less said about harvest the better. We broke some records, but none that I am proud to write about; notably, most diesel used, and...

Variety changes fail to reduce Septoria concerns.
October 18, 2004... A change in the choice of wheat varieties being planted this autumn has been revealed in the results of the Arable Farming/BASF survey. Most popular varieties planted in autumn 2003 were (in order of preference): Claire (a clear leader),...

HGCA conference: Marketing a poor harvest in a bearish market.
October 18, 2004... A bumper world wheat crop and poor UK quality means low prices. But how much money you make, or don't, from grain farming can depend on when you commit to a price, said HGCA senior economist Julian Bell. "If prices are high enough to plant,...

HGCA conference: Wheat power at the pump.
October 18, 2004... Farming has answers for some of the biggest environmental problems, but government might need a push to make it work, said Alastair Dickie, HGCA director crop marketing. He gave a stark view of environmental risks: "We have the potential...

HGCA conference: Be `less emotional' about selling grain.
October 18, 2004... Farmers are good at growing grain, but they need to get better at selling it. The important thing is to take the emotion out, US farmer Dale Crawford told the conference. "Farmers have become very proficient at raising a crop, but are not...

POTATOES: Four-row giants lead the way.
October 18, 2004... The start of the 2004 potato-lifting season has been hampered by the elements across much of north Western Europe. In Holland, large areas of the potato crop were pounded with a record 30cm of rainfall in August alone! Even so, despite the...

First potato harvester.
October 18, 2004... Ploeger's AR-4B is the company's very first potato harvester. Lifting four rows at a time, the company has sold three machines in Holland this season, two of which are fitted with the additional central axle. The third one is fitted with...

Talking Arable with our Shropshire-based farmer Arthur Hill.
October 18, 2004... September 30th Harvest is all but safely gathered in. That is except for the sugar beet which, factory permitting, will take a few more months. We have dug 24 acres for early delivery from a difficult field in order to get wheat in, but we...

Tillage event: New mower range from Suffolk.
October 18, 2004... A mower range has been launched by Suffolk-based Appin-Woods machinery and is available in 15 and 20-feet widths. The 15-feet Batwing BW180 is the standard machine and features an 11- inch deep side frame for maximum material flow when...

Tillage event: Compact and heavy.
October 18, 2004... Reco's Agrisem Cultifield got its first public workout at the event incorporating a modular design of a discing unit and sub-soiler. Described as a compact and heavy implement, two rows of independently- suspended discs are positioned at...

Tillage event: Two in one pass.
October 18, 2004... Primary and secondary cultivations can be achieved in one pass, says Imants UK which has introduced the Revolution cultivator to the UK market. Looking like a cross between a power harrow and a rotary cultivator, Revolution provides deep...

Tillage event: Opico's new drill range.
October 18, 2004... The recently-launched He-Va drill range from Opico was on working display at Tillage. The Vector-mounted drill featuring a Rauch seed metering unit can be used either directly on the plough or on cultivated stubble. A levelling board at...

Tillage event: Star discs for cultivator.
October 18, 2004... The Top Down cultivator from Vaderstad now uses star discs at the rear, which are said to not hold the soil as much and leave a more level surface. An extra row of tines has also been added. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Combines steered from the sky.
October 18, 2004... John Deere's latest combines can alter their forward speeds according to crop conditions and yields. Mervyn Bailey reports. The latest combines from John Deere can be steered from the sky and alter their forward speeds according to crop...

Beet harvesting - a 12-row future?
October 18, 2004... Contractors currently working with six-row self-propelled sugar beet harvesters are probably already aware that when the time comes to replace these, it is possible to move up the scale as Vervaet, Agrifac, and Ropa all offer 9-row versions....

Potato separator upgrades.
October 18, 2004... Among several upgrades, a canbus control system is now fitted as standard and offers the user a higher control specification on all Underhaug stone and clod separators for 2005. The operator's control unit has a standard joystick and switch...

GPS steering system increases output.
October 18, 2004... Not so long ago, automatic steering systems for combines might have been considered a luxury but, as one Suffolk farming operation has discovered, nothing could be further from the truth. Graeme Kirk reports Dennington Hall Farms, near...

What is GPS?
October 18, 2004... The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a constellation of 27 earth- orbiting satellites (24 in operation and three extras in case one fails). The US military developed and implemented the satellite network as a military navigation system,...

Colin Myram's Crop Talk: Slug damage and environmental care costs.
October 18, 2004... East Anglian-based Colin Myram is a consultant to the agricultural industry, including farmers and suppliers. Following this year's potato harvest, some samples, especially from the silts and heavier soils, have been spoiled by slug damage....