Crops articles from August 2006

Crops archives from August 2006

Establishment is key for top yields: sowing oilseed rape merits more attention on many farms, Andrew Blake discovers.(TECHNICAL)
August 12, 2006... Do you really appreciate just how much soil clay content and crumb size affect oilseed rape emergence and survival? Most growers know that the best way to ensure winter oilseed rape gets away well is to sow the seed into a firm, fine,...

OSR weed control: your options: check what the latest addition to the oilseed rape herbicide portfolio can offer, as well as the more established products.(OSR HERBICIDES)
August 12, 2006... Product Lerap Use it for But don't forget ALPHA TRIFLURALIN None Broad spectrum No activity on [Makhteshim-Agan] pre-emergence cleavers, charlock, trifluralin grass and ...

Steady pace best to push out pellets.(SLUGS)
August 12, 2006... Ever raced across the field on the quad bike spreading slug pellets? Well if the answer's yes and you've been clocking speeds of up to (or beyond) 12kph, then you're going too fast. That is the warning from Hutchinsons agronomist Dick...

Benefit by putting plans into the ELS: still unsure about including management plans in your Entry Level Scheme application or even applying for it at all? A recently introduced computer-based service could help you make up your mind, as Andrew Blake discovers.(STEWARDSHIP SOFTWARE)
August 12, 2006... Enthusiasm for the Entry Level Scheme, initially slow, seems to be picking up. "There's been a lot of activity in the past three to four months as farmers realise that it has to be part of farming profitably," says Bob Bulmer of...

Black gold for a green future: soils with high carbon contents could benefit farmers and the environment. Paul Spackman went to a Soil Management Initiative open day to find out more about this 'black gold'.(SOILS)
August 12, 2006... Agriculture could significantly help government reduce C[O.sub.2] emissions, but farmers need more incentive to change or adopt more "carbon-friendly" practices, according to the Soil Management Initiative's CEO, Vic Jordan. Speaking at a...

Reducing kit width cut costs by 15%: compact disc drills give medium sized farms the opportunity to take costs out of a crop establishment system by going min-till or removing operations from a plough-based system without spending the earth on new kit. Peter Hill reports.(DRILLING)
August 12, 2006... Switching to a seed drill half the width of the previous machine seems like a backward step when most growers are scaling up their crop establishment machinery. But when the switch involves moving from a plain drill to one that can finish off...

Understand the need for seed care: do you know your fusarium from your seedling blight? If you want to avoid serious seedling losses and poor crop establishment, it may be time to brush up your knowledge of seed-borne diseases and their control.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... "Seedling blight mainly results from seed contaminated by microdochium nivale, not a fusarium species," says ADAS plant pathologist Bill Clark. "Many of the 14 different fusarium species found in soil may also lead to seedling blight, but they...

Milling wheats vie for top spot: Group 2 varieties Solstice and Mascot are creeping in on true Group 1 territory. So which should be in the drill for growers this season? Mike Abram puts them head-to-head.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Milling wheat growers are crying out for a new, higher yielding, miller-accept-able Group 1 variety. Hereward and Malacca have been on the Recommended List for 15 and 7 years respectively, and while Xi19 has achieved Group 1 status it has not...

Key choices for the 2007 harvest: which varieties are hot this season? Mike Abram approaches two big farm businesses to find out.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... SENTRY FARMING GROUP Variety choice on Sentry Farm's 15,000ha of winter wheat is dominated by Group 3 soft wheat varieties. With the vast majority of the group's 45 farms within striking distance of ports in the south or east of England,...

Producing seed from grass creates money opportunity.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Growing agricultural and amenity grasses for seed production could offer some growers a viable way forward in an unsubsidised agricultural industry. That is the view of Herefordshire farmer Philip Gorringe, who is committed to growing seed...

Second wheat care is crucial to yields: UK growers could transform second wheats as they did with first crops over a decade ago, a leading breeder believes.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Nickerson's Bill Angus was heavily involved with earlier drilling which raised first wheat yields, and has bred several of the best second crop varieties in Deben, Einstein, Istabraq and lately Hyperion. Earlier drilling effectively...

Independent trials point to need for more precision with OSR: big differences in establishment between winter oilseed rape varieties drilled on the same day suggest there is still much to learn about how to get the crop away to best effect, Andrew Blake hears.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Independent trials by newly-formed members' organisation, Cambridge Arable Technologies, at its Great Wilbraham site near Cambridge have uncovered oilseed rape establishment differences by variety. The field-scale unreplicated plots...

Specific sowing slots are a good idea--in theory.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Oilseed rape growers should tailor varieties more to specific sowing slots, Masstock trials suggests. Other commentators agree with the general idea, but say conditions at sowing can all too easily mask subtle differences between varieties....

Getting it right for the export market: selecting the right varieties to grow for export markets has become an easier task since the launch of two new wheat export brands by the HGCA. Louise Impey finds out more.(SEEDS FOCUS)
August 12, 2006... Introduced in November 2004, ukp and uks should now be familiar brands to any wheat producer interested in export markets. Varieties in each of the brands are clearly marked on the HGCA Recommended List, with the intention of helping...

Farming has worrying times ahead: the collapse of the Doha round of WTO trade talks is bad news, warns Stephen Carr.(CARR'S CORNER)
August 12, 2006... "If combines had faces I wonder what expressions they would be wearing? This is our 60th consecutive harvest in peace time, but the signs of strain must surely be starting to show. Our subsidies have been decoupled from production, arable...

Is farming's green romance over? Farming can't afford an anti-green backlash, says Andrew Swallow.(Podium)
August 12, 2006... "New Zealand trades on its clean green image. But is that mantle becoming too much for the nation's farmers to bear? And is there a message for farmers closer to home? Judging by the comments of Federated Farmers' president Charlie...

Battling against fungicide resistance.(BRIEFING)
August 12, 2006... Are we winning the battle but losing the war on fungicide resistance? One way to find out is by attending the Association of Applied Biologists conference in Edinburgh on 7-8 September. Produced in association with Crops magazine, the...

Wasn't there something.(Cartoon)
August 12, 2006... Caption: "Wasn't there something in the diary for today?"

Stay up to date with Harvest Highlights.(BRIEFING)
August 12, 2006... August brought with it a change in the weather, but despite some heavy rain in some areas, harvest continues apace. So what better way to keep up with progress than on www.fwi.co.uk where its Harvest Highlights package provides daily...

Blair risks Bush fire.(VIEWPOINT)
August 12, 2006... Heatwaves in California. Record temperatures in New York. A sweltering July in Britain. Coincidence or not, climate change is high on the political agenda, no better evidenced than by Tony Blair's California visit last week during which he...

Out of 'buzzwords' comes a hard-hitting message: the NFU and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds recently held a joint farming conference in the heart of London. With the help of a map, a compass and a friendly policeman, farmers weekly Europe editor Philip Clarke found his way there to listen in.(PERSPECTIVE)
August 12, 2006... For lovers of buzzwords and players of "bullshit bingo", the recent NFU/RSPB conference on the future of agriculture at the Royal Geographical Society in London was the place to be. In the reflective ambience of the Ondaatje Theatre,...

Lateness of single farm payment is wearing thin.(JUSTIN MCDONALD'S DIARY)(Calendar)
August 12, 2006... MONDAY * Being no respecter of a harvest interval, the bank statement made its usual appearance at Monday morning breakfast. As usual it makes alarming reading but, since the beginning of July, things are not quite as bad as they seem. ...

An education from the environment: the man in charge of the largest Higher Level Stewardship scheme in the south of England has found its benefits something of a revelation. Suzie Horne reports.(YOUR BUSINESS)
August 12, 2006... The largest HLS scheme in the south of England sits five miles inside the M25 motorway and just eight miles from central London. Whelan Farms, near Chelsham, Surrey is run on a contract farming agreement by Sentry Farms. Manager Robert Kilby...

Striking the right balance: paring down costs in anticipation of the complete removal of support payments is leading a Yorkshire-based farming group to move its focus from high value crops to low-cost commodity production, as Wendy Short finds out.(COST REDUCTION)
August 12, 2006... JSR Group chairman Tim Rymer says his first business objective is to break even after rent, but before the single farm payment is taken into account. The East Yorkshire-based company has fallen slightly short of its target this year, but...

Five failings at cross-compliance: you've been ticking the cross-compliance boxes on your single payment forms for over a year now. But are you sure you are complying? Fisher German agriculture specialist Richard Sanders highlights five common failings.(CROSS-COMPLIANCE)
August 12, 2006... It's fair to say the Rural Payments Agency has been preoccupied with mapping and claim validation checks for the past few months. But get ready for this to change as the focus switches to cross-compliance. There are a number of common...