Crops articles from December 2006

Crops archives from December 2006

No shortage of choice in cereal and oilseed lists: new announcements about the varieties of combinable crops that growers are recommended to grow next spring and autumn were made recently. Andrew Blake reports.(TECHNICAL)
December 16, 2006... Growers wondering which cereals and oilseed rape varieties to pick for 2007/08 are spoiled for choice. Twenty-two new ones have been added to the HGCA Recommended Lists, but only 12 have gone. The scale of the 2007 Pulse Recommended...

Useful duo heads w wheat list.(TECHNICAL)
December 16, 2006... Among the winter wheats, Oakley and Humber seem to make the headlines. "They are both useful additions and were the best bets for recommendation," says Mr Fenwick. Oakley is the top yielding variety as a first wheat, notes Mr Barker....

Retriever 'a cert' for recommendation.(WINTER BARLEYS)
December 16, 2006... Retriever was a sure bet for recommendation, according to Mr Fenwick. "It has a huge yield advantage over other varieties." And Mr Hirst describes the barley yellow mosaic resister as a "no-brainer." "It has certainly produced very high...

Novel winter OSRs are all regional hybrids.(TECHNICAL)
December 16, 2006... Excellent stem canker resistance is the reason for Excel joining the list specifically for the southern region, says Barry Barker. "It's a useful variety for farmers in tight rotations. But it is a tall hybrid and not the same proposition...

Pulses hold out promise of profit.(HGCA RECOMMENDED LISTS)
December 16, 2006... The overall market for white peas has been limited in recent years because of the yield of new blue types, notes Barry Barker. "But Mascara looks interesting though the standing ability is average. Ragtime has excellent standing ability...

Spring barleys could be malting prospects.(HGCA RECOMMENDED LISTS)
December 16, 2006... Both Publican and Quench look to have interesting malting prospects though it will take time for their quality to be confirmed by end users, according to Barry Barker. "Publican will have a job in removing Tipple, as that is rapidly...

Newly recommended varieties for 2007/08.(HGCA RECOMMENDED LISTS)
December 16, 2006... Variety Treated yield Breeder WINTER WHEAT Battalion 105 RAGT Seeds High-yielding group 2, provisional ukp* bread-maker, but likely to be suited only for export ukp blends. Yields 1% more than Einstein and has done...

Keep a watch on mycotoxin menace: mycotoxin contamination of wheat grain wasn't an issue last harvest, thanks to the weather. But what's to stop it happening this season, asks Sarah Henly.(FUSARIUM)
December 16, 2006... How fortunate that in the first year it really mattered, fusarium-produced mycotoxins were the lowest recorded in UK wheat. Based on latest estimates, few crops would have been rejected under the new contamination laws applying to DON...

Grain store project proves big on capacity and big on ideas: innovative ideas abound in the new grain store installed on a Hampshire arable unit where increased capacity, storage flexibility and simple drying management were among the key objectives. Peter Hill reports.(MACHINERY: STORAGE)
December 16, 2006... Frustrated by the cost and time involved in keeping an old batch dryer and handling system in good working order, Chris Allen decided its replacement would be as simple and long-lasting as possible while meeting a need for increased storage...

A greater degree of separation: new technology benefits potato harvesting and seed-bed preparation. Peter Hill reports.(MACHINERY: POTATO KIT)
December 16, 2006... With a bigger choice of separation setups to suit grower preferences for individual crops, soils and typical harvesting conditions, the Grimme SF 170 GT is replacing the SF 170-60 model in limited numbers for next harvest. "We've had one...

Future's forecast in the tea leaves: for an an up-to-date prediction of next year's events Stephen Carr turns to his Aunt Ivy.(CARR'S CORNER)
December 16, 2006... "As the festive season approaches it is nice to observe a slight improvement in farming fortunes over the past year. But what about next year? Can we expect the recovery to continue? For an answer I visited my 84-year-old Aunt Ivy. Her...

Farming's positive message: farming is becoming ever more important, says Peter Kendall.(Podium)
December 16, 2006... "For far too long, the importance of farming to Britain has at best been taken for granted and, at worst, been written off as irrelevant and out of date. We believe that is a dangerous notion that needs to be challenged, which is why the...

Rooting for GM.(BRIEFING)
December 16, 2006... So the GM freeze is off, the moratorium on developing GM technology for UK farms has ended, and genetically modified crops are to return to UK fields next spring as BASF starts evaluating its blight tolerant potatoes. That is welcome news....

FWi hit parade.(BRIEFING)
December 16, 2006... Crops' website, www.fwi.co.uk, average 180,000 visits a month. Listed below are the top five most popular arable stories from the past four weeks. Visit www.fwi.co.uk to catch up on these issues and a host of other valuable stories: 1...

Window on the web.(BRIEFING)
December 16, 2006... Topical websites chosen for you by the Crops team: * BCPC has launched a new site, www.newcrops.co.uk, offering advice on new crops and fresh uses for existing ones * Worried about waste? Keep track of the latest regulations at...

Time for new variety lists.(VIEWPOINT)
December 16, 2006... When is a recommended list not a recommended list? When it is an HGCA Recommended List, it seems. With an astonishing 31 winter wheats now included, growers are right to ask what recommendation really means. That is not to decry the...

Renting a farm is madness.(JUSTIN MCDONALD'S DIARY)
December 16, 2006... MONDAY Oh no! Here we go again! 120ha of bare arable land have just been advertised to let on a five-year FBT just down the road from me at Heaven Farm. As is common these days the landlord is retaining all the houses and buildings to...

Proactive stance will win on water: Soil Management Plans were just the start. SAC consultant Mike Inglis takes a look at how growers can prepare for the Water Framework Directive.(PERSPECTIVE)
December 16, 2006... Soil and water are the two fundamental building blocks of an arable farming system that we largely take for granted. And it is fair to say that in the past it has always been assumed farmers are pretty good at looking after them. So there...

Central storage could be the answer as rules tighten: many of the UK's farm grain stores are barriers to efficiency and risk falling foul of new food protocols. What, asks Suzie Horne, can growers do?(YOUR BUSINESS)
December 16, 2006... It won't be long before farmers will be expected to provide vendor-assured, fully tested grain ready for a customer to use immediately on delivery. But many of those farmers risk being let down by poor storage and handling systems, says Grant...

Scotland gets ready for new farm agenda: Scotland's arable farmers have a major event to look forward to in February. Here's a preview.(SCOTLAND CONFERENCE)
December 16, 2006... Just how will arable farming in Scotland develop over the coming years? What are the pressures? What are the opportunities? How can new technology and new techniques help growers prepare for the future. Arable Cropping in Scotland--Towards...

Hope well on the way to reality: biofuel hopes are fast turning to biofuel reality. Our exclusive Hutchinsons/Crops conference will help you get involved.(SCOTLAND CONFERENCE)
December 16, 2006... Biofuel production is long overdue in the UK, but is finally coming to fruition, giving growers the chance to get involved in an exciting new market, with huge demand for core commodity crops. But how do growers get involved and what must...

Internet is a good place for biofuel information.(BIOFUELS CONFERENCE)
December 16, 2006... There is currently a great deal of news about biofuels in the press, but how knowledgeable are you with these fuel types and how they are produced? Andrew McShane of Hutchinsons has been looking through the plethora of information sources and...

Biodiesel industry booms, but it's not without problems: concern over energy security in the Ukraine is driving the country's fledgling biofuels industry, Nuffield Scholar Martin Davies discovered on his trip to Kiev.(UKRAINE)
December 16, 2006... Biofuels will become big business in the Ukraine. Just look at what the country has going for it--large tracts of black Chernozem soil capable of growing wheat, oilseed rape, sunflowers, maize and soya, easy access to shipping routes from Black...

Meticulous management brings profit back to beet: sugar beet prices are set to crash over the next three years. Careful planning will be needed to keep the crop profitable, says Rob Hughes of consultancy firm Brown & Co.(BEET BENCHMARKING)
December 16, 2006... Once the linchpin of many an arable rotation, sugar beet is suddenly looking pretty ordinary. While profitability had been declining to some extent in recent seasons, beet still consistently outperformed other crops in the rotation. But...