Crops articles from March 2005

Crops archives from March 2005

Satisfactory Sante in Cambs.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... Satisfactory Sante in Cambs. Kevin Feltwell loads 25t from store at Allotment Farm, Little Downham, Ely, for delivery to Iceland supermarket as pre-packs via MBM. The variety, which represents about 20% of AL Legge and Sons' 300ha crop, yielded...

Benefits for all.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... ENTRY Level Stewardship has arrived. The much-heralded scheme seems to have been forever in the offing. Now the waiting is over. This is a landmark event. Never before has an environmental scheme offered so much national potential. ...

Poll tax.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... CONFIRMATION in the past fortnight that farmers who irrigate in the future, may be asked to compensate abstractors who have their licences altered or revoked on environmental grounds, looks set to escalate into a full-scale row between growers...

Barley boost.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... SYNGENTA SEEDS' Hybrid Barley System is dead--long live hybrid barley. Lumbering the high-yielding six-row feed variety with a compulsory package of crop protection products and technical advice was always controversial. Nobody expects to...

British Potato Council.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... So the British Potato Council is to remain, but only just. While the five-yearly review provided positive and constructive input into its future, the organisation must be worried that a poll suggests the majority of growers would prefer it to...

Federal Environment Bureau.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... German farmers are up in arms over the decision to launch a [pounds sterling]200,000 "'spraying observation programme" by the Federal Environment Bureau. Specially trained students, dubbed "field spies" by farmers, will monitor spraying...

Farmers who have carried out the LEAF Audit are ahead of the game when it comes to collecting points for the Entry Level Stewardship scheme.(VIEWPOINT)
March 12, 2005... Farmers who have carried out the LEAF Audit are ahead of the game when it comes to collecting points for the Entry Level Stewardship scheme. The manure, nutrient and crop protection management plans, which are integral to the LEAF assessment...

Credit where credit's due ... The Entry Level Stewardship Scheme offers growers a relatively easy opportunity to recover some modulated cash, as Marie Skinner explains.(FARMERFORUM)
March 12, 2005... IN THE new world of farming, part of running a business will mean collecting points, since points mean money. There will be money available through Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) but, if you want to qualify for the [pounds sterling]30/ha...

Manifesto in the making: the UK needs action to create a thriving renewable energy sector. Now it has a plan, as British Biogen's Robin Twizell explains.(FARMERFORUM)
March 12, 2005... SOMETHING must be done. Britain stands on the edge of the renewable energy revolution, but that position is no longer tenable in today's carbon-hungry society. For too long Government has dithered with its renewable energy policy, and if...

Arnaud Vecten: farming in France.(WORLDFARMING)
March 12, 2005... COME early spring, it seems you cannot really keep a farmer reined-in when the fields start to dry up and the sun comes out. Even in the first week of February here a flash of this spring-like weather breaking through the wintry clouds had a...

ELS gets go-ahead: entry level environmental stewardship was unveiled by DEFRA last week. Louise Impey finds out what's on offer.(STEWARDSHIP)
March 12, 2005... WITH free choice from a menu of over 50 different options growers should have little problem securing enough points to qualify for the Entry Level Stewardship payment of [pounds sterling]30/ha. In theory, growers could get all their points...

Ambitious target: power politics is the subject of a new green energy manifesto designed to influence Government policy ahead of the election.(BIOENERGY)
March 12, 2005... ONE quarter of Britain's total energy needs should come from renewable sources by 2025, according to a provocative manifesto launched by 11 trade associations representing over 600 renewable energy companies. In a call for political...

Get it right.(Advertisement)
March 12, 2005... This is the second in a series of timely technical guides from BASF to help you maximise the effect--and therefore the value--of inputs applied in cereal crops this season at T1, T2 and T3. Also, with the high risk of Phoma and strong-growing...

Reap savings with Robigus: how should the UK's most widely grown winter wheat variety be managed this season? Liz Robinson finds out.(WHEAT)
March 12, 2005... ROBIGUS' market share is around 17% this season, making it the most widely grown winter wheat in the UK. Many growers will have made the switch from Claire or Consort, and that change in variety demands a change in management. "Robigus...

Time to act on the Act: there's much to grapple with when it comes to the Water Act. Julian Gairdner reports from the UK Irrigation Association conference.(WATER)
March 12, 2005... THERE'S a new term in farming: consultation fatigue. While Government purports to want to cut bureaucracy, growers are being asked to spend more valuable desk time this spring responding to two more consultations. This time it's water. In...

Taking a long view of mapping.(FARMDIARY)
March 12, 2005... AS we will be carrying out our sixteenth year of yield mapping this year, I thought it would be worth reflecting on some of our experiences and giving some thought to its future direction. At the outset, I think it is true to say we had...

Spring of change awaits.(FARMDIARY)
March 12, 2005... DESPITE the favourable conditions throughout the past few months, there has not been much evidence of activity on the land. Having managed to drill some spring wheat at the end of January, we have not been able to return to drilling since. Last...

How much to prevent disease? Should you ditch your trusted old cereal fungicide for a promising newcomer that works well at low doses? Sarah Henly finds out how HGCA work should help growers decide.(RESEARCH)
March 12, 2005... THERE'S a new feature coming soon to a computer near you. Just click on the name of the fungicides you want to compare, the foliar disease you're targeting, and hey presto, you'll have a direct comparison of product performance. If you...

Fine tuning doses in wheat: here are the main messages to emerge from last season's dose response trials in wheat, and expert advice to help you determine the optimum fungicide doses and combinations this year.(RESEARCH)
March 12, 2005... Septoria tritici New active, prothioconazole, gave very high levels of control, equivalent to the best azole around (epoxiconazole has not had any real competition until now). In the HGCA trials, both epoxiconazole and prothioconazole...

The right dose for barley: here are the main messages to emerge from last season's dose response trials in barley, and expert advice to help you determine the optimum fungicide doses and combinations this year.(RESEARCH)
March 12, 2005... Rhynchosporium Proline achieved excellent control and set a new standard. The performance of Unix was variable, giving better control in SW England than in Scotland. High doses of Opus are required to give reasonable control, because some...

Toil or trouble? The number of growers planning a T0 application is expected to increase again this year. But when and where are they justifiable? Liz Robinson reports.(T0 SPECIAL)(Cover Story)
March 12, 2005... FUELLED by concerns over resistance and unreliable weather, T0 applications are likely to be on the rise this season. However, this insurance-based approach to the start of the fungicide programme still requires careful planning despite the...

Mildew: down but not out; One third of the UK winter wheat area is susceptible to mildew, but hopes of new chemistry to combat the disease have not materialised. Liz Robinson reports.(T0 SPECIAL)
March 12, 2005... LOSS of field performance to triazoles; resistance to strobilurins; semi-disruptive resistance to quinolines and reduced sensitivity to morpholines and thus cross resistance to spiroketalamines. The list appears to be never ending when it comes...

A class apart: Bayer's new triazole promises the broadest spectrum of activity ever seen from an azole. Liz Robinson questions five experts.(T0 SPECIAL)
March 12, 2005... PROTHIOCONAZOLE is in a class of its own--the triazolinthione class to be exact, which according to Bayer sets it apart from other azoles. It exhibits excellent long-term protectant activity on the leaf surface, reinvents itself inside the leaf...

Pre-em policies: the beet drilling season is under way. So what should be the pre-em herbicide policy this season? Julian Gairdner asks Broom's Barns' Mike May.(SUGAR BEET)
March 12, 2005... WITH increasing pressure on time and costs, and changing weather patterns, there's been a gradual comeback of the pre-emergence herbicide in sugar beet. That's according to Broom's Barn's Mike May. "People want some form of insurance...

Justin McDonald's diary.
March 12, 2005... Monday Maggie read me something from the paper today that says the Government has set itself a target of reducing "all food imports to 30% by 2010". Apparently, since New Labour came to power, the UK's food trade deficit has increased from...

Foreign sprayer temptations: new developments in the self-propelled sprayer sector are set to tempt producers and contractors looking to boost workrates. Peter Hill reports.(MACHINERY)
March 12, 2005... DESPITE the firmly established credentials and market share of UK self-propelled sprayer makers, foreign manufacturers are bent on seizing market share with concepts designed to appeal to UK farmers and contractors Jacto With its...

Prepared for battle ... Don't skimp on nozzle preparation or maintenance, says Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year 2004 award winner Michael Donnachie. Peter Hill reports.(MACHINERY)
March 12, 2005... AN 'MOT' test, plenty of essential spares and new sets of nozzles are all part of preparations for the 2005 spraying season at Ranston Farms near Blandford Forum, Dorset where Michael Donnachie handles spraying across 800ha of cereals, spring...

Will you be applying to the reserve? Applications to the national reserve could help growers improve the value or number of their entitlements. Suzie Horne finds out who is likely to be interested.(BUSINESS)
March 12, 2005... THIS spring is likely to be the only chance most growers will have to enhance the value of their entitlements to the single farm payment through an application to the national reserve when they complete their SP5 form in May. The reserve...

Rapid resistance.(LASTWORD)
March 12, 2005... THE development of septoria resistance to strobilurins was too rapid for effective resistance management, according to research results. The four-year DEFRA-funded LINK project found that resistance of septoria samples increased from 39%...

A case for Bravo.(LASTWORD)
March 12, 2005... RECENT ADAS research further supports the case for inclusion of chlorothalonil in the fungicide programme. Adding Bravo to Opus significantly improved green leaf area retention and disease control in a trial of Consort conducted at ADAS...

New approvals.(LASTWORD)
March 12, 2005... BELCHIM'S broadleaved weed herbicide, Shark (carfentrazoneethyl) has been granted approval for pre-planting of all edible and non-edible crops. Shark is fully compatible with Roundup formulations and, according to the company's Simon Leak, will...

Free advice.(LASTWORD)
March 12, 2005... A NEW initiative, launched by ADAS, will help farmers look after their land by protecting the environment and preventing pollution. The Environment Sensitive Farming initiative aims to help all land managers improve waste, soil, nutrient,...

Letter to the editor.(LASTWORD)
March 12, 2005... Your article on sugar beet (Crops, 26 February) and the implications of the reforms which are due to take place, failed to mention the most important factor in growing beet well and efficiently; match your quota to the acres. On a 50t/ha...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 12, 2005... * The listing of incompatibility for trace elements under Mandops cereal growth regulator products in tank mixture in the Tank Mix Guide (Crops, 26 February) should have read: Trace elements: some inorganic forms, especially those of manganese...

Neville Trudgill.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... Neville Trudgill loads potash for Winner oilseed rape into the fertiliser spreader at Alistair Pinkerton's Blackbirds Farm, Aldenham, near Watford, Herts. Crops on the farm generally look well, Mr Pinkerton says, but some 20 acres of...

Pesticides warning.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... SO THE Government believes the Voluntary Initiative, if "fully implemented", is the most effective way of reducing the environmental pollution associated with pesticides. That's the comment hidden in the full-length text of last week's...

Aspiration and action.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... NEED a job on the Humber? You could have Tesco and Greenergy to thank if you do. A new biodiesel plant which has been trailed for many months (Crops, 13 November 2004) finally has the financial go ahead. The partnership between the two...

Free-for-all.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... WE LIVE in a free world. So free, that under the Freedom of Information Act, public scrutiny of CAP money paid to farmers will be unavoidable. It is right that the taxpayer should be able to satisfy itself it is receiving value for money,...

British shoppers may continue to spot food marked with the Little Red Tractor logo.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... British shoppers may continue to spot food marked with the Little Red Tractor logo. But many probably remain confused about its meaning. In Ireland, however, a different approach has been taken. Go shopping in a supermarket in the Republic and...

French farmers are adopting a low-capital South American grain storage system that requires no buildings.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... French farmers are adopting a low-capital South American grain storage system that requires no buildings. The system uses 60m-long and 2.5m diameter plastic tubes that are filled via auger and funnel and sealed at each end. Each tube, which can...

Still oversees, retail and industrial parks are giving way to "Agroparks" in The Netherlands.(VIEWPOINT)
March 26, 2005... Still oversees, retail and industrial parks are giving way to "Agroparks" in The Netherlands. Groups of farmers are leasing or buying sites and establishing modern farm buildings that they can share. So far 14 "Agroparks" are planned. Among the...

Doing nothing does the most: inactive farmers with their tractors locked away in the shed will have the biggest impact on politicians not the parliament protesters, argues Stephen Carr.(FARMERFORUM)
March 26, 2005... I AM extremely fed up. For 27 years I have steadily invested more and more of various clearing banks' money in my farm, driven on by the carrot of CAP production subsidies. And now, at the ripe old age of 45, the carrot has been whisked away...

Giving consumers what they want: in the new market-oriented age of decoupled production, Tesco's Lucy Neville-Rolfe says consumer needs must be the centrepiece of any business strategy.(FARMERFORUM)
March 26, 2005... PRODUCERS and retailers alike face new challenges every day. But the past year of CAP reform and EU accession presents new uncertainties within and beyond Europe--ones we must react to. Regulation has been rising every year since the...

Harald Isermeyer: farming in Germany.(WORLDFARMING)
March 26, 2005... OUTSIDE, deepest winter covers the fields. Nothing is growing and not much is moving back home in the farm buildings either. We've still got over 2,000t of unsold wheat in store. Here in Lower Saxony the logistics of moving grain to the...

Assessing the risk: a new eyespot forecasting model makes risk assessment easier for growers--and it could save money too, as Liz Robinson reports.(EYESPOT)
March 26, 2005... UP TO 15kg yield can be lost for each percent of eyespot infection present in the field, and around half that loss can be recovered by fungicide treatment. Yet until now the identification and assessment of risk has been difficult. The...

Profitable barley: improved varietal resistance and new fungicide chemistry is pushing the balance back in favour of growing barley. Liz Robinson reports.(BARLEY)
March 26, 2005... GROWERS need to have reason to grow barley and for the first time in 15 years varietal resistance looks promising, according to SAC's Keith Dawson. "Especially spring feed barleys such as Rebecca, Power and Doyen, and new malting varieties,...

Squaring up to barley's three Rs: new research is addressing the main disease issues in barley--rhynchosporium, ramularia and resistance to fungicides, writes Sarah Henly.(BARLEY)
March 26, 2005... THE one with the best curves isn't always the best choice. We're talking fungicides, of course. Dose response curves are a useful measure of product performance, forming the backbone of fungicide advice. But they aren't based on real life...

Herbicide options: weed control may only be a small part of growing potatoes in terms of spend, but getting the job right is still paramount. Liz Robinson reports.(POTATOES)
March 26, 2005... ACCORDING to the SAC Farm Management Handbook, the average spend on sprays on main crop potatoes is [pounds sterling]308/ha of which the basic herbicide spend is about 13%. With no new products for this season, growers will have to extract...

Points mean prizes: you only need 30 points per hectare to qualify for ELS. But how easy are they to come by? Julian Gairdner finds out.(ENTRY LEVEL STEWARDSHIP)(Cover Story)
March 26, 2005... WITH DEFRA predicting 42,000 farmers might apply to the Entry Level Scheme in the first tranche of applications this spring, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's just a matter of ticking a few boxes, and hey presto, a cheque wings it's way...

Time to sign off.(FARMDIARY)
March 26, 2005... THEY say a week is a long time in politics. So after 10 years as a Crops contributor, it's fair to say much water has passed under the British farming bridge. As I reflect on the industry's achievements over the past decade--endless...

Swamped on all fronts ...(FARMDIARY)
March 26, 2005... AMI alone in feeling swamped? Snow, ice, wind and rain dominated late February and early March. This is the time of year when we are normally breaking dormancy and doing some useful work. Not so this year. Many fields have pools of surface...

Thinking ahead: treating for orange wheat blossom midge may seem a while away. But growers can prepare by assessing which crops are likely to be at risk. Liz Robinson finds out how.(PESTS)
March 26, 2005... HISTORIC outbreaks of orange wheat blossom midge have been identified when warm phases occur in May and June for four to five years in succession, with the last outbreak in 1994. Whether the UK is currently in a warm phase or experiencing...

Tuber skin disease choices.(AGRONOMYUPDATE)
March 26, 2005... WHAT'S your priority for controlling potato skin-finish diseases this season? According to Syngenta, soil-borne inoculum should be the focus if you are tackling rhizoctonia and black dot. But if rhizoctonia is the main concern, test seed and...

A boost for barley.(AGRONOMYUPDATE)
March 26, 2005... BASF has launched a new recommendation for barley this spring, which it believes will help boost profitability by maximising grain yield and straw quality. Mixing Tracker (boscalid + epoxiconazole) and Jenton (pyraclostrobin +...

Small is beautiful: min-till kit makers are responding to criticism by launching smaller machines that can work behind smaller tractors. Peter Hill reports and provides a catch-up on other cultivator innovations.(MACHINERY)
March 26, 2005... GROWERS wanting to join the min-till revolution, but who are put off by the scale of the equipment on offer, are now being catered for by more modestly proportioned machines. Latest implements following this trend are the M-type...

Wider choice of power harrows.(MACHINERY)
March 26, 2005... GROWERS using conventional cultivation techniques behind the plough are being catered for with a wider choice of power harrows, with the return of the Pegoraro range being imported for sale through Landini and McCormick dealers. A limited...

How much rent will you pay? A mood of optimism purveyed at a seminar organised by Barclays and accountant Deloitte at the beginning of the month. And it was a novel idea for setting rents that had growers talking. Julian Gairdner was there.(BUSINESS)
March 26, 2005... A NEW rental model could allow growers and their landlords to set effective rents independently of each other by using a third-party intermediary. The idea proposed by the HGCA's director of crop marketing, Alastair Dickie, comes from a...

Better times to come.(BUSINESS)
March 26, 2005... NINETY-FIVE percent of farmers will be better off in five years' time. That's the prediction of Deloitte partner, Richard Crane, who says that although not everyone will be producing food in the future, the changes to support under MTR...

Taxing times.(BUSINESS)
March 26, 2005... THE single farm payment will have implications for tax including treatment for income tax, says Deloitte's Richard Crane. "The Revenue has not yet issued firm guidance on this, but our discussions with them to date suggest what is likely to...

Cut-off reminder.(LASTWORD)
March 26, 2005... GROWERS wishing to treat winter oilseed rape with Galera for cleavers, mayweed and sow-thistle will need to move quickly as the crop nears the cut-off timing. When flower buds are raised above the leaf canopy it is too late, says Dow's...

Updated guide.(LASTWORD)
March 26, 2005... THE TIBRE arable handbook, first produced in 1997, has recently been updated to include information on new ideas, developments and improvements in arable farming. The book was developed in close consultation with arable farmers and advisers in...

On the pulse.(LASTWORD)
March 26, 2005... PEA and bean growers now have four additional fungicide products this season, all from BASF. Caramba, Sunorg Pro, Walabi and Signum will be available this spring. Caramba and Sunorg Pro, both containing metconazole, have approval for use...

Test kit.(INBRIEF)
March 26, 2005... BASF is looking for 200 farmers/advisers to evaluate their simple in-field Septoria tritici leaf kits, which detect disease before symptoms are visible. For a kit containing 10 tests, send your details to agro.marcomms1@BASF-plc.co.uk by the...

New tank mix.(INBRIEF)
March 26, 2005... CHASING blackgrass and cleavers? Dow Agrosciences now has approval for a tank mix of Starane XL with Atlantis. But Dow is keen to stress that only one other product with an ALS inhibitor mode of action may be applied to a crop which has been...

New site for SOLA.(INBRIEF)
March 26, 2005... SPECIFIC Off-Label Approval (SOLA) notices are now available from the PSD website https://secure.pesticides.gov.uk/offlabels.

Adjuvant guide.(INBRIEF)
March 26, 2005... GET your copy of the new 36-page guide to essential use of adjuvants from Interagro. The booklet outlines all the benefits of using adjuvants, and provides information on where they fit into a profitable spray programme. For your copy ring...

High time to cut nitrogen rates.(LASTWORD)
March 26, 2005... WINTER 2004/05 has been drier than average according to the Met Office map of excess winter rainfall (see fig 1) which means that fields will have more soil nitrogen available, and a lower requirement for fertiliser N, according to ADAS's Peter...