Crops articles from October 2008

Crops archives from October 2008

Harvest legacy merits careful study; after the toughest harvest many growers can recall, Andrew Blake assesses its likely aftermath and relays some advice from the experts.(TECHNICAL)
October 11, 2008... There's little doubt that the sopping summer hit many farms hard, affecting harvest results, land and future cropping. It has also left many combinable crop producers pondering their ability to cope with another similarly wet one. So how...

Re-examine machinery needs.(TECHNICAL)
October 11, 2008... All machinery policies deserve regular reviewing, and it's likely that many more are under scrutiny. "It's hot topic of conversation," says Mr Wynn. "But be careful, as it's easy to make knee-jerk reactions. Consider 2008 in the context of...

Soils will take time to repair.(2008 LEGACY)
October 11, 2008... Given that harvesting left many soils compacted, waterlogged and rutted, and that correcting damage at depth will be impossible this autumn, next season's yields are bound to suffer, predicts Mr Stephenson. "Patience and learning when not...

Staff are key in tricky times.(FARMER REACTION)
October 11, 2008... * In difficult seasons staff flexibility is highly valuable, says former Farmers Weekly Barometer farmer Ben Atkinson. "I've always said a good team is essential to success and ours has been first class. There has not been one grumble, be...

Disruption forces a big rethink on many farms.(2008 LEGACY)
October 11, 2008... Delays to autumn sowing programmes are inevitable, and doubt remains over the area of winter oilseed rape likely to be successfully established. Up to a third of what was planned in some areas may not succeed, raising the question of what...

Personal approach, sound advice: technical ability, business acumen, even relationship councillor skills: Our three Farmers Weekly arable advisers of the year have it all. Mike Abram reports.
October 11, 2008... ANDREW COTTON OXFORDSHIRE * "Life and death," Andrew Cotton tells me in answer to my final question: "What is your finest achievement on farm?" The answer is a reference to the time he spent with one of his farming clients...

Best year yet, despite sugar beet loss.
October 11, 2008... * Business for Rob Hughes, a Shropshire Agrovista agronomist, went from strength to strength this year, despite the loss of one of his favourite crops from the region. "It has been my most successful year in the business," he says. That...

Passion for crops pays off.
October 11, 2008... * Energy and enthusiasm pour out of every pore of Bryce Rham. And how he must need both, walking nearly 19,000 acres of cropped land for his clients. An AICC-member in Shropshire, he has reacted to the loss of sugar beet from the region by...

Post-emergence herbicide delays are not justified; Does highly dormant blackgrass seed mean it is best to wait until spring to control the weed? Not according to the experts. Mike Abram reports.(BLACKGRASS CONTROL)
October 11, 2008... On the face of it, the finding from HGCA-funded research that blackgrass seeds are, for the second season running, highly dormant means a more protracted germination period. For a mainly contact-only material, such as Atlantis...

Potato nozzle scores at faster speed.(BLACKGRASS CONTROL)
October 11, 2008... Agrovista trials to find the best combination of nozzle and workrate for blackgrass control with Atlantis applications suggest the angled VP04 "Gold Potato" nozzle from Syngenta is best for spraying at faster speeds. In the trials,...

Keep control of pests the natural way A naturally occurring fungus could soon be available to rid grain stores of insect pests. Sarah Henly reports.(RESEARCH IN FOCUS)
October 11, 2008... Every season, about 17t of chemical insecticide active ingredients, mostly organophosphorous-based, is used in grain stores nationally to control pests. But concerns about safety, resistance and the environmental impact of some products have...

Case upgrade improves straw quality: at the top of the performance league, combines with rotary separation or rotary threshing and separation rule the roost. As the dust settles-or should that be moisture lifts-on a challenging harvest, Peter Hill has the inside story on the new and improved models prepared for the 2009 campaign.(MACHINERY: COMBINES)
October 11, 2008... Straw quality from the latest range of Case IH Axial-Flow combines is reckoned to be as good as from straw-walker designs. Reports from the handful of operators who experienced the "small tube" rotor in the 9010 model this year suggest that is...

Class tries for record books.(MACHINERY: COMBINES)
October 11, 2008... CLASS LEXION 600 Model List price Main Grain Engine table tank max (litres) power Lexion [pounds sterling]229,140...

New Holland cuts bottlenecks to increase capacity.(MACHINERY: COMBINES)
October 11, 2008... Progressively increasing the capacity of a combine harvester is largely about removing bottlenecks. A power boost helps things along in the threshing department, but then cleaning capacity becomes the limiting factor. Move than up a notch...

Further tweaks add more power to John Deeres.(MACHINERY: COMBINES)
October 11, 2008... John Deere's single-rotor S690i combine gets further internal tweaks to add to the power hike introduced with 2008 harvest models. Less aggressive threshing elements make it a little gentler on gram and straw and a modified concave now has...

Higher accuracy can keep brake on costs: there is nothing like the shock of a big rise in the cost of inputs to focus the mind on improving application accuracy. Peter Hill reports on spreading technology that can help.(MACHINERY: FERTILISER SPREADING)
October 11, 2008... It was once one of the most neglected pieces of machinery on the farm. Now growers recognise that it pays to look after their fertiliser spreaders through regular maintenance, to regularly performance test them and to invest in technology that...

Wheat street takes a battering What is hyped up must surely be hyped down, says Stephen Carr.(CARR'S CORNER)
October 11, 2008... As Wheat Street continues to reel from the shock of the Cereal Crunch, the media struggles to invent headlines to describe the seriousness of the situation. Ex-farm feed wheat prices have plunged to 40p/t. A disastrous wet harvest has seen...

Take care with slug pellets: watercourses must be kept free from metaldehyde.(Podium Paul Fogg)
October 11, 2008... "Wet soils and less-than-ideal seed-beds mean farmers face a significant slug problem this autumn. But, despite the pressing need to protect crops, serious thought must be given to keep slug pellets where they belong--in the field. Traces...

Grain event offers chance to reflect.(BRIEFING)
October 11, 2008... * The UK Grain event, being held on 5 November at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire, will gave cereal growers a chance to look strategically at their storage, handling, drying and marketing needs for 2009. Aimed at those looking to...

FWi hit parade.(BRIEFING)
October 11, 2008... * FWi users have submitted more than 1700 pictures to our 2008 Harvest Highlights Gallery, providing a unique record of one of the roughest campaigns ever. Our pick of the best proved the most popular unable story on fwi in the week to...

Time for a neighbourly chat.(VIEWPOINT)
October 11, 2008... For many combinable crop growers, especially those in t he north, harvest 2008 will be one they many combinable crop growers, especially those in the north, harvest 2008 will be one they will hope to forget. But lessons can always be learned,...

Dry September saves 2008 harvest.(DIARY)
October 11, 2008... MONDAY * The nightmare that was harvest 2008 now seems like just that-a bad dream. Can there ever have been such a wet August followed by such a dry September? For a while my harvest hung by a thread. Hundreds of tonnes of weather-beaten...

Why pesticide plan needs a full impact assessment; Famers weekly's save our sprays campaign is calling for an EU-wide impact assessment for the proposed pesticides approval legislation. Mike Abram explains why.(PERSPECTIV)
October 11, 2008... Updated EU pesticides approval legislation is due to go before the European Parliament in the next few months for its second reading before it passes into law. At the heart of the proposals is a change from the existing risk-based...

Openfield business aims for long-term opportunities; End users are becoming increasingly demanding when it comes to buying UK grain, both in terms of quality and traceablity. The creation of the largest farmer-owned UK arable business aims to meet those needs-and capture extra value for farmers.(YOUR BUSINESS)
October 11, 2008... Scale, flexibility and a high level of service are all vital ingredients that any grain supply company must offer if it is to compete seriously in today's markets. Without these ingredients the chance to become a preferred, long-term...

Averaging can pay dividends on tax: cash-flow can be eased by using the right calculations, reports Suzie Horne.(TAXATION)
October 11, 2008... Farmers' averaging is being used more widely this year in the run-up to the 31 January tax bill deadline because growers' incomes fluctuated so widely between the harvests of 2006 and 2007. Averaging allows these fluctuations in income to...

Pocketbook offers tips on cash-flow and farm budget.(FINANCIAL ADVICE)
October 11, 2008... The importance of a good, sound cash-flow and budget is highlighted by figures in the latest edition of the John Nix Farm Management Pocket-book, which puts the average cost of producing wheat at [pounds sterling] 136/t for harvest 2009. ...