September 2024
Harvest 24 has been surprisingly good. We were blessed with fairly good weather conditions for cutting most crops and yields have been respectable ( Mostly around our 5 yr rolling average yields) Most pleasing crop was the Oilseed Rape; The whole 134 Ha was really even from day one and ripened so evenly that none of it was desiccated. Average yield across the whole area should be comfortably above 4 t/ha ,all in all, probably the most successful crop of OSR I have ever grown ( Have been growing it for 42 years )
This years crop got away well but we are now losing areas to slugs and flea beetles so the OSR roller coaster continues………
Other take home messages from harvest are that drilling late in spring is not necessarily catastrophic as both our Spring Barley and Spring beans yielded respectably from mid April planting ( Approx. 7t/Ha and approx. . 5 T/Ha respectively ) We also found that our wheat variety blends have tended to yield better than straight varieties. ( Main blend for Harvest 24 was Graham/Gleam/Champion )
We continued with lots of tramline trials again this year. NUE trials in Wheat looked at R leaf, SR3 ,Blue N and QLF Boost.
R Leaf , SR3 and Blue N all seemed to give very slight yield increases compared with control strips when used individually but when I layered them all together there was no additive effect which was disappointing.
For the second year running QLF Boost gave a yield increase with the best result from a single application of 60 L/Ha around GS 31.
A growth regulator trial in OSR gave positive results for a second year with yield and Harvestability both improved by use of a specific growth regulator during flowering.
The clover understorey trial field was a success with the spring oats yielding just over 6t/ha with minimal inputs. Clover will be grazed with weaned lambs and then further knocked back by low rate glyphosate before being direct drilled with Wheat.
The area of cover crops has been reduced this year as we have dropped Spring Beans in favour of NUM 3 Legume fallows put in for two years. This should give us a comparable or better margin than Spring Beans and at the same time should give us improvements in soil health through the rotation ( Am concerned that mediocre overwinter cover crops are not in the ground long enough to give real benefits to soil health )
Our only cover crops are now in front of Spring Barley. The two blocks of cover crops we planted this year were planted a week apart on 5th and 12th of August and it has reminded me what a massive difference a few days in early August makes to establishment and growth ( See photo ) A good reminder to be always chasing the combine out of the field when planting cover crops!
The latest SFI roll out is soaking up a lot of management thinking time. The original SFI intermediate level scheme we entered in 2022 was very straightforward . We then started a 2023 scheme in early ‘24 and am trying to put together a 2024 scheme which may start in 2025 ! ( At the same time we are running a countryside stewardship mid tier scheme )
Maybe I am stupid but quite frankly I am getting more and more confused with all the schemes and rules and unfair discrimination caused by the RPA not being able to cope fairly with multiple features in fields encompassing countryside stewardship and SFI schemes. The flexibility of the scheme rules and the ability to start schemes at any time of the year is also causing me a lot of head scratching as to how to enter options in the application ( e.g. Depending on agreement start date do you enter overwinter cover crops that are in the ground or ones that you are going to plant in next 12 months etc )
I am starting to see SFI as a combination of “ The tail wagging the dog” and “ trying to chase the elusive pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow “
It’s a shame , particularly because the RPA have tried to make the environmental schemes more accessible for farmers.
Another problem with SFI is that the flexible and “ wishy washy” rules enable Farmers to play the system for financial gain against the spirit of the scheme. For example, where farmers are planting NUM3 in spring and taking it out in September to plant wheat, or where companion cropping consists of sprinkling a few winter beans in a winter wheat crop and removing them at the earliest opportunity in spring , clearly not what the RPA intended with the options.
Off the soapbox and back to practical farming ; We organised a demo plough this year and ploughed a field for probably the first time in about 20 years. It is a field with a little patch of stubborn blackgrass and it will be interesting to see if the plough “ Reset Button” will fix the problem .
I know the die hard Regen Aggers will throw their hands up in horror but I can seriously see a return to rotational ploughing as a useful tool to re-instate in our farming system. I cannot see that occasional ploughing in a farm system that is concentrating on soil health and building OM is much worse than using multiple Glyphosate applications and spending around £100/Ha on herbicides to just kill blackgrass.
For the last 4 or 5 years we have been running a trial trying to compare a lower N and lower fungicide approach against our farm standard, i.e. looking to see what would happen if we moved the slider even further down the scale from industrial agriculture to organic farming than we are currently. ( Trial is 15Ha in the middle of a 46Ha field and stays in the same place to analyse all crops in the rotation )
Results have been very interesting and it is apparent that crops can be grown with much lower fungicide inputs and remain clean if attention is paid to nutrition (+/- Biological amendments. ) and Nitrogen applications are not excessive. Every year the trial area has a lower spend on Nitrogen and fungicides and a higher spend on trace elements and biological treatments than the farm standard but yields are always lower. Unfortunately every year the farm standard has performed better financially because Nitrogen and Fungicides are very cost effective inputs.
Where does that leave us?
Philosophically I want to farm in a sustainable way and minimise the impact of my farming on the natural environment I am working in, but I am employed as a Farm Manager to try to maximise profit. ( if I was a farm owner I could take a view that a lower profit and minimal environmental damage was an acceptable business objective )
From my experience , It is hard to see how mainstream agriculture can move en masse to a regenerative system unless the dice is loaded more in favour of sustainable farming.
This needs to be multi pronged : We need carrots and sticks from Government ( For example, better SFI schemes as carrots, Nitrogen and Pesticide taxes to reflect the carbon footprint and negative environmental profiles of these inputs as sticks ) I realise that legislation to reduce inputs is a bit naive as we are not in control of third country legislation and would put ourselves on an unlevel playing field but it is nice to dream…….
We also need a concerted effort to educate consumers so that they may be willing to pay a premium for “ half way house “ produce which is not organic but better than Industrial ag products. It is great to see Schemes such as Wildfarmed and the Green Farm Collective starting to reward regen ag farmers so that we are better able to stomach the slightly lower yields.
