Up until now you could still have confused the weather for early spring, however, today has provided us with a swift reminder that we are still in the grasp of winter. A high of 4 degrees accompanied with lashings of rain has been the safety car holding back those eager fertiliser spreaders nipping at the heels of the field’s gateposts. Even with the favourable conditions of January the hurricane storms always seem to arrive late on a Friday night ready for rugby on Saturday. This weekend was no different in our fixture against Loughborough and with fitness levels of the students far surpassing those of my university fitness requirements at Harper Adams we had to resort to a more ‘stick it up your jumper’ approach to come away with the win.
My last article came just as I was preparing for my 3-day online Association of Independent Crop Consultants conference. These I find are always hard to organise and deliver content that keeps everyone awake! however, I must applaud those behind the scenes of the AICC on delivering an extremely enjoyable and informative 3 days.
On the topic of fertiliser, I have given the green light for those who want to get some early life into those backwards oilseed rape crops that have been bombarded by the armies of pigeons currently filling the sky. Even though this crop is proving to be the favourite on the wood pigeon buffet the majority can still cope with being left alone for another couple of weeks.
The 2022 spring drilling campaign has made an early break out the stalls with the first crops going in on the most favourable land. Heavier soils I’m glad to see are still accommodating cover crops which is music to my ears as these soils take longer to warm up and often provide poor results if sown early and rain follows. I still like to adhere to the scientifically proven timing a college once told me for when spring drilling should commence, if you can bare your bottom on the soil without jumping up from the cold then its time to fill up the hoppers.
On the cereal front not much has changed since I last wrote, the favourable conditions have allowed some sprayers to awake from winter hibernation and have a test run before the season kicks off by applying manganese to those historically deficient areas. While autumn pre-emergence herbicides have worked well, and spring contact treatments are now being planned. Crop walking at this time of the year really does give you a feel for crop potential and at the moment, the omens look good. The high price of nitrogen remains a toothache as we discuss how much to use and of course this revolves around how much it cost? For many there will be a slight adjustment down, but this is not an exact science and every year is different. Strong commodity prices have prompted many conversations on farm about increasing agrochemical spend on fungicides and magic potions. My advice however is to proceed with caution, there is a fine line between ‘increasing yield’ and ‘buying yield’ which is something that should be addressed as the season progresses.
Another hot topic on farm is chemical supply which seems to be throwing a spanner in the works before the season has even started. I have managed to get tebuconazole, azoxystrobin and a little frontline chemistry on farm where the product is required however feedback from manufacturers has steered me to resist from filling spray sheds to capacity just yet! Toilet rolls come to mind.
