Opinion: Planning for the flea beetle attack

© Action Press/Rex Shutterstock

We managed to get all our winter barley combined during the last week of July – just before 2.5in of rain fell over a weekend.

The moisture was acceptable at 15-17% and it has since been blown with ambient air to bring it down to under 15%. The yield was above budget despite the dry spring.

David Richardson farms about 400ha of arable land near Norwich in Norfolk in partnership with his wife Lorna and his son Rob

Combining our Hear rape was delayed by the rain, but it was dry enough by the first few days of August and came into the barn at between 6% and 9% moisture.

It also yielded a little higher than expected so the extra weight will compensate a little for disappointing prices.

However, the most disconcerting thing about the rape harvest was the cabbage stem flea beetles you could see in the sample.

See also: Farming hasn’t followed other sectors out of recession

So, as we begin to think about drilling rape for next year over coming days, we are acutely aware of the high risks of doing so.

Norfolk has not been designated as a flea beetle hot spot (based on last year’s experience) so we do not qualify for any of the 5% neonicotiniod dressed seed authorised as an emergency measure – that will all be allocated to Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Indeed, the limited quantity allowed won’t even be enough for all the acres normally drilled in those counties.

“Joseph in the Bible had it right. He realised fat years were often followed by lean ones and advised Pharaoh accordingly” – David Richardson

So, what do the rest of us do? I hear on the grapevine that some growers in Essex have decided not to drill rape this year.

They believe it would be a disaster waiting to happen and don’t want to face the prospect of ripping up failed crops after the beetles have ruined them – and, of course, losing the cost of the seed.

Other growers hope to control the insects with synthetic pyrethroid sprays every few days until the rape plants are established.

But there is growing evidence that some beetles have developed resistance to the chemical so it may not be effective.

Furthermore, if it is bees we’re concerned about – and we should be – pyrethroids will probably kill everything they touch.

Still, others, and that probably includes us, will attempt to drill early into good, moist seed-beds in the hope the rape seeds will germinate and establish quickly enough to grow away from any beetle attack.

This approach also requires all fingers and toes to be crossed for a few weeks.

We will also be doing it in the knowledge that the beetles are on the farm ready to pounce.

I don’t think we have as many as I saw on a tweet the other day. Someone had filmed cabbage stem flea beetles in the bottom of a grain trailer and there were thousands of them.

The same day on social media there were pictures of almost biblical-sized swarms of locusts in the Ukraine and the damage they were doing to standing crops of maize and wheat.

Meanwhile, El Nino appears to be gathering strength and has already caused catastrophic flooding across wide areas of the US Midwest and droughts elsewhere.

Not for the first time I ask whether politicians realise the consequences of such phenomena?

Do they appreciate how vulnerable are their perceptions of permanent plenty or understand the problems of producing increasing quantities of food, just in time, against such odds?

Might they one day accept the need to create strategic reserves when supplies are adequate?

Joseph in the Bible had it right. He realised fat years were often followed by lean ones and advised Pharaoh accordingly. A lesson for modern pharaohs, perhaps.