2 farmers’ autumn drilling plans after last year’s wet weather
© Tim Scrivener As the impact of last season’s challenging growing season remains firmly in farmers minds.
Farmers Weekly catches up with three farmers to find out about their plans for this season’s drilling campaign.
See also: What to consider if tempted to drill winter wheat early
Business as usual: Mike Porter, Suffolk
It is business as usual for Suffolk farmer Mike Porter who aims to get his 240ha area of winter wheat drilled by the usual date of 12 October.
“We are sticking to what we know best and that’s aiming to start drilling in the last weekend of September.
“We managed to get everything drilled-up last year before the rain so we’re sticking to our usual plans,” he says.
However, Mike notes that soils have seriously suffered as a result of the wet weather, with compacted, tight soils in need of a light cultivation before drilling.
He predicts this will have lasting impacts on next year’s harvest results if not managed correctly.
“We usually direct drill about 30% of our winter wheat, but this year the soils are not in good enough condition for this to be a viable option.”
Instead, land destined for winter wheat will receive a pass with a tine cultivator to lightly scratch the surface in order to create a fine seed-bed and get crops off to a good start.
“We will cultivate to about three to four inches with a tine spaced every 0.5m on the cultivator.
“This way we are not moving all the soil, but it should let the water drain through, so soils loosen,” he explains.
“We then use a set of discs, working at two to three inches, to create a fine tilth and level out any wheelings.
“We don’t tend to vastly change from one system to another each year. We just hope to get everything drilled-up as soon as we can,” he says.
Mike and son James farm 600ha of sandy clay loam soils near Halesworth, situated centrally between the two cities of Norwich and Ipswich.
The farm runs a Horsch Sprinter tine drill kitted out with double tanks to enable companion crop and cover crop sowing.
The pair ensure to mole drain a proportion of the 600ha farm each year.
This usually takes place after oilseed rape or peas as these crops tend to be the first harvested, allowing more time to carry out field work.
This year’s harvest was a pleasant surprise, with winter wheat yields averaging 9.98t/ha from the Dawsum and Cranium varieties, despite a testing growing season.
Earlier drilling: Joe Dugdale, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire farmer Joe Dugdale has successfully planted half of his 320ha of winter wheat, as he commences autumn drilling a week earlier than last year at Crathorne Farms.
Drilling conditions and sowing date were responsible for a 5t/ha yield difference this harvest, prompting Joe to try and get all wheat in the ground this season by 1 October.
“Early drilled crops performed well this harvest, hitting 11t/ha, but where we puddled it in late we saw a big yield difference.
“Our worst wheat yields were as low as 6t/ha. This all came down to drill date and the conditions at drilling,” he says.
Soils have been in much need of remedial work after last season’s winter, particularly as the farm’s high magnesium clay soils are prone to slumping.
This makes subsoiling a necessity.
“We’ve subsoiled about 70% of the winter wheat ground. Anything we cultivated last autumn when it was wet created a pan at about three to four inches deep, which needed rectifying.
“Thankfully, the weather conditions have been perfect for it.”
Soil conditions after oilseed rape have been friable, with just a pass of the subsoiler required.
Other land has required the Horsch Terrano, while some heavier land has been ploughed.
Grafton was the first of five varieties to be planted. Seed rates were kept relatively high because Joe notes the variety doesn’t tiller as well as others.
Gleam was next up, followed by Dawsum. Faster developing varieties less suited to earlier drilling – Oxford and Champion – will be the last sown.
Joe opts for seed rates of 330 seeds/sq m on heavier clay land, dropping down to 280 to 300 seeds/sq m on the kinder soils.
All 120ha of oilseed rape is already in the ground and a total of 320ha of winter wheat is to be sown.
This leaves a further 85ha of winter barley, 80ha of winter beans and 20ha of oats to go.
Prioritise depleted soil nutrient reserves when drilling winter cereals
Growers planting winter cereals early this year are advised to focus on crop nutrition, due to deficient soil reserves following a wet growing season.
Reserves of nitrogen, sulphur, magnesium, zinc and manganese have all been depleted.
Chris Bond, FMC crop nutrition product manager emphasises the importance of addressing deficiencies and recommends a nutritional top up.
“These nutrients play a vital role in ensuring optimum early establishment.
“This is particularly important if your crops are in the ground 4-5 weeks longer than usual,” he says.
“To maximise the benefits of early drilling, supplementing these nutrients lost through leaching will give the crop the best start.”
Chris notes that sandy, light or calcareous soils will be the most affected by leaching.
“Magnesium is required to keep the photosynthetic machinery of the crop working efficiently and ensures efficient export of sugars and amino acids from the leaf.
“Manganese is a vital component of proteins that receive energy harvested in the process of photosynthesis, while zinc supports the structure of the cell membrane,” he says.
When a crop has optimum availability to all these key nutrients, it is far better equipped to defend itself against weed burdens and disease pressure too.
Applications can be made at any time after the three-leaf stage when sufficient foliage has developed to absorb the nutrients.
“Focusing on soil health and crop nutrition will do a lot to set the crop up for a strong start,” he concludes.
