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 Farm News May 2013 |
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So far this year is turning out to be just as difficult for the Farm as last year was. We struggled to sow the crops last autumn due to the poor ground conditions as a result of the wet weather. The oilseed rape was planted in good time, but it was sown into cold wet soils and germination was slow and patchy. Where the crop did grow it has had to struggle to survive; the slug population exploded due to the wet conditions and numerous applications of slug pellets were required through the autumn and into the winter months as the crop struggled to grow away from the slimy pests. Pigeons have also been a major problem as they started feeding on the rape much earlier than usual (as they had little else to feed on due to the wet summer) and we have ended up spending the best part of six months trying to keep them off the crop. Some fields have fared better than others, but we have ended up with parts of fields where there is no rape at all and generally all the fields look very patchy in appearance as they have a wide variety of growth stages in them, from just starting to bud to being about a third the way through flowering. More recently pollen beetle and seed weevils have appeared in the crop, so far we have only applied insecticides where they have been absolutely necessary, but the crop will required constant monitoring to ensure we protect its yield potential. At the moment it’s looking as though the rape harvest will be much later than usual and some fields will probably have to be combined in stages as ripening will be very uneven.  There has recently been a lot of coverage in the press regarding the potential ban of neo-nicotinoid insecticides because of the risk they pose to bees. At Stern Farms we only spray insecticides when we have to and we always use threshold levels to determine if a crop can survive a particular insect attack without an insecticide application. In 2011 we only made two insecticide applications to control brucid beetle in the winter beans. In 2012 we didn’t spray any insecticides on to the crops at all. However we do use neo-nicotinoids (neo-nics) in seed treatment form. This means that the seed is coated with the insecticide (and usually a fungicide) and as the seedling grows the chemical is transferred to the plant. This is particularly useful as it provides a very target specific means of controlling a certain pest, (it will only kill the pest that actually eats the plant), rather than spraying the crop which will also kill non-target species. In reality if neo nics are banned it will mean that we may have to make several applications of insecticide to the oilseed rape in the autumn while it is very small to protect it from being eaten by flea beetle, whereas now we use the seed treatment to protect the crop and this way we don’t kill the beneficial insects. It’s still not clear whether or not bee numbers are declining as a direct result of neo-nics. Another theory is that they are starving as there are fewer flowering crops for them to forage on. One way in which we can help alleviate this problem is by providing areas of the farm that are rich in plants which provide nectar and pollen and these have been planted under the Entry Level Stewardship Scheme. We currently have about twenty-five acres of nectar and pollen strips planted in small areas around the farm to provide insect habitat and food. The Farm started planting winter wheat on the 22nd of September last year and finished on the 8th of January this year. It has been one of the longest most drawn out and difficult drilling seasons I have experienced. Opportunities to get on the land and plant were very few and at times we have sown into land in less than ideal conditions, hoping that a crop would establish. In November we realised that our original cropping plan was going to be impossible to achieve and so we revised it, concentrating on the lighter land and leaving the heavy land until the spring. On the whole we have managed to establish some reasonable wheat crops, but some areas are very poor as the seed sat in cold, wet soil and ended up rotting in the ground. As with the rape, slugs have also been a major problem and despite numerous applications of pellets they have had a detrimental impact on the crop. One field was so poor that it was written off and has now been replanted with spring barley. The wheat is still about four or five weeks behind where we would normally expect it to be at this time of year, but the recent sunny weather has made a big difference and the crop is finally producing some decent growth. The more forward fields have received an early fungicide (T zero) to protect them against septoria and are almost due for their second fungicide (T one) along with a growth regulator. The later wheat crops are still around a week to ten days off needing a fungicide and will not receive a T zero, we will go straight in at T one with a fungicide and growth regulator. Last year we grew winter linseed for the first time and it was less than successful and it went flat due to the continuous rain in June and July. This year we decided to give it another go, but we haven’t had any better luck with it. We planted one-hundred acres in mid-September last year. Initially the crop established well and looked positive through most of the winter, but the cold easterly winds in March and April caused severe wind burn in two fields and the crop failed. We have kept one fifty acre field which is more sheltered and has survived, but the other two fields have been re-drilled with spring linseed. Spring barley was planted just after Easter and has established well, despite the fact that it is being grown of some of the heavy land which was too wet in the autumn to plant winter wheat into. The remaining land has been planted with spring oats, but we didn’t quite finish drilling before the weather broke and there is a striking difference between the fields that were sown before the rain and those which were sown afterwards. The later drilled ones are struggling because some areas of the fields are heavy clay which has dried out leaving insufficient moisture to trigger germination. What we now need more than anything is a decent rain to soak the ground and give the crop a good drink. Weather wise, things started to go downhill around a year ago. March and April were dry, leading to a hose-pipe ban. At the end of May it rained and didn’t stop through June and July. August and September were mostly dry; the harvest was the worst in living memory due to the rain in July and the resulting poor quality crops. Land cultivated after harvest came up wet and then baked out into rock hard lumps, resulting in poor seedbeds, the soil never really warmed up and then at the end of September it started to rain again which continued through most of the winter. Everyone hoped and prayed for an early spring which eventually arrived at the end of April following weeks of cold north easterly winds. At some point the weather has got to improve and fall back into the seasonal patterns we all know and love. |
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Paul Sigley, Farm Manager |
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