North Devon Wheat Demo

For the first time in many years, we have a 14 varieties in the ground as of today at Holsworthy!

I think it is important in this day and age that we trial varieties outside of mainstream areas, really push and pull them from a disease pressure point of view, challenge them in heavy wet ground in a high rainfall environment. North Devon is not renowned as being part of the great grain belt of the UK, however it is an important livestock area and these animals need feeding. There is a lot of wheat grown in this area and there are many traditional methods being employed to grow it, along with very robust spraying programs that are becoming ever more costly. So the challenge is to try doing it slightly differently, utilise more organic forms of nutrition, utilise biogass as much as possible for Nitrogen requirements and see what varieties fare the best in this environment under a treated and untreated regime.

Thanks to David Prouse of Roy Prouse Contractors for allowing me to use one of his fields to do this demo and thanks to Steve Cleave who did the driving and drilling. Hopefully all will be revealed in not too distant future and we will have an open day to show farmers what we have achieved.

Beethoven maize at Bude - video guide

Here's some footage of a standing crop of Beethoven forage maize near Bude, been the pick of all the crops in the area again this year as previous posts show. I shot this short clip today so you can gain some perspective of just how big this crop is, given I am 6ft6" tall!



This the first attempt to forage the crop, the crop isn't quite ready yet, we estimated it was at 30%DM, but the Smartlab kit on the forager reckoned it was only just over 26%, so we wait a week or so to let it increase to 30% DM. Machine said the crop was yielding 26ton/ac and this is the shortest part of the field!

Maize- It's nearly ready, but for what...?

Six different varieties planted in trials at Petrockstowe, the latest maturing variety Nescio being about 2 weeks away from harvest, the earliest about a week away.

Down at Bude, the earliest planted material is almost ready, with Sapphire being cut yesterday 20th September near Poughill. Not sure what the drymatter level is but they always are first to cut in the area. The Beethoven at Cann Orchard on the south side will be fit to cut this week, the field on the north side next, is almost there, probably end of next week.

The Lorado is looking very good generally, eyespot is now entering a lot of crops in the area following the long wet spell, however with cob development so far on now I don't think this is going to cause any problems with cob maturity. I am confident we are going to see yields reaching 5 ton/ac on the best fields.

There is however a glut of unsold standing maize in the area, traditionally Bude has always been a very good area to grow maize, however buyers have been very scarce this year, even though the quantities of good 1st and 2nd cut silage are not there this year following the very dry summer, although most have bet the farm on 3rd cut giving enough quantity to see them through the winter. Cash flow seems to be the major issue affecting buying in maize silage this year, more so than in the past it seems, although with the latest small price rise offered by Tesco this last week, things my change.

Combining maize last year has now however effectively put a floor on the price of maize this year given the rise in wheat values this autumn. Effectively, maize is worth at least £400/ac regardless if it's for forage, or for grain/crimping and from a grower and buyer prospective it means a lot less storage space being required and less transport needed to move it from farm to farm. This from a buyers perspective could make cashflow decisions far easier to manage.

Now that there are two dedicated contractors, Phil Strout and Roy Prouse, fully kitted up to combine maize, growers aren't being forced into getting shot of standing crops cheaply, so it will be interesting to see how this developes further.

Lets hope the weather plays ball.......!

Harvest Update

The curse of that saint who got 40 days rain......well it's happened again...! Fortunately not to the same extent as last year, or as bad as 2008, but rain has definitely taken the shine off some farm harvests this year.

Winter Barley harvests have been respectable, with some outstanding specific weights achieved with Pearl, one grower getting figures of 3.25t/ac with a sw of 74!!

One common thread of information coming back with the rain interupting the barley harvest has been Suzuka brackling and dropping ears before the combine could get to it.

Wheat yields on the heavier soils have been reasonable, even on areas that were affected by the prolonged dry spell, with sw's in the high 70's. A number of farmers are claiming yields over 5t/ac on some varieties, one grower I know claiming Lear outyielded everything by 1t/ac and he's not one to make such claims lightly.

However, after last weeks heavy rains, there is a lot of sprouting wheat being now cut which is taking some of the shine off proceedings.

Here are a few photo's taken today of combining at Ashwater. Lets hope the weather holds out till it's all in!!

Probably the best way to mow.......

Nickerson Pro-circle being mown by the ultimate mower, 50 ac/hour, giving a very even and uniform product going in to the clamp, with a 50ft cut limiting compaction too. Very impressive piece of kit.

20 minutes to mow this field from start to finish....!!

Maize eyespot - it's about!

29/07/2010 near Bridgrule.

The recent cooler, wet weather has brought about the emergence of this distructive disease again, the difference being that most maize is now chest or shoulder height, some taller, making spraying difficult. Still, better to be preventative whilst you can, rather than sorry later, so if you see anyting looking like this in your maize, get it protected.

Well established in maize near Holsworthy. 23/07/2010

Early symptoms - 22/07/2010

In a field near Exeter Airport- 22/07/2010

Maize 2010 so far.

Cold, dry and a late start for many, although fortune so far has favoured the brave who planted early, got the crop started with the moisture that was already in the soil and then got rain just when needed to push the crops on. The predicted frost damage on early drilled fields has not yet materialised down here, even where drilled on the 16th of April when we had a week of hard frosts at the beginning of May.

16th April, Petrockstowe.

Beethoven with it's fantastic early vigour has lead the pack in the trials right from the start, although Lorado in the last ten days has really started a serious growth spurt and has caught it up in terms of stature.

24th May, Pertockstowe

3rd June, Bude.

A lot of crops with average vigour have needed a trace element/foliar spray to get them growing in the very dry conditions, especially those planted in May which weren't able to get a big enough root area before the sun and dry weather started to make life difficult for the small plants.

Contrary to MGA advice about cloddy seedbeds being OK, this has proved to be bad advice on heavier ground this year with very poor germination and plant counts where these types of seedbeds have been found. This may be OK on light loams and sands, but not on heavier clay loams in Devon and Cornwall. Compaction too has been a real issue on ground that was compacted in the wet last autumn with the tracks stil being visible this year, even after numerous passes with subsoilers and cultivators.

Compaction.....!

Going on growth stages, this year the crop on average is about 10 days ahead of where it was at the same time last year with a crop of Beethoven near Bude over 6ft tall at the end of June!

25th June, Petrockstowe.

Beethoven 30th June, Bude!