Written by Ben Jones, Allerton Farm Manager
Oil seed rape comes through winter unscathed
Until recently Oil Seed Rape (OSR) was not grown on the farm due to Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle (CSFB). I brought it back because we needed a crop we can harvest early in July to get on top of workloads. We were also missing diversity in the rotation with beans our only non-cereal crop and as a profitable break crop, OSR is extremely important in the absence of roots.
The best defence against CSFB is crop that emerges consistently and establishes quickly, with the correct balance of nutrition and the absence of plant stress. I have spent quite a lot of time considering how we can improve the consistency of our OSR crops and in the summer, I made modifications to our Sumo subsoiler adding a liquid application system and Horsch Avatar coulters to the rear. The aim was to achieve the following: improved seed depth consistency; removal of crop residue from the seeding zone; better consolidation before and after the seed is planted; removal of compaction from the seeding zone; good moisture retention and the ability to drill in a timely manner when the opportunity arises.
As a result of these measures, we saw very good establishment with an almost no CSFB and the five fields of OSR have managed to get through the winter almost untouched by pigeons, which are normally a real challenge. I’m please to say they have plenty of green leaf area and are already showing signs of moving forward again, which immanent fertilizer application will assist.
Chocolate spot spotted in the beans
It seems winter bean crops across the country are suffering very badly from the foliar disease chocolate spot. After such strong establishment in the autumn the plant counts were exactly as we would have hoped with very good consistency across the fields. Weed control had also been effective which gave us plenty of reason to be optimistic for a good harvest. As farming seems to go these days it wasn't a good idea to count chickens too early and the extent of the chocolate spot infection means that areas of the field have total crop loss. At the moment, these are only small areas, but the mild, wet conditions have been perfect for the disease to spread so we need things to dry up for new uninfected growth to begin. In the meantime, we will apply the fungicide azoxystrobin.
Race against time hedge cutting
Last week saw us scrambling to finish the last remaining bits of rotational hedge cutting before the 1 March deadline. As part of our capital grants scheme, we have two new areas of fencing planned so we needed to cut the hedge back in advance of the new fences.