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PROFILE Lord and Hunt been hard to go from ploughing
straight to direct drilling,” says David. “We were almost there with min till, we had a history of using muck, and we weren’t selling straw off the fi eld, so we were starting off from a reason- ably good place.
“Cover crops – we use radish,
vetch, phacelia and mustard – make a big difference: they more than replace the cultivator, im- proving soil structure and worm counts. And they are central to reducing risk when transition- ing from one system to another. We’ve taken £15 to £20 a tonne off our production costs. “We keep the residues on the surface to retain moisture. Last year was very dry: we drilled in mid-March and there was no rain until May, and the crops did pret- ty well. This year it was very wet, but we could get on the land with- out moving it, and it worked ok – though we’re desperate for rain now.
“But there are still challeng- es: we’re still learning how to
deal with blackgrass, still learn- ing when best to desiccate cov- er crops.”
The biggest impact on crop performance has come from ap- plying liquid nitrogen and phos- phate with the seed at drilling: “It’s the most positive thing we’ve done, it makes a massive differ- ence. Previously we were apply- ing nutrients on the surface, and they took a while to get into the soil.
“
Everyone is quite candid about what works and what doesn’t.
“Applying them with the seed
is like rocket fuel: we’re seeing a lot more vigour in the early stag- es of growth before tillering. We saw the difference in performance between the crop and an unin- tended ‘trial strip’, with the crop showing a 20 per cent yield boost.” With the coulters on the farm’s cross-slot drill already designed
to have tubes for liquid fertiliser application attached to them, Da- vid sourced a second-hand fertil- iser tank and plumbed the sys- tem in for £3500.
While many farmers have reduced their area of oilseed rape grown, David is upping his, from 60ha this year to 80ha next: “We’re lucky here. I don’t know if it’s a coastal effect, but we don’t get the pressure of fl ea beetle. “We still get it, but for sever- al years we’ve been growing ber- seem clover as a companion crop, and that seems to help – as we discovered one year when we ran out of clover seed on a 30m strip and it got hit. “We direct drill the oilseed rape along with liquid fertiliser, and then when we roll we broad- cast the clover seed, in one opera- tion. It fi lls the gaps between the rows, keeps the pigeons off, helps with rooting and drainage … it ticks a lot of boxes, and we don’t need to use a pre-emergent her- bicide. We just use Astrokerb in January.”
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NitraSol, the liquid fertiliser brand of 42 ANGLIA FARMER • JULY 2018 ® Brineflow Properties & Handling Ltd, South Denes Road, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR30 3QD
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