DAIRY FARMERS TO BENEFIT FROM YIELD-PRO?

Great Plains' Yield-Pro planters could help make British dairy farmers' lives much simpler if the 10% yield improvement regularly achieved in the USA is repeated here.

So says Matthew Tapp, an agronomist from ProMaize, which is one of the partners with which the company is staging a range of field-scale trials across the South West of England:

“Many farmers are growing maize on expensive rented land some way from their farms, which is complicated and time consuming. If they could get higher yields per acre, in addition to the obvious financial benefits, they might be able to avoid growing so much on “off blocks”, which would also greatly reduce the time and cost of harvesting”.

The trial plots are comparing seed rates of between 36,000 and 52,000 seeds/acre, and also examining the value of splitting fertiliser applications, including injecting liquid nitrogen fertiliser at various different rates using a side dresser when the crop is at six/eight leaf stage:

“We are keen to see how agronomically different the Twin Row concept is. The Twin-Row plant stems look thicker than those sown in rows, and that normally translates into bigger cobs.

“Conventional practice is to put all the fertiliser in the seedbed at the time of planting, but the crop's nitrogen requirement is greatest after it has reached the six/eight leaf stage, so we're keen to see what advantage we might get from splitting the fertiliser and injecting part of it once the crop has reached that growth stage.

“We are trialling this different fertilizer regime against conventionally drilled plots planted alongside the Twin-Row plots”.

James Kissock, Great Plains Territory Manager, says the full set of trials, being competed on three sites spread across South West England, will provide a lot of information on both the planter and the technique it uses:

“We will be very interested to see how all these plots yield. Producing an extra 10% maize yield off any given acreage could take a lot of pressure off many dairy farms, enabling them to optimise their production of home-grown forage”.

FRENCH DEALER NETWORK GROWS

Great Plains has added another dealer to its network in France, with Taveau being appointed in the Oise department.

Taveau is a family owned and run company which based at Saint-Andre-Farivilliers, and has sold Great Plains drills in the past.

Thomas Fraeyman, Territory Manager, says they already have renewed interest in drills, including the Centurion, and expects them to sell Simba cultivators as well:

“They are keen to get involved with Great Plains again because they recognise the company has a very complete product offer, which means they will have something to offer all their customers.

“I expect them to have interest in the 3m X-Press and ST Bar, the DTX and in our tined cultivators. Their salesmen are already working on enquiries about Great Plains drills and have interest in the Centurion as well”.

OVERDUE OILSEED HARVEST POSING PROBLEMS

This year's late oilseeds harvest is focussing farmers' minds on the need to work quickly and efficiently thereafter, report Territory Managers who have been attending open days at the oilseed rape establishment trials we have been running with Agrovista.

These worries are making a very good case for the one-pass oilseed establishment systems championed by the company.

James Kissock, who attended events at Harper Adams, Shropshire, and Cirencester, Gloucestershire, says:

“Many visitors were talking about how they might work faster to compensate for making a much later start to work.

“Many report that their crops suffered badly through being established late or into less than ideal seed-beds last autumn, and are keen to avoid the danger of that happening again.

“In that scenario mounting a seeder on our cultivators could provide them with a one-pass establishment system that could help get the crop in quicker, and so avoid any backlog or problems later in the autumn”.

Stephen Cook, who attended events at Croft, County Durham, and Stoughton, Leicestershire, says farmers are interested in the companion crop technique demonstrated at Stoughton.

This involves sowing a companion crop between the rows of oilseed rape, which covers the soil and prevents weed competition developing in the autumn, before the cover crop is frosted out over the winter:

“Many farmers accept this year's crops are not likely to yield as well as they had expected. But they are keen to get on and get their arable programmes back on track this autumn”.