How many farms are using voluntary / unpaid fallow in their rotation?

As per the title, I see very little land being put into fallow that is not part of an agri-environment scheme in our area. It seems unlikely that there is always a good financial reason for this because we know that some really poor crops around will get not for off generating a negative financial margin even before fixed costs. I can think of some diabolical winter bean crops that we planted one year in very poor conditions as an example.

I was just wondering why it is that we don't see more fallow around in times of lower profitability. Is it because of a feeling that is something close to shame arising from the idea that people realise that you cannot always make money from growing a crop in that field that year, or is it more to do with the inability to shrink fixed costs down proportionately in line with the reduced cropping acreage?

Are there any farms out there on a wheat-fallow type rotation, and if so, how do you think it is working for them / you? @Dockers

We have acquired a larger land area to farm from next autumn onward but have not yet increased our fixed costs at all. This does give an opportunity to consider fallow as an option because a) I have no pride issues with not cropping land if it makes financial sense, and b) because we would not need to reduce fixed costs.

I am not sure whether you would put fallow in the rotation instead of say beans, which we do not seem very good at growing, in a planned manner, or whether you would use fallow in a more variable and opportunistic way. That is, it seems to me the worst results we get are when crops are planted in poor conditions. Often this is not even the whole of one crop type, but rather it might occur when part of the area to be planted is quite a bit more marginal than the rest. This could occur if heavy rain occurs mid-way through planting, or if some fields are inherently less productive (i.e. fields near woods for OSR), or if cultivations have been delayed on some fields / not done.

In a good year with excellent drilling conditions then you might not have any fallow at all. In this instance you would have to judge whether the rest of your equipment could cope with 100% cropping. In a bad year when say conditions close in and you can't drill winter beans as intended, perhaps it would be sensible to think about fallow, rather than say deferring planting to spring beans (which I find to be a dirty and not very profitable crop).

Thoughts please.
 

WRXppp

Member
Location
North Yorks
As per the title, I see very little land being put into fallow that is not part of an agri-environment scheme in our area. It seems unlikely that there is always a good financial reason for this because we know that some really poor crops around will get not for off generating a negative financial margin even before fixed costs. I can think of some diabolical winter bean crops that we planted one year in very poor conditions as an example.

I was just wondering why it is that we don't see more fallow around in times of lower profitability. Is it because of a feeling that is something close to shame arising from the idea that people realise that you cannot always make money from growing a crop in that field that year, or is it more to do with the inability to shrink fixed costs down proportionately in line with the reduced cropping acreage?

Are there any farms out there on a wheat-fallow type rotation, and if so, how do you think it is working for them / you? @Dockers

We have acquired a larger land area to farm from next autumn onward but have not yet increased our fixed costs at all. This does give an opportunity to consider fallow as an option because a) I have no pride issues with not cropping land if it makes financial sense, and b) because we would not need to reduce fixed costs.

I am not sure whether you would put fallow in the rotation instead of say beans, which we do not seem very good at growing, in a planned manner, or whether you would use fallow in a more variable and opportunistic way. That is, it seems to me the worst results we get are when crops are planted in poor conditions. Often this is not even the whole of one crop type, but rather it might occur when part of the area to be planted is quite a bit more marginal than the rest. This could occur if heavy rain occurs mid-way through planting, or if some fields are inherently less productive (i.e. fields near woods for OSR), or if cultivations have been delayed on some fields / not done.

In a good year with excellent drilling conditions then you might not have any fallow at all. In this instance you would have to judge whether the rest of your equipment could cope with 100% cropping. In a bad year when say conditions close in and you can't drill winter beans as intended, perhaps it would be sensible to think about fallow, rather than say deferring planting to spring beans (which I find to be a dirty and not very profitable crop).

Thoughts please.
Well if you use fallow as your EFA and put the greening element of your BPS on that 5% area that must add up better than a moderate crop of beans, add to the fact if you put a decent legume mix or wild bird mix on it the previous autumn surely this is the type of box Gove wants ticking?
Personally I can see say 1000 acre plus farms being 5% stewardship, 5% the above and still producing the same size heap as they do now, i’m Sure the devil will be in the detail as always and to avoid the cap in payments the larger you are a larger % of area will need to be in environmental schemes on all but grade 1 land.
 
Well if you use fallow as your EFA and put the greening element of your BPS on that 5% area that must add up better than a moderate crop of beans, add to the fact if you put a decent legume mix or wild bird mix on it the previous autumn surely this is the type of box Gove wants ticking?
Personally I can see say 1000 acre plus farms being 5% stewardship, 5% the above and still producing the same size heap as they do now, i’m Sure the devil will be in the detail as always and to avoid the cap in payments the larger you are a larger % of area will need to be in environmental schemes on all but grade 1 land.

The big thing will be where they set the payment rates for the new environmental scheme options. At the present levels, I wish I'd asked for much higher levels of Mid Tier options. We have about 200ac of extended over-winter stubble and temporary grass at the moment, but could have easily used more in a more profitable way that some cropped fields.
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
As per the title, I see very little land being put into fallow that is not part of an agri-environment scheme in our area. It seems unlikely that there is always a good financial reason for this because we know that some really poor crops around will get not for off generating a negative financial margin even before fixed costs. I can think of some diabolical winter bean crops that we planted one year in very poor conditions as an example.

I was just wondering why it is that we don't see more fallow around in times of lower profitability. Is it because of a feeling that is something close to shame arising from the idea that people realise that you cannot always make money from growing a crop in that field that year, or is it more to do with the inability to shrink fixed costs down proportionately in line with the reduced cropping acreage?

Are there any farms out there on a wheat-fallow type rotation, and if so, how do you think it is working for them / you? @Dockers

We have acquired a larger land area to farm from next autumn onward but have not yet increased our fixed costs at all. This does give an opportunity to consider fallow as an option because a) I have no pride issues with not cropping land if it makes financial sense, and b) because we would not need to reduce fixed costs.

I am not sure whether you would put fallow in the rotation instead of say beans, which we do not seem very good at growing, in a planned manner, or whether you would use fallow in a more variable and opportunistic way. That is, it seems to me the worst results we get are when crops are planted in poor conditions. Often this is not even the whole of one crop type, but rather it might occur when part of the area to be planted is quite a bit more marginal than the rest. This could occur if heavy rain occurs mid-way through planting, or if some fields are inherently less productive (i.e. fields near woods for OSR), or if cultivations have been delayed on some fields / not done.

In a good year with excellent drilling conditions then you might not have any fallow at all. In this instance you would have to judge whether the rest of your equipment could cope with 100% cropping. In a bad year when say conditions close in and you can't drill winter beans as intended, perhaps it would be sensible to think about fallow, rather than say deferring planting to spring beans (which I find to be a dirty and not very profitable crop).

Thoughts please.
Yeah I do this if there is a cropping site/year/rotational slot that I don't like the look of.
 
Seed sat in a shed will always tried to be muddled in rather than overyeared, even if weather related it’s physically there sat every time you open the shed door!

That's the mistake we make too often. Particularly late drilled wheat and beans. I'd rather spend a year looking at the seed in the shed than looking at a terrible crop all year. More and more now we're testing seed and using untreated seed at the back-end especially so can always chuck it back on the heap.
 

radar

Member
Mixed Farmer
Issue I have with fallow is what you are allowed to do with it - restrictions on cultivations and spraying will mean weeds getting away from you. I'm not sure some of the blackgrass problems we have today don't go back to the se-taside days. I can remember fields of "hay" in the summer despite being topped regularly - the seed set just moved lower until you couldn't remove it by cutting. In hindsight the seed return must have been huge, and we didn't know any better then!
 
Issue I have with fallow is what you are allowed to do with it - restrictions on cultivations and spraying will mean weeds getting away from you. I'm not sure some of the blackgrass problems we have today don't go back to the se-taside days. I can remember fields of "hay" in the summer despite being topped regularly - the seed set just moved lower until you couldn't remove it by cutting. In hindsight the seed return must have been huge, and we didn't know any better then!

We will glyphosate black-grass patches in our Mid Tier overwinter stubble from 15 May onwards. Had the same option in ELS and it works well enough (except for one year where we left it too late!). If in EFAs, what are the restrictions?
 

WRXppp

Member
Location
North Yorks
That's the mistake we make too often. Particularly late drilled wheat and beans. I'd rather spend a year looking at the seed in the shed than looking at a terrible crop all year. More and more now we're testing seed and using untreated seed at the back-end especially so can always chuck it back on the heap.
What sort of % extra area have you taken on, we may get a payment for using non dressed seed in the future and as long as it is tested and cleaned you are in much better control, us small men who only need 4 or 5 tonne a year split between spring and winter it’s easier to just buy new seed each year.
 
What sort of % extra area have you taken on, we may get a payment for using non dressed seed in the future and as long as it is tested and cleaned you are in much better control, us small men who only need 4 or 5 tonne a year split between spring and winter it’s easier to just buy new seed each year.

Have taken back in hand about 10% and have bought another 10% extra. 5% of that has gone into Mid Tier acreage over and above the old ELS scheme, so have about a 15% increase in area and have only spent an extra £7k on an old Sumo Trio so far on extra kit. Have one very small farm contract farmed out at the moment which I think we'll probably stop that arrangement and just park some of our Mid Tier fallow and grass there because it is an extremely unproductive area on not great soil, all near houses with a very high weed burden.
 

WRXppp

Member
Location
North Yorks
We will glyphosate black-grass patches in our Mid Tier overwinter stubble from 15 May onwards. Had the same option in ELS and it works well enough (except for one year where we left it too late!). If in EFAs, what are the restrictions?
Ah I keep forgetting the blackgrass, in an EFA no chems in the fallow period so maybe dd clover into stubble then a falcon type product?
 
Ah I keep forgetting the blackgrass, in an EFA no chems in the fallow period so maybe dd clover into stubble then a falcon type product?

Falcon not good enough on BG. Think that would rule out putting it in an EFA area because mowing is just a pain and is ineffective. Would have to be standalone. Only other option would be a very competitive grass mix, but that gets expensive to buy seed and establish. Would need a grazing / AD income to pay for it. At next environmental scheme renewal I would go for double the fallow area if I could get the same payment rates.
 

WRXppp

Member
Location
North Yorks
At least when you get to re-newal we might have a good idea as to the future direction we are going in, I have 5years left to run on my ELS/HLS it looks like for once I was in the right place at the right time, just need them to make payments on time and all will be well!
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
We use voluntary fallow for efa, have used it for the last few years. Only a small area but has served its purpose and allowed me to do some draining, kill some BG etc
 
At least when you get to re-newal we might have a good idea as to the future direction we are going in, I have 5years left to run on my ELS/HLS it looks like for once I was in the right place at the right time, just need them to make payments on time and all will be well!

Just had our 2017 Mid Tier payment. Not totally sure if it's all there, but looks to be most of it.
 

radar

Member
Mixed Farmer
Looks like if fallow needs to be non-efa
9 Aug 2017 - Updates for BPS 2018. The main changes to the 2018 greening rules are as follows. A complete ban on the use of Plant Protection Products on Ecological Focus Area ( EFA ) Fallow Land,EFA Catch and Cover Crops, and EFA Nitrogen-fixing Crops is introduced.
 

curlietailz

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Sedgefield
Hi
So far I have used fallow /stubbles as my EFA 5% and third crop too
Mostly choose small field at the extremities of the farm/off farm etc

Mostly Because of the cost saving of attempting to drill/work/combine/access 3 acre fields ,down a narrow lane under a railway bridge for example and the cost of lugging machinery and grain 8 miles back to the yard

When we digest the NEW shiney rules I'm considering 50% first wheat/50% fallow/stubbles. So long as figures add up Purely as my labour will have retired ( maybe) and I don't want to employ again and the son (should/could/ought to) have off farm income ( driving/gritting/welding etc) as a buffer/insurance against crap farming income

So cutting the workload in half and making the environment better/messier/healthier for some public money seems like a good Plan at this point in time
 
Looks like if fallow needs to be non-efa
9 Aug 2017 - Updates for BPS 2018. The main changes to the 2018 greening rules are as follows. A complete ban on the use of Plant Protection Products on Ecological Focus Area ( EFA ) Fallow Land,EFA Catch and Cover Crops, and EFA Nitrogen-fixing Crops is introduced.

Thanks. Not that I'm intending to, but can you mow fallow under EFA? Have a neighbour who asked this question.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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