Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
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.
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.