No Satellite Biomass Imagery Available This Year for VRA N?

Robert

Member
Location
South East
We have not had a useable satellite image since late January so are unable to do any up to date VRA N plans. Given that all these services supposedly use the same satellites, is everyone else in the same boat or am i incredibly unlucky that each of the subsequent ~ 8 passes (approx 1 per week) has been thwarted by poor (cloudy) conditions (in the sunny south east), or am i being misinformed about the situation? Thanks
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
Last set of NDVI images I have are from the 28th of feb!
March does seem to have been a very overcast month, in fact yesterday was about the best day we’ve had but I’m in a different part of the country.
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Was similar here I Kent in early march, I spat my dummy out.
Seems someone listened, had useable imagery in the next few days.
Had plenty since.
 

cricketandcrops

Member
BASIS
Location
Lincolnshire
I have checked Atfarm for two farms here in Lincs, 2 clear images in Feb and 1 in March for one farm, other farm 1 in Jan and 1 in Mar.......shows why the N-Sensor will never be replaced by satellites.
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
We have not had a useable satellite image since late January so are unable to do any up to date VRA N plans. Given that all these services supposedly use the same satellites, is everyone else in the same boat or am i incredibly unlucky that each of the subsequent ~ 8 passes (approx 1 per week) has been thwarted by poor (cloudy) conditions (in the sunny south east), or am i being misinformed about the situation? Thanks
Out of interest how are you finding the VR N? I did some about two seasons ago but could see any real evidence that it had made much difference! Perhaps I should give it more or a chance before writing it off 🙄.
How much are people varying N by?
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
Out of interest how are you finding the VR N? I did some about two seasons ago but could see any real evidence that it had made much difference! Perhaps I should give it more or a chance before writing it off 🙄.
How much are people varying N by?
I did it for a number of years and gave up eventually...

No images

Not much change in the image as it’s been dry but rains on the way and it’s mid April

Not seeing any savings in fert

Not seeing any increased yields

Did see some nice images from time to time but not enough to warrant any enthusiasm

Take your pick from the above but I think the way farming is going we need to concentrate on doing the fundamentals well and culling the expensive froth that delivers minimal gains, I just hope SFI doesn’t shove the focus towards these systems but focusses on better application tech rather than these flawed setups...
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
I did it for a number of years and gave up eventually...

No images

Not much change in the image as it’s been dry but rains on the way and it’s mid April

Not seeing any savings in fert

Not seeing any increased yields

Did see some nice images from time to time but not enough to warrant any enthusiasm

Take your pick from the above but I think the way farming is going we need to concentrate on doing the fundamentals well and culling the expensive froth that delivers minimal gains, I just hope SFI doesn’t shove the focus towards these systems but focusses on better application tech rather than these flawed setups...
They seem to have gone through a stage pushing grants for rate controllers and VR tech N sensors etc so trying to push people into that system would probably be there logical next step! But as you say getting the basics right makes more sense and more differences to the bottom line.
I will say though that on our variable soils VR seed makes the most difference and that’s backed up by satellite images and yield maps. Does it make enough difference to cover the time and costs? Think the jury is still out on that one!
 

cricketandcrops

Member
BASIS
Location
Lincolnshire
High variability of soils, plus applications of high N organic manures is where see biggest benefit. Currently seeing total n doses on OSR down to around 130 kg/ha with N-Sensor absolute N so clearly it works so isn’t a flawed set up!
 

EddieB

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Staffs
I did VRN for a few seasons but stopped about four years ago. I was using the SOYL system, doing the rates and setting the parameters myself. The crops did look more even but there was no discernible uplift in yield compared to fields where I wasn’t using it. Lack of up to date imagery was also a nuisance.
 

EddieB

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Staffs
Also on OSR the images could be a bit misleading. Sometimes poor areas of a field had more weeds which made those areas look better than they were.
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
They seem to have gone through a stage pushing grants for rate controllers and VR tech N sensors etc so trying to push people into that system would probably be there logical next step! But as you say getting the basics right makes more sense and more differences to the bottom line.
I will say though that on our variable soils VR seed makes the most difference and that’s backed up by satellite images and yield maps. Does it make enough difference to cover the time and costs? Think the jury is still out on that one!
If you have variable soils then variable seed can make sense...

I do VR P,K and lime, auto steer, auto section that makes sense to me but I can’t justify seed and N in my situation, others maybe different

I like not routinely paying out subs for minimal gain...

A good friend of mine does nothing but auto steer, he says forget paying out for tech and spend the money on OM, that will pay consistently ( he actually says don’t spend on BS spend on Sh*t !! )
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
Also on OSR the images could be a bit misleading. Sometimes poor areas of a field had more weeds which made those areas look better than they were.
Yep, can’t beat weighing a m2 and working out rates from there in OSR but it’s not trendy enough or expensive enough !!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.3%

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

  • 1,287
  • 1
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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