T1

jonnyjon

Member
I was just asking dad about fungicide regeimes 15-20 years ago. He said he did 3 sprays but it costs very little and worked. He said yields havnt really gone up. Why is research time being spent by the likes of Yen on ridiculous 6 spray programs and these extreme questionable incredibly marginal gains? I can’t help but think this whole route is a dead end and we need to re-think how we manage these crops.
Chemical industry funded, that's why
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Why has this happend?
  1. We let it happen
  2. Farmers will not work together to gain enough market power to capture the value others make out of us in the supply chain both upstream and downstream of the farm gate
  3. Agribusiness has successfully done just that
  4. Food prices continue to fall in real terms anyway
  5. HGCA/AHDB varietal lists represent the most chemically addicted due to the RL trials protocols. We're p*ssing in a small gene pool these days
  6. The ability to operate near monocultures with the help of a can or bag is coming home to roost
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
  1. We let it happen
  2. Farmers will not work together to gain enough market power to capture the value others make out of us in the supply chain both upstream and downstream of the farm gate
  3. Agribusiness has successfully done just that
  4. Food prices continue to fall in real terms anyway
  5. HGCA/AHDB varietal lists represent the most chemically addicted due to the RL trials protocols. We're p*ssing in a small gene pool these days
  6. The ability to operate near monocultures with the help of a can or bag is coming home to roost
You are correct on all points. I’ve been contemplating all of this more and more recently, over the last few years and especially the last 6 months my whole mindset has rapidly changed (although I’m lucky as I’m too young to remember the good old days!)
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
Why has this happend?
I think a lot of this has happened hand in hand with the rise of FBT's and CFA's, the hamster wheel was increased in size mainly by Land agents and advisors who pushed for bigger rents and returns to clients, and ultimately themselves, Chem companies gladly fed this appetite and good old sustainable practices were forgotten to feed this desire, machinery got more and more expensive, black grass and csfb etc exploded on the back on these practices and now we are where we are.

The thing is, research has always been around on lower input farming, I remember TAG or ARC as it was doing lots of this when Wheat was £60/t in the early 2000's, it just didn't fit the high pressure/low return lots of US had gotten into

Just my very humble opinion :)
 
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Jo28

Member
Location
East Yorks
How do you justify growing a variety that is so needy?
Simply because it's been our best yielding and highest margin wheat in each of the last 2 years. Also all varieties have flaws and I tend to find yellow rust relatively easy to control. It's not our only variety, we also have viscount and gleam to spread risk. But as I can spray all our wheat within 2 days I find reflection to be a risk worth taking.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Think you'll find it's a 7 in the new lists. And it is clean as a whistle. Plus we've been growing it since the start and is very consistent.

I grew it 8-10 years ago alongside Oakley, Robigus and Solstice. All were weak on rust. Maybe with the demise of those other varieties that race of rust is less common now.
 

Woodlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Leicestershire
I grew it 8-10 years ago alongside Oakley, Robigus and Solstice. All were weak on rust. Maybe with the demise of those other varieties that race of rust is less common now.

Yes, rust strains are evolving, so some varities actually see an increase in their resistance score on the RL, as a new dominant strain may not affect a variety which was weak to another strain. Trials on some older varieties that broke down to rust have shown no adult stage infection, based on the new strains - e.g. Brigadier
 

BenB

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Wiltshire
I suspect the "we only have protective chemistry now" story is just more chemical industry lies designed to get us to apply more sprays even if there is no disease showing, personally I'm sick of their crap

Source: AHDB
Screen Shot 2019-04-08 at 10.15.40 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-04-08 at 10.15.29 PM.png
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
Yellow rust has come in hard here over the weekend. Locally a good few people who sprayed T0 7 days ago with either no fungicide or just CTL are now having to go again to sort the rust on certain varieties.
Surely this was fairly predictable? Yes it's cool but it"s nothing like as cold as last year. I always find it odd that farmers ignore the weight of evidence in favour of managing the crop according to last years weather. Kerrin and Gravity looking clean here thanks to my agronomist's fore thought!
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Surely this was fairly predictable? Yes it's cool but it"s nothing like as cold as last year. I always find it odd that farmers ignore the weight of evidence in favour of managing the crop according to last years weather. Kerrin and Gravity looking clean here thanks to my agronomist's fore thought!
Just had a look around. Costello, Siskin, gravity and skyscraper all clean. I did find a little bit in a spotlight seed plot.
I can mainly find liquid fert scorch!
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
Just had a look around. Costello, Siskin, gravity and skyscraper all clean. I did find a little bit in a spotlight seed plot.
I can mainly find liquid fert scorch!
I think you are right it is variety dependent, in combination with conditions. Over here by the coast yr infection is the norm on many varieties earlier on, at the beginning of March yr could be found in both kerrin and gravity. ATM it would be difficult to differentiate between septoria and yr since the septoria always seems to follow yr onto the leaves. Doesn’t mean the yr isn’t there though.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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