Three crop rule

[crazy_bull]

Had a conversation with a very excited customer today that the three crop rule is to be banged on the head..... his agronomist had told him....

I haven't seen anything official, I knew it had been relaxed this year due to the weather etc,

Any truth in the rumour? I expect it might be due to it being an EU rule and we will soon be out but I thought we might get stuck with it?

C B

 

[DRC]

I don’t see the problem with it

 

[czechmate]

I don’t see the problem with it

As another thread. You, are a good farmer

 

[DRC]

As another thread. You, are a good farmer

I’d have thought everyone would want at least three crops. We’ve got 8 this year.
I guess it’s the contract farmers that want to block crop different farms, or people that haven’t learnt from wheat, rape rotation.

 

[crazy_bull]

I don’t see the problem with it

Neither do I in most situations, I think it's forced some to do what they should have done rotation wise, however on some farm it does cause storage issues with segregation etc.

The main ones are the contracted blocks that are done by one larger farmer meaning it's harder to block crop outlying blocks where the owner still wants to be an 'active farmer'

C B

 

[czechmate]

I’d have thought everyone would want at least three crops. We’ve got 8 this year.
I guess it’s the contract farmers that want to block crop different farms, or people that haven’t learnt from wheat, rape rotation.

I would never call wheat/rape/wheat a rotation. It was a swop.

 

[ajd132]

It’s not that much of a problem, it’s certainly made us realise the value of proper rotation after the wheat/rape years but it is quite constraining sometimes on contract farms. Storage not an issue for because Camgrain but if we didn’t have that we would be stuffed on some farms.

 

[No5]

Neither do I in most situations, I think it's forced some to do what they should have done rotation wise, however on some farm it does cause storage issues with segregation etc.

The main ones are the contracted blocks that are done by one larger farmer meaning it's harder to block crop outlying blocks where the owner still wants to be an 'active farmer'

C B

We have this problem, contracted block of 150 acres, 12 miles from base and it needs 3 crops. Would block crop it if we could to save travel. Easiest we found was to plant 1/3 winter wheat, 1/3 spring wheat (sown at the same time as winter), 1/3 fallow. The annoying thing is we have a 150 acre field at home that we plant with one crop.

 

[APJ]

I don’t see the problem with it

Your lucky that your farm is almost ring fenced.

 

[T Hectares]

Only farm it caused an issue on for me was one which half fallow / half wheat, think we used the maize game covers or some stubble turnips on the fallow for the third, was a few years ago now and the fact I can’t remember what we did shows it wasn’t a big deal
Other than that never been a big issue, a daft rule to impose what should be common sense, wasn’t it put in to stem the tide of Maize in Germany for AD originally ??

 

[DrWazzock]

It’s rather unnecessary though isn’t it? If I want to keep it simple on my small farm and put the whole lot in with spring barley next year then why shouldn’t I? It makes it easier for me to work elsewhere part time and my farm isn’t as big as one of my neighbours fields anyway.
A daft and unnecessary rule IMO. Good riddance to it. When can we have a proper clear out?

 

[Steevo]

It’s rather unnecessary though isn’t it? If I want to keep it simple on my small farm and put the whole lot in with spring barley next year then why shouldn’t I? It makes it easier for me to work elsewhere part time and my farm isn’t as big as one of my neighbours fields anyway.
A daft and unnecessary rule IMO. Good riddance to it. When can we have a proper clear out?

This is a valid point - a farm could still have a proper rotation without three crop rule, just plant all wheat one year, then all barley, then all OSR or such. Simples.

 

[Hindsight]

It’s rather unnecessary though isn’t it? If I want to keep it simple on my small farm and put the whole lot in with spring barley next year then why shouldn’t I? It makes it easier for me to work elsewhere part time and my farm isn’t as big as one of my neighbours fields anyway.
A daft and unnecessary rule IMO. Good riddance to it. When can we have a proper clear out?

What else would you 'clear out'?

 

[Steevo]

The difficulty today is trying to achieve three PROFITABLE combinable crops.

Winter Wheat - OK, and still possible to grow relatively clean crops even in high blackgrass areas
OSR - good luck trying to grow the same acreage that you planted
Spring barley - good if planted early and it doesn't hit a drought
Spring wheat - as above, but prone to ergot
Beans/peas - easy and cheap to grow - not much fun harvesting/drying.
Fallow - is it really a "crop"?
Maize - handy if you have a local dairy farm nearby hungry for ground

I'll let those growing linseed, winter barley, and oats comment on those!

 

[ajd132]

The difficulty today is trying to achieve three PROFITABLE combinable crops.

Winter Wheat - OK, and still possible to grow relatively clean crops even in high blackgrass areas
OSR - good luck trying to grow the same acreage that you planted
Spring barley - good if planted early and it doesn't hit a drought
Spring wheat - as above, but prone to ergot
Beans/peas - easy and cheap to grow - not much fun harvesting/drying.
Fallow - is it really a "crop"?
Maize - handy if you have a local dairy farm nearby hungry for ground

I'll let those growing linseed, winter barley, and oats comment on those!

it starts with low fixed cost structure, which I am working on getting lower and I would guess many other are too.
wheat obviously profitable
osr looks good this year, first time grown in 5 years, not sure if i will be able to repeat it though as the goalposts seem to change alot.
spring barley - can be very profitable, ours goes into CS then into boortmalt generally, no storage worries, VC spend should be low, do not copy what they suggest in the mags!
spring wheat - as above, keep cheap. into CS so no worries about ergot again no storage worries. spring milling wheat this year could be very profitable provided we capture the quality if harvest is bad, but we have the drying and stores to do that so no worries there.
beans - tight but worth in the rotation, dont grow peas here so cant comment.
fallow - you still have fixed cost on this so you are losing money straight away unless you restructure business for a permanent level of fallow
maize - no idea, messy?

 

[deleted user 837354]

The government should not be interfering in the efforts of private enterprise. They can't manage a pish up in the proverbial and don't understand agriculture at all. Defra clipboards need to stick to counting marsh waders and leave actual farming alone.

 

[lloyd]

it starts with low fixed cost structure, which I am working on getting lower and I would guess many other are too.
wheat obviously profitable
osr looks good this year, first time grown in 5 years, not sure if i will be able to repeat it though as the goalposts seem to change alot.
spring barley - can be very profitable, ours goes into CS then into boortmalt generally, no storage worries, VC spend should be low, do not copy what they suggest in the mags!
spring wheat - as above, keep cheap. into CS so no worries about ergot again no storage worries. spring milling wheat this year could be very profitable provided we capture the quality if harvest is bad, but we have the drying and stores to do that so no worries there.
beans - tight but worth in the rotation, dont grow peas here so cant comment.
fallow - you still have fixed cost on this so you are losing money straight away unless you restructure business for a permanent level of fallow
maize - no idea, messy?

Just out of interest what is your lime requirement each year?

 

[7610 super q]

I've had 5 years of unprofitable grassland to satisfy the rule.
Then there's the hassle of trying to grow 2/ 3 crops on small areas of land ( you can get a rotation by cropping a different crop every year on the same block )
3 different types of management, 3 different spray timings, 3 different combine events, 3 different drying events, possibility of 3 half full artics at the end....
I know I've said all this on another thread, but it pishes my off. Especially when ignorant folks come out with " I don't see a problem with it...."

 

[lloyd]

The difficulty today is trying to achieve three PROFITABLE combinable crops.

Winter Wheat - OK, and still possible to grow relatively clean crops even in high blackgrass areas
OSR - good luck trying to grow the same acreage that you planted
Spring barley - good if planted early and it doesn't hit a drought
Spring wheat - as above, but prone to ergot
Beans/peas - easy and cheap to grow - not much fun harvesting/drying.
Fallow - is it really a "crop"?
Maize - handy if you have a local dairy farm nearby hungry for ground

I'll let those growing linseed, winter barley, and oats comment on those!

Grass seed ?

 

[ajd132]

Just out of interest what is your lime requirement each year?

very little, we have a couple of spots which need doing every couple of years, we are on high PH soils