Correct variety choice allows maize to deliver in challenging circumstances
At 520 feet above sea level, on heavy clay loam soils and with over 38 inches average rainfall, Great Lakes near Holsworthy in North Devon is certainly a marginal site for growing maize. But this hasn’t stopped Nick Shadrick from achieving excellent results with the crop.
Nick Shadrick (left) with Paul Cholwill, Harpers Feeds.
Nick runs a herd of 70 cows averaging 9000 litres through a De Laval robot, but a second robot will be installed next year, and the herd size will increase to around 120. The cows graze in the summer and are fed big bales grass silage when housed. But for the last five years, maize has been an integral part of the system.
“While the cows were milking well, we thought they were capable of doing better,” comments Paul Cholwill from Harpers Feeds who advises Nick. “Milk ureas were high and so we decided the diet would benefit from more starch. As concentrates are only fed through the robot, maize silage was the obvious choice and would have rotational benefits but growing it would be a challenge.
“We had to plan for a short growing season as with heavy soils and plentiful rain we had to budget for possibly late drilling. We also needed it off early while we could still travel easily and not be left with a difficult harvest. This meant early varieties with good early vigour, but at the same time we need feed quality”
In the first year Nick grew 10 acres of Ambition as it met his criteria and he knew it grew well in the area. All field work is undertaken by local contractor F J Webber & Sons and the acreage has increased with an additional 12 acres grown on his son-in-law’s farm. As cow numbers increase, he will move to grow closer to 30 acres annually.
“We find maize fits our system well as it gives us an outlet for slurry,” Nick explains. “We don’t rush to drill, waiting until the soil has warmed up and we can work the ground down well. This year we didn’t drill until the second week in May but as we choose varieties with good early vigour, we know they will get away strongly, and by selecting early maturing varieties we can be confident of getting the crop off early most years. We have been growing continuous maize for four years.”
This year for the first time he grew the LG variety Pinnacle which is maturity class 9 (FAO 190) making it very early. He moved from Ambition on the recommendation of Paul Cholwill who emphasised the excellent ME yield and content coupled with a high starch yield in Pinnacle.
“The crop got away well and looked good all season. When we had the crop NIR tested, the indication was that it would be fit in early October, but we had to wait for the weather and eventually harvested a few weeks later and our contractor said it was the best crop he harvested this year, averaging 18 tonnes/acre.
“The maize has analysed well at 35.5% dry matter, 11.2 MJ/ME and 31.7% starch. We are feeding around 10kg maize per cow per day along with 20kg of baled grass and some molasses in the trough. Since going back on the maize, we have seen milk quality improve, we are averaging 30 litres per cow and the top cows are giving 50 litres plus.”
Paul Cholwill says Nick’s success demonstrates the benefit of selecting varieties carefully, taking account of the site class and growing conditions. “Maize is not the cheapest crop to grow but you can do a lot to maximise the return on investment and exploit the benefits it can bring.”
Soft wheat, LG Skyscraper remains at the top of the AHDB 2020-21 Recommended List after another promising season, yielding 105% over controls.
“LG Skyscraper has continued to demonstrate its ability to perform across a wide range of situations and environments, says Ed Flatman, senior wheat breeder for Limagrain UK.
“The variety has now shown over a series of contrasting years, its capacity to establish well and develop a good foundation in the early season, which it then converts into a consistently top yield of sound bold grain.”
Agronomically, the variety has held up well; its rating for yellow rust has held fast when many around have fallen and its brown rust rating has gone up from 5 to 6 on this year’s Recommended List.
Ed Flatman, Senior Wheat Breeder for Limagrain
LG Skyscraper also has Orange Wheat Blossom Midge resistance (OWBM) which is an important trait that is of increasing value in wheat varieties due to restrictions on insecticide products, says Mr Flatman.
LG Skyscraper’s excellent performance across the UK, once again dispels any myths surrounding soft wheats being lower yielding than hard wheats, adds Limagrain’s arable technical manager, Ron Granger.
He points out that LG Skyscraper offers a large grain and its specific weight of 76.9 kg/hl and HFN coming in at 218, makes an attractive package when compared to other feed varieties.
“As a soft wheat, LG Skyscraper has the additional benefit of distilling, which in a season when it will be critical to make as much as possible from crops in the ground, is a very valuable attribute.”
For many growers who are still looking to drill their wheat, it is worth noting that in Limagrain’s 2019 trials, LG Skyscraper was the highest performing variety in the late drilled slot. In fact, the variety has shown itself to take this poll position over three very different seasons, he points out.
“LG Skyscraper can be drilled comfortably up until the end of January, and even later into February further north, but seed rates will need to adjusted accordingly.”
“LG Skyscraper ticks a lot of boxes for on-farm performance and is an excellent choice for the second wheat situation,” adds Mr Granger.
Ron Granger, Arable Technical Manager for Limagrain
FARMER PROFILE
With a best yield of 13 t/ha, a good disease profile and flexibility on planting date, LG Skyscraper has performed very well for Peterborough-based grower, Seb Richardson.
The variety has proven itself in a testing year and plans are now to increase the acreage where it will be grown, he says.
It performed well across soil types, averaging 10 t/ha, up over the five year farm average – even where it was planted on thin ground productivity held up, providing yields of 8-9 t/ha.
“The crop was mostly drilled in the third week of October, but the last field was not drilled until mid-November but we still got close to 11 t/ha from it,” he explains.
However, he feels that given the right conditions, the yields could have been even better; “the drought early in the year held back the yields from LG Skyscraper.”
Situated on Northampton heavy clay soil, he finds a conventional tillage regime, subsoiling to break the pan, ploughing and pressing to be the most effective.
His normal routine comprises three fungicide applications, combined with the use of pre-emergence herbicides plus another for broad-leaf weed and volunteer bean control. Moreover, Mr Richardson found that while he followed a sound fertiliser regime which included micronutrients and foliar feed, he did not need to apply any special nutrients.
Moving on to talk about some of the difficulties of the 2019 growing season, he points out that lodging was not a problem despite the really heavy June rainfall.
Peterborough-based grower, Seb Richardson
“There was just one field, which had received a lot of farmyard manure the year before, where the crop went down.”
Cabbage stem flea beetle has made it no longer feasible for Mr Richardson to grow oilseed rape, so, in addition to increasing the wheat area, he is also growing more winter beans.
“We find beans make a nice entry into a first wheat,” he continues, remarking that he does not grow second wheat. “Beans can be grown in a rotation of five to seven years, and this fits with our system of growing a mixture of winter and spring crops.”
“We are very pleased with LG Skyscraper; we like both its versatility and its yield – not forgetting its disease profile helps us keep fungicide use to a minimum.”
“Next year, not only will we be growing it again ourselves, but also on the contract farm we manage.”
Farm Facts
Area farmed: 500 ha at home + 200 ha contract farming
Soil: Heavy clay, Grade 3 Northamptonshire soil
Crops grown: Winter wheat, winter barley, winter beans, spring barley & spring oats
Drilling dates: 20th, 21st & 22nd October, 2018
Seed rate: 425 seeds per sq. m
Nutrition: Nitram double top, DAP (Diammonium Phosphate), good spectrum micronutrients (including manganese, zinc and potassium), plus later in the season – a foliar feed with manganese and potassium.
Crop protection: Herbicides: Avadex (thiocarbamate) and Crystal (flufenacet + pendimethalin) applied pre-emergence. Also a herbicide for broad-leaf weeds, applied for bean volunteer control.
Fungicides & PGR’s: Applied at T1, T2 and T3, to control Fusarium and rust.
LG Skyscraper – the variety of choice for flexible drilling
Winter wheat LG Skyscraper is quick to get going in spring and also quick to pick up tillers, says contract no-till farmer Aaron Hogsbjerg who grew the variety for the first time this year.
“We really like LG Skyscraper because it is vigorous and fits well with our no-till regime,” he says. Despite the challenging weather conditions of 2018, he achieved an average of between 9-10t/ha and compared well with other varieties grown on the Suffolk and Essex-based farms where he works.
For Aaron, planting date flexibility is a real benefit, and he reports that even the fields sown the week before Christmas went to 9t/ha. “We were chuffed to bits. We used to grow Evolution, but LG Skyscraper is streets ahead.”
A different variety sown on 25 November only did 8.5t/ha, he reports, adding that Graham works well when it is in the right place and conditions are right, but is renowned for its slow growth. “LG Skyscraper was quick to establish across the farm, and worked equally well across a number of soils, from sandy and clay loams, and even patchy light sand.”
“Since changing to a no-till regime, the improvement in the soil has been remarkable, it was now nicely friable and the crop was out of the ground in seven days.” Moreover, he remarks, even in wet weather of autumn 2019 he has been able to get on the land, and drilling through a cover crop keeps mud off the drill. However, drilling in a no-till regime can result in a few plants being lost early on, so seed rates ranged between 400 and 550 per m2, with the later drilled crops getting the higher rate.
“It sounds quite a high rate, but it gets us the results we wanted,” says Aaron. He notes that because of its height, when growing LG Skyscraper, treatment with a PGR is necessary but effective; for example despite the heavy rainfall in June 2019, none of it fell over. “This could be a problem in other years, but you can manage crop height using PGRs.”
Moving on to talk about his strategy, he explains that 25% of the land is used for growing sugar beet, and rotations can be three, five or seven years, depending on the land and conditions. “We have been building our confidence in the break crop, and next year we might grow more oilseed rape.” Aaron follows a standard programme with a “no fire engines” approach particulary at the start of the season. “We are believers in feeding the crop to keep it healthy to keep chemistry use to a minimum, and we found that the crop kept itself quite clean.”
He tissue tests the crop to check for any nutrient deficiencies. This year plants were low in boron, resulting in top-ups of both boron and manganese and reduced rates of fungicides. Moreover, he was pleased to discover that even in the late, wet harvest of 2019, bushel weight held up, where other varieties may have struggled. “LG Skyscraper is a nice variety to combine and the straw chops well.”
Plans are to grow more of it, and it will be Aaron’s variety of choice for late drilling after sugar beet. “Of course, so far we have only grown it for one year, but we really like this variety.”
Three year: Sugar beet, spring barley, winter wheat
Fertiliser: Liquid
Crop protection: Fungicide applied at T0 and T1 or T1.5
Herbicide Strategy:
Pre emergence: Movon (Flufenacet + flurtamone + diflufenican) Wicket (Prosulfocarb)
Post emergence: Sunfire (flufenacet) Claymore (pendimethalin) where needed
Early spring: Broadway star (pyroxsulam + cloquintocet-mexyl + florasulam) for broome patches
Sugar Beet varieties to fit a range of situations
Ron Granger, Arable Technical Manager gets the growers’ perspective on the on-farm performance of the latest sugar beet varieties…
Bolting resistance is key for sugar beet grower, Andy Cooper of North Norfolk and last campaign he turned to Betaseed’s BTS 3325, for early drilling.
Managing 730ha of tenanted land on the Sandringham Estate, north east of Kings Lynn, Mr Cooper typically grows three varieties across his 160ha beet area in early, mid and late-drilled slots. Strube variety, Haydn has taken the early slot into the farm’s sandy loams over chalk in recent seasons, with the variety having the lowest bolter numbers on the BBRO Recommended List when sown on or before 5th March.
However, Mr Cooper replaced Haydn with BTS 3325 for the 2018-19 campaign as it offered suitability for early drilling, plus higher yield and improved disease resistance. In 2018, the farm received half of its annual rainfall between January and March, so drilling was delayed until April and its bolting resistance was not tested, after conditions quickly turned hot and dry post-drilling.
Andy Cooper, Norfolk Farmer
However, Mr Cooper was pleased with the performance of the variety in its first year, despite the delayed establishment, giving an adjusted yield of 80t/ha from a late-November lift.
High-yielding sugar beet variety finds favour in Lincs
Lincolnshire sugar beet grower, Charles Roe has opted for variety BTS 1140 this year, lured by the potential for 7% higher yield over two of last year’s picks. Overseeing 243ha near Horncastle with his father, John, Mr Roe has grown sugar beet for many years on the farm’s mostly sandy clay loams but took a break for a decade, due to increasing levels of weed beet.
Charles Roe, Lincolnshire Farmer
The crop returned to the rotation for the 2018-19 campaign and he opted to split his 30ha area between three varieties; Betaseed’s BTS 3325, Haydn and Firefly. With individual varieties outclassed relatively quickly as the remarkable improvement in sugar beet yield potential continues, the farm opted to revise its variety line-up this year. Mr Roe believes yield is king when selecting a sugar beet variety and at 104.9% of mean adjusted tonnes, BTS 1140 offers a massive 7% increase over BBRO Recommended List control varieties; Haydn and Firefly, which it has now replaced. “When you are looking at Recommended Lists, I can’t get excited about one or two per cent, but anything over 5%, I see as significant and that’s why we went with BTS 1140 this year,” he explains.
Limagrain UK 2020 UK beet crop varieties
BTS 3325
Has good early sown bolting tolerance, outyielding many of the traditional varieties in this early drilling slot. It has a very high sugar content and good overall disease resistance.
BTS 1140
Offers a significant yield advantage over many varieties on the new BBRO Recommended List. It offers a high sugar content, combined with good foliar disease tolerance.
BTS 4100
Joins the 2020 BBRO Recommended List with the highest sugar content of any sugar beet variety. It has high yields and low bolting counts at early sowing.
On-farm thoughts from Rob Atkin of Field Farm, Field, Uttoxeter
For Rob Atkin of Field Farm, Field, Uttoxeter, it is the perfect opportunity for him to exploit a new market for his bean crop.
“We have grown beans since 2010, and have alternated between springs and winters depending on the rotation. However, with the opportunity to grow for Frontier’s processing plant which is fairly local, it made sense to opt back into spring beans.”
“As an alternative break crop, they have a valuable place in the rotation and if you get beans right, they can be a profitable crop, as they don’t really require high inputs.”
Mr Atkin has chosen to grow the variety; LG Cartouche, as it offers the highest protein content available on the spring bean PGRO Recommended List 2019, sitting 1.3% ahead of any other pale hilum variety at 29.1%.
“To meet the 29% protein target needed by Frontier, it made sense to start at the highest genetic protein base level.” LG Cartouche is also high yielding with very good standing ability and is early to mature. It’s a pale hilum bean, that’s also suitable for the premium human consumption market. “Rob will be following our bespoke agronomy advice, using dedicated yield and protein boosting products to ensure the crop
fulfils this potential,” explains Richard Plant, Frontier agronomist.
“Initial results from trials indicate that some of the new bio-stimulants have a positive effect on yield and protein. When used early in the growing crop, they have improved rooting and nutrient utilisation which helps in pushing for that extra quality.”
“LG Cartouche responds particularly well to this, with its higher base level protein content.” Mr Plant points out that should the beans reach human consumption quality, there is still an option to trade them for the more lucrative human consumption market.
Growing beans for a protein premium
Frontier is offering an attractive price of £40/tonne* for beans above November wheat futures, with an additional £10/t premium for growers who opt for Frontier’s specialist bean agronomy package and achieve the required 29% protein targets.
This comes about with the opening of a new de-hulling plant near Nottingham in July of this year, where beans are processed to produce a protein-rich binding agent that’s attractive to the fish farming industry.
* Contract premium correct as of 18th February 2019. Premiums can go up or down depending on market movement.
Harvest Heroes – Soft feed wheats challenge the dominant hard feed market
Back in the spring, Limagrain UK’s arable technical manager Ron Granger challenged the perception that hard feed wheats have higher yields and quality over soft wheats.
Back in the spring, Limagrain UK’s arable technical manager Ron Granger challenged the perception that hard feed wheats have higher yields and quality over soft wheats.
How right he was to make this challenge; this year’s AHDB harvest results* confirm that soft wheats; LG Skyscraper and LG Spotlight sit at the very top of the yield table, whilst holding onto their quality attributes.
LG Skyscraper is the highest yielding wheat at 105% of control, ahead of the highest yielding recommended hard wheat varieties RGT Gravity (103%) and Gleam (104%). LG Spotlight sits amongst these at 103%.
LG Spotlight’s impressive grain quality credentials remain intact despite the challenging weather towards the latter end of the season. Its specific weight of 76.7 kg/hl is higher than that of Gleam (75.4) and RGT Gravity (75.0). LG Spotlight’s HFN approaching 275, remains the highest on the list.
“It’s important to note that this combination of quality credentials, as found in LG Spotlight, is rarely seen in a soft wheat,” says Ron Granger, arable technical manager for Limagrain UK.
“The stop-start 2019 harvest proves the robustness of these characteristics; the value of this high Hagberg, combined with the high level of sprouting resistance provides security when wet weather delays harvest – and is normally only seen in some top bread varieties,” he points out.
“LG Skyscraper offers a large grain and its specific weight of 76.2 kg/hl and HFN coming in at 212.8 , continue to make to an attractive package when compared to other feed varieties.”
“We are also seeing these excellent harvest results using farm standard inputs, which is an important message as growers can feel confident in their ability to produce these levels of results within more realistic input systems,” adds Mr Granger.
In a Limagrain farm trial near Perth in Scotland, which was based around farm standard inputs, the soft wheats took the top yields; LG Spotlight was the best yielder at 10.4 t/ha, LG Skyscraper sat just behind at 10.3t/ha, whereas the hard wheats; Gleam and RGT Gravity were behind this at 9.7t/ha respectively.
For Russ McKenzie of John Sheard Farms, LG Skyscraper was one of the top yielding wheats across the different units that make up the 995ha’s that he farms on the Northants and Cambridgeshire border.
“Our best yields were 12.09t/ha and the variety was pretty consistent across all of our units. LG Skyscraper has shown itself to be a competitive variety, very vigorous in the autumn which suits our later October plantings. The variety will be one of our core varieties this autumn and we will be growing it over a larger area,” says Mr McKenzie.
“These excellent results from across the country are a result of the robustness of the disease ratings and agronomics supporting the varieties,” explains Mr Granger.
“Whilst there was significant pressure from septoria and yellow rust, both LG Skyscraper and LG Spotlight have managed to withstand this pressure, which can be seen from the differences in treated and untreated ratings.”
He points out that whilst both varieties are tall, they respond well to good PGR programmes based around split timings and the additional use of terpal or cerone, if required at a later date.
“It’s important that varieties show consistency in performance over seasons, and the season of 2019 has certainly proved that Limagrain’s soft wheats are not just varieties that perform well in dry seasons, as we had in 2017 and 2018.”
“If you are growing feed wheat for high yield potential with good grain quality, then the soft wheats LG Skyscraper and LG Spotlight certainly offer attributes better than, or equal to the best hard feed wheats.”
A crop of LG Stallion blue peas has yielded a record 7.48 t/ha at 15.04% moisture
A crop of LG Stallion blue peas has yielded a record 7.48 t/ha at 15.04% moisture. The last world record set back in 2017 was also held a crop of LG Stallion which yielded 6.47 t/ha at an average of 15.35% moisture.
Harvested on Saturday 7th September at Worlaby Farm in Lincolnshire, grower Tim Lamyman is delighted with both the yields and quality to come off this year’s pea crop.
“Who would have thought that 2019 would be the year for a world record crop!” he says. “I am absolutely thrilled with the final performance of the peas as they have shown a consistency in biomass through the season – much more so than last year. In places the crop was 6ft tall – and this has obviously translated into yield.”
LG Stallion was the field pea variety of choice, selected for its high yield potential and good standing ability. This is the third year that Mr Lamyman has grown the variety, breaking the world record yield in 2017, and having success again with the variety in the very difficult season of 2018 when it yielded 5.6 t/ha at 14.76% moisture.
The peas follow a second wheat in the seven year rotation which also includes wheats, spring barley and oilseed rape. “The field chosen for the crop is much like last year; a grade 2 chalky loam which offers the potential for well-structured root systems, enabling easier nutrient uptake – which I believe is key to a high yielding crop,” says Mr Lamyman.
“As the spring was so dry, we adapted our cultivations for the peas through an intensive min-till approach which allowed us to create a more level seedbed.”
Before drilling, the field had two passes with a Lemken Terradisc and finished with a Vaderstad carrier (discs and crumble roller), and then it was rolled with Cambridge rollers the day after drilling.
The crop was drilled on 9th April using a Vaderstad Rapid, with the coulters set at a 4-inch row width. The seed was treated with Wakil XL + GPA, with the aim of early downy mildew control from the Wakil XL and better root development, as well as plant establishment with the phosphite-based nutrient GPA.
Established plant populations were 85 plants/m2, he says.
Mr Lamyman believes that detailed and well-targeted crop nutrition is critical to his success. “Leaf samples were taken at four different stages through the crop’s growth cycle in order to identify nutrient deficiencies, to which the relevant products were then applied as required.”
“Foliar applications were similar to those used in 2018. An early insecticide (50 ml Hallmark) was applied for weevil damage. Just before flowering, 2 l/ha of ToPPit +1 l/ha of Rainbow Wave went on.”
ToPPit is a 0-30-40 liquid fertiliser containing phosphorus, potassium and a range of micro-elements. Rainbow Wave contains boron and molybdenum.
“In 2017 we had virus in the crop, and given the high aphid numbers this year we applied Aphox early.”
“At flowering, the tank mix consisted of 280 g/ha Aphox, 1 l/ha X-Stress, 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 kg/ha Signum and 0.5 l/ha CalFlux.”
The X-Stress is used to prevent a plant shutting down its stomatal and root absorption processes under stressful conditions. It does this by enhancing photosynthesis and growth by providing essential micro elements, including the correct proportions of iron, zinc, manganese and copper, as well as magnesium and glycine.
“Two weeks later, another spray containing 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 l/ha CalFlux, 1 l/ha X-Stress, as well as 50 ml/ha Hallmark went on.”
“CalFlux is a key component in any record attempt, such as when the plant experiences stress,” explains Tim. “It will draw calcium from the flowering nodes and this can lead to pods and flowers aborting, and this is exactly what happened in the dry spring.”
“As harvest approached and the weather was very changeable, we decided to apply some Reglone on 23rd August, in case of a delay to harvest, and that helped.”
We are delighted to hear of such a high yield from the pea crop, says Chris Guest – Head of Seed for ADM Agriculture.
Achieving more stable yields with the pea crop is something that we see as highly important for the long term future of the combinable pea crop within the UK farm rotation, he says.
“Over the last two years, we have seen the benefit of micro-nutrients in peas – an important consideration for anybody planning the farm rotation based on a long-term view. We see some of the highest first wheat yields following peas – and as such, the two year gross margin is something that is important to consider.”
“Last year, Tim focussed on achieving the highest yields whilst still maintaining the full green colour which is so important for top grade human consumption quality. However, this year he has pushed for out and out yield,” he says.
“Looking at how this would translate in terms of gross margin based on a worst case scenario of feed quality with current values of circa £180/mt ex farm – this would equate to a gross margin of £915/ha (which includes the additional spend by Tim on the Bionature package).”
“However, if these were suitable for a low grade HC market – this gross margin would increase to £1401/ha (which again includes the Bionature package costs) with a market value of circa £235-240.”
“It’s worth noting that this is the highest gross margin achievable for any crop this season!” says Mr Guest.
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“It’s important to note that this combination of quality credentials, as found in 
