Winter 2020

Out&About environment

that only cultivates where the seed is planted. A cultivator will work on the whole area of the field, which in the long run can cause compaction to the soil, erosion and loss of moisture.

for the growing crop. It is also time-consuming and costly. We drilled oil seed rape (OSR) on August 7 this year, while we were still combining the winter wheat. For those farmers still growing OSR it was a strategic decision to drill it early in order to make use of the moisture during the wet August. This was to try to combat the cabbage stem flea beetle, which is a major pest. Since 2013 neonicotinoid-treated seed dressing has been banned from use by the EU. This has caused a big issue for UK farmers growing OSR because there is nothing to control the pests that destroy the living plants, causing major losses and in severe cases crop failure, which is fairly common. As you drive around the countryside this winter you will still see precise rows of green shoots emerging and this is the start of the whole process again. Farmers will be watching the weather every day, to see how their crops are performing and hoping for a better harvest in 2021. Thank you for your interest and don’t forget to see if you can identify what crops are growing around Berkshire. Follow Eleanor on Twitter @LittleBigFarm and Instagram berkshirefarmgirl

I have been out with agronomist Andrew Stilwell, who advises on crop nutrition, soil testing the fields. We walked in a W shape across the fields we were testing – in order to get the best samples – collecting soil to send off to the labs. We are testing for major and minor nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, boron, copper, manganese and magnesium. The results will then be sent back to the farm so we can see what the soil is lacking and overlay them with the GPS yield data from the combine harvester – sharing the data from two different sources to find the best and worse performing areas of the field – this will help us target the inputs more precisely. We test each field every three years to give us an indication of what it needs and what has been taken or put into the soil from the previous crops over the years. I have been using a spring tine cultivator, running it very shallow across the stubble to encourage the weeds to germinate. This decreases the reliance on chemical measures used after the seed has been planted and helps to create a stale seed bed. Drilling – sowing the seed To conserve moisture and to reduce costs such as diesel, we use a Sumo DTS strip till drill for sowing the seed

We test each field every three years to give us an indication of what it needs and what has been taken or put into the soil from the previous crops over the years

This is not something I have learnt to do yet and is left to experienced staff. When you do the drilling, it is evident if you do it wrong and farmers will always notice if your rows of crops are not exact or if you have had a drill miss (maybe caused by a blocked seed nozzle). Occasionally we may plough as a full inversion technique – a cultural method of weed control used in severe situations – however, this can bring more weed seed back up to the surface, especially grass weed, which causes more of a problem

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O&A WINTER 2020