For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By skydriller
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1842756
Charles Hunt wrote:And there will be a pot of gold.


Well...perhaps for the pump manufacturer...
By Bill McCarthy
#1842770
Out to feed the sheep this morning before we feed ourselves, as ever, but back to wellie boots and waterproofs today - lashing it down, and still bliddy cold.
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1842783
Could do with your irrigator here @Charliesixtysix Some of my wheats are looking really desperate for water now. :?
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1842895
As mentioned, the prolonged dry spell and col nights have held the crops back a lot recently. One upside is that there is a distinct lack of disease in the leaves, therefore meaning less is needed to spent to protect them. But, what will be the final yield impact of the dry weather? Who knows.

To keep them functioning efficiently it’s important that they have a good supply of trace elements such as zinc, manganese, boron etc, and because they’re not working very hard in these dry and cold times, and they can’t get these from the soil while their roots are so dry, I’ve decided to apply a foliar feed of these elements to ensure they’re not lacking.

I’ve also combined that in the same mix with a basic crop disease protectant just in case there are any levels of Septoria disease bubbling away in the plant that we aren’t aware of.

The timing of this protectant is important and must be done when the third leaf is fully uncurled.

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The crop has grown on well, despite the cold and dry conditions. Here’s a photo using my boot as a scale so you can see the development in recent weeks.

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The yellow ‘tipping’ of the leaves in the distance is due to the drought effect on a light gravelly bank where there is stress due to low moisture levels.

Finally, here’s a small section where the Nitrogen fertiliser didn’t get to, next to where it did. The crop growth difference is marked.

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The last Nitrogen will go on in about 10 days, and then we wait for the main ‘flag leaf’ to unfurl fully before we protect that too. The flag leaf is responsible for 70% of the crop yield, so application timing is critical.
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By Pete L
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1842916
I remember those leaves when they were only loafer-high. :D

Good to hear it's growing well. Patchy round here - some grazinng fields bone dry and sparse, some still welly-sucking lush.
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#1842989
TheFarmer wrote:Could do with your irrigator here @Charliesixtysix Some of my wheats are looking really desperate for water now. :?


Not a hope pal! :wink:

We managed to acquire one of the last pumps in UK captivity this afternoon. It was picked up from Corby at 2pm - we had it fitted and started the pump in the field by 8:15pm ... pleased and poorer in roughly equal measure.

Beer o’clock now....
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By Bill McCarthy
#1843016
I still wonder where the profit is what with all the irrigation, foliar feed, disease treatment and trace element applications ?
#1843019
As with many things, it is a balance between cost of inputs vs increased ( or avoiding reduction of) value of sales.

In the case of my irrigation, the soil is so dry this year that without added moisture the seed will not germinate.

Maize has a short growing season of around 120-140 days to maturity. It needs soil temp of 10c to germinate, any frost will kill it, which is why it is a late spring sown crop and we aim for the crop to mature in late September/ early October before the first autumn frost kills it.

So, each week of delayed crop emergence from end of April equates to roughly 5% of yield potential lost. If you take a random figure of, say, 15% margin available from the crop, you can easily see that we cannot wait many days for rain before the profitability is significantly affected.
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1848500
Hi

Sorry I’ve been a bit bad at keeping this updated!

The long, dry and cold March/April started to impact the crop a bit, but it soon recovered after the recent deluges. Disease levels are low (mainly due to the prolonged dry and cold spell), and I’ll soon be applying the main disease protection application once the last leaf (called the flag leaf) emerges.

This leaf is responsible for 70% of the crop yield, so it’s important to keep it free of disease and to maximise the photosynthetic area.

When I’m out there doing it I’ll post some pictures.

The grain market had a big spike two weeks ago, to £200 per tonne, but has come off by £20 now. I sold a proportion of the wheat crop at the high price, and will wait to see what it does from here on.

The main reason for the spike was weather fears across the world that looked like the world wheat production might be impacted.

The grain store is all cleaned down and ready for harvest which will be early August. Cleaning the store is a dusty and tedious task, but needs doing to maintain hygiene and make sure that grain weevils etc don’t start to appear.

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This bay holds 1,000 tonnes and the floor ‘breathes’ with humidity controlled air so I can dry the grain to a max moisture of 15% for storage. It’s stored at 3 metres deep. There are two bays of 1,000 tonnes.
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By TheFarmer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1848504
The grain is also stirred by a very slow moving stirrer beam that travels the length of the store very slowly, mixing the grain with the auger stirrers. This means it drys more evenly and that you don’t end up with really dry grain at the bottom and wetter grain on top.

The whole beam travels from front to back, and the augers also travel from left to right along the beam, making it random, and so it all gets properly mixed.

Image
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