United Kingdom
January 8, 2014
A Lincolnshire farmer has won an independent award for producing a winter wheat yield closest to the maximum potential of his field.
In competition against other growers, Robert Pask, of Pask Farms near Grantham, produced a winning winter wheat yield of 69% of his site’s estimated potential from the 2013 harvest.
The award was organised by ADAS as part of the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) initiative, launched earlier in the year.
Moreover, his crop was grown on thin limestone brash soil, and was hit by dry weather at the end of June, says Mr Pask, who partnered-up with seeds and crop protection business Syngenta to help manage it.
Yet despite the conditions, his award-winning winter wheat still went on to achieve an actual yield of 8.21 t/ha – which Mr Pask says was ahead of what is normally produced on that land.
“ADAS promoted the YEN challenge and Syngenta said let’s see what we can learn,” says Mr Pask. “Because it was on thin land, I had no anticipation we’d do as well as we did.”
According to ADAS, farm yields typically lag behind the yields that are potentially possible – so the YEN aims to encourage those who are striving to close that yield gap, to help understand how higher outputs can be produced.
Among the factors that Mr Pask put his success down to included maintaining a robust, preventative approach to disease control from the outset – to prevent disease getting established. This began by applying the new-generation SDHI fungicide Seguris early – at the T0 and T1 timings, rather than the traditional T1 and T2 timings. This was followed by the strobilurin-based fungicide Amistar Opti at T2 on the flag leaf and T3 on the ear.
Mr Pask also points to his use of a plant growth regulator containing trinexapac-ethyl (as in Moddus) – a treatment he believes helps to boost root mass in winter wheat, which he believes helps with uptake of extra nutrients and moisture.
Mr Pask continues: “We looked at building a robust programme. The crop didn’t suffer any disease all the way through.
“For the last 18 months we’ve been trying to improve yields generally across the farm through N, P, K and trace elements. In particular with Syngenta, we’ve looked at root promotion with PGR and at fungicide programmes,” he adds.
“I had no idea I’d achieved anything until I got to the award. I thought I was in the ballpark of a high percentage yield, but I didn’t know how I compared to everyone else that had entered.
“I’m pleased to have entered. I’m thinking we will enter again in 2014. We’ve enjoyed what we’ve done.”
According to Gareth Debenham of Syngenta, taking a preventative approach to disease control is increasingly important with the major wheat disease of Septoria tritici, since it has become more difficult to eradicate once it gets a foothold. Consequently, Robert Pask's approach of protecting the crop early with a robust treatment of the SDHI fungicide Seguris and tank-mixing this with Bravo made a great deal of sense, Mr Debenham adds.
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