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UK Trip of a Lifetime
By Rohan Wardle
In September this year, I was lucky enough to be invited on a study tour to the UK, to either confirm what we are doing is right (especially with regard to stubble retention), or whether we should be adopting the higher disturbance practices undertaken in the various European environments. My diary of the trip and observation follow:
Our arrival was first into Heathrow, then quickly across to Sweden to visit the Vaderstad factory, where we were given an overview of the production line, including the Rapid, Carrier, TopDown and the recent acquisition of the SeedHawk seeder. Their manufacturing of equipment is based on a low harvest cut and spread process, then full incorporation prior to seeding. All paddocks across the region were pretty much incorporated immediately after harvest and sown down soon after that. My initial observations were of how few stock there is in their farming system, as crops grow for 11 months of the year, not facilitating a mixed system that we prescribe to in our production regions. A clear disparity also was of how we have adopted RTK/ GPS on a far wider scale, than what was seen in Sweden. Now that they are beginning to look at reduced disturbance systems, then they may move forward with inter-row sowing of crops into standing stubble, hence the expansion of their company through the purchase of Seedhawk.
On day two of our time in Sweden, we visited two local farmers. The size of farms was smaller than expected, however, the diversity of operation was great. Of note was machinery capitalisation; with operations required within a very short period of time and many items needed to harvest, get stubbles incorporated and then sown within a month. At the second farm, 7 tractors were a component of the plant, alongside the various implements needed for other operations. Heating, whilst a necessity, was typically fired from woodchips or the newer type burners that took grain, and not only kept the family warm, but powered the large grain dryers that allowed for high harvest moistures and on farm storage. Sheds were red and aplenty at both locations.
Flying back to England, we were to attend the National cultivation event called ‘Tillage’. Unfortunately, as there had been rain and storms for the week prior to our arrival, the event was cancelled. Maybe there is something in that, about too much rainfall and cultivation!? With knowledge of a change in itinerary, our host Paul Birbeek was able to arrange a visit with a local leading farmer in the county of Warwickshire, where we visited for a couple of hours. The farmer, David Hill, was waiting for his crops to dry and thus had time to show about his farm. Whilst he lived in a 400 year old house, his farming systems were highly technical and advanced. Crop sensing was used for paddock inputs, with abundant use of liquid fertilisers and growth regulators. Typical yields were about the 12t/ha for wheat, with head counts per square metre no more than 500, grain weights about 60 grams per thousand seeds and many more seeds per head than we tend to see. A small set-aside on his farm was allocated to hunting, with a part-time game keeper employed to manage this enterprise of pheasant and partridge – amazing the amount of game shooting that is undertaken on farms and effort that goes into this provision.
We lunched quickly at Warwick Castle, one of the most preserved in the region. I was blown away with the history of the place, really reinstating how cultureless we are when it comes to our Anglo history in Australia.
That afternoon, we visited another leading farmer (of course!) and was given an insight into the size of the operation; 2000ha @ $20,000/ha, cereals yielding from 10-12t/ha, canola about 3.5t/ha, continuous line self-propelled spray rigs, 20t/hr grain dryers, plus a few other hobbies to keep them alive – involvement in the tractor pull events and the kit needed to do this.
On the Friday of our first week, we had already seen a large list of farms and equipment, which then allowed for involvement from Masstock – the UK’s leading providers of inputs and farm consultancy services. Key discussion points to our hosts was on sub-surface drainage and crop establishment. In the afternoon, we were taken to a green waste recycling centre, where composting was undertaken, then sold to farmers to spread across paddocks at 20-30t/ha.
Our weekend allowed for some time off. I accompanied a small group down to London to view the sights. Unbelievable! London is old, but a spectacle. Half a day on the open top tourist bus seeing the sites of Big Ben, Tower Bridge and Harrods was something i had only heard about. I would recommend more time to be spent there, than the 24 hours i had.
Monday of week two took us to the TAG spray application centre at Silsoe, where much of UK’s application research is undertaken. From there, we were hosted by Hypro, a nozzle manufacturer, where it was explained the process of determining what the procedures were in designing a nozzle and the R&D needed to get it to market.
Simba Farm Equipment hosted the next two days spent both on farm and at their manufacturing plant. Our first farm visit was to Andrew Ward (coming over to Aus next week). Andrew has hosted the Cereals Event twice on his property, as well taking large amounts of human effluent onto his property to improve soil water holding capacities. Andrew was growing rapeseed canola on 250mm row spacings and was tending to think that growing sugar beet was archaic. Of note was large amounts of trifluralin that he had stockpiled, with use of the product to stop once all existing supplies had finished. Our second farm visit reinforced the need for timeliness of operations, as well as showing us his continuous line boom sprayer and liquid nitrogen mixing tanks.
Our final visit was to TAG (The Arable Group). Here we were entertained by Jim Orson and briefed on their many projects on stubble retention and research results on fungicides and growth regulators. As an organisation similar to SFS, they have 2000 members and 40 staff – I think we do pretty well considering our funding and outputs.
Overall, a fantastic trip to not only study the unique differences between our farming systems, but to look at how they manage their crop residues. If we could get a even distribution of rainfall as they receive, I could see benefits of their processes, however, due to our soils being in general ‘poorer’ and rainfall less reliable, I really think we are innovators with what we do and the issues we tackle on farm without large amounts of funded research. I know we could show any visitors from the UK a thing or two about farming.
Thanks to Jon Midwood for organising the trip and thanks to the great group that I was so lucky to be apart of for the trip. If you get the opportunity to travel overseas on an AgExchage or the like, then all I can say is ‘go for it’.
Rohan Wardle
