| Arable
Three years without glyphosate
AHDB’s Newark Monitor Farm is running an experiment to farm without glyphosate for three years.
ost farmer John Miller will
manage a 10ha field without
using any glyphosate, at Manor
Farm in Nottinghamshire.
The family has farmed this
tenanted land since 1939, and
Mr Miller said of the try-out: “This is how my
father would have farmed.”
Mr Miller has been over the field with a rake
and roll shortly after harvest to deal with any
volunteers and weeds. Previously the field was
in winter wheat, with a couple of black-grass
plants causing some concern.
H
“The ultimate aim is to move to a system
that’s less reliant on herbicides”
The field will be treated with diquat later in
the autumn to kill surface weeds, and then will
either be ploughed or direct drilled in the spring
with beans.
Following this year, the rotation will be winter
wheat and then sugar beet.
The field is relatively easy to work, said Mr
Miller, with sandy clayey loam over a clay
subsoil, although it does have the potential to
get waterlogged.
“I don’t think it’ll cost a lot more or less than
our other fields – the costs are likely to be
14 | Farming Monthly | November 2016
comparable. However, we might have to revise
our thinking a bit,” Mr Miller added.
Harry Henderson, AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds
Knowledge Exchange Manager for the East
Midlands, said: “This is an interesting
experiment because we just don’t know if,
when or how we could lose glyphosate. But as
the industry moves towards less use of the
plough we rely more heavily on glyphosate as
the only alternative. It makes sense to look at
ways around this potential issue from an early
starting point. Monitor Farm attendees will help
form a ‘farming without glyphosate’ plan for the
next three years. Early thoughts are that the
plough is far from redundant.
“Of course, the ultimate aim is to move to a
system that’s less reliant on herbicides.”
Paul Gosling, AHDB Crop Protection
Scientist, added: "It's important to bear in mind
that diquat is just as at risk as glyphosate, if not
more so. In addition, it does not kill black-grass,
and can only be used once a year on stubbles."
John Miller is a third generation farmer at
Manor Farm, Kelham, Newark on Trent. He
farms 685ha on a mix of tenanted and owned
land in the Trent valley. Soil type ranges from
blowing sand, sharp gravels and silty clay
loams to heavy clay with a rotation including
winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring beans, sugar
beet, forage maize, malting barley and winter
oats, with the occasional field rented out for
potatoes. The farm is predominantly min-till
with some ploughing as required. 5000 tonnes
of farmyard manure comes onto farm from a
local beef unit to help improve soil organic
matter content. John has just become chairman
of the Nottinghamshire Farm Business Group
and is keen to get a better grasp of soil
management and investigate cover crops with
the intention of reducing costs of production.
AHDB glyphosate research
Increasing resistance to selective herbicides
and a reduction in available chemistry mean
the pressure to use glyphosate as a stale
seedbed management tool is increasing.
AHDB is funding a five-year programme of
field and container-based trials to help refine
glyphosate management. The work will focus
on preventing resistance to glyphosate
developing in UK weed populations.
https://cereals.ahdb.org.uk/press/2015/septe
mber/24/glyphosate-resistance-potential-of-ukgrassweeds-focus-of-new-research.aspx
Get involved
Farmers interested in attending the next
meeting at the Newark Monitor Farm should
contact Harry Henderson,
[email protected] or 07964
974465
www.farmingmonthly.co.uk