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EDITOR ’ S INTRO
AUG / SEP 2022 • farmers-mart . co . uk
Successful summer shows
As we go to print , summer is about done and the harvest is in . The weather has been kind to some but not as kind to others . In this issue there are reviews of The Great Yorkshire Show and Driffield Show which both went extremely well with great numbers attending .
IN this issue is a preview of Agri Expo 22 up at Borderway Mart in Carlisle on Friday the 28th of October . This is a must-see show for all you appreciators of quality livestock .
Also , in this issue we have two agricultural dealerships really pushing forward . I met up with Charlotte Ellis of Carrs Billington to talk about the opening of their new depot at Thirsk which is extending Carrs coverage of North Yorkshire and how this fits in with their plan to raise the profile of the machinery business even further .
Following that I drove up to Malton and met with Sophie Allanby of Ripon Farm Services to see their amazing state of the art new depot at Malton . What a huge , impressive building it is , it fittingly marks their stake in the ground for the next 40 years .
I went to see The Young family down at South Owersby Farm near Market Rasen to see their success story centered around their 20-year association with willow as a commercial crop . At
ISSUE 82 • AUG / SEP 2022
36 degrees and not a breath of air it was a warm one !
Chris Berry has been talking to Mark Exelby of Hutts Farm at Grewelthorpe near Ripon , Mark is an innovative livestock breeder achieving great success .
Chris also met up with Philip Metcalfe who is an inspirational character being nominated for a national title as arable farmer of the year . He ’ s a remarkable man who suffers from progressive multiple sclerosis and utilizes his mobility scooter as his own personal quad bike
We are always looking for farms to do features on , you may be diversifying , have champion herds or flocks or are just proud of what you do . The great thing for you , the farmer , is it doesn ’ t cost you a penny and is great publicity , please do get in contact if you are interested .
There is much more inside please read on .
Owner & Managing Editor Ian Wilkinson
For more news , views and stories from the number one farming guide in the North , visit www . farmers-mart . co . uk
Rain gauge winner set to make crop savings
THE British weather is notoriously capricious , so having real-time information on rainfall and temperature can help farmers to reduce inputs and improve efficiencies . And one lucky producer in North Yorkshire recently won a state-of-the-art connected weather gauge – so how does he see it helping on his farm ?
Sitting north of the Cleveland Hills and south of the River Tees in North Yorkshire , the rain clouds are often spent before they reach Robert Shepherd ’ s lowland arable farm .
Keeping track of rainfall using conventional methods such as collecting it in a cup can be tricky and prone to human error . However , as the winner of a Sencrop Raincrop weather station , Mr Shepherd will now be able to measure rainfall consistently and remotely , better informing decisions concerning crops on his farm .
“ I like to experiment with arable crops and if I know the exact rainfall , I try to get away with using fewer if not all fungicides . I have grown crops successfully without fungicides but every year is different . The weather here is very variable ,” says Mr Shepherd .
It will also be interesting to use the Raincrop rain gauge – which gives realtime weather updates from a field on his farm - to compare weather patterns year-on-year , says Mr Shepherd . “ We had a very wet May last year leading to some take-all in our second wheats . In the past we ’ ve had nothing to enable us to look back at weather patterns . But they could help us mitigate against the severity of take-all , perhaps through variety choice .”
Mr Shepherd farms 68ha at Burnt House Farm , Hutton Rudby . His rotation comprises first and second winter wheats , winter barley , oilseed rape ( OSR ) and some grassland . Soil type is heavy clay . First wheat yields are typically 10t / ha and oilseed rape , 5t / ha .
Land is min-tilled with a Sumo trio , followed by establishing the crop with a Vaderstad drill . But if ploughing is necessary , he will go down that route . He is keen to make the most of varietal resistance and reduce inputs , doing on-farm tramline trials to compare treatments and varieties .
Mr Shepherd grows wheat varieties KWS Dawsum , Skyscraper , SY Insitor , KWS Parkin , Costello and Saki . His winter barley varieties include Bolton , Cassia and Barakooda and OSR varieties , Aurelia , Acacia and Aviron . The latter is one of the first OSR hybrids to feature the N-Flex gene , said to allow the crop to use available nitrogen in the soil more efficiently .
Overall , he is looking to reduce nitrogen use and achieve a more balanced soil ecosystem and wants to try putting bugs in the soil to fix nitrogen . “ We are not doing it any favours by plastering on artificial nitrogen .”
As well as on his own farm , Mr Shepherd also sees a role for the rain gauge on larger arable farming enterprises , where weather at the home farm , for example , may be very different to that in fields five or 10 miles away . “ It may be that they decide to deploy a team of operatives to a distant site based on the weather at home which could waste time and money . If they could check the Sencrop mobile app [ which allows collection and analysis of data from their station and others around it ] first and discover that the weather was unfavourable , it would save time and money .”
As well as rainfall , the device can also measure temperature , which will help when making decisions over herbicide