Since David joined the AHDB Strategic Ceeral Farm program in 2022, it seems the weather has become the norm.
The relentless wet condition was a source of trouble for testing to cover nutritional efficiency, sub-position of clover, and field drainage. None of these have escaped unharmed, so they are forced to maintain those involved in their toes, adapt to us, and sometimes compromise on plans to keep things on track.
In addition to the weather, the Clover lower-layered trial had to compete with unintended herbicide treatments. Miraculously, it wasn't wiped off the map, but it's small and patchy.
So far, winter wheat excavated in this area has not shown a significant difference in growth between clover and non-clover regions. Potentially, plant populations are lower in strips of clover, but only by whiskers.
Nutritional management tests use pole technology probes to monitor soil. Now, the results are consistent with what we are seeing and what we know. The soil is wet and swims with nutrients.
A portion of the soil temperature reading should be investigated as two probes about 50 m apart on one of the trial strips disagree with the tune of about 1°C.
Of course, these probes may prove their value as the season progresses (via electrical conductivity measurements) especially by highlighting changes in soil nutrient status. This helps infer how many nutrients are being taken up by the crop (or leached out of the field). In mid-February, soil samples are taken to provide an appropriate estimate of soil mineral nitrogen (SMN).
Winter wheat is in a very unfortunate state and may need to re-drill it using spring barley in a drainage trial.
York University members look at the impact of management and monitor the abundance and diversity of worms on their farms.
In autumn 2024, molar drains were added to two tramlins within the new drain zone. The intention is to improve the lateral movement of water into the pipe drain. The worms in the melted area are slightly reduced, which can be due to confusion related to molming.
Again, there's no surprise from these monitoring devices. These record very high water levels throughout the field. Currently, levels are highest in areas where no ejection is occurring (some are almost filled at the top), but this is not clear on the surface. There are some abnormalities. This could be due to blockage of pipe perforations rather than a true result.
If you're interested in more details, we recently published our annual report for Harvest 2024.
The trial will continue for the 2025 harvest, although there are some tweaks to the approach summarized on the farm's research webpage (in addition to a summary of the report and key findings).
If you're not a report type person, keep an eye out for details on the summer open day, which will be held at the strategic Serial Farm North this June. Please show all your previous exams and conclusions.
