The role of today’s agronomist is constantly changing. Each new season brings with it a unique set of challenges, whether they are responding to increasingly challenging legislative boundaries or managing for resistance within an environment of diminishing active ingredients, whilst still needing to maximise yields within closely managed financial margins.
“However within this environment, the core task of the agronomist remains the same, providing vital agronomic advice and product procurement to support a successful farm business,” says Patrick Stephenson, chairman of the Association of Independent Crop Consultants.
“There is no such thing as a normal season anymore, we are having to adapt to earlier seasons, extremes of weather, ever increasing disease pressure as well as battling against aggressive and resistant weed populations.”
Mr Stephenson points out that the need to be kept abreast of fast changing environmental and legislative goal posts has never been greater for agronomists. “As the industry strives to find solutions against the legislative and pest and disease battles that we face it is crucial that we are at the forefront of these, and involved in how these are applied in the field. “
“This season we are also faced with major readjustment as growers respond to the three-crop rule and greening requirements for the first time. So, as agronomists we are making decisions and supporting growers on how this new legislation will play out on individual farms to ensure that this fits within the whole farm strategy as well as possible.”
At this year’s Association of Independent Crop Consultants conference, in Towcester, the need for technical exchange and debate to support these challenges was more evident than ever, as leading researchers and experts came together to present their latest findings on a range of these very pertinent themes and topics to over200 independent agronomists and industry representatives.
Sessions on fungicide and herbicide activity, soils, legislation, and precision farming took centre stage- and there were key learnings to use for the coming spring.
There were words of caution from Julie Smith, plant pathologist at ADAS, who warned against complacency this season to Light Leaf Spot, emphasising that the disease is no longer a northern disease but has spread across the country
Ms Smith warned that the whole of the UK is at very high risk of LLS infection due to last season’s high infection levels on pods and stems which has resulted in carryover of inoculum on trash.
Understand and use all of the available chemistry for barley fungicides programmes, was the advice of Dr Fiona Burnett of SRUC.“ Make use older chemistry early in the programme, for example strobilurins still have good activity against Ramularia, saving the newer SDHI chemistry for later in the programme and this will help to minimise the risk of resistance whilst using the most effective chemistry where it is needed most”
Tom McCabe of University College of Dublin, confirmed that under conditions of high Septoria pressure found in the wetter conditions of Ireland, triazole performance had indeed slipped, and to counter this recommended that high dose rates and mixtures were used to sustain and improve the overall performance of the triazoles.
Mr McCabe added that in his trials, “SDHI’s continue to perform well, adding that there was a positive benefit from the addition of chlorothalonil to all of the SDHI’s at T2.”
Ron Stobart of NIAB TAG, reminded agronomists of the benefits of cover cropping.
“When managed and grown as a crop in its own right, cover crops can out-compete weeds providing a cleaner seedbed, reduce erosion the use of brassicas can sterilise the soil, and can also improve soil structure if the correct type of crops are used in the mix.”
Jake Freestone, manager at Overbury Farms, described the benefits he has seen from cover crops, pointing out that by getting these right to suit his particular conditions and soil types, he has improved organic matter from 2% to 8%, and has helped to promote better natural drainage and reduce soil erosion.
In the session on the impact of changing legislation, Don Pendergast of the NFU underlined the effects that the industry is already facing such as a drop in R & D investment from 33.3% in 1980 to 7.7% in 2015, as confidence in future legislation wanes. He urged the audience to engage with the healthy Harvest project as a means of defending against further active losses through good practise and stewardship.
Warning over impending active ingredient losses as a result of the WFD were given out by Andy Bailey of Dow Agro Sciences as he underlined the importance of engaging with the upcoming Defra Pesticides Project which will directly impact the future of many of our key actives for growing oilseed rape.
Andrew Wells, of Farming Advice Service, himself an AICC member, gave guidance on implementing greening measures on farm this spring.” Keep things simple, and aim to leave some safety margin whilst coming to terms with the exact rules, “he said. “Be aware of restrictions on where hedges must sit to claim them as part of the 5%.”
Farmer James Rimmer described how he implements Precision Farming on his farm in Kent. “Precision Farming is all about observing, measuring and responding to field variability It can increase efficacy, improve accuracy and optimise inputs. For example by making applications more accurate, you can save 4% on overlaps.” He warned however that farmers need to make sure the data collected is relevant to their strategic advice and planning.
Looking to the future, chartered engineer Sam Wane from Harper Adams University talked about the reality of farming with robots. “We already have light weight tractors that seed or scout crops at any time of year. In the future we envisage microsprayers that identify weeds and spray them individually. Or maybe laser machines that zap out growing points. Precision Farming is about Smart Farming, using smaller lighter machines, controlled by people and in communication with one another, intelligently targeting inputs.”
Looking forward, black-grass and weed resistance remain a challenge and Dr Richard Hull from Rothamsted said that there are over 20,000 farms in 35 counties with confirmed black-grass resistance. “Target site resistance to ALS herbicides is widespread. There are in excess of 700 farms in 27 counties with resistance to Atlantis. ACCase (fops/dims) target site resistance is present in over 80% of populations tested, mainly by the Ile-1781 mutation. Enhanced metabolism resistance to residual herbicides is also widespread, but is partial and slow. So these herbicides remain the key to black-grass control.”
He warned that resistance to rye-grass and wild-oats remained low, but needed watching as it could increase.
Dr Stephen Moss of Rothamsted , the industry expert on black-grass resistance for over 40 years, starting by saying black-grass is a major problem because of early sowing of more autumn crops and weed resistance. He advised that drilling after Sept/October, the peak of black-grass germination can be avoided and the weed is 55% less competitive.
“If you delay drilling by 3 weeks, pre-em herbicides will work better, as you have fewer weeds, less seed return from those weeds, less competition and better residual control. Control by flufenacet herbicides was just 45% mid September but 74% mid October, 81% end of October and 85% mid-November.”
He also observed that flufenacet is relatively unaffected by resistance. “In 375 trials between 2001 and 2013, the mean reduction of black-grass from Crystal or Liberator remained at 70%. There looks to be no decline in performance except in a dry year such as 2012 when control slumped to 49%.”
