The winter of 2023/24 was long and wet, and many winter-drilled cereal crops suffered and failed to establish. This led to some re-drilling through various parts of the country, exposing additional costs and losses.

Plant growth 11 days after drilling

A mid-October drilled crop of LG Caravelle over wintered very differently on the outskirts of Sidmouth, just a mile from the coast. This crop experienced six months of saturated soil and salty winds to produce a bumper crop at 4.5t/acre. This was largely due to a good strong root system being put down early with the help of Nickerson’s GPA proprietary seed coating. This helps to protect the seed and provide essential micronutrients where it is needed to promote good root growth and establishment. This in turn let the roots grow below the saturated layer of soil at the surface, and enabled oxygen to still be taken in by the roots. The same could also be said of drought periods, a good root structure can still find moisture in the lower soil levels, reducing crop stress due to lack of moisture.

Mid-April after 6 months of wet weather

The seed used was also of a very high quality, as you would expect from Nickerson, with a high germination and vigour rate. This all contributed to providing a good grain yield and large amounts of quality straw. There was so much straw that the combine had to push his header 4-5 foot outside of the crop, as the bailer could not cope.

Harvest day, note the header outside of the crop so the bailer can cope with the straw

It is worth seeking out the best quality seed with the right seed coatings to minimise risk when faced with the potential of adverse weather.

If you’d like more information on cropping options or our GPA coating, please contact Rob Ayres on 07827 890 390

As the shed doors close after a challenging harvest ‘23 we have been busy sowing the Nickerson demonstration sites for the coming season.

We have three sites this year.  In Aberdeenshire at Savock Farms, Ellon by kind permission of Andrew Booth.

Savock Farms, Ellon

Barelees Farm, Borders

In Fife at Wellsgreen Farm by kind permission of WS & J Whiteford and in conjunction with Forth Crop Solutions and in the borders at Barelees Farm by kind permission of the Todd family.

At each site we have current popular varieties and new varieties to look at from both the Limagrain wheat breeding program as well as other breeders.  Our focus this year has been on seed rates, so many varieties have been sown at different rates.

Wellsgreen Farm, Fife

Cultivation and the rotation position is different on each site.  At Savock the demonstration is after winter oil seed rape, cultivated with a Simba XL and sown with an Amazon drill, at Wellsgreen the demonstration is following spring barley cultivated with Simba SL and sown with a Lemken power harrow drill.  The Barelees site is after peas harvested in June and then sown in a cover crop.  Most of the field was cultivated with a Terrano the day before sowing with an area left to allow us to drill into the cultivated area and directly into the cover crop with a Vaderstad Rapid.

Updates will be posted throughout the season but if anyone would like to visit any of the sites please contact either Nick or Douglas.