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.
About The Author
Douglas Bonn
Seed Specialist
