Relaunch for Teagasc BETTER farm for tillage

Two years ago, Teagasc ended one BETTER farm programme for tillage and started another. Precision farming was to be the main focus of the new programme and two growers were identified and profiled a year ago. Now Teagasc has added a third participant to the BETTER farm crops programme, which highlights good farming practice with a focus on precision farming.

The most recent participant is Derek Keeling from Oldtown in Co Dublin. He is the third generation of Keelings working on the farm and he joins John Collins, farm manager of Cappoquin Estate in Waterford, and Kevin Nolan, Grangeford, Co Carlow.

The theme of the tillage programme is how to achieve 90% of your fields’ potential through precision farming.

The programme will investigate and demonstrate aspects of precision farming, including the latest technology but not forgetting the basic tools of growing good crops. We want to look at how farmers can use the tools available to them to help reduce variation within fields so as to improve average yields.

On these farms we will cover areas such as record keeping, soil analysis, reacting to yield variability in fields, as well as looking at the role of GPS technology and yield mapping in helping to achieve top performance. The programme, which will run for three years, will involve Teagasc researchers, specialists and advisers to help the farmers identify areas where production efficiency may be improved on their farms.

One of the key areas that the programme aims to address is the identification of yield variation within fields. The objective is to find the cause of this variation, whereby potential solutions will then be sought and implemented to address or solve these issues. Teagasc is currently developing a toolbox for farmers to help identify variation, its causes and management solutions for these problems.

This article will introduce the three farmers in the programme and outline the main details of their farms.

Derek grows about 350ha of cereals on medium to heavy land, along with his father (also Derek), in and around Oldtown.

The land is mainly owned but about 30% is rented. All the land is within a 12km radius of the home farm and the Keelings regularly swap land with a local potato producer for rotation and land access purposes.

“Winter wheat is the main crop grown on the farm, along with winter barley and spring wheat. Spring barley is grown occasionally but much of their land is not really suitable,” said Derek. He also has a small beef enterprise on the farm which is confined to smaller or more marginal fields.

The farm is high yielding, with winter wheat yielding 11t/ha in 2016, winter barley 10t/ha and spring wheat 9t/ha. All the crops are dried on farm and sold throughout the year.

Recording

The yield of each field is recorded using their own weighbridge and each individual field has records since 2000. Indeed, Derek Snr has been keeping detailed field records since long before that.

These recorded yields are consulted, along with regular soil analysis, to formulate fertiliser plans for the farm each year.

Records have helped the Keelings to identify issues in certain fields and allowed them to address much of the variation that has occurred. “On our farm pH has been a key issue and liming has resulted in significant benefits,” Derek said.

He does all of the spraying and fertiliser spreading himself as this allows him to see the crops at the different stages and to identify any unexpected issues.

A record book is kept in the tractor at all times and anything that Derek feels needs to be noted is recorded in this book.

“The information put into the record book is essential to the performance of the farm and I can clearly see the benefits of any actions taken in response to a problem,” Derek stated.

Kevin Nolan farms about 540ha of mixed soil types, some typical light Carlow land but also some heavy land. The bulk of his land base is held on long-term leases or share-farming arrangements. Kevin tries to avoid conacre. “I want to have control over the land over time and conacre does not allow me to do this profitably,” he said.

Crops grown on the farm include winter wheat and winter barley, with spring beans, winter oats and winter and spring oilseed rape grown as break crops. Local Teagasc adviser Phelim McDonald presented figures which showed Kevin’s wheat and barley yields to consistently exceed 10t/ha, which is an extremely good average over this large acreage.

Crop choices

Kevin said crop choices in any year depend on the likely demand for grain, the need for a break crop and the margins that are likely to be achieved. So oilseed rape may be on the agenda when price rises above €400/t but it will have to compete for space with beans on his farm, at least for as long as the protein payment continues and prices do not slip further.

Kevin, who won the Zurich/Farming Independent Farmer of the Year in 2014, is a keen advocate of using precision farming equipment to help streamline his operations.

He has gradually increased his precision equipment on the farm and now uses technologies such as sprayer section control and variable rate application of fertiliser; seed and pesticide application are also possible with his equipment.

Kevin estimates that savings of 6-8% have been achieved on the farm using various pieces of kit such as the GPS-enabled fertiliser spreader. Yield mapping has recently been added on the combine as a further tool to analyse the performance of the farm. Kevin and Teagasc experimented with crop imaging in 2016 to identify differences in the field and the response of variable-rate nitrogen.

Soil sampling

As part of his commitment to precision farming, Kevin has begun to soil sample more intensively.

“Increasing the intensity of sampling and targeting those samples at areas which have below average yield, or look poor in the growing season, have helped initiate many different actions. Improved drainage was necessary in some areas, while lime or ordering more suitable fertiliser blends were needed for others. These actions have made a big difference,” Kevin said.

Taking prompt action in response to the field-specific information is key on this farm – it is not just about the high-tech kit.

Record keeping is very important to his business. Kevin has recently started using the FarmFlo recording system and finds it useful for tracking the performance of each crop or field, not to mention its benefits for cross-compliance purposes.

John Collins manages 233ha of tillage in and around the town of Cappoquin in Co Waterford.

The farm is divided up into four land blocks of medium soil type which are about 10km apart. Winter wheat is the main crop – all first wheat – and continuous wheat has been dropped in favour of rotation. Other crops include winter barley, winter oilseed rape, oats for porridge and forage maize for sale.

John’s local Teagasc adviser, Eamonn Lynch, said: “John’s average yields for wheat, barley, oats and oilseed have exceeded national average yields over the past three years and this is key to achieving good financial performance on the farm.”

Optimising field performance is John’s key aim. “I have been keeping detailed records since I first started farming here (more years than I care to remember) and I am currently using the Gatekeeper recording system to keep all the information,” John said.

Soil analysis

Soil analysis, combined with accurate nutrient planning, forms the foundation for John’s operation. This is followed by accurate applications of nitrogen, helped by the Yara N-Sensor which he has used since 2011.

“I have used yield mapping for the past 15 years and I find this information a huge help in my efforts to increase average field yields across the farm,” said John.

Combining all these records helps give an overall picture of the performance of any field in any year. Over time, yield and fertility trends have given John the confidence to investigate the variations which have been observed.

John is constantly striving to reduce variation sources within his fields to help bring his yields close to the top of those achieved nationally.

John has been on the precision farming road for over 20 years and he regards the different pieces of hi-tech kit used as merely tools to help him make better decisions. “Precision farming is not about the equipment, but rather about the information it can generate which I can use,” he said. “However, there is still a need to be able to interlink these technologies to help get more from them.”

Striving for improved performance

While all three farms are quite different, they have a number of issues in common. All three farms are heavily reliant on multiple years of records to help formulate plans for the future. The methods of recording and keeping this information may be different but the information is used for similar purposes.

Nutrient planning is done on each farm at the beginning of each season. All three farmers are keenly interested in organic manures and all three growers see their potential benefits to soil structure, soil biology and soil nutrient content.

While there can be issues with organic manures in terms of application timing, supply, weed risk, etc, all three agree the benefits outweigh any disadvantages.

Access to skilled labour is a potential hurdle on the three farms and, while technology can play a role in this regard, other actions may also be needed as part of the solution.

During the course of the programme, Teagasc aims to develop a toolbox approach to precision farming that will consist of:

a) Identifying variability.

b) Identifying the causes of variability.

c) Dealing with the variability.

d) Calculating the cost/benefit of dealing with this variability.

The approach will be applicable to all farms, not just those with the high-tech equipment. Teagasc invites all growers to participate in the open days when the programme will be discussed. Discussion groups are equally invited to visit. There is a lot we can learn together from these excellent farmers.