Formulations are King

Any fool can get micronutrients on the leaf but it’s getting them into the leaf that counts! Here at Cropwell we firmly believe that this is massively important and the formulation will make the difference between spending a small amount of money for no reason or spending the same amount but seeing a huge benefit. The Acid Plex formulation used in our dry flowable products means that the products are soluble in your sprayer and form droplets when sprayed to mean a slower drying time and therefore greater availability to the plant. Our formulations don’t rely on stomatal uptake which is extremely difficult to rely on, due to the fact this is largely closed during the day when sprays are applied. For more information on our products, the formulation of them or how and when is best to apply them then please give me a call 01664...

Price Increases Spring 2017

Unfortunately due to to the strength of currency after the events of this summer, most AG Chem and related inputs are set to increase in price dues to an increase in cost of the imported raw materials or products. This is why we are encouraging early orders on Spring Nutrients to ensure that people have their products on farm in February and at no more money than they would have paid in 2015. If you would like to secure the low price please contact us before the end of the year to discuss options, buy now pay later or order now, deliver in Feb and pay in March inline with your normal cash flow. We know there so many things to think about in the spring so order now and relax, don’t have that last minute panic to get it in the...

Post Harvest- Things to help you this autumn

  After what unfortunately looks to be a very disappointing harvest for 2016, why not think about some new approaches this autumn to try and prevent the same for 2017. Here are some of our suggestions for improving your autumn establishment and ultimately your yields Consider Durasop Elite complete controlled nongranular fertiliser. Duarsop is a specialist 10.10.17 product with trace elements added and slow release duranit technology means the fertiliser last. As a placement fertiliser that goes down the spout at drilling. Seed start applied to OSR and cereal seed  brings a host of advantages to early emergence and establishment from only £1.50/acre Why not keep the potatoes going with CropAcre Magnesium every other blight spray and  Tophite to boost the blight control in humid higher disease pressures, helping yield at the same time? Min till/no till growers, this autumn you can feed the soil and the bacteria with Humicrop-bring the soil to life! For more details or advice please call Sarah on 01664...

Micronutrient Formulations

There’s a vast and often bewildering product range to choose from. Whatever your purchasing decision, it’s essential that the micronutrients in your chosen product are in a form that makes them available to the plant. For fertiliser products, this means that they mustn’t get locked up in the soil. While most micronutrients will remain in the soil after application, both manganese and boron will leach in certain circumstances. With foliar sprays, the nutrient must be able to get into the plant. As a result, the elements must be soluble so that they can be taken up across the leaf surface. Another important consideration is that they are non-toxic and safe for crop use. Boron – both techniques should be used together. Soil testing before planting is recommended and a value less than 0.8mg/litre of dry soil is considered to be a risk. Foliar tests also provide a good guide to potential shortfall, with a value below 5-100mg/kg of dry matter, depending on the crop, indicating a possible deficiency. Chlorine – deficiency can be diagnosed by soil or leaf analysis. However, chlorine is rarely deficient and a crop’s requirement can usually be met by chlorine in the soil and in rainfall. Manganese – soil testing can be variable and should be backed up by foliar analysis to confirm a diagnosis, with a value lower than 20mg/kg dry matter indicating a possible problem. Zinc – leaf analysis is also the most useful diagnostic guide, where less than 15mg/kg may indicate a shortfall. Nickel – foliar analysis is again the best guide, with leaf concentrations less than 0.1 mg/kg dry matter highlighting a...

Grower sets new UK wheat yield record

Lincolnshire Wolds grower Tim Lamyman broke the UK wheat yield record with a harvest of 14.5t/ha last summer as he won an Adas organised yield competition. Mr Lamyman bettered his own record set in 2013 of 14.31t/ha as he narrowed the gap on the world wheat yield record set in New Zealand. In a summer of high yields, Mr Lamyman also scooped the top prize in Adas’ Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) to add to his world record oilseed rape yield this summer. The yield of his crop of Kielder winter wheat harvested in early September is edging closer to Mike Solari’s 15.7t/ha achieved in 2010 in New Zealand’s South Island. A key aspect of Mr Lamyman’s success was applying multiple nutrients through the season using foliar feeds which encouraged the production of cytokinin plant hormones in the crop. He used a product called Delta K nine times throughout the season which encouraged cytokinin growth to bring flowering forward to 30 May and slow down later growth to extend the grain-filling period. “These applications encouraged rooting early in the season producing a greater number of tillers and good head numbers from a low seed rate,” he said after an awards presentation on Thursday.”  Mr Lamyman also came top in the YEN potential yield category achieving 76% of his theoretical 19t/ha yield. These two awards came on top of his world record yield of 6.14t/ha for oilseed rape last summer. His wheat yield beat 2013 YEN winner Mark Means, who achieved 13.41t/ha with Cordiale on his west Norfolk farm, and Mr Lamyman’s potential 76% yield was ahead of Lincolnshire grower Robert Pask, who won the...