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| Case Study 5 - Progressive adoption of
new system, sharing equipment |
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Location |
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Leicestershire |
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Size, average field size and spread |
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310ha (shares labour and machinery with a neighbouring
concern to give a total area of 607ha); 8ha; 3km. |
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Soils and landscape |
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Undulating land - the majority of soils suffer surface
wetness caused by dense slowly permeable subsoils. Clay soils (Denchworth
and Hanslope associations) predominate, the latter calcareous and developed
on Chalky Boulder Clay. Small areas of well drained medium loamy soils (Banbury
association) are included. |
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Cropping |
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65ha winter wheat (soft wheat varieties), 52ha winter
barley, 28ha winter oats, 37ha winter oilseed rape, 39ha winter/spring beans
and 50ha (permanent set aside). |
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Workforce |
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The manager and a tractor driver operate the farm. |
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Equipment and cultivation machinery |
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John Deere 7810, 180hp (3 years old); John Deere
6800, 120hp (6 years old); Fiat F140 140hp (6 years old); Ford 7840 100hp,
(5 years old) (hired); Simba 4.4m 2b Discs, Simba 4.6m Cultipress, Simba
4m Freeflow Drill, 2 Accord 4m Air drills one as combination, 6 Furrow Dowdswell
Plough, 5 Furrow Ransomes Plough, 4m Kuhn Powerharrow, Cousins 3m Flatlift. |
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Cultivation Policy |
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All the crops are established
following a disc cultivation, flat-lift, cultipress, spray and drill with
the exception of wheat after beans, which are drilled following a plough
and power harrow, and beans which are broadcast, ploughed in and power harrowed. |
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Costings and Work rates |
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Operation |
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Cost (£/ha) |
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Discing |
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22 |
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Cultipress |
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12 |
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Freeflow Drill |
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23 |
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Ploughing |
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39 |
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Power Harrow |
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23 |
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Discussion |
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Decision to change |
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The need to reduce fixed costs has led to a joint
venture with a neighbouring farmer, sharing both labour and cultivation
equipment. |
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How |
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The plan to increase reduced cultivation saw the
purchase of a 4m Simba Freeflow Drill and a 4.6m Simba Cultipress. This
was to supplement some of the existing equipment in year one. In year two
the addition of a larger traction unit and a disc cultivator means that
more of the existing cultivation machinery will be sold. |
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Benefits |
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The farm has learnt a lot in autumn 2000 about over
cultivating fields especially early on, when the weather was relatively
dry. Two areas will need to be addressed in 2001. The first is the extra
cosmetic discing, which was soon stopped, and the second, the separate subsoiling
operation. These extra passes across the field have increased costs unnecessarily. |
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Problems |
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As the 2000 season progressed a number of factors
beyond the farm’s control further hampered efforts to drill winter
crops. The progressively wet conditions reduced the amount of drilling able
to be done with the Simba Drill - the combination was the best drill with
which to continue. |
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Solutions Found |
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Early autumn 2000 proved to be a relatively simple
year to prepare seedbeds behind the plough (due to the abundant moisture)
and some of the lower cultivation costs were achieved with this cultivation
method. Costs shown give a comparison between early and late loughing and
show that some of the ploughed seedbeds cost significantly less than some
of the reduced cultivation ones. Final yields will determine the success
of the systems, for example, the wheat crop established early for £120/ha
yielding 10 tonne/ha will give a better return than a crop established late
behind the plough for £82/ha but yields only 8 tonne/ha. The comparison
in yearly cultivation costs do not show the dramatic reduction hoped for
but the aim is to reduce our total cultivation cost to about £72/ha
or less next season without affecting yield. |
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SMI COMMENT |
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Not unusual to accept a
slower rate of work in the first year until a larger tractor can be purchased.
Machinery workdays indicate there will be ample time to establish the crops
in autumn, irrespective of cultivation system. However, over cultivation
can be responsible for soil structural damage. |
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Soil Group |
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Type of Year |
M.W.D.s' |
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M.W.D.s' |
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Denchworth |
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Normal
Wet |
43
13 |
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4
0 |
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Hanslope |
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Normal
Wet |
53
23 |
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9
0 |
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Banbury |
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Normal
Wet |
93
63 |
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24
1 |
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Culitivation pough system |
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