Grassland Improvement & Weed Control

Wednesday 27^th February

By kind permission of Mark Warner, Hill Farm, Watergall.

This practical event provides an opportunity to gain a better understanding of grassland management and weed control on your farm. We will cover various aspects of grassland management and soil structure with the objective of notably increasing the productive capacity of grassland.

Leading the event will be:

Charlie Morgan – GrassMaster Ltd

Will Corrigan – DowAgroSciences

Andrew Griffiths – SCS Spreader & Sprayer Testing Ltd

Areas covered will be:

• Soil - the most valuable resource on your farm!
• Compaction – deep soil compaction from machinery pans can reduce crop yields by 10%
• Sward assessment – looking in detail at the sward and whether this is providing sufficient forage requirements for your livestock.
• Weed Control - docks, thistles, rushes
• Machinery calibration – getting this right can save you money and increase yields considerably.
• Machinery demonstration - grass harrow and over seeder / aerator

Time: 10.30am – 2.30pm

Location: Hill Farm, Watergall, Southam, Warks, CV47 2XP

Refreshments and lunch will be provided during the workshop

To book a place please contact Melissa on 07557 338642 or email Melissa@severnriverstrust.com

Red House Farm: SLUXX pellets are a success and metaldehyde field suffers

So after a very hard 4 months of continuous rain and an incessant number of slugs we have come out the other end with some very successful results. Our predominantly SLUXX field has managed very well and there is a relatively good crop of oilseed rape establishing (considering the late drilling and poor conditions).  The crop in this field is looking full and healthy (see photo below). A stark contrast to this is the oilseed rape crop in the predominantly metaldehyde field, which has almost all been eaten by slugs with only a few small seedlings remaining (see below). 

Winter oilseed rape in field 2.
Predominantly applied with SLUXX

Winter oilseed rape in field 1.
Predominantly applied with metaldehyde

The graph below illustrates the amount of leaf damage to the crop in the 2 fields over the last 4 months.   The amount of leaf damage on the oilseed rape crop was fairly similar for both fields until the end of October. However, leaf damage in field 1 (applied predominantly with metaldehyde) increased dramatically after October, with 80-90% leaf damage being recorded. By early November the majority of the crop in field 1 had been eaten by slugs. The crop in field 2 (appled predominantly with SLUXX) however, remained strong and healthy.

Regular water quality samples from the field drains reveal that the concentration of metaldehyde from field 1 (predominantly metaldehyde) has continuously exceeded the drinking water standard (DWS) of 0.1 µg/L with a maximum concentration of 28.9 µg/L found during the first sampling event, which is 289 times greater than the DWS. Field 2 which was applied with predominantly SLUXX has exceeded the DWS on 4 occasions, but only by a small amount (see graph below). 

Food for thought

This is great news for farming and water quality showing that if farmers use more SLUXX in their fields they can have trust that the product works effectively and has an efficacy potentially better than metaldehyde based pellets. Also, using more SLUXX will help to reduce metaldehyde peaks and help prevent future restrictions.