An aim to keep ahead of the game has led Oxfordshire farmers George and Jerry Stephenson of R.H. Stephenson & Son to join Hutchinson’s Helix Farm network.
Farm Facts
- 513ha owned and contract farmed.
- Crops grown: winter wheat, winter barley, winter rye, spring barley, spring oats, winter oats, oilseed rape
- Soils: Cotswold brash, sandy loam
Farm Focus
- Reduce cost without reducing yield
- Moving on from BPS to CSS
- Mechanisation to evaluate placement fertilisers
- Evaluation of current management practices to understand their impact on water holding capacity
We’re conducting a range of work at Upper Anynho Grounds this season, covering many different areas, sharing common aims of improving efficiency, building resilience and developing more sustainable farming systems.
Another useful feature he has found to be particularly helpful is the Terra mapping which has helped his decisions on soil management.
The results from TerraMap are used to create maps within Omnia which can then be overlaid with additional field information such as black-grass, yields and so on, to create the most accurate, consistent and detailed variable rate plans.
“We have a mixture of sandy loam and Cotswold brash and although the soils are not in bad condition, from the results of the recent mapping, it appears we were over-cultivating them.”
“We have started to variably use nutrients where needed, and will suit its composition; for example, we are now applying potash products to certain fields rather than Double Top.”
“Using the TerraMap layers, we detected a band of heavy clay in the middle of the field, another area of brash, and another of sand.
“This is all important for our cultivations and seed rate strategies, and we now know we should be using more seeds in on the heavier ground. While the plan is to move to almost 100 % direct drilling, we will continue to do some low disturbance cultivations to incorporate applications of organic matter on the lighter land.”
“We are evaluating the benefits hybrid varieties may bring; for example the crop did not drill well, was sown at half the seed rate, yet it came through well and tillered out,” he said. “Looking at it, we could not see any difference to the other conventional wheats sown at regular seed rates.
He noted that hybrid seeds are always going to be more expensive, but there may be areas where they work better than conventionals, and participation in the Helix trials will help him evaluate this.
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