Fertiliser, roller and weeder for cereals

Over the past few weeks, despite rainy and windy conditions, we have completed the remaining tasks on the cereal fields: fertiliser application, rolling, and weed control. With this work finished, the next machine to enter the fields will hopefully be the combine harvester. As usual, we like to carry out these operations in the order mentioned in the title.

Regarding fertilisation, in recent years we have been using YaraVera™ AMIDAS with excellent results. This year we’ve had to make a change, since the fertiliser used often depends on availability at the supplier’s warehouse. We therefore applied ENTEC® EVO™ 24 (+15 SO₃), which contains sulphur, at a rate of 225 kg/ha. Together with the basal fertilisation applied at sowing, this provides enough nitrogen for a good yield, provided rainfall conditions remain favourable.

Once the fertiliser has been applied, the next step is rolling the ground. This process serves three main purposes:

1. To consolidate the soil and improve root–soil contact
2. To press down stones, reducing potential issues during harvesting
3.  To help incorporate the fertiliser and reduce losses due to exposure

Finally, for cereals, we carry out phytosanitary treatment to eliminate broadleaf weeds. As it has been a very wet winter this year, we’re taking this opportunity to apply a fungicide, which will help maintain plant health.

The following products were used:

• Dingo (2,4-D 30% + Florasulam 0.62% w/v. SE). Dosage: 0.7 l/ha
• Trimur (Tribenuron-methyl 75% WG). Dosage: 15 g/ha
• Geriones (Tebuconazole 25% w/v EW). Dosage: 0.5 l/ha

With all these tasks completed, the crop is now well established and on track for the coming months. From here on, the weather will play a key role, so we will continue to monitor the fields closely and hope for a favourable season ahead. Here are a few videos of these works... we hope you like them.

Versión en español.

Post-emergence treatment on Tocayo wheat

As the campaign progresses, we change tasks in the field.  Once soil preparation and sowing of winter crops (cereals, legumes and oleaginous) are coming to an end we have to focus on nutrition and crop care tasks. Regarding these tasks, last week we began to carry out a phytosanitary treatment on Tocayo wheat. This wheat was sown at the end of October so the soil has not been moved for many months and therefore many weeds have sprung up, which must be controlled if we want to have a good yield. 

Phytosanitary treatments are becoming more and more frequent and essential if you want to have a healthy and clean crop. The use of phytosanitary products is undoubtedly booming. In our case, I remember a few years ago we rarely used our sprayer and now we use it very frequently for both pre-emergence (just after sowing) and post-emergence (late winter and spring) treatments. 

On this occasion we have carried out a post-emergence treatments with the following products: 

• Broadway Star: highly effective herbicide against brome grass (Piroxsulam 7,08% w/w and Florasulam 1,42% w/w ). 
• Tradecorp Ganater: broad spectrum herbicide, effective for the control of grasses and dicotyledons. 
• PG Superwetting: wetting agent that improves herbicide penetration and adhesion.   

If we focus on Ganater (because is the newest), it is a new herbicide that has an innovative mixture of 3 complementary active ingredients: Diflufenican 40% w/w, Florasulam 2% w/w and Iodosulfuron methyl sodium 5% w/w. It is ideal for weed control in barley, wheat, rye and triticale at a dose of 150-200 g/he and a water dose of 200-400 l/he. 

As you can see in our photos and video, our field has a large variety and abundance of weeds, so we expect the treatment to be effective. We will follow up and show you developments in the coming weeks... we hope to have the field completely clean. 

Versión en español.

​​Autorotation... saving time and earning accuracy

Spring is coming up and spraying tasks are remates to it.  Cereals and pulse vegatables need some phytosanitary treatments in order to kill weeds. So far, everything is like the rest of years. On this occasion, the most distinguish feature in our spraying works has been the new characteristic of Cerea autosteering system called Autorotation.

The autorotation allows us to turn on headlands automatically so this manoeuvre is simpler and faster than it was before. The autosteering system drives the tractor to put it on the next row with amazing accuracy... you can see it in our video.

We are using a Cerea version that needs to be indicated when Cerea has to begin the turning manouevre. With the following version (it will be delivered on the next days), it will be absolutely automatic and we only will need to fix the contour of the field where we would like to work. Cerea can work a whole field in automatic mode without driver has to touch tablet screen on headlands​.

​We show you some pictures our friend Alberto sent us about his new Amazone UF sprayer.

Versión en español.

Video:

Pictures:

Spraying days. Using your machinery or outsourcing company?

During the last days, we worked with our Fitosa sprayer to weed out the pulse vegetables (peas and yeros) and cereals (barley, triticale… we didn’t sow wheat for this year). The company, which sold us its plant protection products, supplies free water to all farmers who buy their products. It is a really good idea... we can fill our sprayer (1,200 liters) in just 5 minutes.

As you can see in our pictures, we basically used the ​four plant protection products showed below:

• Aramo 50 (Tepraloxydim 5.0%).  We used it in our peas and yeros. The dose used is of 1.5 l/ha... it is a very expensive product (about 30€/l). We used 300 liters of water per hectare to spray this product.
• Herbenuron​ and Ansar​ (Tribenuron-metil 75%). We used it in our cereals. The dose used is of 20gr/ha... The price of a  bottle of 100gr is about 50€ and the dose used is 20gr/ha. We used 200 liters of water per hectare to spray with this product.
• Arsol (Fenoxaprop-p Etil 6.9%). We used it in our cereals where there were wild oats. ​The price is about 38€/l and the dose used is of 1 l/ha and also we used 200 liters of water per hectare.

While we were working in these spraying jobs, we had a question about the profitability... we don't know if we carry out these tasks with our machinery is really more profitable than carrying out them through an outsourcing company. In our area, all farmers perform almost all their tasks using their tools but in other areas (we think they are areas where population are older or agriculture is lower profitable​ or more profitable... we don't know​) the outsourcing company are very common and lots of farming jobs (sowing, fertilizer, spraying, harvesting,...) are outsourced. In our case, we only carry out harvesting and fertilizer (with liquid fertilize in spring) tasks with outsourcing companies. 

We think it depends on the price, but it is a pretty good option for farmers who have other jobs or farmers don't have modern machinery... What is your position? If you want, we can perform a little study with the follower options. What do you think about that?

Versión en español.

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)