New Horizon - Issue 3 - Agriculture

West Amesbury Farms buy into
the Amazone technology
Philip Sawkill, West Amesbury Farms “with
the majority of the autumn cereals planted
again this year, its flexibility in terms of
coping with both wet and dry conditions
has proved itself once again.”
‘By maximising inputs by the use of technology, we have
seen a pleasing increase in returns,’ confides Philip Sawkill
of West Amesbury Farms, ‘We have taken on board
soil mapping for seed rates and base fertilisers plus also
applying variable rate N by measuring GAL levels as a
means of matching inputs to soils’.
With around 1,500 acres on the chalk downs with a high flint
content, the farm is split into roughly 1/3 spring and 2/3 autumn
cropping; the rotation consisting of winter wheat, oilseed rape,
beans and spring barley. With both digestate and sewerage
sludge applied in rotation, soil nutrient levels are on the increase,
as is soil workability, and so any subsequent applications have to
be based on actual requirements - both to keep costs down as
well preventing lodging and excessive grain nitrogen content.
The farm utilises a system of leaving a stale seedbed to
encourage volunteer growth and then mixing and loosening
with the TopDown at around 10-15 cm before going in with
the Cayena which is linked to a seed rate map in the GreenStar
2630. ‘On the drilling front, we have been running a 6-metre
Cayena tine seeder now for many years as we love its easy
pull, consistency of planting depth control and the ideal seed
coverage’, adds Philip, and, with the majority of the autumn
cereals planted again this year, its flexibility in terms of coping
with both wet and dry conditions has proved itself once again.
‘We have evened up plant numbers by the use of variable rate
drilling and we have found those even plant stands considerably
easier to manage as well as seeing improving yields’. And, as
the new drill has now the option of fertiliser, the farm can start
to use targeted P application, either as TSP or DAP in winter
cereals and rape as well as adding a starter application of NPK
in spring barley.
Buying into technology was also the policy adopted on the
fertiliser spreader and so, when the old ZA-M Ultra Profis was
due for a change, a new ZA-TS was suggested by local dealer,
Hunt Forest Group. Five years on, the technology has proved its
worth with part-width shut-off via the SectionControl software in
the GreenStar controlling the ins and outs on the headland to
prevent over and under-spread, as well as the twin weigh cell and
tilt sensor combo looking after the accuracy of application rate.
‘We work on 30-metre tramlines and it doesn’t seem to matter
what material we put in the hopper the evenness of spread is
always spot on and the other big advantage of the ZA-TS is that,
before, we were seeing the crop tailing off at the hedge sides
with the border spread Limiter on the old ZA-M Ultra.
However, with the current AutoTS system, the crop is level right
through to the boundary and this has shown up in the yields.’ As
already mentioned, the spreader is also being used for target
applying fertiliser, ‘We are using a mixture of soil mapping
to generate P & K maps along with doing variable rate N in
conjunction with SOYL’s satellite imagery maps so again we
have maximised the use of our fertiliser inputs,’ Philip concludes
‘From our point of view the kit that we have bought has been
fundamental in improving returns’ .
16 HUNTFOREST.COM