Despite the exceptional autumn and winter water pressure this year, spring drought and lower than average levels of solar radiation, Lincolnshire arable farmer Tim Lamyman achieved six Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) gold and silver awards.
These awards were for remarkably high oilseed, wheat and barley yields, attributing the results largely to his fertiliser programme.
Jeremy Nicholson and Ben Mead, east midlands Frontier agronomists, have worked closely with Tim and fertiliser supplier Bionature UK to grow the award-winning crops.
“Ultimately, Tim’s crops always capture high levels of water and sunlight,” said Jeremy.
A big fundamental to high yielding crops is the root structure, which is encouraged by Delta K application at the start of the season. We repeatedly measure larger root systems where it has been applied versus where it hasn’t.
“And obvious, but central to high yielding, high-quality crops is sunlight capture. Tim’s Bionature-applied crops stay greener for longer and so have time to capture more sunlight and turn it into energy and this is achieved by mid and late season foliar feeds Tip Top, Calflux and XStress, coupled with a robust fungicide programme,” adds Jeremy.
Farm approach
Tim Lamyman won YEN medals in the highest cereal yield category, with 15.4t/ha and 15.6t/ha respectively, as well as a host of other gold and silver awards.
“Our farm’s approach is to produce resilient plants through the use of an advanced crop nutrition strategy,” he said.
“I’ve worked with Bionature since 2014 as a trial farmer, and their products are head and shoulders above the rest because they’re effective, consistent and tank mixable.
We apply two 2.5L applications of Delta K in the autumn/winter and one more application in the early spring. This encourages large root development and more compact, shorter, stronger, stiffer stems to support biomass later on.
“We then move into the Tip Top part of the programme, which is a foliar NPK treatment applied at the T1-T1 ½ stage, to create biomass and help tackle the potential potassium deficit.
“At flag leaf timing XStress is used to enhance the photosynthesis in the light capturing leaves by providing micro elements to prevent the plant shutting down. It also helps root absorption under stressful conditions.
In oilseed rape, CalFlux is added as well to limit pod abortion. Using it in oilseed rape allows the plant to draw on the CalFlux source of calcium, using extremely clever technology that keeps the calcium in the flowering area of the plant, and under stressful conditions the plant draws on this source of calcium instead of the new growth.
“This in turn limits pod abortion, evens up seed size and strengthens the oilseed rape pods.”
Tim explains that his approach is specifically aimed at productivity, and in a tough year, where crops were under a lot of water stress, Bionature products performed under pressure.
“We had 650mm of water between September 1, 2019, to March 1, 2020, on the farm, which is in the Lincolnshire Wolds, and the crops maintained greening later into the season, despite this excess water and lack of light.”
