Blog by Alli Grundy 17 August 2022

View original blog on LinkedIn here

It’s a hectic time for farmers. This year’s early harvest means growers around the country are very busy, with some already near the end of harvest and others still in the thick of it. In fact, most will already be working with their agronomists and advisors on next year’s plan and what they can learn from this year’s harvest to improve for next year.

Grain analysis is a valuable tool in understanding the impact of the season. It helps gauge how well the crop did, and where growers can make adjustments for the following year to improve productivity and yield. It also helps us justify nutrient decision making and save money on expensive fertilisers where they are not required. This year-on-year learning process is made a lot easier with reliable, accurate results generated by analysis undertaken by a specialist laboratory.

To learn more about the importance of grain analysis, read my first blog on GrainCheck here. It’s a hectic time for farmers. This year’s early harvest means growers around the country are very busy, with some already near the end of harvest and others still in the thick of it. In fact, most will already be working with their agronomists and advisors on next year’s plan and what they can learn from this year’s harvest to improve for next year.

Grain analysis is a valuable tool in understanding the impact of the season. It helps gauge how well the crop did, and where growers can make adjustments for the following year to improve productivity and yield. It also helps us justify nutrient decision making and save money on expensive fertilisers where they are not required. This year-on-year learning process is made a lot easier with reliable, accurate results generated by analysis undertaken by a specialist laboratory.

To learn more about the importance of grain analysis, read my first blog on GrainCheck here. 

Reaping the rewards of value-added insight

One farmer who is seeing the benefit of grain analysis after harvest is Simon Beddows, Farm Manager at Coppid Farming Enterprises LLP. Simon manages 1000 hectares (ha) of combinable crops and forage maize in South Oxfordshire. A total of 300ha of the group 1 milling varieties Zyatt and Skyfall are grown. Typically, the crop receives 260kg/ha N and 35-40kg/ha SO3 across the wheat area. The farm has a very diverse collection of soil types, from clay cap to gravel, chalk and alluvial, all of which impacts on yield potential and grain quality. The average milling wheat yield is 8t/ha but it does vary depending on the soil type.

There is also a huge variation in soil P and K levels across the farm. Soil indices range from index 1 to 5 and are influenced by soil type. Some fields have super high soil P indices and that is a legacy of previous long term biosolid applications.

The farm also has a muck for straw arrangement with a neighbouring farmer which helps to retain organic matter levels and support nutrient cycling. The muck rotates around the farm ahead of forage maize which precedes the milling wheat crop in the rotation. He also commits nearly 100ha to HLS and ELS environmental schemes, pledging to manage his land in ways that protect and enhance the environment and wildlife.

At harvest 2021, Simon decided to utilise NRM’s grain analysis service, GrainCheck, to understand how well his milling crops had performed and if they had received adequate nutrition during the growing season.

GrainCheck measures the nutrient levels in grain which helps farmers calculate the actual crop offtake at harvest and, when used alongside soil analysis and soil mineral nitrogen analysis, provides information for planning next season’s nutrient inputs. It is suitable for cereals, oilseeds, and pulses, and NRM provides sample kits contain everything needed to place an analysis order. Results are presented in an easy-to-understand format, showing the dry matter nutrient content of the sample against the critical nutrient content the grain should ideally contain. Results can be converted into nutrient offtake in kg per ha using our online calculator.

As Simon and his team have used NRM’s soil sampling and analysis services for many years, they decided to give GrainCheck a go. Here’s how it went.

How they did it

Simon sent NRM a composite sample of grain representing several fields of similar characteristics. Every trailer load from each field is sampled before being stored. The sample was then packaged, sent to the lab and analysed for all the major and micro plant nutrients.

Simon was pleased with his results, which were easy to interpret due to the traffic light system. The system is in place to help farmers and advisors quickly identify which elements were sufficiently supplied and those that were either undersupplied or not recovered by the crop during the growing season. 

“The grain check report is easy to understand because it compares the analytical value against the critical nutrient value that the grain should contain if it has received and recovered the correct nutrition,” said Simon. “Using the report’s traffic light system, we got two reds and 10 greens which, after the season we had, wasn’t too bad. Even so, we clearly had lessons to learn for the 2022 season.”

Results are compared to ADAS critical values that have been derived from research over many years. These levels suggest with reasonable certainty whether a crop has received adequate nutrition for optimal crop productivity. These values give farmers and advisors an effective benchmark to check how well their crops have done within season, between seasons, and compared to the national guidance in RB209. Recently the critical value for phosphate has been revised due to research funded by AHDB and RB209 was updated to reflect the new research. To learn more, click here: Grain nutrient analysis and its role in management | AHDB.

Simon’s results show that his grain contained good levels of most of the macro and micronutrients, where there is some certainty of the critical values being reliable. The results also indicated that phosphorus (P) nutrition was just less than adequate, which could be due to a number of factors such as soil type and pH, low soil index, poor crop rooting, soil structure, insufficient P fertiliser, or reduced supply of P contained in other applied materials.

On the other hand, the nitrogen (N) concentration measured in the grain was above adequate for milling, indicating an oversupply of N from inputs and/or from the soil. Interestingly, the N:S ratio, indicating if sulphur nutrition was adequate compared to nitrogen, was on the low side. The research indicates that N should be no more than 17 times greater than sulphur in the grain. If it is, it suggests that the crop has been undersupplied or unable to capture enough sulphur for adequate nutrition. Sulphur is critical for milling wheat crops because it enables the concentration of sulphur-containing amino acids that are important for bread making characteristics, such as loaf volume and crumb structure.

To understand the crops’ actual nutrient offtakes, Simon made use of NRM's updated GrainCheck Calculator. You can view it here: Start Grain Check - NRM.

One reason to look at grain data is that it can, in turn, enable actual nitrogen, phosphate, potash and magnesium crop offtakes to be calculated. This is particularly useful when planning fertiliser and organic applications. Understanding nutrient offtakes enables much better management of soil indices and ensures that nutrients are being replaced. Higher yields will increase nutrient offtake. Therefore, to maintain soil at maintenance index 2, you’ll need to replace more than if the crop was lower yielding.

Where are they now?

In response to his results and the super high fertiliser prices, Simon adapted his crop nitrogen plan for the 2022 season.

“It was clear from the results that nitrogen was the key nutrient that was oversupplied,” said Simon. “So, now there was agronomic scope and an economic drive to review our nitrogen applications. I cut back from our traditional milling wheat rate of 260kg N/ha and applied lower rates, between 180 to 200kg N/ha. For fields which received the farmyard manure, I experimented and reduced the rate further to 150kg N/ha.”

Simon also suspected that the N:S ratio was out of kilter due to the high grain nitrogen level. This could have been diluting the sulphur concentration in the grain.

Simon intends to use GrainCheck on this year’s harvest to review the interaction of the reduced nitrogen rates on grain quality and use the data to support his nitrogen planning for 2023.

“This year I have gathered samples from a number of individual fields which have received the lower rates of nitrogen,” he continued. “I am very keen to understand how the crop has responded to those rates and the impact on grain protein. I also intend to introduce livestock back onto the farm to help build more resilience into the farm system. Hopefully this will help retain more nutrients in the system and support soil organic matter levels for better crops next year and into the future.”

Ultimately, analysis allowed Simon a retrospective review of how his crops responded to the inputs they received and indicated where nutrient recoveries were less or more than adequate.

With harvest in more than full swing, now is the time to plan the collection of grain samples. For more information or to arrange analysis, speak with your agronomist or contact NRM directly.