Real Road Trip 2019 – Ginette Filson

Ginette Filson is a third-generation farmer of Vyne Farm and has been an independent agronomist since 2002. Her technical expertise drives her to be heavily immersed with all aspects of her cropping cycle from varietal selection to harvest management.

This year she is growing wheat, potatoes, winter beans, spring beans, winter barley, spring barley and oats. Ginette’s wheat programme for 2019 has been varied, including a litre of Adexar, a litre of Ascra and a combination of Adexar and Tracker and on her trial field she has used a litre of Ascra at T1 against the BASF programme. In terms of disease pressure, she finds septoria and rust the most challenging.

This 688ha farm is renowned for producing high yields, however Ginette does find black-grass an issue and admits it is becoming increasingly challenging to work with in minimal areas where she has grown potatoes previously. She closely monitors drilling and cultivating times and finds rotation helps to make the weeds more manageable. Last year Ginette introduced oats to her rotation which she finds work well but only in certain areas. She also uses oilseed rape as a break crop and is particularly pleased with how this year’s crop is looking although does believe “It is becoming increasingly risky to grow and going forward it is going to be difficult but I think Clearfield could be part of the solution“

Involved in the Real Results Circle since its launch in 2017, she finds the data now crucial for her growing decisions across the farm. “It’s interesting to try new products and push a field to its maximal potential.“

She aims to always work towards enhancing her farm and those that she works with and does not believe in complacency or being fully content. Improvement is the key to success according to Ginette.