RevYstories: Richard Budd

About Richard

Richard, of Stevens Farm (Hawkhurst Ltd) in Kent has been back on the family farm for 11 years now, having gained a degree in Botany at Nottingham University and worked in London as a wine broker, specialising in private client investment portfolios. Richard Budd’s business has expanded recently and he is now growing 1200 ha of arable crops from his base at Stevens Farm, Hawkhurst in Kent.

Richard has been involved with Real Results from the beginning. He said, “Trials are essential to my business and understanding where I am in terms of the crops I’m producing. Real Results is probably the most powerful farmer group that an agrochemical company has, with 50 of some of the best farmers in the country wanting to trial and learn about new material. There are also huge benefits to be had from finding out what others are doing differently on their farms and the peer to peer learning that the Real Results facilitates.”

Richard’s crop protection strategy is to eradicate disease or maintain the level of disease in the bottom of the crop, not letting it come up in the crop, protecting the green leaf area. He said, “One thing that the Yield Enhancement Network (YEN) has taught me is green leaf area is King and the longer that you can keep that green area the bigger the yield.”

In terms of environmental measures, Richard has taken areas such as field corners and woodland edges out of production.

Richard's RevYstory

In Richard’s Real Results trial last year the key comparison was at T1.

The trial, in a crop of mid-October drilled KWS Zyatt, after spring beans, compared a tramline treated at T1 with ElatusTM Era (benzovindiflupyr+ prothioconazole) 0.65 l/ha + Arizona® 1l/ha, versus a tramline treated at T1 with Revystar® XE 0.75 l/ha + Arizona® 1l/ha. The sprays at the other timings were comparable between the 2 tramlines: T0 tebuconazole, T2 Revystar® XE + folpet and T3 prothioconazole + tebuconazole .

In July, NDVI images suggested more greening of the areas treated with Revystar® XE at T1 versus the ElatusTM Era tramline and flag leaf assessments done on the 8th of July showed:

·Green leaf area was significantly higher in the Revystar® XE tramline

·Septoria severity was significantly lower in the Revystar® XE tramline

The average measured yield of the field treatment was 11.20 t/ha and the effect of the Revystar® XE T1 treatment was to increase yield by 0.85 t/ha, a statistically significant difference relative to the ElatusTM Era treated crop.

Richard said, “It’s obvious that using a strong T1 fungicide like Revystar® XE, at an appropriate dose, is critical, even if it’s dry and Septoria pressure at T1 is perceived to be very low as it was this year. At best, weather forecasts are accurate for three to four days; they’re certainly not accurate for three to four weeks, so if you have crops with Septoria in them, then you have to treat accordingly.

Although April was cold and dry in Kent, May and June were most definitely not with 190mm of rain, twice the average, across T2 and flowering and grain fill.

Richard said, “Last year the amount of infection out there was just mega . If growers hadn’t put a sensible programme on and hadn’t kept that Septoria or Yellow Rust in the bottom of the crop or eradicated it with the T0 and T1’s then by T2 or T3 they weren’t going to hold onto it.”

What's on Richard's farm?

Richard has 500 ha of wheat in the ground. Drilling started on the 9th of October but was very protracted, with the drill finally put away at the beginning of December. He has Group 1s KWS Zyatt, Crusoe and Skyfall, Group 2 KWS Extase and Group 3 Elicit in the ground.

“There is Septoria already in the crops- they will be treated accordingly. It will certainly be Revystar® XE at T1 and then we will see where we go.”

The high cost of fertiliser has not impacted Richard as he had 500 t of old stock fertiliser and only needed to buy 100 t of nitrogen pre- Christmas to cover his needs for the season.

Richard said, “ Due to the price of nitrogen there is likely to be a lot of low grade milling wheat about this season so my guess is premiums might be pretty healthy. We will definitely be pushing the KWS Zyatt and Crusoe.”

If the weather allows Richard is planning to get back to drilling in February, putting in oats and spring wheat, KWS Chilham.

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