2023-05-31, sow +54 days, 424 degree-days_base3, 28.8 mm rainfall. DEVELOPMENT We’ve still not had much rain. There was a very handy 6 mm last Tuesday. Modal development stage is probably BBCH20, if that exists. Unfortunately an accurate canopy cover figure is not possible as the drone mission attempted on 24 May had to be aborted…
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2023-05-16. sow +39 days, 160 degree-days_base3, 19.4mm rainfall. NO RAIN The last rain we had was three weeks ago. There is some forecast for tonight, but it feels pretty uncertain given it will come from storm activity i.e very hit and miss: we got 5 mm in about 15 minutes in Malmö yesterday with a…
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2023-05-02. sow +25 days, 141 degree-days_base3, 19.4mm rainfall. DEVELOPMENT The modal stage of development is probably BBCH11 – first pair of leaves visible but not unfolded. The cold has slowed things down. My plant count came in at 226, 4.52 per meter, 94 167 plants/ ha. BUT… …now that it is very easy to see…
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2023-04-24. sow +17 days, 101 degree-days_base3, 19.0mm rainfall. WEEDS We have weeds. We also have moist soil and a little rain in the forecast. This means the products that require moisture (Centium, Tanaris, Goltix) will be proper effective. Also in the forecast is a fair bit of cloud and cooler weather. This means the products…
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2023-04-18. sow +11 days, 56 degree-days_base3, 15mm rainfall. EMERGENCE It is difficult to put a number on it, but it is definitely >0%. The majority of the field is still bare soil, but there are also many areas with rows of visible cotyledons (BBCH09). A few digs found plants in various stages of development. All…
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EARLY CHECK (2023-04-14, sow +7 days, 30 degree-days_base3, 15mm rain) Some signs of life. Unfortunately, some of that life is mice. The further “up the hill” (i.e to the west/ towards the trial site) I went, the more life there was. I would guess that the median growth stage was BBCH02-03 (pellet swollen, on the…
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SUMMARY: SOIL PREPARATION: The field was ploughed in Autumn 2022, and harrowed twice prior to sowing (5 and 6 April). No autumn 2022 harrowing was done as by the time I realised that this was something that I should ask for, it was way too wet. FERTILISATION: ProBeta (15-3.6-8-+), broadcast 5 April 2023. The actual…
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The Pavitt taxonomy of invention in industry places agriculture is the bucket of “supplier dominated”. That is, most of the technological improvements in the sector come from the suppliers of the inputs (seed firms, fert firms, machinery firms, etc). This seems reasonable, given R&D is an expensive and risky game. Most farmers can neither afford…
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The 2023 sugar beet crop will be in the middle field on the southern block. It is ca 6.7 ha. Our goal with the crop at Ädelholm is to produce something very ‘standard’. There are always experiments in these fields, so we need to think of that first. All the agricultural activity on Ädelholm is…
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“Best practice” is an appealing concept. It suggests a solution to the question of how something should be done, based on results of research and experience (Bardach and Patashnik, 2016, Part IV). This appeal means it is also a commonly heard term. But it is not without criticism. There is ambiguity in the term. To…
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