The third meeting of the CNC East group took place on 20th May in Nottinghamshire and was attended by six of the CNC members. During the meeting, the group visited two of the field trials hosted by farmers within the club.
Each of the farmers within the group has selected a winter wheat field in which they have designated an area (a few tramlines/portion of the field) managed using a suite of tools to inform their nutrient decision-making. This is the ‘NUTRI-CHECK approach’. The rest of the field has been managed using their standard practice. The group also decided to leave a small area of each field (at least 18m wide x 50m long) untreated with Nitrogen. This ‘NIL N’ area will be used to calculate Nitrogen Use Efficiency, N uptake efficiency, N fertiliser uptake efficiency, and N utilisation efficiency for both the farm standard approach and the NUTRI-CHECK approach.
The group visited two of the trial fields (varieties Champion and Skyfall) to review the nutrient management and agronomy of the trials. The group discussed leaf tissue test and Yara N tester results for the trial fields and how this data should/could be interpreted and used to inform nutrient inputs and management. The group has agreed to carry out grain nutrient analysis at harvest as a tool to help review their nutrient management.
