Ollie Stobo runs a 174ha arable farm near Woodstock in Oxfordshire, comprising of owned and tenanted land – with the farm having been in the Stobo family since 1921.
The land is made up primarily of Grade 2 stoney brash and crops are established via low disturbance, minimum tillage cultivations.
The cropping plan is based on a four-year rotation made up of two years of winter wheat, spring barley and finally a break crop of either peas or spring oats. Variety wise, Ollie grows Extase, Palladium and Skyfall, with the aim of selling into milling markets, and Laureat barley for malting.
He also uses cover cropping, and 15% of the farm is dedicated to two stewardship agreements, with Ollie being part of the SFI 23 pilot, and going onto the extended offering next year.
In this blog, we hear about Ollie’s grassweed challenges and how he’s looking forward to being a part of the Isoflex™ active Grower Group.
What is your biggest grassweed problem?
Blackgrass is our main issue. That said, while I have places where blackgrass could be better, we’re a lot better off than a lot of people. Some areas are very clean, but on the rest of the farm we do have our bad years. We see most of the issues in our second wheats.
We have a few issues with ryegrass, too, but again this is not too bad compared with others.
What is your standard programme for controlling blackgrass?
Our main approach comes via cultural methods. We use low disturbance, minimum tillage to establish crops and then sheep come in to graze the cover crops which we find helps with the weed management too.
Chemistry-wise, we typically do six passes – desiccation, pre-emergence, spring herbicides, nutrition and then finally an ear wash.
I’m always looking to use hotter chemistry to tackle our weed issues, and we carry out lots of different trials on farm, so I am looking forward to seeing how the FMC herbicides perform.
Ollie is currently trialling FMC’s new Isoflex® active herbicide and is looking forward to seeing the results and how it can enhance the current approach.