Lockhart and Wiseman’s crop husbandry including grassland

485 Pages·2002·3.492 MB·English

by  Steve Finch

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Lockhart & Wiseman’s
crop husbandry
including grassland
Eighth edition
H. J. S. Finch, A. M. Samuel and G. P. F. Lane
W
OODHEAD PUBLISHING LIMITED
Cambridge England
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Published by Woodhead Publishing Limited
Abington Hall,Abington
Cambridge CB1 6AH
England
www.woodhead-publishing-com
First edition 1966 Pergamon Press Ltd
Second edition 1970
Third edition 1975
Reprinted 1976
Fourth edition 1978
Reprinted with additions 1980
Fifth edition 1983
Reprinted 1984
Sixth edition 1988
Seventh edition 1993
Reprinted 2000 Woodhead Publishing Ltd by agreement with Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd
Eighth edition 2002 Woodhead Publishing Ltd
©1993,J A R Lockhart,A J L Wiseman,H J S Finch and A M Samuel
©2002,Woodhead Publishing Limited
The authors have asserted their moral rights
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Foreword
Since the last edition of this book was published, British agriculture has seen
the start of what can almost be described as a revolution – certainly radical
changes in the industry are now developing. It is probably true to say that,
apart from the fact that the country is importing more of its food requirements,
another important reason is a growing realisation that the countryside has a
multi-purpose use–farming, conservation (wildlife and protection of the
environment) and tourism. It is difficult to ignore the fact that tourism in the
countryside is worth annually about £12 billion (2001) which compares with
farm income in the same year of £2 billion – a lower than anticipated figure
because of low cereal yields and prices,and the devastating effects of foot and
mouth disease. But if agriculture is no longer the main industry in our rural
areas,it remains true that prosperous farming does mean,in the main,an attractive
countryside – a fact which should find favour with conservationists and those
who visit the countryside for recreation.
The 1990s (particularly the second half) saw a catastrophic downturn in
farm income as a result of the strong pound and the industry – through the
EU’s Common Agricultural Policy – starting to line itself up with world prices
and,at the same time,making a definitive move towards a more environmental
approach to farming. In this last context yield can no longer be the sole motive
in obtaining an economic return; there are other criteria,not the least of which
is one that is compatible with its effect on the environment in its widest context.
More attention will certainly be paid to this in the future, and its importance
is underlined in this new edition. However,yield,crop economy,conservation
and other factors,important and relevant as they are in this new century,mean
little in today’s climate without good husbandry. As previously, particular
attention has been given to the basic factors concerned with growing the crop
but, as mentioned, more reference is now made to crop economy.
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xii Foreword
Steve Finch, Senior Lecturer in Crop Production at the Royal Agricultural
College,and Alison Samuel,Senior Associate Lecturer from the University of
Plymouth,Department of Agriculture and Food Studies,Seale-Hayne Campus,
have now been joined by Gerry Lane, Principal Lecturer in Crop Production
at the Royal Agricultural College as the main authors of this new edition.
The revision of Part 1 – Conditions for Crop Growth – has been the
responsibility of Steve Finch for Plants,Fertilisers and Manures,Climate and
Weather. This last chapter has been radically changed now that there is more
awareness of the possible new pattern of climate and its effect on crop growth.
Alison Samuel has written the chapters on Soils and Soil Management,Weeds,
Pests and Plant Diseases. The pests and diseases tables,which in previous editions
concluded the one chapter on these aspects of crop production,have now been
placed at the end of the now two respective chapters. This should make for
easier reading. The increasing problem of resistance to pesticides is discussed
in some detail.
In Part 2–Crop Husbandry Techniques–Steve Finch is responsible for the
chapter on Cropping Techniques whilst Integrated Crop Management is written
by Keith Chaney,Principal Lecturer and Head of Crops Group,Harper Adams
University College. This,in some depth,discusses intensive rotational cropping,
certainly a move away from continuous cereal growing which was considered
an important aspect of arable cropping in earlier editions of this book.
As a practising organic farmer,Alison Samuel has enlarged on this subject
which now merits a chapter on its own. This must be considered relevant. In
2000 there were 420000 hectares (2.3% of total UK farm land) in organic and
in conversion land–an increase of 72% from 1999. Gerry Lane deals with the
specialised subject of seed production, concluding this section of the book.
Part 3 concerns the management of the individual crops,with Alison Samuel,
as in the previous edition, updating cereals, and Steve Finch root crops. The
abolition of potato quotas and its implications are discussed. Gerry Lane has
written the chapter on forage crops,whilst Richard Baldwin,Senior Lecturer,
Pershore College is responsible for Fresh Harvested Crops (vegetable production
on farms). Rhys Davies, Senior Lecturer in Crop Production, Harper Adams
University College has written Combinable Break Crops; these are even more
relevant with the continuing decline in returns from the cereal crop.
In Part 4 Gerry Lane has taken over all aspects of my chapters on Grassland
and Grass Conservation. As well as the husbandry and management of the crop,
a re-evaluation of the grass and grass/legume crops is undertaken and the central
role they can play in livestock farming is discussed.
Jim Lockhart retired before the Seventh edition; I am now retired and so all
the technical input for this edition is the responsibility of the aforementioned
authors, and this we are more than glad to acknowledge. Colleagues of theirs
who have given helpful advice are also thanked, particularly Diddie Sims
assisting Alison Samuel; Sarah Cook of ADAS,Boxworth for help in compiling
the section on sunflowers. John Conway,Paul Davies and Tom Overbury from
the Royal Agricultural College should also be especially mentioned.
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Foreword xiii
I do speak for the authors in thanking Francis Dodds,our Editor at Woodhead
Publishing; his patience in dealing with them is almost beyond human
comprehension! He had a trying time but was invariably polite and amazingly
was able to keep the preparation up to schedule. He certainly deserves our
thanks.
Tony Wiseman
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Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part 1 Conditions for crop growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Plant physiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Plant groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Structure of the seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 Plant structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 Plant requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6 Legumes and nitrogen fixation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.7 The control of plant growth and development . . . . . . . 24
1.8 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2 Soils and soil management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.1 Soil formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2 Other factors in soil formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.3 The physical make-up of soil and its effect on
plant growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Soil fertility and productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.5 Farm soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.6 Soil improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3 Fertilisers and manures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.1 Nutrients required by crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.2 Trace elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.3 Units of plant food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4 Straight fertilisers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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3.5 Compound fertilisers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.6 Application of fertilisers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.7 Organic manures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.8 Residual values of fertilisers and manures. . . . . . . . . . 77
3.9 Fertilisers and the environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4 Climate and weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2 Solar radiation and rainfall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.3 Air and soil temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.4 Other aspects of climate and weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.5 Climate change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5 Weeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.1 The impact of weeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.2 Weed types and identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.3 Control of weeds: general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.4 Weed control in cereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.5 Weed control in other combinable crops . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.6 Weed control in root crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.7 Weed control in grassland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.8 Spraying with herbicides: precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.9 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
6 Pests of farm crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.1 Insects and nematodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.2 Other pests of crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.3 Types of pest damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
6.4 Methods of pest control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.5 Classification of pesticides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
7 Diseases of farm crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.1 Introduction to plant disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7.2 Types of damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
7.3 Some important types of pathogens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.4 Other disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.5 The control of plant diseases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
7.6 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Part 2 Crop husbandry techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
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Contents vii
8 Cropping techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.1 Drainage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
8.2 Irrigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
8.3 Warping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
8.4 Claying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
8.5 Tillage and cultivations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
8.6 Control of weeds by cultivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.7 Crop management: key issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.8 Break crops and crop rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.9 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
9 Integrated crop management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
9.2 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
9.3 Economics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
9.4 Crop rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
9.5 Soil management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
9.6 Crop nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
9.7 Crop protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
9.8 Food quality and safety in the food chain . . . . . . . . . . 217
9.9 Wildlife and conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
9.10 Crop assurance schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
9.11 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
10 Organic crop husbandry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
10.1 Organic farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
10.2 Achieving organic status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
10.3 Rotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
10.4 Soil and plant nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
10.5 Weed control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
10.6 Disease control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
10.7 Pest control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
10.8 Husbandry examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
10.9 Other systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
10.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
11 Plant breeding and seed production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
11.2 Plant breeding methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
11.3 Target traits in breeding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
11.4 Choosing the right variety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
11.5 Seed quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
11.6 Seed production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
11.7 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
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Part 3 The management of individual crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12 Cereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
12.2 Grain quality in cereals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
12.3 Cereal growth and yield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
12.4 Harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
12.5 Grain-drying methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
12.6 Moist grain storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
12.7 Cereal straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
12.8 Wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
12.9 Durum wheat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
12.10 Barley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
12.11 Oats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
12.12 Rye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
12.13 Triticale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
12.14 Maize for grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
12.15 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
13 Root crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
13.1 Potatoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
13.2 Sugar beet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
13.3 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
14 Fresh harvested crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
14.1 Vegetable production on farms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
14.2 Harvested fresh peas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
14.3 Broad beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
14.4 Green beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
14.5 Carrots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
14.6 Bulb onions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
14.7 Cabbages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
14.8 Brussels sprouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
14.9 Swedes (for the domestic market) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
14.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
15 Forage crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
15.1 Crops grown for their yield of roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
15.2 Crops grown for grazing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
15.3 Crops grown for ensiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
15.4 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
16 Combinable break crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
16.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
16.2 Oilseed rape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368