Nick Rowsell - West Stoke Farm, Winchester

Flash grower

Nick Rowsell runs his family farm at Stoke Charity, near Winchester. The tenancy of the farm was taken over by his grandfather in 1986 and the family continued to rent the 395 hectares until 2006 when the land was purchased. Today the farm rents an additional 121ha and contract farms 1214 ha. Mr Rowsell’s role is to manage a team of farm workers and oversee the general running of the farm. The farm ranges between 75-125 metres above sea level. Nick grows a range of crops which include winter oilseed rape, winter wheat, winter and spring barley, poppies, oats and rye.
 

This year the farm is growing 35ha of Flash , which was drilled on the 28th August, at a sowing rate of 3.2kg per hectare, with a target population of between 50 - 60 plants per m². The soil which the Flash was drilled into was clay capped chalk ‘which made a very nice seed bed’ said Mr Rowsell.
Before drilling, the land was spread with poultry manure, disced with a Simba Express, pressed and drilled three days later. The previous crop was spring barley. Mr Rowsell tries to run as wide as possible rotation with rape being planted in a 1 in 5 or 6 year rotation.
 

Prior to drilling an application of glyphosate was put onto the crop on the 25th August after rolling, and 5 kg of slug pellets were applied the day after drilling.
The weather at drilling was very dry, the crop didn’t have any rain until 1st September when it received 2½mm. On 14th of September ½ a litre of Pilot and 90mm of Opti-Boron and ½ litre of Uventus were applied to the crop.

Real improvements in establishment were seen when the crop received 11mm of rain on 15th September. There have been no disease or pest problems present in the crop so far. The crop looks lush and thick, so a PGR may be applied in the next couple of weeks to prevent it from getting too tall.
The main reason why Flash was chosen was because of it’s vigour in the Spring as well as its obvious yield advantage and high oil content.