Communication and professional exchange: HORSCH Seminars 2024
After the pandemic-related break, the HORSCH Seminars took place face to face again this year for the first time since 2019. The participants in Linstow and Schwandorf were offered a varied programme with interesting and up-to-date specialist presentations. The traditional social evening took place on the evening before the seminar in Schwandorf.
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer
The first speaker in Linstow was Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer from the HSWT Triesdorf with his speech about “Weed management in cereals – mechanical, chemical and combined strategies”. At the beginning, he emphasised that there is no universal solution to problem weeds. Currently, particularly black grass is a major issue. We have to ask ourselves what strategies are required to keep it within an acceptable limit. The objective is to achieve the highest possible control success rate of well over 90 % as with a lower rate weed pressure increases. The resulting question is how to integrate this into an arable concept. The available strategies are chemical plant protection as well as an arable approach. Chemical plant protection is highly efficient against weeds. This is why in the conventional sector the approach is almost entirely chemical. However, it still is important to optimise chemical plant protection, especially with regard to resistance.
During his speech, he presented different strategies and experiences. He showed examples of an adapted tillage strategy and, furthermore, a rotation optimised for weed control because without a change it is hardly possible to contain the weed as chemical plant protection is subject to selection pressure. In practice, the success of the weed control strategy was noticeable if tillage was not the same every year, i.e. alternating between shallow and deep tillage to create different emergence conditions. With regard to rotation, Prof. Dr. Bauer recommends integrating spring crops and practicing a sensible catch crop cultivation. He finally suggested to take the general conditions for the use of our soil herbicides into account and not to limit the success of foliar-active herbicides by application errors.
Theo Leeb
Theo Leeb began his speech about “State-of-the-art fertilisation and plant protection technology – what is ready for practical use?” by discussing some political decisions that were taken in the recent past, like the extension of the use of glyphosate for another ten years, the debate about the Green Deal – in particular the failure in the crop care sector and the originally planned reduction targets – as well as new regulations in the CRISPR/Cas sector. Sooner or later, these decisions will influence the future direction and developments. Despite the failure of the obligatory crop care agent reduction, the saving of operating resources still is an important objective.
Source: @agrarluke
In this respect, SpotSpraying is a topic that has to be dealt with actively. You have to differentiate between two methods: “Green-in-Green” (green weed is recognised in a green population) and “Green-in-Brown” (green corresponds to the plant and brown to the soil. All areas recognised as green are sprayed). There are two methods within each of these two systems. The online method where cameras and the evaluation are mounted directly on the sprayer and the offline method where drones create an application map before the treatment which is then transferred to the machine in a second step.
AI-based methods are used for evaluation, especially for the Green-in-Green detection. The major challenge is to provide enough suitable image material to train the AI algorithms. In addition, with the offline method, it is important to keep the time between the surveying flight and the application as short as possible. “It is our objective to offer our own SpotSpraying system in the future”, Theo Leeb looks ahead.
With the pneumatic fertiliser spreader Xeric, HORSCH LEEB now has also entered the field of solid fertiliser technology. The development was based on the requirements and wishes of the farmers. The main advantage of this concept is the precise distribution accuracy of a wide range of different fertilisers.
Ferenc Kornis
Ferenc Kornis (N.U. Agrar GmbH) spoke about the topic “Dealing with insects in rapeseed & strategies for rapeseed cultivation 2024”. Because of the climate change, it gets warmer in certain stages – a fact that increases the problems. Weevils and flea beetles are the two biggest culprits in rapeseed. In his opinion, there are two options to fight the flea beetle: pyrethroids and Minecto.
Source: @agrarluke
The disadvantage of pyrethroids, however, is that they often have largely degraded after four days because of the UV radiation and, thus, no longer provide sufficient protection. At the moment, the current burden is on the pyrethroids which is why resistances are inevitable. To contain the flea beetle, we need strong individual plants and have to prevent the flea beetle from depositing eggs. For weevils it is crucial to place the yellow bowls in the field at an early stage, even at the end of October, to prevent being taken by surprise. Compared to the flea beetle and the weevil, the blossom rape beetle has become harmless in the meantime and normally a treatment is not required.
In 2024, rapeseed shows a very strong nitrogen depletion. The nitrogen deficiency can be recognised by the fact that the leaves turn purple as the nitrogen is transported from the old leaves to the young ones. Because of the climate change, autumns become longer and longer and as a result the plants grow in the normally vegetation-free phase. This increases the probability that the rapeseed starves and drops its leaves. As a result, the buds suffer. The summary: rapeseed pests benefit from the climate change. Without insecticides, it could become difficult for rapeseed cultivation in the future as yield losses because of insect damage will increase.
Philipp Horsch
The final speech in Linstow was given by Philipp Horsch about “Perfect seed embedding – a challenge for the seed coulters”. The main issue in arable farming is the fact that we reach the yield limits and that we have to face challenges like climate change or noxious insects. This raises the question which levers remain for the future.
While the focus, especially of our agricultural farms, was on the conflicting areas of yield maximisation and cost optimisation, it now is on yield optimisation. In the past 50 years, yields increased, and precision increased significantly. So where do we stand in the sector of crop cultivation? If we consider different factors like distribution in the standing area, singulation, seed depth and embedding, it always comes down to precision. With regard to a more precise embedding and depth placement, the double disc coulter was a milestone in the seeding sector. The objective of seeding is an even emergence to create optimum starting conditions for every plant.
The new HORSCH Solus combines the topics depth precision, perfect and comprehensive embedding due to depth control rolls that are mounted at both sides. In addition to the Solus approach, we also deal with the ParaDisc Plus coulter. In this case, HORSCH tries to implement a system in a double disc coulter – for perfect seeding and for achieving utmost operational reliability in wet conditions with the lowest possible effort for changing the coulters. The objective is to design a seed coulter that combines utmost precision with maximum operational reliability to increase precision even for universal seed drills. HORSCH still offers a wide variety of seed coulters for the precise placement of the seed to cope with different conditions. Today, there are seven different coulter options in the disc coulter sector alone. This variety allows for achieving utmost precision in any conditions all over the world. “We constantly work on adding precising-enhancing elements to the various coulter types.”
Dr. Sabine Andert
Dr. Sabine Andert (head of the Institute for Plant Protection at the JKI) opened the seminar in Schwandorf with her speech “Is ryegrass the new black grass?” This question is highly topical and has become more and more explosive in the past two to three years as it spreads to an increasing extent in Germany. Ryegrass is an important part of ley rotations, especially in regions with a high share of field forage cultivation. If the grass is not regulated consistently, it can lead to enormous yield reductions. Studies have shown that already a density of 20 plants per square meter leads to a considerable drop in yield. Although the grass prefers eutrophic sites, they can also establish at low-yield sites. Ryegrass is currently turning into a leading weed. While the life cycle of black grass is annual, some ryegrasses are perennial. Ryegrass also does not have a first or second emergence wave or a main germination period which is a major challenge with regard to the timing of the control measures. This means that the grass can germinate during the entire vegetation period and the seed potential is significantly higher than with black grass. Among others, Dr. Sabine Andert quotes high shares of winter crops in the rotations as well as milder winters as the reasons for the increasing occurrence. In her opinion, weed control has to adapt to this situation and realign. This requires more complex rotations and comprehensive approaches at farm level. An effective countermeasure is, for example, adapted tillage in the rotation to incorporate the ryegrass seeds deeply as they tend to germinate from very shallow soil layers.
Prof. Dr. Dr. Urs Niggli
Prof. Dr. Dr. Niggli is the head of the Institute of Agroecology. The focus of his speech was on the question “What kind of agriculture will feed the world?” The background of this question is the enormous population growth to almost eight billion people. This results in global challenges with regard to nutrition.
The current development and productivity as well as the fact that we can feed so many people is due to the green revolution. Moreover, since the 1960s we have been managing to keep the area of arable land relatively stable. Anything else would be an “ecological disaster” as arable farming is a limited resource. Farming has to be sustainable but productive and the existing natural systems have to be protected from being converted for food production. Niggli presented some solutions for these challenges. In his opinion, the best solution is sufficiency. This means less waste production, less overnutrition or malnutrition and less meat production. Therefore, a trend reversal towards a sensible diet is required. However, a merely vegan scenario will not prevail. Prof. Dr. Dr. Niggli also believes that organic farming (in the global scheme of things) will not be very relevant to the global food security because of the yield differences compared to conventional production and of the lower yield stability.
Challenges that have to be overcome include for example the reduction of chemical plant protection agents. Digitisation and precision farming can contribute to this – and in this respect state-of-the-art machines are essential. The plant breeding sector, too, can contribute if the best breeding methods are used in a targeted way to reduce chemicals in agriculture.
So how do we feed people? In the future, we will have to use higher shares of plant-based proteins and halve meat consumption. We also have to at least halve the waste of food and focus on sustainable farming.
Johannes Bokern
Johannes Bokern works as a consultant at the GBB and, in his speech, dealt with the topic economics, more precisely he discussed which cultivation intensity makes sense from an economic point of view. This issue is extremely complex as there are many details farms have to deal with in their day-to-day business. First of all, it is an individual decision to find the right production program and the perfect cultivation intensity for the farm.
The law of the diminishing growth of earnings says that the yield increases to a certain point. Beyond this point, the previous factor inputs result in yield disadvantages which mean that the marginal yield continues to decline with the additional factor input. Optimum intensity defines when exactly the additionally achieved yield and the costs incurred are equal. At this point in time, there is an economic optimum. However, several restrictions often make it impossible to achieve this economic optimum. Thus, high costs for labour and machines, for example, prevent that high net yields are achieved. They catapulted upwards by around 30 % in the past years. The majority consists of diesel price increases and higher interest rates. Especially the interest rate factor led to a completely new situation for many farms and, compared to the previous ten years, caused any calculation to totter.
This is why Bokern recommends to always reflect on and question work passes and work intensity. Currently, a lot of farms are reaching their limit with the standard rotation rapeseed, wheat, barley with regard to disease level, but also with regard to the fertiliser regulation and the weed problems. Therefore, farmers have already started to extend their rotation and to include two spring crops. Thus, costs, e.g. for diesel, can be saved while the intensity remains the same. It became apparent that for example omitting entire tillage passes is the biggest lever and provides the biggest saving effect. It is always important to act according to the situation. The own farm concept has to match the circumstances and the personal requirements.
Michael Horsch
The final speaker of the HORSCH Seminar 2024 was Michael Horsch who dealt with the topic “Precision – the even field”. First, he talked about the agronomic experiences gathered on the HORSCH test farm AgroVation in the Czech Republic. When the farm was taken over in 2012, the entire cultivation strategy was converted to Controlled Traffic Farming and the developments were monitored very intensively. The fields became uneven as the tillage direction was always the same. In 2018, the CTF method was mostly abandoned and from then, the soil was cultivated in different directions.
During his presentation, Michael Horsch raised the question where precision actually starts. Short stubbles, an ideal straw distribution and an even field are essential for work quality and all following passes. These three points are the basic elements of precision in any field. It is crucial to harmonise the machines with each other and to adapt them to the individual requirements.
The final stage of precision is the seeding process. Every seed of a plant always looks for the same conditions. The radicle first grows downwards and expects the soil density below the seed to increase. This is essential for a maximum root growth and a successful germination. Especially now, in times of an increasing climate change, it is crucial to establish sound populations.