RevYstories: Scott Campbell
We will be hearing more in-depth from UK growers about their farming experiences, as they share their stories of using Revystar® XE.
Find out more about Scott Campbell and follow his RevYstory throughout the upcoming season below.
About Scott
Scott Campbell is the 4th generation of Campbells farming at Kirkton of Kinellar in Aberdeenshire, the main steading on the 415 ha arable cropping enterprise. The business is split into three roughly similar sized holdings and farmed in partnership with his father and uncle.
Spring barley is his main crop with around 200 ha grown each season for malting, split between different varieties at each holding to spread risk. Winter wheat and oilseed rape make up around a third of his total cropped area, with wheat grown for milling, distilling and feed. Around 22 ha of green manure is grown as part of his existing Agri-Environmental Climate Scheme (AECS), which is sown in May and mulched in August making a good entry for winter wheat.
Winter barley has been dropped in favour of winter oats, which with its later harvest gives around three weeks longer to concentrate on the family’s other enterprise, an excavation business, at a peak time in the summer.
With fertiliser costs soaring, Scott is trying to minimise his risk and exposure to these prices by purchasing anaerobic digestate alongside an existing straw for muck deal.
“All our land at Kirkton and Aquherton gets muck or digestate at least once every four years. The green manure also saves us 20-25% on bagged fertiliser, and we’re also trying some autumn sown cover crops to keep the nutrients in the soil.”
The cover crops are grazed by sheep from local young farmers; encouraging the next generation is important to Scott and he also hosts student visits, practical projects and trials from SRUC Craibstone.
Scott has been involved in the Real Results Circle for two years. He said, “What’s so good about the Real Results is having the opportunity to trial a new product on your farm and in your soil, in a field that you are in every day and know how it can perform. It’s not looking at trial data from 200 miles away.”
Fungicide spend in Scotland does tend to be higher than further south. The wheat varieties with excellent septoria resistance, such as KWS Extase, haven’t suited Scotland, so he grows LG Skyscraper, KWS Lili and Elicit, with a small area this year of RGT Saki. None of them have Septoria resistance ratings much above a five on the SRUC Recommended List, which makes timing crucial in a climate that produces around 800mm of rain a year.
What’s happening on Scott’s Farm?
“This season the crops again have got great potential, they’ve come through the winter well and are looking good. I think potentially yields could be farm average or above. There’s not much to see in terms of disease,” Scott said.
Liquid fertiliser has been applied, taking care to avoid frosts and digestate has been applied, with ploughing well underway. The oilseed rape has suffered a small amount of pigeon damage and pigeons continue to be chased off.
Revystar® XE contains Revysol® (mefentrifluconazole) and Xemium® (fluxapyroxad). ElatusTM Era contains benzovindiflupyr and prothioconazole. Arizona® contains Folpet.
Revystar® XE, Revysol® and Xemium® are registered trademarks of BASF. All other brand names used are Trademarks of other manufacturers in when proprietary rights may exist.