THERE have been a few big crops around this year, but none more so than a world-record breaking crop of peas in Lincolnshire.

A field of LG Stallion blue peas has yielded a record 7.48 tonnes per ha at 15.04% moisture, beating the previous record – also for LG Stallion – by 1.1 tonnes/ha.

Harvested on September 7 at Worlaby Farms, in Lincolnshire, grower Tim Lamyman was delighted with both the yields and quality to come off this year’s pea crop.

“Who would have thought that 2019 would be the year for a world record crop!” he said. “I am absolutely thrilled with the final performance of the peas as they have shown a consistency in biomass through the season – much more so than last year. In places the crop was 6ft tall – and this has obviously translated into yield.”

LG Stallion was selected for high yield potential and good standing ability, and this was the third year that Mr Lamyman has grown the variety, breaking the world record yield in 2017, and having success again with the variety in the very difficult season of 2018 when it yielded 5.6 t/ha at 14.76% moisture.

Peas follow a second wheat in a seven-year rotation which also includes wheats, spring barley and oilseed rape.

Before drilling, the field had two passes with a Lemken Terradisc and finished with a Vaderstad carrier (discs and crumble roller), and then it was rolled with Cambridge rollers the day after drilling.

It was drilled on April 9 using a Vaderstad Rapid and the seed was treated with Wakil XL + GPA, with the aim of early downy mildew control from the Wakil XL and better root development, as well as plant establishment with the phosphite-based nutrient GPA. Established plant populations were 85 plants/m2, said Mr Lamyman.

Detailed and well-targeted crop nutrition was critical to the success: “Leaf samples were taken at four stages through the crop’s growth cycle in order to identify nutrient deficiencies, to which relevant products were then applied as required.”

“Foliar applications were similar to those used in 2018. An early insecticide (50 ml Hallmark) was applied for weevil damage. Just before flowering, 2 l/ha of ToPPit +1 l/ha of Rainbow Wave went on.”

ToPPit is a 0-30-40 liquid fertiliser containing phosphorus, potassium and a range of micro-elements. Rainbow Wave contains boron and molybdenum.

“In 2017, we had virus in the crop, and given the high aphid numbers this year we applied Aphox early. At flowering, the tank mix consisted of 280 g/ha Aphox, 1 l/ha X-Stress, 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 kg/ha Signum and 0.5 l/ha CalFlux.”

The X-Stress is used to prevent a plant shutting down its stomatal and root absorption processes under stressful conditions. It does this by enhancing photosynthesis and growth by providing essential micro elements, including the correct proportions of iron, zinc, manganese and copper, as well as magnesium and glycine.

“Two weeks later, another spray containing 2 l/ha ToPPit, 0.5 l/ha CalFlux, 1 l/ha X-Stress, as well as 50 ml/ha Hallmark went on. CalFlux is a key component in any record attempt, such as when the plant experiences stress,” explained Tim. “It will draw calcium from the flowering nodes and this can lead to pods and flowers aborting, and this is exactly what happened in the dry spring.”

Chris Guest, head of seed for ADM Agriculture, said that in terms of gross margin based on a worst-case scenario of feed quality with current values of circa £180/mt ex farm – this would equate to a gross margin of £915/ha. But if it was suitable for a low grade HC market, this would increase to £1401/ha.