Heavy input restrictions on Danish agriculture

A tour through Zealand and Lolland last week confirmed that Ireland was not the only place that suffered from very poor weather since last July. These islands in Denmark still showed the consequences of the very high levels of rainfall already endured in the second half of 2017 (over 250% of normal levels, with around 268mm in June, July and August alone).

I travelled there with members of the Federation of Agrochemical Retail Merchants (FARM) and we had many very interesting visits. My overall impression was dominated by ponds of water in fields, deep tracks in some new-crop tramlines, bare areas in establishing crops and signs of ongoing slug damage in winter cereal and rape crops.

These were things I had not seen during any previous visits to Denmark.

Work not yet done was the ultimate consequence. Winter planting has been hammered and there will inevitably be a swing to spring crops next spring. And some of the crops already planted may not make it. The bad weather also delayed sugar beet development and harvesting only started recently, four to six weeks later than normal.

There was also some maize to be cut that looked very mature.

A big crops country

Helle Bennedsen from the Danish Crop Protection Association (DCPA) gave us a brief summary of the structure of Danish agriculture. Denmark has about 2.6m hectares of cultivated land, of which about 1.45m hectares are cereals. The two main crops are winter wheat and spring barley, with over 600,000ha and 500,000ha respectively.

Danish farmers produce about 12m pigs per year and some of these units are now heading towards 10,000 sows. They have about 1.5m cattle, but they produce a lot of mink for fur and also a lot of bioenergy.

Agricultural exports were put at around €10bn in 2015, with about €3.5bn of that coming from the crop sector. They export about 75% of agricultural produce, with Germany being their biggest market and the UK is third. As in Ireland, there is concern in farming circles about the consequences of Brexit. The major exports are pork and fish, but there are very many other smaller products also.

The crop protection industry is valued at around €100m, which is about 1.3 times the Irish market. But the fact that they have a much larger area means that the intensity of the use of plant protection products (PPPs) is much lower. That has occurred over the past few decades and is driven by consumer pressure, legislation, tax on PPPs and enforced reduction levels.

Environment and pesticide residues are big issues in Denmark. The use of N and P and agrochemicals have been actively reduced for years and it is estimated that agricultural output there had been restricted by between 15% and 25%.

Helle reported that a recent change in government has led to new policies and targets, which may prove to be more conducive to production without posing risk to the environment. Ground water quality is a huge issue, as water is not treated for use and so nutrients and residues are very emotive. Farming activity is not just being pressured on nitrates, phosphates and PPP residues, it is also being challenged by greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia emissions, etc.

Pesticide tax and legislation

Despite these constraints, productivity continues to improve with the help of better varieties, integrated pest management (IPM), precision farming technologies, etc. Helle reported that scientific studies showed a 4% to 6% decrease in pesticide application through the use of precision auto steer and a potential additional 2% to 3% reduction where auto cut-off is fitted to sprayers. All of these technologies have helped to considerably reduce PPP usage in Denmark.

The country has had a very indiscriminate tax for many years, but this has changed in the new regime. The new pesticide tax looks at each specific active and its cumulative risk/threat to different facets of the environment. Chemical actives are then ranked and different tax levels apply to different ones and the products that contain them. Interestingly, glyphosate has a low level of tax because it is regarded as a relatively safe active in the environment.

These taxes add considerably to the production cost for certain crops. Helle said that a Danish potato grower close to the German border will pay €200/ha more for the same crop protection as a counterpart south of the border.

She went on to say that the new tax system will keep some new actives and products out of the market as their cost would limit sales value relative to the registration cost.

While the new system attempts to recognise the risk associated with individual products, it still takes no account of the label use recommendations designed to mitigate against these negative characteristics.

Push to organics

The fear of pesticide residues is driving consumers in Denmark towards organic food. Helle told us that 8% of the land is now producing organic food and 10% of the food purchase is organic. The fear of barely detectable residues may not be rational, but it is real and it is driving many aspects of legislation and public opinion in Denmark today.

Tough farming year

Life on Knudstrup Farm in Fjennesley was no joy in 2017. Søren Ilsøe is a tillage farmer there and he has been practising conservation agriculture for many years. The fact that he came from a career in IT could not help the frustration associated with not being able to get crops cut in 2017 and the subsequent challenges to plant cover crops and winter crops.

Søren had come from a farm which his father had leased since 1964. In 1996, the opportunity arose to purchase the 116ha farm. He quickly moved to become a full-time farmer and he rented a further 250ha for crop production.

At the start, the farm was managed conventionally with an amount of mono-cropping and one-pass planting. He developed a pig unit on the farm, but later leased this out when farming and advisory activities took up more of his time. But he retained access to the slurry.

He gradually moved to reduced tillage as he became very conscious that many soils in Denmark were low in carbon and this was leading to increasing problems for both establishment and growth. There was nothing being put back into the land as straw was being baled and removed. Most farms also had no manure and so things just gradually disimproved.

The normal farmer response at the time was to have more power – bigger tractors and implements which further exaggerated the problems. A number of farmers moved to min-till, but this was not a real solution because monoculture and the absence of soil improvement just led to increased grass weed problems and lower yields.

Move to conservation agriculture

Søren stayed with non-inversion and changed to rotation, organic matter incorporation, stale seedbeds, catch crops, etc. He has since made terrific inroads into the improvement of his land. This was evident in terms of the number of earthworm burrows and the ease with which soil could be dug and loosened. He emphasised that it is essential to improve the soil before moving to min-till or no-till systems.

Rotation is a very important part of his farming system. The aim is to never follow a crop with the same crop. His rotation tends to be winter oilseed rape, winter wheat, spring beans, winter wheat and malting barley. He does not have grass for seed, but he would like to. This is because he does not have adequate storage capacity to hold the harvested seed for as long as the buyers require.

He emphasised that the move to conservation agriculture requires 100% commitment to the system to help make it work. “There will still be errors,” SØren insisted, “but hopefully these will be fewer every year.”

Danish growers are now moving back to some combination of no- or min-till. He suggested that about 20% of the total area is now being managed with no plough. However, the area being managed by conservation agriculture is only 1.5% to 2%.

Glyphosate is seen as critical for all non-inversion systems. If it is lost to agriculture in the EU, Søren hopes that the active can receive a dispensation for use in conservation agriculture.

Cover or catch crops are an integral part of his system, but they need to be sown before 15 August to give adequate benefit. It seems that all farmers are obliged to have 15% of their land in green cover, but this has proven very difficult with the delayed harvest. Legumes are not allowed in this 15% of area, but he uses them in the rest of the area he sows to catch crops as they help supply essential nitrogen.

Next summer, he plans to plant his catch crops pre-harvest to get them established on time. These seeds will include slug pellets because of the very high numbers around this winter. He can only use pellets based on iron phosphate, as methaldehyde was never cleared for use in Denmark.

Distrust of officials

Farmers have little reason to trust officials in Denmark, Søren stated. When water nitrate levels were declared by government officials to the EU, the high end of the range was declared as being the average. No one was told about this and no one checked. Since this was disclosed, the farm organisations are now checking these environmental metrics for any changes that may occur following the use of higher fertiliser levels.

Research

Søren said that his farm is now involved in a big field-level research project being conducted across a number of farms with help from universities. This aims to look at the impact of establishment type on plant root growth, water percolation and other aspects of a soil that are deemed to be indicative of good health. This research will also measure crop yield, diesel use, pesticide requirement, etc, to help quantify the claimed benefits of conservation agriculture.

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