Farmer: Mark Swift
Location: Shropshire
Aim: Increase yields at low cost whilst reducing drift and scorch.
Mark Swift and his family farm more than 3,500 acres near Newport, Shropshire. They milk 490 dairy cows, have a 3,500 sheep enterprise and 800 acres of arable. The arable rotation consists of growing winter wheat, winter barley, maize and fodder beet.
L-CBF BOOST™ has been used on range of these crops and Mark has been very happy with the results. “In the first year I just tried the odd 20 litre can in places to see if I could see a difference, and I could. Then a got a bit more confidence and have used it on different areas with some really encouraging results,” he says.
Mark’s biggest success came on the fodder beet, when despite being a difficult year due to the weather, he had his highest ever yields. He also got 7% yield increase on his winter wheat.
Mark has L-CBF BOOST™ on his farm in 2 different ways. It is mixed into his standard liquid fertiliser blend of 20 – 2 – 3 at source by Landowner Fertilisers and he buys L-CBF BOOST™ in IBCs also. This allows him not only to put it on with his fertiliser but also with fungicides and herbicides too.
Mark says, “I like to apply it little and often applying 5 litres / hectare regularly through the growing season to apply 25-30 litres in total.”
This approach of ‘wrapping’ inputs in carbon buffers inputs and improves efficiency and effectiveness of applications.
In 2019 we are going to be using it on all crops including some of the grassland, where in the US they have had some excellent results on yield and quality.
Mark has recently won the 2018 Yield Enhancement Network (Western) for Yield Potential in his first time of entering.
To read more on other farmers’ experiences with L-CBF BOOST™ click on the links below.
To purchase L-CBF BOOST™ online click here, or to talk to one of our expert team click here.