News from Askov and Jyndevad

We have had plenty of tasks seen in relation to staffing, but with a great deal of flexibility among the employees and with help from temporary workers, we have managed to do the tasks. Like our colleagues we have the challenge of making our generational change take place as a smooth transition. A field trial technician is not an ”off-the-shelf product”, but many times one we have to ”shape” ourselves.   

Growing season 2022
The high yields in 2022 are due to several factors: We got sufficient precipitation at the right times at Askov, and the precipitation which we did not get at Jyndevad we were able to get through irrigation; new high-yielding cereal cultivars with good resistance to fungal diseases and an increasing mean temperature in our part of the country. A review of the yields in 128 years of long-term fertilisation trials shows that we now can join the “10 tonnes club” there as well. The good yields this year meant also had major financial costs just as in the rest of society with inflation, a tripling of fertiliser prices and large increases in chemicals, electricity and fuel.

Projects
We are of course proud of having to take care of and run the unique platforms we have with long-term field trials at both Askov and Jyndevad. The tasks in these trials are to follow the trial plans closely without making any mistakes. The recipe is: three times double check everything!! Similarly, it also requires an effort to keep track of the soil and plant archive, which has a long history, starting in 1932. We also get enquiries about JB-1 soil for field trials. In the trials which include animal manure we choose to find trial hosts in the vicinity having this type of soil as our slurry equipment is located in Askov and as it is too time-consuming to move the equipment the 80 km which is the distance between Askov and Jyndevad.

Generational change
For many years we have been characterised by having stable employees with long seniority. “We do like we usually do” and good professional sense and peer-to-peer training over a couple of years have been the solution to getting a good trial technician.  There have been few long descriptions of procedures; they are almost non-existent. It is almost like the green transition. We started the process a little too late. There is a great deal of work for those who are left and who have experience with field trials. First the right persons must be found, then they must have a good peer-to-peer training, and finally there must be a reasonable salary and reasonable working conditions in order to retain them.

Weather station
The Danish Meteorological Institute’s (DMI) probably most talked-about weather station, which is located at Jyndevad Forsøgsstation, will be moved in the near future. A long dialogue between Freja Ejendomme, the Danish Building and Property Agency, DMI and AGRO has ended in a decision to move the weather station 330 metres to the east as the present position is not appropriate as it is in the middle of the piece of land which we expect will be sold off. Everyone talks about the weather, and the local press and TV Syd are happy to meet when a heat record or the first summer’s day with a temperature of 25°C is expected.