News from Askov and Jyndevad
The growing season 2023, which at times proved difficult, is over. No record yields at Askov, where we do not have the option of irrigating. On the other hand, yields were above average at Jyndevad, where we have optimal irrigation capacity.
This year also, we have had plenty of projects, seen in relation to staffing, but we have still managed to solve the tasks on time with the help of our 3 regular and flexible temporary members of staff. We face a challenge in getting our staffing to match our projects because with a labour market that can use all unemployed people, it is difficult to attract new members of staff and retain them.
Growing season 2023
There are several reasons for the low yields, especially at Askov. We had plenty of precipitation this year (at the time of writing 1050 mm), but the rain did not come at the right times. When the rain finally came, the spring crops formed side shoots. These side shoots did not ripen at the same time as the main shoots. That resulted in low yields and a difficult harvest.
The winter crops performed significantly better because they had managed to establish a better root net before the drought began in June. Our clover grass also gave a poor yield at the first mowing, which was not the case at the second mowing and equalised the total yield to be fairly good.
Projects
Our core tasks are the long-term fertiliser experiments, which are located at both Askov and Jyndevad. Over the past few years, the scientific management of these platforms has changed, and this has resulted in a number of new and different tasks. Among those are soil, root and soil water samples from which data will be used to calculate carbon storage and nutrient leaching. In addition to that, we also take gas samples, where the measuring programme runs throughout the year.
One of the PLAP fields (the early warning system for leaching of pesticides into the groundwater), which we operate and take samples from, is located 5 km west of Askov. As we are geographically located in a very precipitation-rich area, there is also much sampling of drainage water. This year, we already had drainage runoff in August, and right now the sampling is running at full stretch with the large surplus precipitation, we are having. This also applies to the mini-wetlands, which are located in Funen and near Haderslev.
This year, we have also helped the Department of Ecoscience with a field experiment with varying degrees of slurry acidification. Ecoscience’s own staff has looked at the consequences of this acidification and the low pH treatment on underground animals and microorganisms. For this project we have made agreements with a neighbour with a large cattle farm, who has made a second-year clover grass field available for this study.
Status for Jyndevad
On 1 January 2023, the Danish Building and Property Agency bought 30 ha from Freja Ejendomme. Our department has rented these 30 ha back from the Danish Building and Property Agency, and we now have them for future use. On 1 October, also at Jyndevad, a private individual took over the remaining 35 ha, which was the land left, as well as all buildings, belonging to Jyndevad Experimental Station. We have therefore rented a machinery house, which is located 6.5 km from this plot of land, and take that as our starting point when we need to solve tasks on our JB1 soil. At Jyndevad we still have the Interaction Experiment, which is a very well-known experiment which began in 1942, where we have plots with very low and high pH and phosphorus counts. Another of the PLAP fields is also adjacent to the other experimental fields, where TystofteFonden also has its spring and winter crops observation plots.
New members of staff
We have tried it before. Job advertisements, appointment committee. Do we have enough applicants? After the interviews, we need to select the person with the right qualifications and personality. We work in teams because we expect people to typically be more productive and to achieve better results together. We are aware that there should be a variety of team roles in any team. Without an initiator/start-upper the task may never really get started, and without an innovator there may not be new (and better) ideas to optimise the work, and without a finisher the task will never be finished. In future, we will make more of an effort to find the right person and put personality before education and grades.
You can see a little of our work here: https://youtu.be/XkkkpitN0Fc?si=yk50_sxYsSDIGjNt