How's this for low disturbance?

Sounds sensible. Let's face it, nothing likes compaction. But firm, tight, structured, are not all necessarily compaction.

Indeed. The best time to look for compaction is winter. And the easiest way to create next years compaction is the tillage tool - worse than any wheeling in my opinion even with a grain trailer on super singles!
 

MDA

Member
Trade
DTS set up for maize drilling here with the 1" openers fitted and front 4 coulters blanked off and retracted giving a row spacing of 666mm or 26". Loosening legs set around 180mm.
Some use the 5" wide for maize on standard row spacing, usually for maize going to AD. I think the theory is you get more volume and taller plants this way.
Feedback from our customers that use this method consistently tell us that the biggest advantage by far is moisture conservation, especially through May and June, as well as the obvious cost savings. Although we do not get quite as even seed spacing as a precision drill the ORGA gives a very even distribution of seed; good enough for forage or AD maize.

DTS set up for maize.jpg


maize into grass.jpg


maize seed.jpg
 
The grain maize we tried hardly came at all on the headlands where the machines had turned. The sequence of operations were:

Ploughed
Subsoiled
Power Harrowed (some places twice)
Maize drilled and plastic put down

The damage to the soil from the power harrow and maize drill tractors after the subsoiler on the headlands looked nothing but underneath it must of been considerable because the headlands didn't yield where as the rest of the field was fluctuating between 3-5t/acre.

@dontknowanything good idea no plastic because if you had then expect a weedy mess come harvest as the chems put down from the drill under the sprayer arnt enough. Another pass is required but no point if the plastic is covering the ground as it acts like a greenhouse so the weeds grow as well as the maize.
 
The grain maize we tried hardly came at all on the headlands where the machines had turned. The sequence of operations were:

Ploughed
Subsoiled
Power Harrowed (some places twice)
Maize drilled and plastic put down

The damage to the soil from the power harrow and maize drill tractors after the subsoiler on the headlands looked nothing but underneath it must of been considerable because the headlands didn't yield where as the rest of the field was fluctuating between 3-5t/acre.

@dontknowanything good idea no plastic because if you had then expect a weedy mess come harvest as the chems put down from the drill under the sprayer arnt enough. Another pass is required but no point if the plastic is covering the ground as it acts like a greenhouse so the weeds grow as well as the maize.
Our maize gets drilled with a 250hp tractor weighing 8ton! Need a 2650 on floatations. But that's it cool.
 
DTS set up for maize drilling here with the 1" openers fitted and front 4 coulters blanked off and retracted giving a row spacing of 666mm or 26". Loosening legs set around 180mm.
Some use the 5" wide for maize on standard row spacing, usually for maize going to AD. I think the theory is you get more volume and taller plants this way.
Feedback from our customers that use this method consistently tell us that the biggest advantage by far is moisture conservation, especially through May and June, as well as the obvious cost savings. Although we do not get quite as even seed spacing as a precision drill the ORGA gives a very even distribution of seed; good enough for forage or AD maize.

View attachment 157968

View attachment 157970

View attachment 157972

I like the look of that.
 
I'm struggling to see what stops the planting depth being 180mm

Im finding if I run a seed firmer I can't even run a disc deeper than the point without the seed being planted as the disc depth

I also would imagine that with a 5inch boot root growth would be restricted as I found it with a 60mm wide t boot design

I'd be interested to see progress reports on this as I'm not sure what way to move forward just now
 
A few pics of my machine and the results. Not sure how good the pictures will come out
 

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James H

Member
Grain maize going into silaged IRG. Drill did an excellent job considering it had smooth closing wheels.
I'm interested to see how you get on with this I Tried the same, westerwold ryegrass DD into wheat stuble. When did you take the silage off? I went for haylage but it sucked all of the moisture out by then. Had to wait for rain to get the plough in the ground and I had to irrigate twice to get the crop growing (ploughing required for current sweetcorn drilling equipment)
 
Location
Cambridge
I think it came off at the beginning of May.

I would never have ploughed or cultivated, one of the main reasons for trying this is the ability to no till.

But it may not be very economically viable.
 

James H

Member
I agree but needs must the ground was like concrete (so dry) and sweet corn is a pathetic seed. 80 bales from 3ha but countered by the irrigation X2, economics? Not sure. Need to find another late drilled crop as the rooting was impressive so pleased with the concept
 
Location
Cambridge
Well, this is turning out to be a disaster. Most of the field is just not growing, it seems to have stalled over the last month:

IMG_5377.jpg


Oddly there are bits near the hedges that have done much much better:

IMG_5376.jpg


On the left is a good and bad plant from the middle of the field (about 95% of the area), and on the right is a good and bad plant from the patches near a hedge:

IMG_5379.jpg


I'm mystified as to what is going on. Here is what I don't think the problem is

Compaction - I subsoiled some areas strips, and this has made zero difference, even when the plants are right on the marks where the legs went, sort of strip till style. Also the good patches are on the headlands only.

Nitrogen - All had 130kg of DAP placed, plus another 100kg of N as a liquid. Some strips had another 80-90kg of N as an experiment. None of these show up.

Allelopathy/N lock up - I left a patch un-drilled with IRG in the middle of the field, this is no different to any other bit.

Sprays - All had the same program of herbicide and trace elements.

Moisture - we were very dry until a month or so ago. Before the rain the field was even, now there is plenty of water only a few plants are making use of it.

So what is it? The only thing that really fits is some sort of sheltering edge effect from the hedges?

I can't see this field producing any grain at all unfortunately.
 
Well, this is turning out to be a disaster. Most of the field is just not growing, it seems to have stalled over the last month:

View attachment 184254

Oddly there are bits near the hedges that have done much much better:

View attachment 184258

On the left is a good and bad plant from the middle of the field (about 95% of the area), and on the right is a good and bad plant from the patches near a hedge:

View attachment 184264

I'm mystified as to what is going on. Here is what I don't think the problem is

Compaction - I subsoiled some areas strips, and this has made zero difference, even when the plants are right on the marks where the legs went, sort of strip till style. Also the good patches are on the headlands only.

Nitrogen - All had 130kg of DAP placed, plus another 100kg of N as a liquid. Some strips had another 80-90kg of N as an experiment. None of these show up.

Allelopathy/N lock up - I left a patch un-drilled with IRG in the middle of the field, this is no different to any other bit.

Sprays - All had the same program of herbicide and trace elements.

Moisture - we were very dry until a month or so ago. Before the rain the field was even, now there is plenty of water only a few plants are making use of it.

So what is it? The only thing that really fits is some sort of sheltering edge effect from the hedges?

I can't see this field producing any grain at all unfortunately.

I suspect lack of heat?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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