How to establish OSR with very wet ground?

RTK Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
I wouldn't dream of planting osr before the end of August early September anyway as you are just lining the pockets of the input suppliers. Farm save the seed and go old school at 12-15kg/ha either direct drilled or broadcast, roll it then walk away till February.
Lee, you general negativity and constant tirade against input suppliers gets very boring. Cheer up for Gods sake.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
That depends on the spinner but even the longest vanes & highest disc speed will only make it fly so far. OSR simply isn't dense enough to overcome the air resistance which eventually slows it's travelling distance. A tray test is best.
12 m is wide enough for anyone, why bother with a tray test?
By the time you have done a tray test you could be finished.
 
Not enough time, equipment or manpower to do that. Drilling with the Claydon in a nicer field atm and going well. Finally a nice drying day too.

Of course, the Claydon makes it all seem like childsplay. But I work in wet ground a lot, and I see various things tried. Ploughing is safer when it comes to the potential for excess moisture in the equation- you artificially create a layer that will drain faster, that is the crux of it. It's not clever or pretty but it works.

I would Claydon nearly everything if I knew I could choose when it would happen and that we would have time for crops to become established before the winter closed in. In my experience of it, it does make you question why anyone bothers doing anything else, but then you see the stuff other people end up being forced to do because of the situations they face at the time.
 

woodylane

Member
Location
Lancashire
Exactly the cost is negligible at around £20/acre all in for seed, no tilling it and rolling it which is 'cover crop' territory. We won't be applying any chemical or fertiliser or slug pellets before February. If there's a crop then Kerb and Nitrogen. If there's no crop then either S Barley or S linseed both farm saved undressed and uncleaned seed.

Is it not preferable to make sure you do get a crop from it as if you rip it up you'll have just scuppered your rotation and won't be able to put OSR in that field for another 4 years?
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
If the land in question is so bad that you are contemplating chucking farm saved OSR seed on it with a fertiliser spreader and waiting to see if it has survived in spring, should you really be trying to grow an arable crop on it at all?
It won't be that bad we've just had a wet spell that's all. You are right about a ploughing tho, if heavy land is "too wet" at this time of year ploughing is very effective. Speeds the drying a treat.
 

John

Member
Location
Cambridge
Started planting ours today.
 

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