Cover crop between winter cereals

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
Our winter wheat crop looks like it's going to be off early this year. We follow it with a winter barley crop. Is it worth putting a cover in between the two. Wheat will be off in the next couple of weeks, barley will go in the last week of September. I'll only do it if we have rain in the forcast. Is there a crop that will grow enough to make it worth while?
 

4course

Member
Location
north yorks
weve been using the efa malarky to grow a catch crop of mustard between cereals . Now theve moved the date of destruction to middle october not so good, but weve seen benefits in improved soils and yields. Easy and cheep to grow but you cant delay sowing barley into oct here so will be curtailed but for early harvested wheat to be followed by wheat we will still do some and probably non efa land into barley if it comes moist
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
weve been using the efa malarky to grow a catch crop of mustard between cereals . Now theve moved the date of destruction to middle october not so good, but weve seen benefits in improved soils and yields. Easy and cheep to grow but you cant delay sowing barley into oct here so will be curtailed but for early harvested wheat to be followed by wheat we will still do some and probably non efa land into barley if it comes moist
I might try some mustard if the weather breaks. Just trying to find some at a good price.
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
Appart from volunteers, I have drilled some barley on fields going into winter beans. The gound is fairly dry, but not bone dry. I don't mean to brag, but I have a coulpe of puddles in the yard.
 

cows r us

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Buckinghamshire
Given up on the covers in front of winter crops. I'm putting in the covers in front of Spring crops this week though. And then I'll be praying for some rain. We still seem to be missing it all.
 

4course

Member
Location
north yorks
interesting effect of the wheat following wheat that was sown with a mustard catch crop( non efa) is that the resulting seedlings have all emerging much faster and more evenly than the sowings either side of it , and the wheat seedbed was easier to make . Even though due to the dry the mustard didnt get as big as previous years the roots have gone a fairway down. I still think its worth doing but a shame that the efa route is not so available as we like to be finished sowing by the time an efa crop can be cultivated , we could have done more and there is certainly a wildlife benefit. A year like this it may have been possible but most years if we arnt sown up or at least on the last lap by the 15th oct it can be difficult to establish a crop if wet on our soil, though, im coming round to the opinion that it may be possible if we stretched our sowing target date by a few days on a field or two, this enthusiasm is tempered by the well established view and lessons hard learned that mauling wheat in after the middle of oct here is a recipe for disaster, but the soil structure improvement reduction in weed and moisture wicking effect of the mustard may allow this and we may have a rethink
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
We've just drilled some wheat into cover crops that were ear-marked for spring sowing. They hadn't put much growth on to be honest, but the soil was lovely under them and the volunteers so we thought cash in while it's all cushti. The only slight snag is that the wind hasn't dropped enough to spray the cover off, so might have to leave it till spring after all. The oats and broadleaves aren't a great worry, but the chunky blackgrass will only respond to glyphosate now.
 

Rihards

Member
Location
Latvia
Ww after mustard. Will look how it will perform all over season.
 

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Planted wheat in to the oat cover had to wait 3 extra days compared to bare stubble finished today just need to spray it off before the wheat is up

In any other year we would have had to drill it before the first heavy rain in October
Ragdale hanslope soil on the heavy side
 
Planted wheat in to the oat cover had to wait 3 extra days compared to bare stubble finished today just need to spray it off before the wheat is up

In any other year we would have had to drill it before the first heavy rain in October
Ragdale hanslope soil on the heavy side
Could you post some photos here of the oats, the drilling and the emergence & further growth of the crop ??
Terribly interesting as oats seems to be nearly the only seed that grows quick enough in cold climate, does not multiply wheat deseases and is affordable.
 

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