Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Have been trundling around with the rake over the past few weeks and in the third year of using one I am still a little uncertain as to whether they actually help that much.
I think undoubtedly if you have big lumps of straw where the combine has stopped they help to spread them out. If, on the other hand, the combine is not spreading the straw to the full with I think they only do a limited amount. I don't think (as per what York said about an experiment where they dyed the straw) that they can really move the straw much more than about 50cms.
In some soil conditions (normally in fields that have been ploughed last year) they can move quite a bit of soil. In harder conditions they just skate over the top and don't move any at all. I had one block of barley stubble which I raked before OSR and the rake was moving the top 1 inch pretty well. Looking a few weeks later the field has certainly greened up quite a bit, but looking at the odd patch that I missed on purpose I am not convinced that there is any less greenery in those patches. Rape in the OSR stubbles seems to germinate quite happily on its own.
Having raked some rape stubbles this morning I think the turning of the rape trash probably does something to disturb the slugs. Last year where the rape stubbles weren't raked the slugs continued life merrily beneath the mat of residue which remained moist all the way through harvest. Whilst they may turn the residue and allow it to dry, I wonder if the rake actually destroys any slugs / eggs itself.
Has anyone done any experiments with rakes and seen big effects in the amount of weeks germinating / slug problems etc?
Irrespective of the above, they do make nice stripes though with GPS.
I think undoubtedly if you have big lumps of straw where the combine has stopped they help to spread them out. If, on the other hand, the combine is not spreading the straw to the full with I think they only do a limited amount. I don't think (as per what York said about an experiment where they dyed the straw) that they can really move the straw much more than about 50cms.
In some soil conditions (normally in fields that have been ploughed last year) they can move quite a bit of soil. In harder conditions they just skate over the top and don't move any at all. I had one block of barley stubble which I raked before OSR and the rake was moving the top 1 inch pretty well. Looking a few weeks later the field has certainly greened up quite a bit, but looking at the odd patch that I missed on purpose I am not convinced that there is any less greenery in those patches. Rape in the OSR stubbles seems to germinate quite happily on its own.
Having raked some rape stubbles this morning I think the turning of the rape trash probably does something to disturb the slugs. Last year where the rape stubbles weren't raked the slugs continued life merrily beneath the mat of residue which remained moist all the way through harvest. Whilst they may turn the residue and allow it to dry, I wonder if the rake actually destroys any slugs / eggs itself.
Has anyone done any experiments with rakes and seen big effects in the amount of weeks germinating / slug problems etc?
Irrespective of the above, they do make nice stripes though with GPS.