Organic no till system ?

juke

Member
Location
DURHAM
posted this before but thought I was being thick but ill ask the question again n be ready to be shot down... would takeall not pose a risk
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Could this work ?

100% spring crops - milling wheat

Fertility building (legumes) break crop established at harvest then destroyed via sheep grazing or crimper roller on frosts (Or both)

Wheats drilled low disturbance on wide rows and hoe used to control weeds ?
Surely the hoe would get hanged up with breakcrop remains, and would it be a tillage event ? The likes of which the author of a particular book I'm reading would be a no, no. *Surely.
...well Unless later on I get to the bit where the 'limited use ' (that is ok (y)) of herbicides or is that 'èrbicides.. arrived at...:unsure:

* note the deliberate use of 2 surelies
 

newholland

Member
Location
England
yes it would work.
Drill a bit deeper and buy some Hellikites to stop the birds
(why waste your time fighting nature with the hoe?)I would just under sow some grass seed or similar when you drill the wheat and then you have a cover crop ready to go after combining for sheep over winter. Just combine the heads and then flail top or silage the remains if necessary.

There is a strong demand for uk organic cereals - more needed
 

Banana Bar

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Possibly, spring wheat would mean late establishment of the catch / fertility building crop. Establishment during hoeing would be the best time. John Pawsey doing this with his Chameleon drills but not without tillage. He is always pushing boundaries but he has said that no till organic looks extremely challenging.
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
I would say short/medium term yes, longer term probably not.
I would lean towards a perennial understory with wide crop row spacing with inter row rolling and mowing to manipulate the understory for the benefit of the crop.
I think Stephen Briggs is working on an inter-row mower to keep the under-storey of clover/trefoil down while the cereal crop shoots up. I tried to get Garford to demo their inter-row hoe at Groundswell and they said it wouldn't work in no-till...whether the guy had just got out of bed the wrong side I don't know, but looking at how hard our ground is now, I suspect he might be on to something. Mowing is pleasing idea...constant living roots in the soil
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Neighbour had an old Garford inter row hoe, tried it in his Claydon crops.
It only really worked if it was too damp for the hoeing to work properly.
A DD hoe will need a lot of weight to keep it from running over the surface .
And a stronger tine.
The idea is sound, but definitely needs development to work.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I think Stephen Briggs is working on an inter-row mower to keep the under-storey of clover/trefoil down while the cereal crop shoots up. I tried to get Garford to demo their inter-row hoe at Groundswell and they said it wouldn't work in no-till...whether the guy had just got out of bed the wrong side I don't know, but looking at how hard our ground is now, I suspect he might be on to something. Mowing is pleasing idea...constant living roots in the soil

This starts to sound possible - perennial clover understory with spring crops zero-till spring wheat in to them and inter row mowing rather than hoe

Does a inter row mower exist ? I feel a trial coming on !
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Neighbour had an old Garford inter row hoe, tried it in his Claydon crops.
It only really worked if it was too damp for the hoeing to work properly.
A DD hoe will need a lot of weight to keep it from running over the surface .
And a stronger tine.
The idea is sound, but definitely needs development to work.

Claydon’s hoe seems to work but I’m not sure it would in a proper zerotill situation where cover crop trash was present - I think the idea of mowing between rows is more likely a better solution there
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Claydon’s hoe seems to work but I’m not sure it would in a proper zerotill situation where cover crop trash was present - I think the idea of mowing between rows is more likely a better solution there
He's just getting to grips with a Claydon hoe now.
He was too early and too deep first time.
Trying again.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Could you use a cover of really low growing white clover is similar and drill straight into it? It won't grow at less than 10°c soil temperature so you could even winter crop into it maybe? I have really old type white clovers in my older permanent pastures grazed by sheep that never get above a few inches high.

You could but I guess you would need to use autumn and winter growth to fix N etc ready for the spring cash crop ?
 

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

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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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