Grass after wholecrop

AE01

Member
Livestock Farmer
Planning to put a grass ley in after wholecrop barley. Last year agronomist advised to leave barley stubble 2-3weeks to green up with weeds, then Roundup and drill grass a week later. This meant grass wasn’t sown until early Sept and never really got going last back end, so much so that we never got opportunity to spray it for BLW before wet weather set in, and grass plants weren’t strong enough to withstand grazing with sheep.

Surely we’d be better off getting it in straight away (now) and accepting that we’ll have to spray it for BLW late Sept but have a crop strong enough to be able to get some tack sheep on for it to tiller out?

what are the collective thoughts? Anything else other than lack of rainfall that I need to be aware of sowing grass at this time of year?

thanks
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Planning to put a grass ley in after wholecrop barley. Last year agronomist advised to leave barley stubble 2-3weeks to green up with weeds, then Roundup and drill grass a week later. This meant grass wasn’t sown until early Sept and never really got going last back end, so much so that we never got opportunity to spray it for BLW before wet weather set in, and grass plants weren’t strong enough to withstand grazing with sheep.

Surely we’d be better off getting it in straight away (now) and accepting that we’ll have to spray it for BLW late Sept but have a crop strong enough to be able to get some tack sheep on for it to tiller out?

what are the collective thoughts? Anything else other than lack of rainfall that I need to be aware of sowing grass at this time of year?

thanks
Get it sown , role it hard and get stock on as soon as it's as you can after , they will eat most of the weeds if they young and fresh
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I do what your agronomist says tbh. It’s not just blw, but meadow grass (& couch if you have any?), which you can’t take out of grass.
Any sprays legal on new seeds now will only take seedling blw out, whereas glyphosate will give you a fresh start.

How are you establishing the grass?
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Wholecrop WB would have been done a month ago so this must be SB, I would run over the stubble and lightly cultivate to chit and seed.
Repeat after 10 days and then get the grass seed in.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
It's all bull poo to be honest as what germitate s is a fraction of what weed seed is in the soil , any cultivation after spraying will just bring up more , if your worried about Black Grass it won't survive long in a grass ley
 

AE01

Member
Livestock Farmer
I do what your agronomist says tbh. It’s not just blw, but meadow grass (& couch if you have any?), which you can’t take out of grass.
Any sprays legal on new seeds now will only take seedling blw out, whereas glyphosate will give you a fresh start.

How are you establishing the grass?

Light cultivation with Vaderstad Carrier then drilled with Vaderstad rapid, then rolled
 

AE01

Member
Livestock Farmer
What’s the intended use of the grass ley after establishment?
Short term forage
4-5 year ley for grazing or silage?

Long term ley (5yrs +) for silage and grazing for dairy cows. Will want two cuts of silage off it then good quality aftermath grazing
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Long term ley (5yrs +) for silage and grazing for dairy cows. Will want two cuts of silage off it then good quality aftermath grazing
Don't go in late , worst thing yoh can do , if the weather turns wet before it tillers you can't get a sprayer on and you can't get stock on either , I got cought last year and chickweed went wild , was March before I could get sprayer on , if you sow now you have options to take any weeds out after
 

AE01

Member
Livestock Farmer
Don't go in late , worst thing yoh can do , if the weather turns wet before it tillers you can't get a sprayer on and you can't get stock on either , I got cought last year and chickweed went wild , was March before I could get sprayer on , if you sow now you have options to take any weeds out after

that sounds exactly the same situation I found myself in last year
 

Dog Bowl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
I go once through shallow with a terradisc, then a Einbock Harrow with seeder box on. Ring roll, flat roll and shut the gate. Get in now, don't hang on. I did both last year, got some in early which established really well before the winter. I then got some in Mid Sept which was always behind and looked average this spring.
 

Agri Spec Solicitor

Member
Livestock Farmer
We are on the starting blocks for some WW being taken for wholecrop.
Plan is slurry, plough, ring roll, power Harrow x2 , ring roll, sow with an old air drill, ring roll.
We have stopped the heavy flat roller as the surface can be sealed if weather goes wrong, and it did last year.
Sow only medium or long term grass. Add clover after weeds sorted out.
We have tried DD but it’s not for us on our silt which turns nasty once it’s wet.
Seed price means we need to get it right first time.
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Went through our WW wholecrop stubbles with some heavy pig tail scuffles bought earlier this year to try and get it to green up before going through with subsoiler/disc then leave for another 2 weeks then drill mid term leys hopefully if weather allows.
8B59E4D4-E375-4CDC-B883-67C3860FFB84.png
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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

  • 1,287
  • 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/
Top