Curious ?

BJM

Member
HI, member of the public here and not knowledgable about arable farming. We are newbie rural neighbours, we moved about a year ago to a house with an arable field next door and I'm curious about some of the things that happen.

**I should point out I have absolutely no problem or criticism whatsoever, I'm just interested to learn more.**

So the field had oats this year, harvested around late August and a few weeks later the stubble was riddled in and the field left alone. Something then germinated again, presumably from some seed left over and then this was killed off with a spray.

The field has been ploughed, levelled and about 10 days ago was seeded with a new crop. There is a (gas?) bird scarer set up in the field away from the houses.

What's puzzling me is that the field is full of orange sticks and the farmer comes and moves them every so often. There is now a tractor with a spray on the back - presumably fertiliser?

Are the orange markers just to tell the tractor what line to take? Would they be spraying fertiliser now or something else? I thought it would be better to sound like an idiot anonymously on here, rather than to my farmer neighbour :D

Also interested in the process generally of what happens. I know the field is on a 5 crop rotation and we are in East Anglia.

Sorry for the idiotic question(s) ... be kind to a rookie please. As I said, fully supportive of the farming community and how hard you all work, just interested to learn more as a rural neighbour.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
The stuff that germinated after harvest would be weeds and any oats that fell off pre or during harvest, normally ploughing would burry these without the need for spray but the farmer might have thought it necessary to kill pre ploughing.

The spray on the newly planted crops would normally be a pre emergence spray that kills any weeds as they grow through it. Applying fertiliser at this time of year is not allowed.

Not sure on the flags if they are being moved, As anything for spraying would normally stay in the same place for cereal crops
 
Last edited:

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
HI, member of the public here and not knowledgable about arable farming. We are newbie rural neighbours, we moved about a year ago to a house with an arable field next door and I'm curious about some of the things that happen.

**I should point out I have absolutely no problem or criticism whatsoever, I'm just interested to learn more.**

So the field had oats this year, harvested around late August and a few weeks later the stubble was riddled in and the field left alone. Something then germinated again, presumably from some seed left over and then this was killed off with a spray.

The field has been ploughed, levelled and about 10 days ago was seeded with a new crop. There is a (gas?) bird scarer set up in the field away from the houses.

What's puzzling me is that the field is full of orange sticks and the farmer comes and moves them every so often. There is now a tractor with a spray on the back - presumably fertiliser?

Are the orange markers just to tell the tractor what line to take? Would they be spraying fertiliser now or something else? I thought it would be better to sound like an idiot anonymously on here, rather than to my farmer neighbour :D

Also interested in the process generally of what happens. I know the field is on a 5 crop rotation and we are in East Anglia.

Sorry for the idiotic question(s) ... be kind to a rookie please. As I said, fully supportive of the farming community and how hard you all work, just interested to learn more as a rural neighbour.

To date - activities.

1 Oats harvested - stubble left. Volunteer oats then germinated and grew. Small grains which blew out back of combine. And a few seeds that dropped out of ripe ears.

2 Field sprayed with Glyphosate to kill those volunteer oats -- to destroy any disease and weed grass species.

3 Field ploughed cultivated and sown.

4 Farmer concerned about Crows / Rooks / Pigeons probably probing around pulling out germinating seeds and thus damaging establishing crop. So places bird scaring gun in field - but considerately away from houses, and also orange flags as further scaring techique.

5 Sprayer has applied pre crop emergence herbicide to field.
 

BJM

Member
To date - activities.

1 Oats harvested - stubble left. Volunteer oats then germinated and grew. Small grains which blew out back of combine. And a few seeds that dropped out of ripe ears.

2 Field sprayed with Glyphosate to kill those volunteer oats -- to destroy any disease and weed grass species.

3 Field ploughed cultivated and sown.

4 Farmer concerned about Crows / Rooks / Pigeons probably probing around pulling out germinating seeds and thus damaging establishing crop. So places bird scaring gun in field - but considerately away from houses, and also orange flags as further scaring techique.

5 Sprayer has applied pre crop emergence herbicide to field.
Thank you, very helpful. Lots of crows and pigeons around so I expect that's it. The "flags" are just bright orange sticks, nothing attached to them, just poked in the ground about a foot high.
 

CornishTone

Member
BASIS
Location
Cornwall
Thank you, very helpful. Lots of crows and pigeons around so I expect that's it. The "flags" are just bright orange sticks, nothing attached to them, just poked in the ground about a foot high.
He could be having trials in the field. The flags might be marking different treatments of the seed or different herbicides.
Would encourage you to go and chat to your neighbour. No such thing as a silly question and farmers are generally quite happy to explain what they're doing to people who are genuinely interested.
Most farmers don't bite... take him/her to the pub and talk about the weather. You'll be friends for life!
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Thank you, very helpful. Lots of crows and pigeons around so I expect that's it. The "flags" are just bright orange sticks, nothing attached to them, just poked in the ground about a foot high.

Ah, others have replied. But you say short orange sticks. That sounds more like a trial laid out in the field with several small plots.

Only picture I could find quickly is below in a potato crop - can see the plots with marker pegs. As others said - go ask.

1635412110711.png
 
A picture would help

but talk to the farmer you know who may know the farmer and explain what the crop and what it will be used for

as a farmer I would have a close look at the drilling to see if it is wheat (most likely) or another crop

here we supply wheat to cours for brewing barley for malting Timmy Tayler’s
 

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