- Location
- southern riverina Australia
No problem here removing weeds from clover. Haven't tried herbs yet. Looking into it more before I experiment (maybe) next autumn.
"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..
- Thread starter Kiwi Pete
- Start date
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I love Alan Watts, and I was glad to see this notification pop up. Enjoy
- Location
- somerset
depending on what part of our farm we want to grow maize, the really 'good' stuff down by the farm, wouldn't worry to much, if we didn't sow maize till early june. Maize does best when soil temp is correct, and when those 'conditions' are right, zoom.
Maize is going in behind w/wold, but, l might not pass your info on to son.....
Double cropping, seems at odds, with regen farming principles, on the other hand, if done correctly, with due care, its probably better, than 'abusing' other ground. We don't have many acres where we can, those acres have been a 'massive' help in the last few dry summers, by double cropping, 30 t/ac can be achieved, that's serious stuff.
I would prefer to d/crop here, with care, than import straights etc, from countries where no care is taken, and ground is raped.
Now, l hear, palm oil, is a seriously short product to get, one major country, has stopped all export, no sunflower oil, because of Ukraine, = no fish and chips ! People need to get their priorities right. We don't use fats in our rations, but it will hit dairy farmers, and production, another nail in the supply coffin, perfectly happy with that, lower production simply means better prices
- Location
- somerset
they ban the decent sprays. I think our best course of action is, first tell the other local farmers, they are not docks, but herbs. And secondly, overseed herbs/clover, in new leys, after weed control.
In my youth, l ploughed up some pp, sprayed it off first, drilled grass, and achieved hedge to hedge docks, and receiving positive comments on our field of stubble turnips. Sprayed off again, sowed beans, with simasine spray, great control, till near harvest, then 'boom', another disaster, then corn for a few years, that achieved some control. The lesson, don't plough up weedy pp. Soil inversion, can result in opening the seed bank, with negative results, dd leaves them alone.
The last time that ground had been ploughed, WW2 and the war-ag, and it never got harvested then, for what reason, no idea.
Why on earth would anybody need to spray a reseed? I'm Organic now so obviously don't but even when we were conventional dairy never sprayed a resend, really don't get why you would need to? You've just purchased wonderful seed that can out grow anything ( it was in the brochure) , your going to graze it or cut it fairly quickly so what weed has a chance?
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- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
"double cropping" as we understand it sounds pretty much in line with "regen" practices, tbh, by keeping living roots in the ground & vegetation above it, for a greater proportion of the year. It all depends on your "crop" choices & rotations though
gotta have diversity . . .
gotta have diversity . . .
- Location
- somerset
we get a large dose of seedling docks, and fat hen appear, simply best control is spray at seedling stage, and add clovers/herbs after. Docks seem to increase after a slurry application, and we have a lot of slurry, its a bugger.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I really like the concept of aerial-seeding into crops just prior to harvest, if that would work then it sounds like a great system - probably not for your system with the wider row spacings, but in temperate areas it might fly
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
does really depend on the weed. 3 bays I layered this summer and drilled grass into this autumn are full of marshmallows to the point I can't see the grass. Mainly due to high nitrate levels from the milkers having finished lot feeding their last autumn. Been told it's a sign of high fertility. If that's the case I won't let my daughter go near it incase she falls pregnant
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
light dose of mcpa here for broadleaf in general. Clover will look sick for a bit , but outgrow it. Our trouble is it can be a long time before some paddocks have a mouth near them. We can't wait to long or the weeds simply take over. And whilst Pete may have a different view on weeds, cows won't milk off them like clover.
- Location
- NSW, Newstralya
yes it does, although in our environment, broadcasting or just dropping seed on the surface, doesnt really work - unless you can guarantee a rain event & a week of overcast weather afterwards
we need to place seed INTO moist soil, with MINIMAL disturbance, for any reasonable chance of success - which is why our planters are so much more sophisticated & precision than what I see on tff
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yep, I think here it could work, with 150-200 mm row spacings in most of the combinables grown locally.
Eg dropping rapeseed into peas or cereals with a helicopter - or drones?
Most of the local cropping is more similar to UK systems [in-season-rainfall dependent] than your dryland/soil moisture grown wide row stuff - just less plants per m² and probably less icing sugar and pesticides in most cases
I was looking at getting a couple of heavy-lift drones a while back for seeding purposes, doing the sums I could undercut the helicopter teams in that type of situation with drones flying pre-programmed routes
- Location
- somerset
agree with that, we try to 'protect' soil, as far as we can. Our double cropping, gets very little fert, but 2 good application of slurry a year. But we do 'look' after it, which is the big difference, and it always has a crop in it, min time without ground cover. W wheat in some now, and it looks a tremendous crop. With quotes for summer cake up to £380/ton, ours fixed at £325, looks good, 4/5 tonne/ac wheat, looks a big money saver, and very glad we have it.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Fathen they will, as long as you don't give them a wall of the stuff (milk taint). It's one weed that's good to have, being a brassica it can also f**k up a rotation but it's got a fantastic feed value
I remember hosing out the yards and seeing great sheets of yellow seed near the stone-traps, like panning for gold.... goes great through the effluent system, farting against thunder trying to outfarm that stuff
- Location
- somerset
uncle tried putting fert on steep ground, with a plane, results, not worth it grass wise, trouble with insurance, and civil aviation authority, some idiot complained, and tried to claim for his 'ruined' thatch, by fert landing on it. Claim was chucked out, and no rules broken, but uncle never repeated it.
- Location
- somerset
had another look at our balsana yesterday, its there, not sure how much, its showing up now, its begun to flower, another 3/4 weeks before we need to cut that ground, pp takes longer to grow, to a decent cut.
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
fathen doesn't shade out everything like marshmallows though....
- Location
- southern riverina Australia
It may just not suit your conditions. Have you ever tried Persian clover? multiple grazings/cuts through spring. So more than just the one crack at it.
- Location
- Devon
A leg cultivates a narrow strip where the seed is placed, leaving the ground between the rows undisturbed.
@Devon James has had good results with this and has been developing/ modifying a machine to get best results.
I'll send him a message as he doesn't seem to have picked up on the tag.
So maybe a slight change in management of your Slurry could prevent the use / cost of spray & allow you to sow everything at the same time?
I find that either cutting or grazing a reseed cleans it up & usually you would do that before any weeds got to seeding , so breaking the cycle.
I would question if your spraying and still feeling the need to spray why hasn't the cycle been broken?