Compaction can sort itself !

Kiwi Pete · Jul 24, 2017

I love the sucking sound of water dragging the air down into the soil.. It triggers memories of Dad's place.
Never heard it for years and years until we looked at this place the day after heavy rain... a huge slurping sound like water running.

we just had a dollop of easterly rain, and that is only a few metres above sealevel. The lower Clutha is well up but there's only ditches and locks to let most of that land drain. Very fertile though! Just over the hills from us.
Our land is gently contoured and has a range of topsoil depth but certainly not metres deep, roots go about half a metre which is good enough as we have good monthly rainfall, on the edge of the Catlins forest. 80mm per month.

TelesnaAg · Jul 24, 2017

One thing ive seen is different soils take different time frames to see benefits from no till and rehab...My flat block has done a really good job of getting structure (good dirt)...after i levelled the block and improved drains...i thought this block would take a long time...my lease block is red dirt on hills...3rd year in DD and man its still soft in places...has along way to go to get some structure yet...i will plant some aggressive pasture in it next year and keep smallest lightest stock there. I thought this block would structure up well...hadnt really ever been ploughed and never levelled...

if i get this next farm which looks lilkely it volcanic and its some good sh*t...dirt that is hard to compact and can almost plow all year...i wont rip it up - ill go very gently and just improve pasture into it and try keep the soil structure...luckliy levelling not really required...

I would imagine with the correct plants growing at the correct times you could break alot of compaction...may just take a while..

Ant...

Farmer Roy · Jul 25, 2017

https://instagram.com/p/BW9DCvWgHRq/

Showing how friable the soil surface is with no tillage & retained residue

Sorry for the Instagram link, but I couldn't load video straight from my phone to here . . .

Kiwi Pete · Jul 29, 2017

I wouldn't call this friable... wet!!!
Here's my hoggets today, 6 weeks past shortest day. Soil temp @1pm 3.8°C
Grass brix 9.

The turf part has 28 easily found earthworms, and 11 below the main root mass. Roots to about 11 inches here.

TopBanana · Aug 1, 2017

Clive said:
im interested in the humic / fulvic and if that can be made ? both are great products IME but expensive to buy - a cheap supply or home brew if possible would be very beneficial

Agreed, please pass on the details as very interested in this.

Farmer Roy · Aug 2, 2017

TopBanana said:
Agreed, please pass on the details as very interested in this.

+1 please

Kiwi Pete · Aug 2, 2017

Farmer Roy said:
+1 please

Sorry- missed the cue on that one...
Have you access to any brown coal, ignite, leonardite or peat near you? Or peat moss, sphagnum, that type of thing?

Farmer Roy · Aug 2, 2017

Kiwi Pete said:
Sorry- missed the cue on that one...
Have you access to any brown coal, ignite, leonardite or peat near you? Or peat moss, sphagnum, that type of thing?

No . . .

Kiwi Pete · Aug 2, 2017

Farmer Roy said:
No . . .

Bugger!!

yellow belly · Aug 2, 2017

The problem I have is slugs on looser soils the hide in the cracks and reappear once notill has been used enough times the predators reduce the slugs
We need more drier years to speed the transition to notill
In the 1980s years were dryer from June to December and winters colder 2017 would not have been considered dry as there were 5 years dryer
Combines only made ruts in 2 years in the 1980s min till land with burning was easy the trouble is burning starved the worms and reduced the benificials insects ploughing after wet years or osr reduced worms and reduced om.

Heavier tighter soils have less slugs it is the heavier light fields that are slug damaged lighter light fields have little slug problems

Farmer Roy · Oct 7, 2017

No compaction issues with zero till here, especially after a good long dry spell . . .

SilliamWhale · Oct 7, 2017

Farmer Roy said:
No compaction issues with zero till here, especially after a good long dry spell . . .View attachment 587170 View attachment 587172 View attachment 587174

Thats soil cracking though. It doesn't necessarily say one or the other about compaction. Not least because one is vertical and the other is horizontal!

Brisel · Oct 7, 2017

The cracks will be through any horizontal layers and the shrinkage will help break them up too. That’s quite a clay content you’ve got there @Farmer Roy

franklin · Oct 7, 2017

I think @Farmer Roy and I are soil twins.

Farmer Roy · Oct 7, 2017

SilliamWhale said:
Thats soil cracking though. It doesn't necessarily say one or the other about compaction. Not least because one is vertical and the other is horizontal!

I disagree

we get a lot of movement, shrinking & swelling, in the vertical & horizontal, from variations in soil moisture.
Those soil cracks you see can be arranged in block like patterns the size of cinder blocks & go down many feet deep
the surface level of the soil can move as much as 100 mm when viewed alongside fixtures such as a bore casing, or a properly constructed house. I personally know of a few houses built on concrete slabs that have cracked in half due to soil movement.

all this shrinking & swelling works on all planes & in all directions, not just the vertical cracks

ive seen enough of this soil type to know that a good drought, followed by a nice slow flood, is the best soil conditioner you can get

Timbo1080 · Oct 9, 2017

You'd like this soil then....it's our light stuff.

Before drilling Wheat last autumn:

Having been drilled (750A, after advice on this forum)

During a slow flood:

After the flood had subsided a week later:

And then again in the spring:

(Border was being extended, hence the bare strip). By light, I mean about 47% Clay, 36% Silt & 17% Sand. OM about 4%. Just taken on the tenancy the year before and the linseed did a wonderful job.

James W · Oct 13, 2017

those land cracks are why we dont plough... most of the black-grass seed falls down those cracks in late July, ploughing brings it all back up

Hammer · Oct 14, 2017

James W said:
those land cracks are why we dont plough... most of the black-grass seed falls down those cracks in late July, ploughing brings it all back up

Exactly, and this scenario is rarely mentioned when ploughing is given as a method of black grass control, particularly when these are also the more typical soil types to have a black grass problem...

James W · Oct 14, 2017

consultants and agri advisors often have no experience of what they are talking about. We planted soya on May 18th because blackgrass supposedly goes dormant in mid -April... never seen so much black-grass and nothing to control it. We have a farm at W.Raynham is that near you

stroller · Sep 19, 2018

This year I have had to resort to subsoiling, yields have been reducing, more so this year which showed up the poor rooting depth. I have been DDing for 5 years and min tilling for 10 years before that, I have been doing a muck for straw swop for 8 years and have had cover crops before spring cropping..Not all the fields need subsoiling, but I can't work out why some and not others need it, where am I going wrong?

Compaction can sort itself !

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