Drilling North /South

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Anyone ever done this to maximize light intersection of crops ?


With fixed tramlines no longer put in by the drill it strikes me this could make a lot of sense especially when on wider row widths ? even if you ended up drilling fields at all sorts of odd angles it creates no real practical issues when using modern GPS surely

Has any research been done @Feldspar ??
 
Anyone ever done this to maximize light intersection of crops ?


With fixed tramlines no longer put in by the drill it strikes me this could make a lot of sense especially when on wider row widths ? even if you ended up drilling fields at all sorts of odd angles it creates no real practical issues when using modern GPS surely

Has any research been done @Feldspar ??

Yes, there's lots on this. Will dig some up. In the meantime, for planters of the future in the States (we don't grow much corn) I wonder whether we'll even see planters that can orientate the seed so that even the leaf orientation (on top of row orientation) maximise yield!

https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/jpa/abstracts/12/3/396
 
I can see the advantages if you have decent sized and fairly regular shaped fields and quite a few of ours drill North-South anyway but on some of our fields you would instantly double the time for each operation due to short runs and constantly turning rather than decent long runs.

And if this means you miss drilling some fields at the optimum time, it could well have a greater effect on yield.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
I can see the advantages if you have decent sized and fairly regular shaped fields and quite a few of ours drill North-South anyway but on some of our fields you would instantly double the time for each operation due to short runs and constantly turning rather than decent long runs.

And you may end up with a larger area of headland with wheeling and compaction - there is good research to show headlands yield less. So could you be chasing one unicorn but ignoring a known effect?
 
Our great grandfathers would have paid much more attention to things like this. Also sowing on a waxing moon.
Nature still really holds the trump card over science ( by which l mean science may prove earlier sow date is better but a crop sown 2 weeks later on a new moon can catch up / overtake it).
 

David_A

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Fife
Our great grandfathers would have paid much more attention to things like this. Also sowing on a waxing moon.
Nature still really holds the trump card over science ( by which l mean science may prove earlier sow date is better but a crop sown 2 weeks later on a new moon can catch up / overtake it).
Why does the moon have such an influence on crop growth?
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
Interesting, but there has to be a fine line between having an enquiring mind, and looking for things to worry about.. :)
I was going to ask, but been beaten to it, but I thought broadcast uniformly was the ideal. Though if you are going to compromise this by squeezing plants into rows, perhaps row orientation helps redress the crowding?
 

juke

Member
Location
DURHAM
I know of one farm that religiously for 30 years drilled osr north south regardless of field shape, they aren't so fussy now about it , there thinking yields are just the same whichever way they plant now.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I see little point for narrow row spacing. Maize and other wide row spacing crops suit this better IMO (not having read @Feldspar 's links). My field sizes & shapes mean this is a no go.
 

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