How do you establish your combinable crops ?

Clive

Staff Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Lichfield

• Jul 16, 2019

• #1

Following a post by @SmallRobotCo it seems there is no real statistics around how many farms establish the majority of their combinable crops


For the purpose of this poll definitions as follows and not counting rakes or rolls as cultivators

Plough - full soil inversion tillage pre additional cultivation and drilling

Mintill - none inversion but heavy deep cultivation 3 inches or more pre additional cultivation and drilling

Scratch Till - surface cultivation ( no deeper than 3") pre drilling

Direct drill - single pass establishment with drill that moves soil, Claydon, Mzuri, Sumo etc

Zero-till - single pass establishment with low / minimal soil disturbance

 

cousinjack

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

Cornwall

• Jul 16, 2019

• #2

Voted, then read the definitions so had to change my vote !! Haha!

This will be our first harvest with scratch till establishment.., Wheat is looking good, Osr is excellent and the barley could be better !!

 

nonemouse

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

North yorks

• Jul 16, 2019

• #3

I used a combination of 4 types last year cantvote for more than 1

 

Clive

Staff Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Lichfield

• Jul 16, 2019

• #4

nonemouse said:

I used a combination of 4 types last year cantvote for more than 1

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no - the question is how do you establish the MAJORITY of your combinable crops ie. which technique do you use the most

 

chipchap

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

South Shropshire

• Jul 16, 2019

• #5

I expect in general those of us using the plough have less grass weed problems. However I fully admit that those using zero and non inversion tillage will not necessarily have worse problems, just that their management will need to be better than average to keep grass weeds under control.

 

Clive

Staff Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Lichfield

• Jul 16, 2019

• #6

chipchap said:

I expect in general those of us using the plough have less grass weed problems. However I fully admit that those using zero and non inversion tillage will not necessarily have worse problems, just that their management will need to be better than average to keep grass weeds under control.

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I think you might "fully accept" incorrectly ! If ploughing sorts grass-weeds then no one would have black-grass. I certainly had bigger grass weed issues when we ploughed, and even bigger issues when we used mintill

 

tr250

Member

Location

Northants

• Jul 16, 2019

• #7

We use all of the above depending on what needs doing

 

ajd132

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Suffolk

• Jul 16, 2019

• #8

tr250 said:

We use all of the above depending on what needs doing

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Can you afford to have that amount of capital tied up in machinery for every eventuality?

 

rob h

Member

Location

east yorkshire

• Jul 16, 2019

• #9

We have no preferred method .we use either min til or plough can be all one or the other or a combination of both .

 

tr250

Member

Location

Northants

• Jul 16, 2019

• #10

ajd132 said:

Can you afford to have that amount of capital tied up in machinery for every eventuality?

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Yes we are not big farmers and all the machinery it paid for and not worth huge amount. The same drill does all the drilling from no till to plough based

 

ajd132

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Suffolk

• Jul 16, 2019

• #11

tr250 said:

Yes we are not big farmers and all the machinery it paid for and not worth huge amount. The same drill does all the drilling from no till to plough based

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Ah that’s fair enough. Regularly see big farmers with brand new of everything for every eventuality. Must kill the fixed costs.

 

principal skinner

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Bedfordshire

• Jul 16, 2019

• #12

Claydon 100% (year three now)

 

Brisel

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Midlands

• Jul 16, 2019

• #13

100% Claydon apart from one small field with a demo Weaving GD. 3rd season of use. I put direct drill but do use a pass of a straw rake or light discs occasionally e.g. on clay in spring or to get a stale seedbed after spring oats before wheat.

 

J

juke

Member

Location

DURHAM

• Jul 16, 2019

• #14

Majority with Claydon lump been done with 750a

 

matthewizod

Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Chipping norton

• Jul 16, 2019

• #15

Min till, just purchased a straw rake for front of carrier and a weaving sabre tine, moving towards scratch tillage with a look to moving some to direct drilling in the future.

 

Boysground

Member

Mixed Farmer

Location

Wiltshire

• Jul 16, 2019

• #16

Haven’t voted as use a combination of min till and ploughing according to crop and field issues with opportunistic direct drilling when I can.

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Clive

Staff Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Lichfield

• Jul 16, 2019

• #17

Boysground said:

Haven’t voted as use a combination of min till and ploughing according to crop and field issues with opportunistic direct drilling when I can.

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The question / poll is how do you establish the majority of acres on your farm

 

D

DRC

Member

• Jul 16, 2019

• #18

Seems there’s still plenty of us ploughing, although like others I sometimes just use discs or even straight in with a combi disc drill.

 

W

Warstone1

Member

• Jul 16, 2019

• #19

One pass with Simba heavy discs as soon as after straw is cleared/muck applied. Then let weather, spray off and drill. Only plough as a reset on bad black grass infested area. So I guess mintill, would be to deep with discs for scratch till.

 

Clive

Staff Member

Arable Farmer

Location

Lichfield

• Jul 16, 2019

• #20

silverfox said:

Seems there’s still plenty of us ploughing, although like others I sometimes just use discs or even straight in with a combi disc drill.

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I would expect plough to still be the majority answer

I’ve seen 8% quoted as “direct drilled” before I think