- Location
- Lincolnshire.
Well he’s an advocate of these subsidies and a fierce critic of other forms of subsidy. There’s no reason for me to stop expressing my opinion is there?
Fertilizing winter cereal
- Thread starter Plough on
- Start date
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Interesting. Sooner yes. I am finding grain yields are good but straw amounts less. Have never been an advocate of RB209. Following those levels actually reduces yields here, even conventionally. Presumably because we have gone over the response curve.
Having farmed not far from you, I agree with your figures for where you are. Though mine was Beccles series Clay and opposed to your Hanslope (IIRC?). Might even put 240 on the wheat and all of the 100 on spring cereals. Especially if conventional rather than DD.
But here there is not the same yield potential unless we get dry years. So I go 180 on 1st wheats and 180 on 2nd winter barleys. Wouldn’t be averse to cutting them to nearer 150 sometimes. More than that and it will go flat!
This farm doesn’t suffer from drought even on the lighter land. It is like it sweats moisture up from below.
I know what you mean about listening to consultants. They don’t know your farm like you do.
You have got to listen to your own instincts as well as them to come up with the right solution for the farm and you.
I don’t believe there is any land that cannot or will not DD. You just have got to get the timing and cropping right for each bit of it. Though, without doubt lighter land is much easier to DD.
You often get some beginners luck, but on the heavier stuff, might hit a wall about year 3 that you must get through.
If you get to year 3 on your heaviest land and suffer a wet winter like we just have had, you have to grit your teeth and get through it. Look instead at the heavier stuff you have got in year 5 to have something to aim for.
Therefore with heavy soils, I would never advocate converting the whole farm in year 1. Do it over 3 years to avoid that year 3 wall all happening at once.
As for Fertiliser amounts make you own mind up based on intuition.
But I suggest keeping seed rate up the higher end of the scale, especially so on the heavy ground.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Harsh really, as pushing crops with N means more land for nature schemes without dropping production .
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- Location
- Lincolnshire
I’ll put the spreader on tomorrow so it’s on standby. Poly first, then MOP then urea. A bit windy today for spreading but it’s drying things up. 
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Terras will keep me on top but can suppress growth in a fair width. Not reaching for them yet particularly with my dodgy neck to contend with.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Give it a week of this breeze and I'll think about it.
I can’t get spring crops to be consistent in no till so we are cultivating for them.
I don’t really believe in this 3-5 year thing. Some fields seem to be absolutely fine the longer you go, others just seem to go dead and sad. I know there’s this optimism of ‘jam tomorrow’ amongst the no till fraternity but from experience and being in a no till benchmarking group I confidently say that being too holy and zealous will mean you need deep pockets to get to nirvana (which probably won’t ever happen!).
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Yes I know. We cannot be so anal about to the extent that the economics don’t stack up.
We are in business and not a DD benevolent movement to lose money because we didn’t do something.
So if a field needs cultivating of subsoiling, we must do it.
You have been doing DD a lot longer than me and your experiences are bound to be greater and different than mine.
It is great to share all our experiences. But it must be remembered that what works or doesn’t work on this farm, or your farm WON’T be the same as on everybody else's.
It is so easy to think that everything will be the same for those with years of experience at DD, as for those starting at it. It most certainly won’t!
More than anything else, irrespective of DD or conventional, just as we think we have cracked it, Mother Nature says “F you!”, throwing a spanner in the works. That is just farming.
……..As for Nirvana, if it costs anything like as much as the Herbicide and is as ineffective, we’re all Fecked anyway!
Thank God for AB6 and the need to never have to use it again.
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Find the VRA worth doing with N?
It does sound like you have had it bad with the weather, not much you can do about that.
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
Same here, been going all day today, fields largely running clean, a few messy corners, making a dreadful mess on tracks getting to fields though.
BB
- Location
- East Yorkshire
Been strip till for 4 years now. During the extortionate N price period we cut rates by 20kg/ha but also started using N inhibitor. Our yield seems to have gone up and, though I've no proof, I think the increase is down to the inhibitors retaining the N and stretching release later into the growing season. We had previously cut N on osr from 220 to 200. Then when price was crippling, down to 180 plus inhibitor. Much better yield since.
Switching to liquid N 8 years ago saw a yield lift too. Fert to the edge and better utilisation? Dunno but above seems to work for us!
What's worse than messy tramlines is losing tillers.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Im not overly bothered for a week or two yet.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
Cant walk sensibly on anything here, let alone travel. Perm Grass, crop, plough, min till, DD; all sloppy sh!t
not really convinced it makes a difference and that’s after 20yrs of doing it ! but it costs us nothing / seems the right thing to do will get an sfi payment soon !
- Location
- Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire
With some crops just starting to look hungry, we are rigging this up again this week to float over some wet land.
- Location
- Oxfordshire
Likewise. Just upgraded our fert spreader this week and now have that capability in preparation. Just depends on prescription I suppose whether we bother
Osr - yes. Cereals - no. That’s after years of NDVI satellite imagery, drone imagery and N Sensor use. The concept is ok but the response time is longer than my patience as the crop moves rapidly through growth stages and application windows appear.