- Location
- Berkshire
No amount of support changes that situation!But it’s pointless if the crop fails due to lack of neonic seed dressing. A waste of everybody’s time and money, taxpayer included.
No amount of support changes that situation!But it’s pointless if the crop fails due to lack of neonic seed dressing. A waste of everybody’s time and money, taxpayer included.
4. Don’t spend a fortune on seedSooooooooooo.....
I think we are agreed that:
1 in the absence of subsidy, winter cover crops on heavy soil are a waste of time, by and large, from the view at least of the bottom line and the following spring crop.
2 agronomically, if you are going to grow them, or have to grow them, do so with maximum disturbance, and leave the soil rough.
3. Don't be tempted to direct drill either the cover crop or the following crop.
Anything else?
so if half the land is taken out of cereal production in the uk the livestock guys wont have to pay more?You are wrong on food inflation
UK cereals are trading higher than Europe and most key markets, imports could come in and not increase prices, it could be like when AHDB ballsed up the year end stocks a few years back and Frontier imported shed loads of cheap Ukrainian wheat that depressed the market for 6 months
You are confusing Food security with Food inflation
Not if imports come in at the parity, which they would atmso if half the land is taken out of cereal production in the uk the livestock guys wont have to pay more?
so if half the land is taken out of cereal production in the uk the livestock guys wont have to pay more?
1 I don’t agree with. It’s taken me quite a long time to actually work out how to manage them in order to add value though.Sooooooooooo.....
I think we are agreed that:
1 in the absence of subsidy, winter cover crops on heavy soil are a waste of time, by and large, from the view at least of the bottom line and the following spring crop.
2 agronomically, if you are going to grow them, or have to grow them, do so with maximum disturbance, and leave the soil rough.
3. Don't be tempted to direct drill either the cover crop or the following crop.
Anything else?
Hedge fund managers set the price! Look at the fundamentals for world harvest ‘24, price should be higheruk cereal production doesn’t set prices - global supply / demand does
That’s why on heavy land an autumn catch crop and spring cover crop have different aims and management.I can see the theory but the reality is I’m glad my brother insisted on ploughing everything last autumn slightly against my own opinion, skewed as it is by listening to all this regenerative stuff.
I think that yes covers can possibly work but it’s nothing like as easy as people think it is in terms of cover type, management, rotation etc. That’s about as charitable as I can be about it. They simply are not big enough, green enough and manly enough to suck enough water up here this spring and the shade and slug haven they provide is actually counter productive. If it dries up in April then folk might stand a chance drilling spring barley into them but it looks high risk where I’m sitting.
Wrong on all countsSooooooooooo.....
I think we are agreed that:
1 in the absence of subsidy, winter cover crops on heavy soil are a waste of time, by and large, from the view at least of the bottom line and the following spring crop.
2 agronomically, if you are going to grow them, or have to grow them, do so with maximum disturbance, and leave the soil rough.
3. Don't be tempted to direct drill either the cover crop or the following crop.
Anything else?
To be fair to @Wigeon, he has been cover cropping for 9 years, which is when a lot of farmers started. So 11 out of 10 for trying.Wrong on all counts
If you don't want it to work, it won't.
Agree you definitely do not want a massive huge cover in the spring. Spray off Jan. we tend to use buckwheat, which dies in a frost, low rate phacelia, vetch and a little linseed. Costs about £25/ha and broadcast on then cultivated in.The best entry I’ve found for spring barley (before these stupidly wet winters) is simply to rough it up in the autumn with a stubble cultivator. That gets a good chit of volunteer wheat and weeds. Spray off before drilling straight in. The cover isn’t big enough to shade the soil too much or hamper the drill. I suppose you could sow something small and low growing at the same time as roughing it up in the autumn. But I certainly would not want a strong cover to deal with on heavy land here in the spring, from a shading, slug and drilling point of view though my drill is just an old unidrill.
Ukraine may have lots of honey, but the overall decline in insects is well documented.Yes. As there was no evidence that the banned actives at field scale and dosage cause harm to bees. Ukraine still uses neonic seed dressings yet is the biggest producer of honey in Europe.
Sooooooooooo.....
I think we are agreed that:
1 in the absence of subsidy, winter cover crops on heavy soil are a waste of time, by and large, from the view at least of the bottom line and the following spring crop.
2 agronomically, if you are going to grow them, or have to grow them, do so with maximum disturbance, and leave the soil rough.
3. Don't be tempted to direct drill either the cover crop or the following crop.
Anything else?
If you paid people not to eat chicken and pork, thereby encouraging the reintroduction of grazing livestock it would result in a more resilient farming system. Plus the payments would spread far further in society bringing more economic benefits than land ownership based payments. Trouble is paying them to be vegetarian would lead greater emission reduction and free up more ground for other uses. Problems, problems, problems!!! I suppose I could put carbon credits for vegans at the heart of my manifesto?