100% spring cropping

Why can't we have some crops that are autumn drilled and spring germinating? Lots of weed seeds are capable of sitting in the ground over winter and popping up with perfect timing in spring. No spring moisture loss, compaction or disturbance, pass with the sprayer before they emerge as usual, would solve a lot of problems
Plough beans in very deep

The advantage of later planting is lower weeds and disease
My later planted spring crops hardly need any fungicide
Herbicide is based on the field history although late drilled spring beans with chopped straw on the surface on land with little history of spring crops have low spring weed seeds and low disturbance notill does not uncover any fresh seeds
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
Was always 100% Spring cropping for us all through the 40s, 50s and the early 60s.

Drilled SB most days all the way from New Year's Day until Easter in 1962, for example.

Which turned out to be a record year.

Strictly speaking, of course, it wasn't ever 100% cropping because some 20%-40% would be left as fallow due to the then 98% income tax.

And it was always one's accountant who determined exactly how much of the farm should be planted and how much not.
When are you starting the book ??? These little titbits are only whetting the appetite !
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
Spring cropping can be very profitable but it needs patience and a very different approach to winter crops
Fine firm seedbeds are a must and combine drilling if at all possible. What savings are made in reduced chemical and fert bills cant be lost in patchy thin crops that yield badly because the crop was rushed in to raw soil that

then dried out to clods . Winter crops are handy in a kind Autumn just plough and combi roll if it stays dry and stick on a weed spray. No blackgrass over here.
Half and half is a very manageable for but some years like last year you wish you hadnt bothered with spring crops at all then you remember that the November before you had two tractors pulling the drill on the headlands and left the rest for spring . It looked a better idea at the time !!!
 

jonnyjon

Member
Judging by how many people on this forum that are struggling with an ever increasing list of problems, it would suggest that what they are doing is not working for them
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
IMHO drilling capacity is key to managing either spring or autumn operations. No such thing as having too much. Once you have invested in that it’s possible to select the best cropping opportunities. The first bite of the cherry is in the autumn therefore it’s likely year in year out successful farms will have at least 50% autumn cropping.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Judging by how many people on this forum that are struggling with an ever increasing list of problems, it would suggest that what they are doing is not working for them
Your constant doom mongering is wearing. Why not contribute something useful like what you are doing on your farm and why. I for one would be interested but spare me the Private Fraser impression. Thanks
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
IMHO drilling capacity is key to managing either spring or autumn operations. No such thing as having too much. Once you have invested in that it’s possible to select the best cropping opportunities. The first bite of the cherry is in the autumn therefore it’s likely year in year out successful farms will have at least 50% autumn cropping.
I absolutely agree. Drilling capacity is cheap in the grand scheme, an extra 30grand on 4meters more drill can go a long way. It’s especially helpful on our blackgrass clay soil.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
I now only grow whole crop,( more cows), and am really looking at direct drill, or min til with our grass, maize, and whole crop, maize will cease with us, although we have combi drilled it, most amusing crop we have ever grown, walk 20 meters in, and you were completely lost (no drill lines).
we are reseeding a fair proportion of the farm each year, using forage rape as a break between grass, the cost of a full plough, reseed is large, and we think, with use of an aerator, and sward lifter, we could significantly reduce that cost,using a dd drill, or min till machine, and could boost a leys performance with dd pass, with 1/2 rate grass. this is an arable thread, but we treat our grass as an arable crop, so, when we mention this idea, why do we get the , ooh that won't work, or, do that and you will regret it ? there must be some using the system, our soils are good loams.
 

jonnyjon

Member
Your constant doom mongering is wearing. Why not contribute something useful like what you are doing on your farm and why. I for one would be interested but spare me the Private Fraser impression. Thanks
I don't come on here whining about it being too dry, too wet, Gove, Brixit, slugs, bg, midge blah blah so maybe you should take note of your own doom and whining instead of accusing others
 
I don't come on here whining about it being too dry, too wet, Gove, Brixit, slugs, bg, midge blah blah so maybe you should take note of your own doom and whining instead of accusing others

Sorry I'm with @Flat 10 simply turning up everywhere claiming you know best is reserved for York, and I think just the same if him, if what you're doing is so wonderful then show us, i was inches from offering him £100/ha for the recommendation to make flea beetle vanish on the understanding he'd pay me the same if it didnt.
The same goes for you, whatever marvelous system you have prove it or stop trolling people trying to have an honest discussion
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
I don't come on here whining about it being too dry, too wet, Gove, Brixit, slugs, bg, midge blah blah so maybe you should take note of your own doom and whining instead of accusing others
Don’t come on a farming forum if you don’t want to hear moaning about the weather. Aside from that I think of myself as reasonably positive and am not constantly moaning but you clearly disagree. As I have said try being constructive. We managed it when discussing Osr the other day. So please tell me about your spring cropping.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Sorry I'm with @Flat 10 simply turning up everywhere claiming you know best is reserved for York, and I think just the same if him, if what you're doing is so wonderful then show us, i was inches from offering him £100/ha for the recommendation to make flea beetle vanish on the understanding he'd pay me the same if it didnt.
The same goes for you, whatever marvelous system you have prove it or stop trolling people trying to have an honest discussion
I’m glad I’m not the only one
 

jonnyjon

Member
Don’t come on a farming forum if you don’t want to hear moaning about the weather. Aside from that I think of myself as reasonably positive and am not constantly moaning but you clearly disagree. As I have said try being constructive. We managed it when discussing Osr the other day. So please tell me about your spring cropping.
As I've said I don't spend my time on here whining about all my problems, my farming system is far from perfect and i try every day to improve it, not complaining about it. I understand that most of my farming challenges are of my own making Most of the discussion in the cropping section is people talking about problems growing crops which I very seldom, if ever, complain about.
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
I don't come on here whining about it being too dry, too wet, Gove, Brixit, slugs, bg, midge blah blah so maybe you should take note of your own doom and whining instead of accusing others
Ah now jonny go on out of that , its good for the soul to have a good whinge and complaining about the weather is compulsory in this racket . Having a kick at gove is also morale building . So now lets hear your complaints its not good to be happy all the time......
 

CORK

Member
I guess the winter crop has more time to get over blips in the growing season.

If one has easily worked medium textured soil then there are loads of options whereas really light soils can be too light for winter wheat to finish properly.

My own view is that break crops are hugely beneficial, even if the only cereal you grow is spring barley.
Our current rotation here (the plan anyway!) is WOSR, WW, WW, S Barley, S Beans, WW, WW, W Barley, WOSR.

This keeps a good gap between rape crops and also between bean crops.
If one decides to bring in a break crop sooner then that’s ok too as it’ll be a different one from last time around.
Wheat will be seed and spring barley will be malting where possible.

We have some ground where spring beans might be a challenge to get sown on time but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The above rotation should keep the goal posts moving from a grass weed point of view too.

Too many over here are going with a continuous winter barley rotation (or lack of) and I think it’s a disaster from a grass weed and yield point of view.
 
My view is do a bit of everything!

Quite agree ,,,,, I've always had a very varied rotation , winter and spring cropping , never had many really disastrous winter crops but some very iffy spring crops , but over the years my varied cropping has meant that I have kept fairly well on top of the dreaded BG whereas my wheat wheat rape neighbours who may of had better gross margins for a few years now have a fair problem on their hands tho some are starting to make inroads into their BG problems .
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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