2 pass cultivations

[mo!]

I have been thinking about going down the rolling route, as in very wet or very dry years a full cultivation is counter productive, it's either that or a scratch cultivation, has anyone tried the old KV C tine harrows to do this? I could easily do disc and Xpress Vaddy but having gone to system disc I believe I could comfortably get away with 2 passes for establishment (I know this is in reply to ADJ and he is no till but the discussion is about a 2 pass system) it is getting a weed chit, cheaply, that is my challenge.

We did some rolling a few years ago, we don't have GPS so the lad doing it got lost. A week later you couldn't see any difference either. Complete waste of diesel on the kind of land that gets black grass.

 

[Brisel]

Quite often it was burnt first.......

Yes, a good point! We didn’t have much blackgrass or many slugs either.

 

[Mr Charisma]

Can’t agree with that and I’m not far from you. We had a 6 year rotation and the Sumo wrecked this farm with Blackgrass.
If my neighbour, with whom we share farm, didn’t keep trying to have a go with it, I’d have happily cut the damned thing up with a gas axe!

You cannot get away from the fact that the Sumo Trio and any other tools like it, thoroughly mix all weed Seeds throughout the soil profile, which = disaster when it comes to Blackgrass control.

i agree that some folks dont get on with them and in time will possibly change my view, but at the moment what I'm doing works for me, I've always had a very wide rotation but look over my hedges at those who ran 2 or 3 cereal crops followed by rape and they are all searching for ways to get around their war on BG..
I know you advocate ploughing and I can see why but on my red marl I can really struggle to get a good seedbed, I have clays which are a doddle to farm in comparison to some keiuper marl, I've also had several looks a DDing but as of yet I'm still struggling but envious of those who make it work, some very nice spring crops in the area on some good clay land

 

[Two Tone]

i agree that some folks dont get on with them and in time will possibly change my view, but at the moment what I'm doing works for me, I've always had a very wide rotation but look over my hedges at those who ran 2 or 3 cereal crops followed by rape and they are all searching for ways to get around their war on BG..
I know you advocate ploughing and I can see why but on my red marl I can really struggle to get a good seedbed, I have clays which are a doddle to farm in comparison to some keiuper marl, I've also had several looks a DDing but as of yet I'm still struggling but envious of those who make it work, some very nice spring crops in the area on some good clay land

We all have to find a system that works best for each of our farms and there are many considerations that we all need to take specific to each farm.

To me, the overriding 1st thing on my mind is Blackgrass. It is my ultimate enemy. So I need to use a system that eliminates as much as possible this problem and allows my to achieve maximum profitability on enormously variable Soil types, without needing an enormously variable collection of machinery.
Late drilling is not an option here. Not only because we risk not establishing a crop at all, but because yields are reduced and Blackgrass takes over again.

That leave 2 options:
Plough and instantly reduce the Blackgrass burden by 70% by burying it.
Or No till Direct drill with absolute minimal disturbance so as not to wake up the Blackgrass.
But this isn’t an either/or situation and we must remain flexible enough to be able to use either system, depending on the situation each year.

What is The absolutely No No is any system that mixes Blackgrass throughout the soil profile and actively encourages it. This is why Min till is not suitable here.

I have found a DD type system that I’m encourage to think will work here. Contrary to advise on using a tine drill to start with, I like the idea of using an angled disc type system such as the Weaving GD. Despite the fact that all my ploughing plus combi-drilling system is all bought and paid for, I am struggling to justify the investment into into a new GD Right now. But I’m fairly certain that this is the direction I’ll be heading towards, whilst keeping my ploughing based system for where and when necessary.

 

[Mr Charisma]

First photo is a block of spring barley that is predominantly on red marl that has been triod 15 times and ploughed twice in 17 years , pretty well BG free

 

[Mr Charisma]

Disappointed as it germinated and came up in row but just died of lack of moisture in my opinion

 

[CAF]

Disappointed as it germinated and came up in row but just died of lack of moisture in my opinion

Only consolation is.... it probably would have been worse if it was ploughed for the spring barley. It’s a year just to get through! Next years crops will have a lot of soil nitrogen available to them!

 

[Mr Charisma]

Disappointed as it germinated and came up in row but just died of lack of moisture in my opinion

I ought to put in that this is my direct drilled field , it went in very well and the slots closed up well but just couldn't handle the dry weather but as CAP says probably be just as big a failure if I triod or ploughed