50% 1st wheat 50% fallow/cover/stubble

[Gong Farmer]

@Dockers does a fair bit of this, I think

 

[Dockers]

Indeed I do ! fallow , beans and OSR are my current breaks. 6 year rotation. Yields of wheat after fallow are as good as after rape and beans, on my land. Fallow/wheat was/is a very simple way of farming. Maybe more difficult on heavy land ?

 

[T Hectares]

I’ve managed a block of light land that’s been 50/50 - Wheat / Fallow since it was last trendy nearly 20 years ago
Works very well, chopping straw and having some CC paid for by stewardship helps

 

[yellow belly]

When set aside was around, stubble was as good a break as pulses in trials. That was light land though.

i year trial long term soil need growing cover or a crop
grass ley contract out grazing

 

[Spanish]

Here for the fallow the farm is left covered by the chopped straw from the previous crop and vicia sativa is sown at the end of September. As vetch is a legume, cheap antigramine herbicides can be applied and different from those used on the cereal, which makes the farm clean. In June, when the leaf mass of the vetch is maximum, it is buried with the disc harrow very superficially and it is decompressed with the Michel-type grating decompressor. The carbon / nitrogen ratio is very low, so the straw of the previous cereal decomposes very well and the green matter of the vice creates a lot of nitrogen and organic matter and with a simple pass you can sow wheat whenever you want.

 

[Clive]

@Feldspar is doing something along these lines i believe on a fair acreage

 

[Clive]

bare soil is a disaster though, what on earth will your soil eat for a year ?

cover crop / zerotill the wheat and output of your wheat will go off the scale in time

 

[Feldspar]

bare soil is a disaster though, what on earth will your soil eat for a year ?

cover crop / zerotill the wheat and output of your wheat will go off the scale in time

My "bare soil" fallows this year have got a better crop of rape volunteers and assorted other plants than most people's actual rape crops in the last few years. They've been growing since late May and came with the rain after the BLW spray we did. Does it show that I overdid the N on my wheat? At least the cover is grabbing some of it back.

Last year I had a half decent crop of spring barley volunteers by November. More cover certainly that a lot of normal cash crops over the winter when the heavy rains come.

 

[teslacoils]

Interestingly, my bare ab12 after wheat...and I mean a handful of plants at best, was full of worms when I did the count. Will be interesting to see what state this year's is with a veritable forest (now frosted and flat) of oats on it.

 

[Feldspar]

Overwintered stubble mid tier?!?!! Thank me later. Fee is 1%

I've patented this.

 

[marco]

Wheat ,legume,wheat,legume,wheat cover crop wheat?

 

[Feldspar]

Indeed I do ! fallow , beans and OSR are my current breaks. 6 year rotation. Yields of wheat after fallow are as good as after rape and beans, on my land. Fallow/wheat was/is a very simple way of farming. Maybe more difficult on heavy land ?

This year we no-tilled into some of the fallow. Fearing the problems of doing this with heavy land that was bare over summer (might put covers in next year) we drilled mid September with the JD. Madness in conventional thinking, and I was quite nervous about doing it. However, we had a completely clean surface where we did do it, hardly disturbed the surface at all, and got Avadex + pre-em on before all the rain came. Result is really quite low black-grass numbers and certainly lower than the stuff we (relatively speaking) mauled in 6 weeks later (without being able to get the Avadex on or pre-em timed pre-em). Maybe not repeatable (although we will try again) but gum am I glad I did. We had a third of our wheat in the ground by 23 September.

On our really heavy stuff, even despite all the dry weather in September, it was still amazingly wet inside. I panicked and got some Topdowned in a hurry rather than drill it with slots. In the end the early drilling and subsequent rain made the no-till stuff do way better than expected. Cultivated fields remain undrilled and will have to be spring wheat. I think I either need cover crops in for autumn drilling or it gets cultivated in early August (which means I lose my clean surface).

 

[Flat 10]

Wheat ,legume,wheat,legume,wheat cover crop wheat?

Too many legumes = disease disaster?

 

[Flat 10]

After last year, by accident I have discovered ploughing a year in advance, ie Oct 2019 then discing around june 2020, and drilling Nov 2020 has been ideal, weathering makes the seedbed and a quick pre drill spray cleaned up any blackgrass, the crops look a picture and even this morning no waterlogging.

Hopefully with ELMS I can roll this out over the whole farm.

While I believe you, I’d be surprised if it was as good in a more normal wetter spring/summer. The option you were on about was for lapwings wasn’t it?

 

[ifindoubtflatout]

wheat prices will not stay high

a no crop fallow is the worst break option possible especially on heavier soil types

we have heavier land. So thinking a cover is the best way

 

[Gong Farmer]

i year trial

Four years, but must admit results were variable. That said there was definitely a useful break effect from fallow. Margins were pretty poor though.

 

[organicguy]

wheat prices will not stay high

a no crop fallow is the worst break option possible especially on heavier soil types

Neighbour did that last year, crop looks sh!t now, has been silver with water laid on the surface all winter, no structure , no infiltration.
Too much cultivation.

 

[Warnesworth]

Google ab6. Don’t forget 1st ww following falllow isn’t as good as after a break.

Soil always goes backwards when theres not enough cover growing in it. Whilst this AB6 option pays well, the lack of options to establish something useful (which seems to go totally against what the option is trying to achieve imo) is what puts me off.

 

[Warnesworth]

Ignoring stewardship/ELMS for a minute, a multi species cover crop mix would be good but bear in mind that it will be September sown, so species choice is limited. Depending on your weed burden, you may find that you need to terminate grasses like black grass & brome in late April just as your solar/carbon harvesting really needs to ramp up. I suggest that you might consider spraying it off and establishing a more diverse seed mix to see you through to July but beware of the cover running to seed & more weeds establishing if you have disturbed the soil to resow.

I will get shot down for this, but it would be worth considering DD as a method of establishing cover crops & the following wheat? Time will not be on your side after cutting the wheat.

This is similar to my usual advice when you have a yrs fallow. Grow something simple that will establish quickly in the autumn, doesn't even have to be frost hardy. Then establish something again in the spring probably with a decent amount of leguminous plant but also being mindful of the potential for the usual grassweed problems.

 

[Brisel]

Soil always goes backwards when theres not enough cover growing in it. Whilst this AB6 option pays well, the lack of options to establish something useful (which seems to go totally against what the option is trying to achieve imo) is what puts me off.

Ab6 is aimed at habitat ground nesting birds like skylarks, linnets and lapwing, and many other species, not what we are thinking of for boosting soil health