I'd have thought so , but just wondering if 2017 counts as it's the first year , even though the mix would only be growing for a few months in that year
AB15 2 year legume fallow
- Thread starter Flat 10
- Start date
Fat hen
Member
2017 is year 1 if u are accepted in that year. Yes a few months growth is still counted.
Then yr 2 you have to cut it. 4 times I cut between April and July thereafter the bg gave up trying to seed, as far as I could tell! Also got to try to stop the rg from seeding too
Can the cuttings be romoved in a black plastic bale
Fat hen
Member
If you removed the bales quick enough you'd probably be fine.
Fat hen
Member
This is last night.
Attachments
Looks good. Doesn't it have to be cut just once in the second year, before the end of March and then left until 15th August , so that its there for the insects .
How do you deal with black grass in this period ?
Sorry for all the questions, but just trying to get my head around it before committing
Fat hen
Member
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Shame about the seed costs! Ordered mine recently.
How much, as I've put in for 11 ha of it.
Show me a break crop that pays £211 acre though.
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
About £150/ha.
- Location
- Cornwall.
I have one at 126 & one at 155(?) seed quality & the use of British native plants are the difference.
Fat hen
Member
It was following S Barley. So was later than their date.
A light shallow disking. Then shallowest setting on a disc drill. dont be tempted to broadcast. Then rolling and 2 or 3 pellet doses.
Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Anyone care to give an update as to how they are getting on with AB15? @Fat hen, @teslacoils, @B'o'B?
We have some more land that we've got recently. One is a farm with a lot of small and awkward shaped fields. I am going to enter this into a scheme along with some more land with larger, more productive fields. My default was to roll out the same strategy has I have used on the existing land which makes heavy use of the overwinter stubble option.
However, I really don't think this farm with the small fields is even profitable to crop with wheat every other year given the future outlook. Therefore, I was thinking about putting sizeable areas down to some form of grass. The two obvious options are AB8 and AB15.
We have used AB8 quite a bit already. I find this fairly hassle free with the major exception being the spread of thistles which seem very hard to contain given the allowed mowing timings. I did have 12ha of AB15 in a previous scheme Mid Tier scheme that we pulled out of early from it. I remember being a bit worried about how effectively we could stop the black-grass heading (it always amazed me how quickly it reheads and often on the 3-4th time too low for the mower). In the 5 year AB8 black-grass seems to fade away so I'm not too worried about it there.
Should I be concerned about the return of ryegrass seed to the soil? A dumb question, but could this seed become resistant ryegrass (which sounds far worse than resistant black-grass)? I remember with the last mix choosing more of one type of ryegrass to avoid seed return. Also, do people find that other weeds like wild oats get through this mix?
Lastly, how have people found establishing a following crop after the grass? We tried shallow cultivating it and found the ground incredibly hard (in the dry summer of 2018). In the end we couldn't shallow cultivate it as the cultivator wouldn't go in the ground so we had to use a Sumo. The field took an extra cultivation pass and produced a worse crop than the land that had been in bare fallow. I'm not prepared to put beans in direct drilled after grass (as I know some do) because I hate growing beans and am rubbish at growing them. Direct drilling wheat into ex-grass land seems to cause problems.
This all rather leads me to think that AB8 might be a better option. My main worry here is what the weed seed bank (esp thistles but also maybe couch / more dominant grasses) might be left over were we to return to cropping. All other areas up to now which have gone into AB8 I have been prepared to never crop again if necessary, but on the scale I'm thinking about here I cannot make this assumption this time.
Thoughts much appreciated.
We have some more land that we've got recently. One is a farm with a lot of small and awkward shaped fields. I am going to enter this into a scheme along with some more land with larger, more productive fields. My default was to roll out the same strategy has I have used on the existing land which makes heavy use of the overwinter stubble option.
However, I really don't think this farm with the small fields is even profitable to crop with wheat every other year given the future outlook. Therefore, I was thinking about putting sizeable areas down to some form of grass. The two obvious options are AB8 and AB15.
We have used AB8 quite a bit already. I find this fairly hassle free with the major exception being the spread of thistles which seem very hard to contain given the allowed mowing timings. I did have 12ha of AB15 in a previous scheme Mid Tier scheme that we pulled out of early from it. I remember being a bit worried about how effectively we could stop the black-grass heading (it always amazed me how quickly it reheads and often on the 3-4th time too low for the mower). In the 5 year AB8 black-grass seems to fade away so I'm not too worried about it there.
Should I be concerned about the return of ryegrass seed to the soil? A dumb question, but could this seed become resistant ryegrass (which sounds far worse than resistant black-grass)? I remember with the last mix choosing more of one type of ryegrass to avoid seed return. Also, do people find that other weeds like wild oats get through this mix?
Lastly, how have people found establishing a following crop after the grass? We tried shallow cultivating it and found the ground incredibly hard (in the dry summer of 2018). In the end we couldn't shallow cultivate it as the cultivator wouldn't go in the ground so we had to use a Sumo. The field took an extra cultivation pass and produced a worse crop than the land that had been in bare fallow. I'm not prepared to put beans in direct drilled after grass (as I know some do) because I hate growing beans and am rubbish at growing them. Direct drilling wheat into ex-grass land seems to cause problems.
This all rather leads me to think that AB8 might be a better option. My main worry here is what the weed seed bank (esp thistles but also maybe couch / more dominant grasses) might be left over were we to return to cropping. All other areas up to now which have gone into AB8 I have been prepared to never crop again if necessary, but on the scale I'm thinking about here I cannot make this assumption this time.
Thoughts much appreciated.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Mine was lovely. Shame it didn't get topped before the deluge. This is year two. I need to check up on the rules re lime etc.
I've seen several others where the clover hasn't established as well. I put this down to drilling . I bought the seed with the large and small seeds separated, then drilled the large (grass, vetch), rolled it, einbocked the clovers and small seeds, rolled again. I'm not bothered about grass seeding. Following crop is tbc. I'm only going to disc it up a couple of times and drill into it. After a liberal dose of slurry.
I've seen several others where the clover hasn't established as well. I put this down to drilling . I bought the seed with the large and small seeds separated, then drilled the large (grass, vetch), rolled it, einbocked the clovers and small seeds, rolled again. I'm not bothered about grass seeding. Following crop is tbc. I'm only going to disc it up a couple of times and drill into it. After a liberal dose of slurry.
