Anyone regret moving to no-till?

[ajd132]

as the title says. We can often see on Twitter and in mags people being very positive about no-till but I wonder how honest this always is. I see more crap no-till crops than good ones around here however our own forays into no-till have worked reasonably well.

So whose regretting selling everything to buy that cross slot?!

 

[BenB]

 

[ajd132]

I'm bored on the drill so thought I would do some provoking!

 

[Mr Charisma]

Goes and finds some popcorn !!!!

 

[dannewhouse]

farm near to us went to a similar idea on very heavy land where he would drag a big set of discs around a couple of times before combi drilling instead of ploughing then combi or extra power harrow pass.
he had a 50 acre field and the bald spots were getting massively bigger every year, a contractor ploughed it 1 year and the bald bits all but disappeared but they then continued the old way, they soon came back and got worse.
this was probably over 20 year ago now and the tenancy changed hands more than 10 years ago.

some argue in heavier land you don't have to spend as much time working down big lumps but I agree there's plenty of poorer looking crops from min till.

I'm still very much conventional (mixed farm) but I don't see too much benefit of min till, to me its half the benefits of direct drilling?

 

[ajd132]

farm near to us went to a similar idea on very heavy land where he would drag a big set of discs around a couple of times before combi drilling instead of ploughing then combi or extra power harrow pass.
he had a 50 acre field and the bald spots were getting massively bigger every year, a contractor ploughed it 1 year and the bald bits all but disappeared but they then continued the old way, they soon came back and got worse.
this was probably over 20 year ago now and the tenancy changed hands more than 10 years ago.

some argue in heavier land you don't have to spend as much time working down big lumps but I agree there's plenty of poorer looking crops from min till.

I'm still very much conventional (mixed farm) but I don't see too much benefit of min till, to me its half the benefits of direct drilling?

Min till and no till very different. Do you mean no till?

 

[dannewhouse]

Min till and no till very different. Do you mean no till?

by direct drilling yes I mean no till.

I don't see the benefit of min till, its the downsides of ploughing (in terms of mixing weed seeds) without the benefits (burying trash etc) whereas no till in theory doesn't disturb many weeds? and leeves structure and moisture alone?

I'm not up on this by any means its not really viable for me as plenty muck to bury and cost of newish drill too much so I don't look too much into it.

 

[SilliamWhale]

You dont have to no till every time if you have a no till drill!

 

[Will7]

Having serious second thoughts. I have more worms and insects, and millions more slugs than when min till. The better land is the same under no till, but the worse is getting worse. I should be drilling now but the land is sodden under the chopped straw.

Weed pressure is less though with dd

Dd precludes me from growing ww after osr due to slug hollowing. Tried twice, failed twice

Probably dd most winter crops (except wheat after osr) and min till spring ones

 

[warksfarmer]

Having serious second thoughts. I have more worms and insects, and millions more slugs than when min till. The better land is the same under no till, but the worse is getting worse. I should be drilling now but the land is sodden under the chopped straw.

Weed pressure is less though with dd

Dd precludes me from growing ww after osr due to slug hollowing. Tried twice, failed twice

Probably dd most winter crops (except wheat after osr) and min till spring ones

Will, drop osr and your life will be easier on heavy soil. Also get a machine that can tickle the surface to man make tilth, then when you slot seed into that the rolls have something to actually roll properly. Then your slug issue will go away like ours did. We've only used 10 bags in the last 5 yrs and we probably didn't need them really.

 

[Will7]

Haven't grown osr for 2yrs and buying more pellets than ever.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Its odd how slugs are such a problem in some areas..no real science behind it either

 

[tr250]

Having serious second thoughts. I have more worms and insects, and millions more slugs than when min till. The better land is the same under no till, but the worse is getting worse. I should be drilling now but the land is sodden under the chopped straw.

Weed pressure is less though with dd

Dd precludes me from growing ww after osr due to slug hollowing. Tried twice, failed twice

Probably dd most winter crops (except wheat after osr) and min till spring ones

What drill?

 

[shakerator]

No regrets here

 

[warksfarmer]

Haven't grown osr for 2yrs and buying more pellets than ever.

What date are you drilling winter wheat?

 

[Brisel]

as the title says. We can often see on Twitter and in mags people being very positive about no-till but I wonder how honest this always is. I see more crap no-till crops than good ones around here however our own forays into no-till have worked reasonably well.

So whose regretting selling everything to buy that cross slot?!

Yes. Waiting for the ground to dry out enough for my Claydon while watching the neighbours getting 3 days head start on ploughed ground. It's particularly irritating when the weather is catchy like it is at the moment and I have more spring crop to plant than them. Just as the stronger land starts to dry out it fudging rains again!

 

[rob1]

Its a learning curve, not always worked but getting better and can grow good spring crops which we never could before

 

[dontknowanything]

It's a dry land technique developed in dry countries

 

[rob1]

Yes. Waiting for the ground to dry out enough for my Claydon while watching the neighbours getting 3 days head start on ploughed ground. It's particularly irritating when the weather is catchy like it is at the moment and I have more spring crop to plant than them. Just as the stronger land starts to dry out it fudging rains again!

Plenty of time yet, DD into drying warm ground soon catches up normal drilling into cold land

 

[DrWazzock]

The light land here will zero till easily.

It's the clay that's the problem, but it doesn't plough well either. Grassing it down looks a good plan.