Anyone regret moving to no-till?

[ajd132]

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Did plough abit here as a reset/political on a contract farm and whilst it was easy to drill spring barley into it has been rendered structureless fluff.

In the above situation,which is most important,keeping the land owner happy,who one is contract farming for or the crop/ soil?
A serious question and no sarcasim intended as I imagine the above scenario is quite a common occurrence in contracting farming situations.[/QUOTE]
Basically there is a serious BG problem there and the owner is pretty anti spring crops so I felt if we ploughed we were more garuntees to get a good stand of spring barley rather than risking the scratch till/no till method. I wanted to de-risk the situation in terms of spring crops so he's not put off! We have no tilled winter beans and wheat into spring bean stubble successfully there this year also.

 

[shakerator]

That's a very good question. Keeping the client happy can be more important than making the farming sustainable! If I had a client who'd put the contract out to tender every time it came up for renewal I would certainly make sure they were happy on a day to day basis. Being right doesn't make make you successful. I've pandered to clients like that, but made sure I had enough room to manouvre for expensive and/or time consuming requests like that.

This post should be printed out and put on the front page of all land agent brochures

 

[Brisel]

Maybe I'd leave the last sentence out!

 

[shakerator]

Maybe I'd leave the last sentence out!

The question I would pose is if the client / landlord feels so passionately why isn't it farmed back in hand ...

 

[Andrew K]

The question I would pose is if the client / landlord feels so passionately why isn't it farmed back in hand ...

Because he,s a lazy git who likes to pin any blame on someone else?

 

[Brisel]

The question I would pose is if the client / landlord feels so passionately why isn't it farmed back in hand ...

Usually 'cos they've made a mess of it themselves & want someone else in to sort it out whilst paying lots of agents' fees.

 

[yellow belly]

why any one ploughs after beans is beyond me it is the easiest crop to notill after
combine one day drill the next

 

[Louis Mc]

why any one ploughs after beans is beyond me it is the easiest crop to notill after
combine one day drill the next

Do both at the same time, it looks cool

 

[ajd132]

Ploughing after beans is mad. I keep seeing spring barley being grown for BG to control then it gets ploughed down for a wheat crop next which is still full of blackgrass..

 

[Flat 10]

Ploughing after beans is mad. I keep seeing spring barley being grown for BG to control then it gets ploughed down for a wheat crop next which is still full of blackgrass..

Why would you ever follow SB with WW?

 

[Flat 10]

Usually 'cos they've made a mess of it themselves & want someone else in to sort it out whilst paying lots of agents' fees.

So true.

 

[Flat 10]

The question I would pose is if the client / landlord feels so passionately why isn't it farmed back in hand ...

Those sort of people are good at having opinions but less good at the doing..........

 

[Banana Bar]

I agree very clean farm but how long will it last if carry on just ploughing?

He's done it for 50 yrs, we've min tilled for 15 and you've CTF for 2. Arguably his system works. Cost wise across 2000ha for me it doesn't but maybe it should ?

 

[Feldspar]

He's done it for 50 yrs, we've min tilled for 15 and you've CTF for 2. Arguably his system works. Cost wise across 2000ha for me it doesn't but maybe it should ?

I am terrible with names, but does he farm near Kedington? There's an immaculately tidy farm yard there (with some nice looking crops normally around it too) which I always admire on my way past.

 

[E_B]

Looks like massive slug pressure in NZ this year causing headaches for no tillers over there, been very wet.

 

[Feldspar]

Have you ever seen anyone drill with a no-till drill and then maschio behind? Well you have now. My father couldn't resist. Left is maschioed, and right is not.

For comparison here's a full cultivation effort, and then a Terrstar x2, Claydon, maschio effort (due to be rolled). Claydon is the worst. Not sure whether i prefer the full cultivation or not very no-till no-tilling. Think we need to drill shallower to reduced slotting.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Looks like massive slug pressure in NZ this year causing headaches for no tillers over there, been very wet.

I can take a picture of my older pasture if you need proof! Possibly one per square inch in places. Much less where I've sprayed with seawater though or maybe they just burrow away from it, it shrivels them up in seconds IME
I don't know if it's legal to take seawater, if you ask it probably isn't but I'm doing my best to stop the sealevel rising.
My baleage bottoms were almost slug to slug in November .

 

[Banana Bar]

I am terrible with names, but does he farm near Kedington? There's an immaculately tidy farm yard there (with some nice looking crops normally around it too) which I always admire on my way past.

That's him

 

[Will Blackburn]

Have you ever seen anyone drill with a no-till drill and then maschio behind? Well you have now. My father couldn't resist. Left is maschioed, and right is not.
View attachment 492920

For comparison here's a full cultivation effort, and then a Terrstar x2, Claydon, maschio effort (due to be rolled). Claydon is the worst. Not sure whether i prefer the full cultivation or not very no-till no-tilling. Think we need to drill shallower to reduced slotting.
View attachment 492916
View attachment 492918

Could you take some photos when you do some heavy land?

 

[Centre]

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?!

You will hear now from all of the neighbours of those into No-Till! I must admit to having tried and failed, just cannot afford the potential downside in the transition between current system and worms doing all of the work