Are soil indices and variable rate spreading completely flawed?

[warksfarmer]

Unfortunately it’s taken me a very long time to realise I was being taken from behind. Everything ( unless I want it ) has to justify its place now.

Life becomes easier when you just decide to stop reading all the rags with articles that are biased, stop going to the trade shows looking at fabricated trials. Stop listening to manufacturers telling you that ‘x’ will increase yield and ‘y’ will protect crops.

Go back to basics, back to what your grandfather was doing with a modern twist. It works.

Also turn off all equipment monitoring systems where the dealer informs you of a looming problem. They are just collecting data to push machinery prices up. Instead of running one new item, have 2 or 3 older items for when something breaks as it eventually will.

 

[principal skinner]

My supplier of pretty maps will be getting the push this year. Back to a flat rate of DAP on a third of the farm as N1 every year.

 

[Scribus]

Life becomes easier when you just decide to stop reading all the rags with articles that are biased, stop going to the trade shows looking at fabricated trials. Stop listening to manufacturers telling you that ‘x’ will increase yield and ‘y’ will protect crops.

Go back to basics, back to what your grandfather was doing with a modern twist. It works.

Also turn off all equipment monitoring systems where the dealer informs you of a looming problem. They are just collecting data to push machinery prices up. Instead of running one new item, have 2 or 3 older items for when something breaks as it eventually will.

Steady now, I've been called all sorts of names for simply daring to suggest that the bright and wonderful future as demanded by Big Tech may not be quite the promised land we are constantly informed it is.

 

[Mr Charisma]

Not going to read through everything above but I had a contract customer who would not put any lime or p+k on his land, most of the time he just cropped 50 % of his land, he did this for 16 years and certainly the last 6 years he was running on 0 indices. He had some very poor land which needed some drainage work doing,, had some very poor crops but on the flip side some very good crops,,,,,, the chap who farms it now is doing his best to bring i1t back round to good condition but poor land has a habit of kicking you in the goolies1

 

[snarling bee]

My supplier of pretty maps will be getting the push this year. Back to a flat rate of DAP on a third of the farm as N1 every year.

In some autumns the thing I do like is VR seeding. Not bothered this spring as I will probably get better establishment on the heavier land.
One thing that annoys me with VR P & K is that the new maps never seem to come back much better than the original ones done 20 years ago. Home farm getting cake and FYM now so no need for the bagged stuff anyway.
IMO VR nitrogen is the biggest waste of money. 220 is the answer for WW whatever the question, so what is the point. I have proved canopy management wrong in OSR. We don't want to even up the crops after establishment, we want to maximise every part of the field. Altering the timing of N is all very well in theory, but in practise the rainfall, or lack of, will feck that right up most years anyway.

EDIT VR lime is probably a good idea. We use very little, only on parts of some fields, and I think precision pays.

 

[ollie989898]

I said variable rate spreading was dubious a long time ago. All sounds great in practice but in reality I was told long ago by some American farmers that they couldn't really see the benefit and they were on some very varying dirt.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard similar versions of this:

“We don’t need any lime this year. We’ve had the farm sampled with GPS and it’s going to save us a fortune. Can’t imagine why we’ve been putting it on every year.”

Four years later:

“We’ve had the farm sampled again and we need xxxx tonnes of lime!! Can that be right?! It’s all desperate! Can you come and check it all?”

Should have had a bit every year for the last four years then, shouldn’t you. Just like we always did the 30 years previous to your brain washing.

 

[Brisel]

I will reiterate my earlier warning about variable rate sampling. The samples in the lab are ground up, so fairly inert alkaline stones will mask the acidity of the surrounding soil. Better to have a good lime professional with indicator testing it.

Can I have my tenner now please, Pete?

 

[snarling bee]

We have very few stones, and are generally pH 7.5 or above, over 8 in some places. We therefore need very little lime apart from a few greensand outcrops, and some Ashley series in places.