Dead Rabbits
Member
- Location
- 'Merica
Farming sounds very complicated over there
For me the spring flush is almost certainly due to one of two things:The annoying thing this year is that the BG has germinated and grown since Christmas. Why?
Good stuff hope your transition continues to succeed .It is a strange year, BG wise.
Years ago, following 'the fashion(!)', I went from Ploughing to Min-till and wrecked the farm because of mixing the BG seed throughout the soil profile. BG became particularly bad in wet autumn and winter years.
I reverted back to proper/good ploughing and got it back under control.
I then became interested in DD. (well, if you can't beat the likes of @Clive , @Badshot, @SilliamWhale etc, you might as well join them!)
Various DD advisors strongly suggested that we should use a tine drill to start with, before moving onto a disc type drill.
I didn't like this idea, because I was convinced that it you don't disturb BG, it doesn't want to easily grow. So I became convinced that a Weaving GD was the best way forward from the start. I bought a nearly new one, skipping any tine type drill, which IMO would move far too much soil and encourage BG to grow.
The trick is not to jump the whole farm into it at once, starting on fields that are in the right condition to be able to DD successfully. Ploughing some one more time to ensure another good BG control year.
But from this year onwards, this whole farm will be DD'd.
OSR still scares me to death re CSFB, so I have switched to Winter Linseed. I pre-em it with Avadex, followed by Centurion Max in November and this is my cleanest crop with regards to BG crop this year!
With the Wheat especially (as with all my other crops), the trick seems to be to drill it just deep enough in good conditions, without disturbing any soil between the rows, so that the BG stays asleep. The BG that has grown this year, is in or very close to the seed row.
My third crop is (usually) Hybrid Winter Barley, which is deliberately in this slot, because 2nd wheats is where we usually get most BG. The Barley out-yields what a 2nd wheat would be and naturally suppresses BG.
The annoying thing this year is that the BG has germinated and grown since Christmas. Why?
My worst BG is actually on the part of the farm that I ploughed last Autumn, before selling my Combi (the plough is still for sale). Here the BG is between the rows and has exploded, Thank God it is coming Winter Linseed next year and I'll have a chance to rectify the problem.
My only explanation as to why its BG is so bad this year is that ploughing and combi drilling woke up all the BG that was there. More so than I had experienced in the past, ploughing it!
Maybe the wheat seed wasn't vigorous enough to give the BG enough compettion and maybe the seedbed should have been better. Also, very unusually for us, this is a 2nd wheat, which has again proved to me that I mustn't attempt 2nd wheats again!
All cereals got half rate Crystal, half rate DFF together with a full rate Avadex liquid pre-em. The ploughed land got it's 2nd half Crystal and DFF 10 days later. Most of the DD'd stuff didn't get that 2nd dose as it looked so clean and remained so until the new year. So subsequently, much of that Wheat had a Spring dose of an Atlantis type product. That stopped working years ago here and I was hoping it might work again after years of not using it. It still doesn't work!!
Nothing is available post-em for the W Barley, but its BG suppression effect is working quite well as usual.
My cleanest bit of wheat I have this year is following 5 years of GS4, which was the filthiest BG bit of land on this farm! The wheat was DD'd into the Roundup'd off GSF last September.
Its only herbicide so far has been half rate Crystal and half rate DFF pre-em!
It's as clean as a whistle!
My cleanest bit of wheat I have this year is following 5 years of GS4, which was the filthiest BG bit of land on this farm! The wheat was DD'd into the Roundup'd off GSF last September.
Its only herbicide so far has been half rate Crystal and half rate DFF pre-em!
It's as clean as a whistle!
Clay soils that crack can get blackgrass seeds 12" deep every year without ploughing.Got a field that was terrible BG so it went into grass for silage for 5 seasons. Put it back into winter wheat with a JD 750. Prior to drilling it had 4l roundup then a full pre-em plus follow up. Today it’s got both ryegrass and BG in it. Some pockets I’m going to have to glyphosate although the sensible thing is glyphosate the lot. So don’t assume your GS4 has got rid of it.
Spoke to a chap last week who ploughed a field last year that had not been ploughed for 12 years prior. It’s now covered in BG so the so called BG professional advisors that say the seed bank reduces by a percentage every year after ploughing is rubbish.
This is true. And annoying.Clay soils that crack can get blackgrass seeds 12" deep every year without ploughing.
that happens with wild oats as well .....well, and any other weed seed .Clay soils that crack can get blackgrass seeds 12" deep every year without ploughing.
Viable BG seed numbers reduce by 70% a year. If you have 100,000 seed m2, you still have plenty left after several years years. Do the maths.Got a field that was terrible BG so it went into grass for silage for 5 seasons. Put it back into winter wheat with a JD 750. Prior to drilling it had 4l roundup then a full pre-em plus follow up. Today it’s got both ryegrass and BG in it. Some pockets I’m going to have to glyphosate although the sensible thing is glyphosate the lot. So don’t assume your GS4 has got rid of it.
Spoke to a chap last week who ploughed a field last year that had not been ploughed for 12 years prior. It’s now covered in BG so the so called BG professional advisors that say the seed bank reduces by a percentage every year after ploughing is rubbish.
The problem is that “open spaces” often result from establishing in very poor conditions on heavy land regardless of the seed rate. You can see it all over here. Heavy land badly ploughed, poor establishment, open spaces, blackgrass thrives. It’s not really a problem that’s developed through lack of chemistry but poor basic husbandry in my view. We have worn out the actives trying to make up for bad practice. A bit like CSFB situation with OSR. Crap seedbeds, poor establishment, bad luck with a dry spell. Oh it’s all the beetles fault. Well err no it isn’t.BG like open spaces it does not like competition so plant thick and leafy crops keep the seed rate up
if you have BG keep the BG seed on top of the ground
The problem is that “open spaces” often result from establishing in very poor conditions on heavy land regardless of the seed rate. You can see it all over here. Heavy land badly ploughed, poor establishment, open spaces, blackgrass thrives. It’s not really a problem that’s developed through lack of chemistry but poor basic husbandry in my view. We have worn out the actives trying to make up for bad practice. A bit like CSFB situation with OSR. Crap seedbeds, poor establishment, bad luck with a dry spell. Oh it’s all the beetles fault. Well err no it isn’t.