BASE-UK French Trip

[Jim Bullock]

I thought I would start a new thread on this topic as it is being discussed but might be hidden to some in the "Hair-pinning" thread.
The question has been asked as to what my/our take-home messages were...
1) You have to manage soil water, "soil cover" to keep it moist, cover crops and drainage to dry it out.
2) If you feel the need to subsoil you have not failed as a direct-driller, but you must plant a cover or cash crop immediately to hold the loosened soil together to prevent it slumping.
3)Pure direct-drilling/no-till does not always work. A variety of non inversion establishment systems is more reliable, Strip-Till (maize), broadcasting and surface incorporation where there is a lot of trash(after cereals and grain maize) and direct-drilling with a disc drill after crops such as OSR, buck wheat and cover crops.
4) A diverse crop rotation is essential.
5) Add as much compost as possible to your land.
6) Cereal straw is bad news.
7)Incorporate a livestock enterprise if possible to make better use of cover crops and crop residues.
8)If you need to increase your farm income just expanding your size might not be the answer, look at ways of adding value, reducing costs or adding enterprises to your existing holding.
9)What works on one soil type or in a region might well not work on your farm, you have to adapt the principles to suit you particular situation. There is no blue-print.
10) Do not rely on Sat-Navs to get you to a destination on time.. !!

 

[doorknob]

Any chance at all that you or someone that was on the trip might expand on the cereal straw is bad news part?

Curious how it might differ with some of James Cook's dated, but valued research.
Thanks.

 

[Jim Bullock]

Bad news is probably the wrong description, more difficult would probably be better. We were discussing the problems with regard to the high C/N ratio and the need to apply extra N. As well as the physical difficulties with dealing with spreading it behind the combine.

 

[mikep]

Read some very interesting article which seems to make sense. Cereal straw in not that bad but the chaff is very toxic to emerging plants. Oat is the worst followed by barley and then wheat, none of them are very toxic to the same species.
Soil can be sterilised and then chaff added and the effect is the same which seems to say that the allelopathic effect is less than it seems.
Trouble is really we are first generation of mainstream farmers to look beyond the chemical drum and as such have a lot of theories but little definite knowledge.

 

[Pilatus]

Which areas of France did you visit on the BASE U.K French farm study tour?

 

[will l]

He isnt on easy ground,north and south of the loire are chalk and cheese shame i missed this as i am only 40 minutes up the road!

 

[normandyfarmer]

Hi Jim, did you at least came back with some cheap cover crop seeds ?

 

[martian]

Which areas of France did you visit on the BASE U.K French farm study tour?

We only looked at land farmed by Frederic Thomas near Blois in the Loire valley. They had an inch of rain the day before (which made for a dreary drive down), so comparing Frederic's land with his neighbours ploughed ground was the obvious standout message...see Jim's photo number 8, Frederic and Steve's boots in a bog. As Will I above says, it's not easy ground, 8 inches of sand above clay. Ploughing doesn't help it, the inch of rain turned the sand to goo and the water could only escape down open furrows cut for the purpose. Fred's land walked a dream, with his continuous green cover and strange mix of crops. Strange, in that he might plant something in the autumn (eg rye) into a cover crop which is partially terminated and then, with a gallic shrug, he'll decide in the spring whether the rye was another cover crop (if too dirty for instance, or too thin) and spray it off and plant a spring crop.
The upshot of this management was that his soil was dark and the roots and worm holes extended deep into the clay subsoil so the water could get away and also much more water was available for the crops in their dry periods, meaning he is getting decent grain maize yields without irrigation, and excellent yields with irrigation (they were combining on the kinder land near the river the day we were there, see photo 1).

 

[Pilatus]

We only looked at land farmed by Frederic Thomas near Blois in the Loire valley. They had an inch of rain the day before (which made for a dreary drive down), so comparing Frederic's land with his neighbours ploughed ground was the obvious standout message...see Jim's photo number 8, Frederic and Steve's boots in a bog. As Will I above says, it's not easy ground, 8 inches of sand above clay. Ploughing doesn't help it, the inch of rain turned the sand to goo and the water could only escape down open furrows cut for the purpose. Fred's land walked a dream, with his continuous green cover and strange mix of crops. Strange, in that he might plant something in the autumn (eg rye) into a cover crop which is partially terminated and then, with a gallic shrug, he'll decide in the spring whether the rye was another cover crop (if too dirty for instance, or too thin) and spray it off and plant a spring crop.
The upshot of this management was that his soil was dark and the roots and worm holes extended deep into the clay subsoil so the water could get away and also much more water was available for the crops in their dry periods, meaning he is getting decent grain maize yields without irrigation, and excellent yields with irrigation (they were combining on the kinder land near the river the day we were there, see photo 1).

Thank you very much for your reply, informing us as to where you went. It sounds as if it is a difficult soil type to manage, would there be a similar soil type over here in the U.K

 

[will l]

Thank you very much for your reply, informing us as to where you went. It sounds as if it is a difficult soil type to manage, would there be a similar soil type over here in the U.K

Maybe but the comparison is of limited use as the climate is so very different we had only 15mm of rain the night before on clay 40 kilometres northwest of blois and not a puddle anywhere started combining at midday and we are on heavier ground than that but overlying sand and gravel not clay