Best undersowing method
- Thread starter onthehoof
- Start date
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Drill the field as normal and roll it. Then sow grass seed and roll again. Obviously don't put any pre emerge spray on. Be careful with herbicides as don't want to kill clover. I didn't bother with weed spray last year.
I sow ours with a einbock grass rake with seedbox on it
I sow ours with a einbock grass rake with seedbox on it
cotswoldcs
Member
- Location
- Bang In the heart of the Cotswolds
As above. Need to reduce rate of spring barley significantly. Full rate of grass. Don't expect fantastic barley yield but always a compromise with an undersown ley. The only drawback with the system is dealing with the grass-straw. Cut as heigh as you dare and hope for good weather as you'll need to leave straw for a few days ideally. At least this is what we've done. Anyone else tried chopping the straw?
Why not do an undersown ley this year @onthehoof ? I would have thought that this year lends itself to the system with later drilling and possibly poor barley prices.
Why not do an undersown ley this year @onthehoof ? I would have thought that this year lends itself to the system with later drilling and possibly poor barley prices.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Good advice on cutting back seedrate of barley crop.
As for the grassy straw, we just bale it hard behind combine, density turned right up like baling silage. Blades in on baler then wrap it. Put it through the mixer wagon to get more dry matter in ration.
As for the grassy straw, we just bale it hard behind combine, density turned right up like baling silage. Blades in on baler then wrap it. Put it through the mixer wagon to get more dry matter in ration.
ollie989898
Member
Works fine, if the earlier the grass goes in the better equipped it is to deal with a short hot spell but it will be sheltered beneath the canopy. Often there is not much grass in the straw because it's all below the height of the cutterbar. Can be left to dry a bit in the sun if you are lucky.
- Location
- nottingham
We have a similar situation , got a nice ley but need to go back to arable for a year to avoid permanent pasture , was thinking of whole cropping rather than combining though , spring barley's cheap off the heap but is there anything else that would make a crop with the priority being the grass?
The land will be coming out of stewardship next October so would be too late to sow grass at that time, so that was the reason to do it in spring, I don’t need the grass till the following year
Northeastfarmer
Member
- Location
- Cleveland
I did a field last spring
Sowed barley at 75 kilos, rolled it...left 8/9 days then drilled grass in opposite way At full rate but wound top link in so grass seed didn’t go to deep...then rolled it again
Worked very well
Sowed barley at 75 kilos, rolled it...left 8/9 days then drilled grass in opposite way At full rate but wound top link in so grass seed didn’t go to deep...then rolled it again
Worked very well
- Location
- northumberland
Did a field a few years ago, sowed barley with the horsch pronto then sowed the grass off a different headland so crossing the barley rows with the same drill with the coulters in just enough to remove wheel marks, worked fine, last 1 we did was a couple of years ago also sown with pronto but rained just after and never got the grass drilled before barley was up so got a neighbour with guttler rollers with seed kit on to tickle grass on top and it came fine
undersow maybe 600 acres of spring barley every year. Never reduced the seed rate of the barley or grass if we are sowing it in one pass.
We have a 4m grain and fert Vaderstad rapid air drill with an accord air drill hung on the back feeding 24 broadcast plates over the 4m width putting it on after the press wheels and it gets tickled in with the following harrows. we bale all the straw and it can take 2 or 3 days to wilt and maybe need to turn it but we have 25ft swaths of straw.
We have started with some mixes putting it on at maybe 50% rate of the grass seed mix but putting all the clover and the rest of the grass in after harvest direct into the stubble with the vaderstad at an angle to how it was sown in the spring. allows broadleaf weeds to be taken care of in the barley crop and fills in any thinner bits of grass.
If you use too low a seed rate of barley you will get mostly a grass crop and a very poor crop of barley.
We have a 4m grain and fert Vaderstad rapid air drill with an accord air drill hung on the back feeding 24 broadcast plates over the 4m width putting it on after the press wheels and it gets tickled in with the following harrows. we bale all the straw and it can take 2 or 3 days to wilt and maybe need to turn it but we have 25ft swaths of straw.
We have started with some mixes putting it on at maybe 50% rate of the grass seed mix but putting all the clover and the rest of the grass in after harvest direct into the stubble with the vaderstad at an angle to how it was sown in the spring. allows broadleaf weeds to be taken care of in the barley crop and fills in any thinner bits of grass.
If you use too low a seed rate of barley you will get mostly a grass crop and a very poor crop of barley.
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
I used to do 100 acres a year, we never cut back corn rate but it is important to not overdo the nitrogen. Later years we often put spring wheatin preference to barley although there is a good danger the grass will get away and conbining can be interesting
