Breaking cultivation layer

[Simon Chiles]

Do nothing

Roots can do it

Whilst that’s definitely true it can a) take time and b) depend on the crop you’re growing, they’re not all equal in ability to penetrate pans. I also don’t believe any sub soiler type machine is the answer either.
I’m working on a machine to aid the transition into dd at the moment. I reckon it’ll also be a very useful tool in permanent pasture to relieve compaction from cutting and grazing. I can’t say what it is as it’s at the moment because it’s on behalf of a machinery manufacturer and secondly I need to test my ideas. Everything I need has been manufactured so really I just need to wait until it dries up. If it works I’ll keep you all posted.

 

[EddieB]

Whilst that’s definitely true it can a) take time and b) depend on the crop you’re growing, they’re not all equal in ability to penetrate pans. I also don’t believe any sub soiler type machine is the answer either.
I’m working on a machine to aid the transition into dd at the moment. I reckon it’ll also be a very useful tool in permanent pasture to relieve compaction from cutting and grazing. I can’t say what it is as it’s at the moment because it’s on behalf of a machinery manufacturer and secondly I need to test my ideas. Everything I need has been manufactured so really I just need to wait until it dries up. If it works I’ll keep you all posted.

I don’t know if subsoiling is a long term answer, but as a short term measure while transitioning to zero till I think that it has a place. Certainly where we subsoiled before WSRO the crops seem more vigorous, I am hoping that this will give the roots any opportunity to do their stuff.

 

[Warnesworth]

we cannot winter cattle on grass here, son wanted to try, he is now a believer. The worst is surface pans, working ground for reseed, we stop well before a nice seed bed, by the time it's drilled, it's perfect, always roll in with ring rollers.
Son learn't, solid pan at 3/4 inches, in his 'trial' field. We can get away with sheep though, just weight per hoof. Then we can get a 'proper' plough pan, 8/10 ins deep. You have to work with your soil, not what you think it needs, a spade is a very good tool here. The other side, we have a really good farm, good deep soils, very prone to dry out, and in a bit of a rain shadow, this year, weeds and forage rape took 8 weeks to emerge, in big patches ! But if given a good season, it will produce huge crops, after 3 very dry summers, beginning to doubt that !

The way I see it is if these boys can do it with 800-1000mm of annual rainfall and at 150 - 340m elevation, nr Angus Scotland, then anyone can. Its just a mindset. If you want your business to be resilient to the changes that are going to happen over the next few yrs, this is it. Doesn't have to be organic either.

 

[som farmer]

I can see nothing wrong with a in/out grazing system, in fact the complete opposite, in simple terms, if grass grows at 1/2in a day, if cattle on that grass, you lose 1/2 in of grass. Cattle will always browse across 'yesterdays' grazing, if given the chance, it's that fresh growth they want, perhaps more importantly, it's selective browsing, hitting what they 'like', so the regrowth is 'uneven', putting the advantage towards the 'disliked' grass. One of the best things i have learnt on this subject, is a very simple one, if you force cattle to graze longer, in a paddock/field, they will graze nice grass down to the soil, but 'nasty' grass is left as the residual, and the mix alters the 'wrong' way. Controlled tight grazing, taking every grass down to soil, on the other hand, giving the better grasses an equal start, and actually improving the mix.
Uncle used to graze his channel island milkers on grass, as in the video above, by necessity, as his farm would dry out every year, they milked on it as well, the B&W which replaced them didn't.

 

[Flatlander]

Tillage radish is a cover crop used in various mixtures in the states. Apparently it’s very good at forcing a tap root down thru hard pans and retrieving nutrients and recycling them to a higher level in the soil profile.

 

[EddieB]

Tillage radish is a cover crop used in various mixtures in the states. Apparently it’s very good at forcing a tap root down thru hard pans and retrieving nutrients and recycling them to a higher level in the soil profile.

Or it can do what it has done on a couple of my fields, hits a compacted layer and then grow the root about 40 cm out of the ground, I’m not joking.

 

[Flatlander]

Try dusting the seed with viagra and spraying with a few beers. With some Dutch courage and stiff root I’m pretty confident of good penetration. Lol