Cheap mustard cover going mad
- Thread starter warksfarmer
- Start date
- Location
- Chipping Norton
How is the mustard looking a month later @warksfarmer
It’s about waist high mainly. A few bare patches in corners and it’s clear to see compaction in places even though the field has been direct drilled for I think without checking 8 years. Will be digging some holes but gut feeling is it needs subsoiling.
Attachments
- Location
- Shropshire
What the plan with this?
To be honest now I don’t rightly know. It’s a bad bg field that’s not seen wheat or osr for about 7 years. We were going to plant rye again but now not sure as the bit we combined didn’t yield well. Beans possibly or spring barley but no tilled. Think we’ll have to mow the mustard down as a trial yesterday blocked a horsch sprinter with Bourgault points up.
You mention mowing this how would this work for a livestock farmer as a crop to grow my own bedding? Straw is expensive and I don't want to grow my own cereals for various reasons. Mustard looks like a cheap easy to grow 'livestock farmer friendly' crop I could just whack it in after turnips in the spring and cut and bale it a while later before going back to grass. Do you think it would work for that? I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't but I don't know anything about mustard.
Sorry for the hijack
I don’t see any reason why not to be honest.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
Yep, you’ll need a disc drill to drill direct into that now.
A tine may cope if flailed and left for a week or so. But if it rains the flailed mulch will trap moisture.
We tried with a 750a in November on a small part of it and it germinated then failed due to a combination of open slots filled with water and slugs.
We then pigtailed it in early March to aerate as it was extremely sad after 1150mm of rain. Then drilled Spring wheat which looks ok ish but now needs water ironically.
- Location
- S. Staffs
I’ve farmed through some extremes in my life since the early sixties (first real memories of weather affecting the work and crops) but have never had such a combination of weather create a disaster like this year.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
I thought zero tilled land would be more resilient, and less affected by extremes of weather.
Does Clive not go shooting in his slippers during winter?
Does Clive not go shooting in his slippers during winter?
- Location
- S. Staffs
@Chae1 I would say that zero tilled is definitely less affected by heavy rainfall and absorbs far more than when we were deep cultivating, if only because undisturbed stubble is the safest state it can be in. One pass then to sow with as little disturbance as possible preserves that state, and we can often walk crops in trainers or shoes after rain when you would need wellies or boots at least if we had ploughed it.
BUT the snag is that on our land despite it holding water for much longer, it still runs short eventually, and it’s getting towards that point now.
BUT the snag is that on our land despite it holding water for much longer, it still runs short eventually, and it’s getting towards that point now.
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BPR is not just a farming issue, it affects ALL business, it removes incentive to invest for growth
Join us @LondonPalladium on the 16th for beginning of UK business fight back
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