Chopping Linseed straw

[Goldilocks]

Want to bring linseed back into the rotation after many years of not growing it. Question is, will it chop well enough to follow with a tine drill with little or no pre-drilling cultivations? ( I don't really want to burn the straw )

 

[Daniel]

Best to bale and sell to someone with a straw burner.

 

[Goldilocks]

I want the organic matter to stay on the field. I have sleepless nights whenever I see baled organic matter leaving the farm.............

 

[franklin]

All chopped here. I would want to mix it in a bit. Even mixed in a bit, it will bung up things like the levelling board on a vaderstand drill. Freeflow goes just fine. Havent tried it with other drills. Expect Mzuri would go fine.

 

[Scrambler]

I normally chop linseed straw but couldn't get away with it this year. I think there was to much time between spraying it with Diquat and harvest. It may have started to ret (not sure of spelling) and came out of the chopper like big lumps of back combed wool.

 

[Premium Crops]

Linseed straw can be chopped provided the blades on the chopper are sharp. It would be advisable to change or reverse chopper blades before moving into linseed, rather than chopping all your other crops and then expect the same blade to chop linseed residue.

Tine drills should not create a problem. Most issues with crop residues and tine drills start with the covering harrow/batter boards, regardless of crop type, therefore it is important to make sure this is set correctly to allow crop residues to flow through the drill.

Is a straw for muck exchange a viable option for your farm? Canadian stock farmers like to use linseed straw as bedding due to its ability to absorb large amounts of moisture. This option lets you manage the linseed residue and get organic matter back onto the farm.

Final option is burning. While this option is not going to do soil OM any favours, it can be beneficial for grassweed control and leaves a very clean stubble.

 

[Brisel]

I have chopped linseed straw with a TF44 combine before. New blades fitted specifically for that job but it still left lumps about a foot wide. The residue was ploughed in but that was the cultivations policy for the whole farm anyway back then. Made the ploughman grumble a bit...

 

[Devon James]

In the past we have put the hood up on the combine chopper, this leaves it in a rough row of minced up cotton wool which makes great bedding! Some gets left which doesnt do any harm to the soil structure

 

[Brisel]

I want the organic matter to stay on the field. I have sleepless nights whenever I see baled organic matter leaving the farm.............

Hardly a big volume of worm food is it? You'll lose more OM than that just by cultivating the stubble afterwards!

 

[clbarclay]

Not much weed control from burning it here. The swaths were round baled without any string to make burning easier, but the wind got behind it and burnt a large area of stubble. The photo in this link shows what it looks like now. There is plenty of BG as well as the charlock growing where the stubble burnt on the hill, plus plenty of self set linseed.

http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/2015-cover-crops.76526/page-7#post-1674388

I tried chopping to start with, but didn't like the look of it (new chopper blades) so resorted to burning loose bales again.


Does anyone chop linseed and then spring crop, will the straw break down much if left over winter?

 

[franklin]

Does anyone chop linseed and then spring crop, will the straw break down much if left over winter?

We grew spring oats after linseed with chopped straw. It doesnt break down much.

 

[clbarclay]

Did you manage to get the oats in ok or does "grew" rather than "grow" say it all?

I chopped some spring lin years ago which was a pain to plough in or incorporate that autumn. That came out of the chopper like candy floss though, where as the chopped winter lin this year didn't break up much and looked more like a wide flat swath. A lot more straw from winter than spring lin.

 

[franklin]

The spring oats were incredible.

The linseed straw chops and ends up like large blobs of cotton wool. We ran over these with a solo and they mixed it in a bit. The lumps were still there come spring, but slightly less voluminous. We drilled the pats straight in to the weathered soil with a vaderstad rapid. You can still find clumps of incorporated linseed straw several years after it has been chopped. My preference is still to burn it personally.

 

[Breakthru]

It makes fantastic feed for sheep. The skins on them ooze oil. Hellish difficult to chop properly