Cover crop after fallow and before spring crop

[Kiwi Pete]

Thanks @Badshot - absolutely, it sort of worries me having bare soil for any length of time, tempered by knowing it's required in this instance. With no rain forecast for a while I'm not too worried about nutrients washing through, but I'm not quite sure how many times to keep passing with the cultivator before I get something growing (hence asking on here).

Incidentally please accept my apologies everyone for posting in the 'Holistic' part of the DD forum, and then putting up photos of bare soil and cultivators. If I had posted this in the main part of the forum it would have attracted a load of people moaning about why they don't like the term 'organic' etc.

Doing some online research (i.e. looking at a computer when I ought to be doing something else) yielded this useful sheet on docks: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/sites/www.gardenorganic.org.uk/files/organic-weeds/docks.pdf.

From the picture of the lifecycle, I'd say I have a good many that are about 4 years old, and it's those I'm trying to get with the fallow. If I can encourage as many seeds to germinate as possible, then cultivate once more, and then immediately plant a competitive crop, hopefully the dock seedlings will not make it to maturity. Nothing is going to work 100% in this sort of system, but I am hopeful of being able to improve things a bit from where I am now (or where I was, last year).

I have spring wheat in an adjacent field that has had its share of docks in the past. This year I ploughed it in January prior to a cold dry spell, and then did a stale seed bed prior to sowing, and then sowed an understory of white clover & black medic. I doubt they'll be putting much N into the ground given the short timescale, but they seem to have done a good job of using up available space and stopping weeds coming through, the field looks quite clean (for organic!)

I will probably buy a mixture of what @Kiwi Pete and @Badshot have suggested, I'm actually quite looking forward to working out the mixture and getting it in. I will update the thread as I go along, if of interest?

For sheep grazing - what sort of rate do people charge? Something fair to both parties is all I'd want.

You're a good sort.. FWIW I'd also be keen to see how you get on with it!

Grazing rates vary a lot from what I read on here, and are very low IMO. Don't sell it short, here I charge =£1/week for PP but I do it all. Ideally you want it to be a win-win and to me that means covering your costs well.

 

[Badshot]

You're a good sort.. FWIW I'd also be keen to see how you get on with it!

Grazing rates vary a lot from what I read on here, and are very low IMO. Don't sell it short, here I charge =£1/week for PP but I do it all. Ideally you want it to be a win-win and to me that means covering your costs well.

Grazing rates are ridiculously low and longer term need to be adjusted upwards considerably.

 

[New Puritan]

@davidroberts30 - I think that article I linked to up above mentions using a destoner. However I haven't got one, but it did get me thinking I ought to try and rake the roots off the field after the cultivator has brought them up to the top. And while the docks are bad in this field, it hopefully would not look like a field of carrots! I suppose it puts things in perspective though

@ih1455xl - just regular field beans? Have you tried rolling them in a frost - this sounds like a job for a crimper roller, which is something I'd like to get at some point.

Thanks all, I really do appreciate all the advice and ideas my numpty questions elicit.

 

[New Puritan]

Sorry, another question. Should I roll the field now to get better seed-soil contact in terms of getting dock seeds to germinate? It's not a bad texture, but still a bit cloddy.

 

[davidroberts30]

Sorry, another question. Should I roll the field now to get better seed-soil contact in terms of getting dock seeds to germinate? It's not a bad texture, but still a bit cloddy.

Yes

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Grazing rates are ridiculously low and longer term need to be adjusted upwards considerably.

It certainly appears that way...

I can definitely see why so many don't bother with getting livestock to do the job, at the figures talked on here.

Sheep are great tools really, if you have electric fence and time maybe NP could buy lightish cast ewes (giveaway prices and fatten them up on CC?
I can't see them making much less than 35p/week, even if a couple fell over.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Sorry, another question. Should I roll the field now to get better seed-soil contact in terms of getting dock seeds to germinate? It's not a bad texture, but still a bit cloddy.

Yes, docks live to rectify compacted soils.
The finer you can make it, the more will grow.

 

[organicguy]

Just going through several lightbulb moments having read Gabe Brown's book and been aware for a loing timne that even though we have been organic 20 years we are still loosing organic matter.
Docks are our biggest problem and are the main reason we have to cultivate. Using oats and vetches as a silage crop usually followed by a barsteward fallow, several passes with a narrow tipped cultivator to loosen the soil, then a 6in deep pass with a duck foot cultivator to dig out or cut off. Fairly effective on the docks but horrible for the soil, then only seedlings to worry about!
watching with interest.
OG

 

[New Puritan]

I've been giving this some more thought, slightly at odds to what I was saying earlier. Would a mix of field beans (as some seed might be available el cheapo), spring rye (ditto, and I'm not growing it as a grain crop for the foreseeable), plus some raddish / mustard / sunflowers be a good mix?

There's a few threads running on the forum about cover crops and their establishment at the moment. I will give the field one more stale seedbed, but was wondering if I could combine sowing the cover crops with that? Some combination of broadcasting the small seeds on with a FanJet, running the cultivator over one last time, and then sowing the bigger ones with the MF30 (it's still about 1973 here).

This is only a small farm that I run part-time (with a lot of other things to occupy my time...), and I don't have loads of equipment. Sensible (or even semi-sensible) suggestions are always welcome!

Many thanks,
NP.