Cover crop following WW going into SB

[BBE]

New one for me so looking for recommendations. Field is half clay loam, (fairly heavy) and runs to sand loam. Will be late drilled as still not cut wheat, direct drilled into chopped straw. Got OSR & Oats in rotation, so not keen on mustard or oats. Was thinking Radish, Buckwheat, Phacelia, maybe Vetch? Planning to DD spring barley straight into cover.

 

[teslacoils]

Wheat volunteers.

 

[robbie]

Wheat volunteers.

I've become very wary of volunteer cereals in covers.
I had a bad experience this year with spring barley volunteers/combine tailings making the following crop of winter barley very poor, it was plan to see exactly where the combine had been as the winter barley crop was very stunted and poor.
I also have evidence if this in a field of wheat which was radish before between so barley and wheat. Again it's easy to see where the combine had been In the previous crop and the radish was ploughed down before wheat.

 

[MartinLines]

I am going to be usimg 3kg radish, 1kg Phacelia, 15kg black oat, 4kg vetch, 2kg crim clover per ha. Hopefully planting it as soon as the wheat is cut (next week?) and planing on grazing it with sheep after Christmas if possible.

 

[4course]

the last few years weve been sowing catch/cover crops and to be fair theve done a job and I had some enthusiasm for the idea but now the need to gain the greening points has gone so have they

 

[EddieB]

Avoid cereals in a cover crop before SB, particularly oats.

 

[redsloe]

Avoid cereals in a cover crop before SB, particularly oats.

Because?

 

[EddieB]

I’m not sure of the why and how, but certainly in my experience the vigour and establishment of SB seems to be impaired following an oar based CC.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Because?

Allelopathy or root chemistry. I would use a 3 way mix of spring beans, radish and linseed. It's getting a bit late for small seeds but you could put in a pinch of phacelia.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Do nothing is my advice. Try and get some fym on

 

[BBE]

Allelopathy or root chemistry. I would use a 3 way mix of spring beans, radish and linseed. It's getting a bit late for small seeds but you could put in a pinch of phacelia.

I like the sound of this

 

[BBE]

Do nothing is my advice. Try and get some fym on

Only doing one field as an experiment. Not quite enough fym to go round!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

How big is the field?

 

[BBE]

How big is the field?

37 acres

 

[Great In Grass]

New one for me so looking for recommendations. Field is half clay loam, (fairly heavy) and runs to sand loam. Will be late drilled as still not cut wheat, direct drilled into chopped straw. Got OSR & Oats in rotation, so not keen on mustard or oats. Was thinking Radish, Buckwheat, Phacelia, maybe Vetch? Planning to DD spring barley straight into cover.

A mix of Tillage Radish, Oil Raddish and either or Berseem/Crimson Clover. This mix will give deep root penetration whilst boosting soil organic matter and soil N levels.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

How much do you want to spend?

 

[Brisel]

Given the date and location, I would avoid spending much as you won’t get much biomass before spring if you are avoiding mustard and oats. Buckwheat will be killed by the first frost but will help with early cover until then. I’d stick to cheapo ingredients like buckwheat and phacelia.

 

[BBE]

How much do you want to spend?

I was thinking about £10 an acre but if I need to spend a bit more to learn what's going to work for me then prepared to do so.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

So £370, say £400.

I would spend half on beans at 20 to 25kg per hectare, £50 on linseed, £50 on radish. Then some recreational spending of £10 on a few other species to see what they do. While you're at the pet food supplies getting your linseed, you could get £5 worth of sunflowers. Don't spend too much more than that as it's already so late.

Your beans should help you save on fert next year so you can think of them as an investment.

 

[BSH]

I would say definately worth doing a CC, but dont drill into it. You need to get it killed in good time before drilling. Either get frost kill or top it off or spray off, but drilling into it I found that the cc kept too much moisture in the soil for the drill to work well ( close Slots)