Cover crop management

[Joe Boy]

Last year I claydoned a Pedders mix into wheat stubble on land going into borage which is planted between mid April to mid may usually.

I did not use pellets or N on the cover crop and it did not grow into anything much. I was hoping for a bit more growth early spring which did not really come to much and sprayed it off 1st week of April.

The soil under my wheat and rape was really dry by may and other borage growers near me had dust comming of their varderstads drilling into ploughed or autumn or frost top downed ground.

My ground was really wet so I waited a couple of weeks trying the drill a couple of times but it just smeared and pulled up big clods. In the end I hired an aitchison which looked much better but still smeared badly.

The borage has grown ok on soil with some sand in it but badly on heavy clay with low plant population. Short uneven crop, not what you want for borage. lots of the roots are thin were the crop struggled to get its tap root down and the plants had purple leaves for the first month or so of growth.

This is what the Claydon was doing.

Claydon vs Aitchison.

I might be going mad but it had crossed my mind that to broadcast a cheap cover crop seed, oats from the combine or just let the combine losses go up a bit. Then use a profilab curved time subsoiler but leave the land unrolled to increase surface area and improve the drying out in the spring so I can use the Claydon. I would then spray off around Christmas or get sheep in to eat it so the sunlight and frosts can get into the ground.

I want to improve my soil health and I know cultivating and leaving the ground full of air will reduce organic matter. But I also want to grow good borage so I have there a dilemma.

Any advise much appreciated.

 

[Badshot]

First
Nothing really grew last autumn, with or without N so don't be disheartened by that.

Second
It looks to me as if you may have been a bit deep with the claydon, I've seen stuff drilled in Essex that I gave little hope for at drilling. This was due to seed on the surface and generally poor seedbeds from a brace of claydons, however a pass with a rake after drilling when it had dried a bit and rolling made a world of difference and resulted in some good crops of spring wheat. Not borage I know but I really thought he was mad at the time.

Sometimes, and I know Jeff would agree with this, it is necessary to do a little bit more to ensure a crop.

 

[Andy Howard]

The question could be: was the problem that you had s cover crop or the problem was the cover was not big enough

 

[Joe Boy]

Yes I don't mind doing a pass after the drill with the rake, I think if its dry enough I would always do this as a matter of course. If its as wet as I had I would worry about wheelings showing up in the crop.

Borage grows a thick but relatively short tap root. I can see we're some roots are thick and at a certain depth get much smaller diameter and then fork.

What makes it difficult for me to decide what to do for next year is that some of the dd borage looks great but some is prob only half what it should be.

Maybe after longer in dd I would get better establisent. It's the first year dd for me, everything in the autumn went well but the stubbles just took forever to dry in the spring.

The only area I left with no cover at all dried, drilled and established much better. Hard to see it know though.

What surprised me is how much effect of keeping the soil wet the cover had even though there was so little there.

 

[Badshot]

This was Essex earlier this year, don't let the dust fool you one of those drills sunk

I think you are right though, the extra cover in the spring tends to keep the ground wetter, in the autumn growth tends to keep it drier

 

[Joe Boy]

Smearing slots is not the best start for a crop even if it does catch up, there must be some sort of yield penalty.

In the video there is soil being thrown off the marker tine so the conditions can't be as bad as mine, were the soil just ploughed over in big lumps, no tilth at all.

 

[Badshot]

There was about half an inch of dry crumb on top of what can only be described as pudding, but he had sprayed early enough to not have a lot of green cover when he did get drilling.

 

[Joe Boy]

I know soils were slow to warm up this spring and everything was a bit behind. I think though that cover cropping has to be able to cope with this scenario as it will happen again.

I think getting rid of the green by either grazing or early dedication must be the way foreword.