Cover crops/maize - no ploughing.

[Ali_Maxxum]

Might be taking on the ground/planting work for a shoot in the spring, about 10ac total in about 5 patches.

However, like anything I ever seem to come across, nothing is ever straight forward....

Flail off the old maize/cover crops. Spray off any new stuff that pops up 2weeks or so before planting. Now normally you would expect to plough, however, apparently this is an absolute no go as the stone is horrendous.

So, since then I'm told they just went straight in with a power harrow till they had enough tilth to drill 5ac of maize and broadcast cover crop seed, then roll. Personally I'm thinking this could be a bit hard going on a power harrow initially (will be power harrow belonging to the farm and it's only job is this 10ac) so I was thinking would it be better to disc first and then go in with the power harrow? (Should help speed up the job? Make the power harrow more effective?) I could just imagine needing at least 2 if not 3 passes with a power harrow alone before getting something tidy to drill in to?

They've also said they have the opportunity to spread muck on the plots, again, personally think this should be incorporated with ploughing, but as that's a no go I would think discs or a power harrow would just be choked up, as it'll be quite strawy muck.

Any helpful thoughts, appreciated. Ta!

 

[Brisel]

Shakerator after the muck then power harrow to break up any pans and make life easier for the power harrow? It's the drill I'd worry about more. I hope it can cope with a lot of residues. The power harrow will mix the muck in if the tines are angled forward slightly e.g. Kuhn.

 

[ollie989898]

Do you really want the grief?

 

[Ali_Maxxum]

Do you really want the grief?

What would you define as 'grief'? It's not far from base and I have a lot of existing customers around it. The rest needn't be much of a ball ache, scratch it up, scatter it on, roll it in. If it's seen as that much of a faff to do then it ought to be worth good money.

 

[CynicalSid]

Might be taking on the ground/planting work for a shoot in the spring, about 10ac total in about 5 patches.

However, like anything I ever seem to come across, nothing is ever straight forward....

Flail off the old maize/cover crops. Spray off any new stuff that pops up 2weeks or so before planting. Now normally you would expect to plough, however, apparently this is an absolute no go as the stone is horrendous.

So, since then I'm told they just went straight in with a power harrow till they had enough tilth to drill 5ac of maize and broadcast cover crop seed, then roll. Personally I'm thinking this could be a bit hard going on a power harrow initially (will be power harrow belonging to the farm and it's only job is this 10ac) so I was thinking would it be better to disc first and then go in with the power harrow? (Should help speed up the job? Make the power harrow more effective?) I could just imagine needing at least 2 if not 3 passes with a power harrow alone before getting something tidy to drill in to?

They've also said they have the opportunity to spread muck on the plots, again, personally think this should be incorporated with ploughing, but as that's a no go I would think discs or a power harrow would just be choked up, as it'll be quite strawy muck.

Any helpful thoughts, appreciated. Ta!

I do some maize game covers on some stoney land, find double working it with Sumo trio gives good results, plenty of depth to get rid of stones and nice bit of tilth for maize drill to work into.