Cover crops on heavy land

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
B6643041-5764-4E19-A172-B435565CADC8.jpeg

We often go straight in with the vaddy after a max till in the autumn. On plough we have been twice with a12m set of vaderstad nz followed by rapide, all done in 36hrs if poss. Not sure what your neighbours are playing at. We are probably using 7 -12 l/ha fuel depending.
We used to do that aswell. And so do those guys. But after the amount of rain in February this year it has really turned it nasty hence why all the pulling, I know they wouldn’t choose to do it and it certainly isn’t the norm.
We have drilled thousands of acres in the spring after an autumn topdown and never had to pull it but this year it does appear to be especially grim, thankfully our direct drilling appears to be going really well and getting crops established including rolling with about 10l/ha fuel.
we ran max till vs direct with a tine drill two years in a row against each other and both times the yield was pretty even or even slightly in favour of DD, so we sacked the cultivating off and went to the pub.
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The early drilling, heavy cultivation continuous wheat method is broken in most places because of herbicide resistance and blackgrass. If you can still do it then fair play. It worked well in this area for many years until farmers broke the chemistry.
Needs to be late drilling and cultivate to suit, has worked well here along with a fallow and vining peas, some fully resistant blackgrass fields are now easliy roughable.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Needs to be late drilling and cultivate to suit, has worked well here along with a fallow and vining peas, some fully resistant blackgrass fields are now easliy roughable.
Good conditions on heavy land generally means early, especially after last few years. Did you have 12t/ha late drilled wheat crops in harvest 20? If you did then very well done
Your fallowing and growing peas, so you aren’t just growing big wheat crops which make all the money as you said, you’ve got land making zero cash.
it’s amazing how much money you can make from spring barley and oats, if you have overheads under control and grow them well.
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
View attachment 1025205

We used to do that aswell. And so do those guys. But after the amount of rain in February this year it has really turned it nasty hence why all the pulling, I know they wouldn’t choose to do it and it certainly isn’t the norm.
We have drilled thousands of acres in the spring after an autumn topdown and never had to pull it but this year it does appear to be especially grim, thankfully our direct drilling appears to be going really well and getting crops established including rolling with about 10l/ha fuel.
we ran max till vs direct with a tine drill two years in a row against each other and both times the yield was pretty even or even slightly in favour of DD, so we sacked the cultivating off and went to the pub.
The trick is to leave it loose in the autumn, not press it down. The rain will do enough 'pressing'.
Doesn't work with unplanned spring cropping after a wet autumn though.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
The trick is to leave it loose in the autumn, not press it down. The rain will do enough 'pressing'.
Doesn't work with unplanned spring cropping after a wet autumn though.
The rain has done too much pressing, even early ploughed stuff that was left rough and loose is looking like it’s taking a lot of working down.
I do agree with you though, maybe more rain round here or different soil has reacted differently
 

mo!

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
York
We often go straight in with the vaddy after a max till in the autumn. On plough we have been twice with a12m set of vaderstad nz followed by rapide, all done in 36hrs if poss. Not sure what your neighbours are playing at. We are probably using 7 -12 l/ha fuel depending.
If you ploughed our heavy land and then went in with an NZ you would very quickly need to replace all the broken tines. Which is why we don't plough it.
 

BenAdamsAgri

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
I’ve seen local people trying to drilling spring barley into thick covers of green black oats. I could have told them in 30 seconds why that was wrong if they had asked, or 10 minutes on social media or forum could have given them the same answer.
But you can bet they'll be straight onto social media afterwards to tell everyone cover crops don't work
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Depends how you do it.
for us it’s one pass with a 12m drill on usually about 30% of our total area a year. So roughly 3/4 days drilling.
There will be extra wear and tear on the drill because you are using it, the drill uses 5l fuel/hectare.
We have no cultivators. We would also need more tractors and more men if we were in a cultivation/plough system. Which adds to overheads. We run a very low
If you are already in a max till system and want to establish cover crops that way I cannot see the point.
Seed can be as cheap or expensive as you want to make it, we usually do over winters for about £20/ha
you can also get money in CS for doing them and they can add a decent amount of money to a yearly carbon sequestration certificate.
We are using covers because we think they are the right thing for our long term soil building approach, any extra money is a bonus and not the driver.
There is a learning curve and if you haven’t done your homework they can be very negative to the next crop.
I’ve seen local people trying to drilling spring barley into thick covers of green black oats. I could have told them in 30 seconds why that was wrong if they had asked, or 10 minutes on social media or forum could have given them the same answer.
Yes but some of us have learnt the hard way!

There's nothing as valuable as bought wit
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Good conditions on heavy land generally means early, especially after last few years. Did you have 12t/ha late drilled wheat crops in harvest 20? If you did then very well done
Your fallowing and growing peas, so you aren’t just growing big wheat crops which make all the money as you said, you’ve got land making zero cash.
it’s amazing how much money you can make from spring barley and oats, if you have overheads under control and grow them well.
We have found a late October drilled crop shows the best profit (not yield), and yes there is a rotation and the peas pay very well, the fallow is because i dont have time to crop it all, along with getting spring cereals in at the right time isnt usually possible.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
We have found a late October drilled crop shows the best profit (not yield), and yes there is a rotation and the peas pay very well, the fallow is because i dont have time to crop it all, along with getting spring cereals in at the right time isnt usually possible.
Sorry for the questions I just find what your saying quite contradictory
 

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