DD an idiots guide please!

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire

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Does such thing exists? I know all farms and soils are different but the 10 top critical points would be very helpful for many people.
Where I’m struggling is that we’re a small mixed farm and getting straw off in a wet year always makes a mess (turning,baling,stacking and then loading) and then putting the muck back on seems to cause issues too (heavy kit and 6-8m spread) I go low as possible with tyres and I’ve banned the telehandler in field,use loader tractor instead but even that needs the fronts at min 22psi for safety. We just seem to have so much wheelings it sometimes seem a pointless battle, I’ve a 3m gd and lots of small fields. I’m praying my soils get better as the years go on but most just aren’t there yet! I’m a tenant so every acre needs to pay every year, I’ve some awful crops after this winter. Please only constructive advice, I’ve had enough of the fellow forum bashers/dick waivers. I’m hoping to go to Groundswell this year but it’s a bit pricey for two of us and normally silaging then.

The struggle is real and there’s no answer really other than a strip till drill rather than a shallow disc. We manage it (of a fashion) by keeping bale trailers to tramlines, not turning the straw where possible. However our biggest ruts came from a tracked combine. Now on wheels the problem isn’t so bad.
Straw is more important (biomass) than direct drilling so get a low disturbance subsoiler and done be afraid to use it.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire


Thank you for that post. I shall print off and stick up on my office wall as another explanation why Homo Sapiens as a species will not survive that long on Planet Earth. And every time another person witters about foreign aid. Strange species homo sapiens.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Does such thing exists? I know all farms and soils are different but the 10 top critical points would be very helpful for many people.
Where I’m struggling is that we’re a small mixed farm and getting straw off in a wet year always makes a mess (turning,baling,stacking and then loading) and then putting the muck back on seems to cause issues too (heavy kit and 6-8m spread) I go low as possible with tyres and I’ve banned the telehandler in field,use loader tractor instead but even that needs the fronts at min 22psi for safety. We just seem to have so much wheelings it sometimes seem a pointless battle, I’ve a 3m gd and lots of small fields. I’m praying my soils get better as the years go on but most just aren’t there yet! I’m a tenant so every acre needs to pay every year, I’ve some awful crops after this winter. Please only constructive advice, I’ve had enough of the fellow forum bashers/dick waivers. I’m hoping to go to Groundswell this year but it’s a bit pricey for two of us and normally silaging then.
When it's wet we take bales off with 2 on the front linkage an 4 on the back, use a disc spreader so can spread at 12 m, not yet DD but still aware of damage that machinery can do to land.
 
Does such thing exists? I know all farms and soils are different but the 10 top critical points would be very helpful for many people.
Where I’m struggling is that we’re a small mixed farm and getting straw off in a wet year always makes a mess (turning,baling,stacking and then loading) and then putting the muck back on seems to cause issues too (heavy kit and 6-8m spread) I go low as possible with tyres and I’ve banned the telehandler in field,use loader tractor instead but even that needs the fronts at min 22psi for safety. We just seem to have so much wheelings it sometimes seem a pointless battle, I’ve a 3m gd and lots of small fields. I’m praying my soils get better as the years go on but most just aren’t there yet! I’m a tenant so every acre needs to pay every year, I’ve some awful crops after this winter. Please only constructive advice, I’ve had enough of the fellow forum bashers/dick waivers. I’m hoping to go to Groundswell this year but it’s a bit pricey for two of us and normally silaging then.


Is the answer is to tow some sort of bale accumulator and drop them all on the headlands? May be an expensive investment but could help facilitate what you are trying to do.
 

Munkul

Member
However our biggest ruts came from a tracked combine. Now on wheels the problem isn’t so bad.
Interesting... always thought tracks were supposed to reduce ground pressure and compaction significantly?

I know the fancy tracked 13t combine that came last year to our farm made less ruts than my uncle's old one with 750/800 flotation tyres did... and the old one was a clayson 8060, so literally half the weight... But then, there's a few variables to consider I suppose.
 
Interesting... always thought tracks were supposed to reduce ground pressure and compaction significantly?

I know the fancy tracked 13t combine that came last year to our farm made less ruts than my uncle's old one with 750/800 flotation tyres did... and the old one was a clayson 8060, so literally half the weight... But then, there's a few variables to consider I suppose.

For the last few years we’ve been seeing the track marks all year. Not saying tyres are perfect but no way tracks are.
 

alomy75

Member
For the last few years we’ve been seeing the track marks all year. Not saying tyres are perfect but no way tracks are.
Are you sure it’s not the tyres on the back or another operation completely? I’m pretty sure someone at Claas double-checked that tracks create smaller ruts than tyres with everything else being equal before investing millions in developing them. It’s not like combines need the extra traction…
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Are you sure it’s not the tyres on the back or another operation completely? I’m pretty sure someone at Claas double-checked that tracks create smaller ruts than tyres with everything else being equal before investing millions in developing them. It’s not like combines need the extra traction…
Tracks are mostly a way of keeping wide combines narrow enough to fit down our roads while having enough floatation not to sink in a field. When its really wet, a once a combine track sinks a bit, it buries itself, due to the small diameter of its leading roller - a large diameter wheel is always trying to climb back on top.
 

alomy75

Member
Tracks are mostly a way of keeping wide combines narrow enough to fit down our roads while having enough floatation not to sink in a field. When its really wet, a once a combine track sinks a bit, it buries itself, due to the small diameter of its leading roller - a large diameter wheel is always trying to climb back on top.
I completely agree width is a huge bonus; but the primary advantage, imo, is reduced ground pressure of the track. It’s the first bullet point on the claas website…
F3C37F44-A447-4C5F-895C-28299DD38507.png
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Off topic I know, but the biggest benefit of tracks on a combine is header stability.
The biggest benefit of tracks on tractors is transport width, operator comfort in the field, traction and elimination of power hop.
I don't think the theoretical low ground pressure of tracks actually translates to less soil damage.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
66% less pressure? How? I'd wager the footprint of a track is no bigger than an tyre for the same application.

Header stability I'd agree, lateral combine stability, not convinced, they make the combine narrower.
Longer working time? How?
Comfort? I'd don't know anyone that's used them that would agree.
 

whindy

Member
BASE UK Member
Interesting.

What is your crop rotation?
We bale our straw with a square baler with Flintstone sledge behind, so bales are in pairs, which reduces field traffic considerably. In very wet years we sometimes put a home made spike on the back of our MF3075 (it weighs 4.5t and wears 540 Michelin XM108 tyres) to cart the bales down the tramlines to the trailer on the headland. I guess another spike on the front would help too.

I started by direct drilling spring break crops (lower risk) and have done some wheat after beans and spring barley after winter barley. The key is the cover crop preceding the cash crop - remove any compaction before you sow the cover, and don't get the cc too thick, or the weeds wont grow, and you'll struggle to get the soil dry enough to sow in spring.

Beware of drills without contour following like converted Freeflows - you don't need much of an undulation to have a big % difference in drilling depth

Where in the rotation do you apply your muck? How do you incorporate it?

Ours goes before roots on the lighter land, and before spring oats (dd'd into a cover) or second wheat (usually min til) on the heavier stuff. We've seen much more benefit from the muck by not ploughing it down too.

Good luck - the more I learn the less I know!
Run a 4m sprinter on 2in vos openers un even depth is a big problem .
 

alomy75

Member
66% less pressure? How? I'd wager the footprint of a track is no bigger than an tyre for the same application.

Header stability I'd agree, lateral combine stability, not convinced, they make the combine narrower.
Longer working time? How?
Comfort? I'd don't know anyone that's used them that would agree.
We are vastly digressing now…! Think of a football and what actually is in contact with the ground. Then think of a paving slab. A 900 tyre probably contacts with a 1m2 footprint ish. A terratrac or similar will be at least twice that. The same weight will be dispersed over a bigger area=bigger footprint=less pressure. It’s all about the length of the footprint with a track, not the width. There’s no end of work on tracks vs tyres about. Tracks fall down with cost and comfort; also scrubbing round the ends.
 

Munkul

Member
66% less pressure? How? I'd wager the footprint of a track is no bigger than an tyre for the same application.
It has continuous ground pressure lengthways... a tyre theoretically only has a single point of pressure as a circle... although at low pressures a floatation tyre deforms and creates a longer contact patch... nowhere near as much as a track, though!
The 66% less ground pressure is a fairly well accepted number, although quite rightly, the widest tyres and inflation pressures will reduce the number a whole load... and wider is nearly always better...
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
We are vastly digressing now…! Think of a football and what actually is in contact with the ground. Then think of a paving slab. A 900 tyre probably contacts with a 1m2 footprint ish. A terratrac or similar will be at least twice that. The same weight will be dispersed over a bigger area=bigger footprint=less pressure. It’s all about the length of the footprint with a track, not the width. There’s no end of work on tracks vs tyres about. Tracks fall down with cost and comfort; also scrubbing round the ends.

How wide is a track? 600mm? If it was 2m long, that'd be 20% more contact than your 1m2 tyre. The track would need to be over 3m long to have twice the footprint, very few are, certainly on combines.
 

Munkul

Member
How wide is a track? 600mm? If it was 2m long, that'd be 20% more contact than your 1m2 tyre. The track would need to be over 3m long to have twice the footprint, very few are, certainly on combines.
Ground contact is not the same as ground pressure. And you have to consider the same width for track and tyre.
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
Ground contact is not the same as ground pressure. And you have to consider the same width for track and tyre.
If you look at ground pressure under a track, it is not uniform. It will depend on the size and spacing of the idler wheels. For example, a Tiger tank
1624955106529.png

will have a much better ground pressure maximum than a Churchill tank of the same weight and track dimensions
1624955227980.png

The average pressure under a track will be lower, but it is not the average that does the damage, it is the peak. The track needs uniform support along its length for the peak to be reduced to the average.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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