Tried the 2 weeks later in the spring last year and it was a total disaster
Direct Drilling - Clay soils
- Thread starter richheady
- Start date
farmerm
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
When it turned dry last spring almost every drilling plan ended up being a disaster....Tried the 2 weeks later in the spring last year and it was a total disaster
Tried the 2 weeks later in the spring last year and it was a total disaster
this is the fun thing with zero till ......... the is no "one side fits all" blueprint
fun and zero till....... in the same sentence together 
- Location
- Chipping Norton
Precisely imprecise.
- Location
- North yorks
We use just an ordinary Joskin vertical beater muck spreader, have tried mixing it with FYM but usually spread it separately, normally manage to get reasonable spread to 12 meter.
Your contractors spinning disc should be about able to do 24 meter.
Another local contractor (cowton farming company) specialise in spreading for Agricore using Bergman spreaders with spinning deck.
I tend to stockpile a bit of gypsum in the drier months, so we are not waiting for deliveries post harvest.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
Really!
We drilled 280 Ha cereals and got an average yield of 6.71 t/ha.
Oh sorry wrong thread, we cultivate.
Our cultivated and direct drilled spring crops yielded the same
however crops look better this autumn where the spring crops were direct drilled.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
I'm sure they did and I'm sure they do.
- Location
- North yorks
- Location
- North yorks
Just found that whilst sorting farm assurance paperwork, think 5t/ha is more like the rate required to do any good.Thank you.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I have put on 10t acre on land that had been flooded (the product is free at some times of the year) and it has transformed it, especially with another 5t this year.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
Field cultivated since application?
- Location
- Bedfordshire
In your article in October 2019 Direct Driller Magazine you stated, and I quote "We have seen big yield differences between pure no till and shallow cultivated land in the spring crops". and "it's all very well trying to no till some of this clay in the spring..."Our cultivated and direct drilled spring crops yielded the same
Obviously a lot has changed in 12 months.
Yep, this was comparing our own technique (shallow till) with a neighbours (disc drill, drilled later into green cover crops).
Our own experience direct with a tine drill this season direct was generally better than with the same drill into topdowned land. Our own experience this year with a disc drill into both stubble and topdowned land was worse, the disc drill is not good in spring generally
obviously observing what they had been doing, and comparing it to our own technique Of using a topdown we used that information to try direct drilling in the spring but with difference agronomics and management compared to what we had seen.
Turns out it worked very well and I can get rid of another huge lump of metal and a 600hp tractor.
Very pleasing what you can find out if you keep questioning, learning, observing and in my case putting my money where my mouth is.
good result all round!
T
To put it simply I was comparing extreme on the green disc drilling to topdowning. Which in hindsight was blinkered of me.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
What are you going to pull you 12m Sprinter with then? Or do you have 2 600HP tractors?
A Topdown is about the worst 'min till' cultivator anyway, just mixes it all up to 150mm. BG seeds and all.
A Topdown is about the worst 'min till' cultivator anyway, just mixes it all up to 150mm. BG seeds and all.
A smaller tractor, on 2 inch Dutch points it Is not power hungry.
Not interested in types of min till cultivators they all do the same thing and we don’t need to do that. Got an old 6m JD cultivator that can do anything that we need and does the same job.