Direct/zero tilling without glyphosate, is it possible?
- Thread starter Pilatus
- Start date
Just for the record , 'Zero Till ' is an incorrect wording for direct drilling and actually deceiving in its use by those who must wish to deceive i guess.
because a (drill) coulter will be by its nature tilling the soil, fact. no two ways about it.
broadcasting seed with no soil disturbance would be zero till or even better Permanent pasture.
because a (drill) coulter will be by its nature tilling the soil, fact. no two ways about it.
broadcasting seed with no soil disturbance would be zero till or even better Permanent pasture
.warksfarmer
Member
Stubble burning?
Had no blackgrass or slugs with that. Let burnt stubble green up, spray with gramoxone drill with bettinson drill simples .was proper direct drilling
- Location
- North Norfolk
Have a look at this (use the subtitles)
With the great respect dream on.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
TBH, I don’t think it would be possible to Direst drill without Glyphosate.
When I conventionally planted with cultivations, I would generally use about the same amount of Glyphosate as I do now that I Direct drill. In fact, sometimes more!
There was one year, that I managed not to use any at all. But that was exceptional and the weather played ball, including not needing to use it to desiccate OSR.
However I really cannot see how I could Direct drill without using Glyphosate or anything similar that might replace it.
Even Blackgrass aside, how could you control volunteers from the previous crop from smothering out a newly planted crop?
When I conventionally planted with cultivations, I would generally use about the same amount of Glyphosate as I do now that I Direct drill. In fact, sometimes more!
There was one year, that I managed not to use any at all. But that was exceptional and the weather played ball, including not needing to use it to desiccate OSR.
However I really cannot see how I could Direct drill without using Glyphosate or anything similar that might replace it.
Even Blackgrass aside, how could you control volunteers from the previous crop from smothering out a newly planted crop?
Maybe a non chemical approach could be by using a propane fired burner to kill and growth but imvho that is full of problems such as fire spreading, cost, using fossil fuels and while the claims of damage to soil life from chemicals are concerning I'm not sure using intensive fire/ heat would be great for the beneficials. I'm sure there is a lovely new chemical just waiting to be released to replace glyphosate but of course it will be very expensive
- Location
- West Suffolk
Like most replacement potato chemicals there will be a replacement and it will be double the cost.
I plough everything, but don’t use much glyphosate…….. just diesel!
I plough everything, but don’t use much glyphosate…….. just diesel!
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
I farmed in your part of the woods and I’d think that the drier climate there might help reduce the amount of Glyphosate needed.
I was farming there when it first came out and the reps would drink it to show how safe it was!
This happened at the East of England Show and that rep said that an Indian guy drank it. It didn’t effect him at all, but killed everything he pee’d on!
It totally revolutionised the control of Couch grass.
Or Twitch or Spear grass as we called it.
It was also “quite” good on dreaded “Onion Couch”, which certainly takes some killing!!
Seriously though would wide row spacing and inter row hoeing/weeding be any use?
Also apart from visible smoke is there much difference in co2 from stubble burning to glyphosphate production/shipping/application.
Also apart from visible smoke is there much difference in co2 from stubble burning to glyphosphate production/shipping/application.
- Location
- Ceredigion
Grass seeding no problem , just Hammer the hell out of it first with a tine Harrow or shallow rotavator, but you need aggressive varieties
You’ve got to assume that there’s more Co2 emitted from an acre on fire than 1L of roundup.
Assumptions aren’t facts though. Just because it looks visually bad.
there’s a lot of making, transport and spraying plus money to buy it. I know neither a the complete answer and I wouldn’t want to start burning. BUT….
renewablejohn
Member
- Location
- lancs
Actually not a dream but reality here for over a decade with propane burners doing an initial kill of over wintered green manure then a month later a second propane burn takes out the weed germination producing a weed free bed for sowing. This year experiment will be step back in history to use a paraffin burner instead of propane burner but using a green fuel instead of parraffin.
Thread hi- jack..........
Continuous spring barley would it work with DD ? Roundup straight after harvest to kill any volunteers ?
Continuous spring barley would it work with DD ? Roundup straight after harvest to kill any volunteers ?
That’s very interesting. I think using nature (fire/mechanical) is the way forward over paying multicorps for sprays. Just see what they did with fert we rely on. How long before we’re paying quivalent for sprays