Do ploughers get bg ?

[bobk]

If not , there's your answer

 

[CJS]

If not , there's your answer

Yes

 

[Boysground]

I plough, min till and occasionally direct drill. Most definitely still have black grass.

Bg

 

[Bob lincs]

We have land that was in no til 5ys( some bg) min til 3yrs ( a lot of bb) ploughed now clean as a whistle so may DD for a few years and see what happens .

 

[T Hectares]

I first came across BG when I started work on a farm in ‘99, the farm had been ploughed continuously before this

i started here in ‘16 to find the worst BG I’d come across, the farm had been ploughed up to ‘12 and rotationally until ‘15

BG is much more than just ploughing...

 

[Shutesy]

If not , there's your answer

Yep, neighbouring farmer ploughs every year and has livestock in the rotation and has some horrific blackgrass. Ploughing alone is not the answer it's a whole farm management process.

 

[robbie]

Theres ploughing and then theres ploughing sadly not many can do it properly most just turn the ground over and then blame the plough for there problems. As with any job it's only as good as the operator.

 

[mo!]

Plough it down, plough it back up again. Next door have put the whole lot down to grass after spreading BG round the place with the plough. It came in with some cheap hay...

 

[T Hectares]

Theres ploughing and then theres ploughing sadly not many can do it properly most just turn the ground over and then blame the plough for there problems. As with any job it's only as good as the operator.

And these Downland soils never plough that well, they stick like sh*t to a blanket and just push and throw through a plough and once the BG is there ploughing every year just mixes it right through the profile and means it’s a right muddle !!

 

[Hobbit]

Theres ploughing and then theres ploughing sadly not many can do it properly most just turn the ground over and then blame the plough for there problems. As with any job it's only as good as the operator.

Totally agree! I farm manly shallow limestone brash with high clay levels and I can’t plough it properly. Not enough depth and it’s either to stiff and stands on end or it just crumbles and pushes sideways. It needs a better man than me to plough it and the right plough which I don’t think exists. There’s nothing worse than looking back at the field and being disappointed so we moved to strip tillage then proper a DD system. The black grass levels reduced and the soil has a lot more heart to it now. Still plough when needed but not often. Your soil Robbie makes a lot of us on here very envious and the photos you post always show some top quality ploughing and well farmed land. Keep up the good work

 

[Boysground]

My shallow chalk can get sticky and then the mouldboards bung and just mix the soil. I don’t like ploughing consecutive years. In an ideal world I would direct drill everything but with Grass, maize, muck and cows in the rotation that’s not really an option.

Bg

 

[4course]

we 99%plough we roughly follow a rotation we dont have or never had have blackgrass have all but eliminated wo but where do blw come from having never been allowed to set seed for 30 years plus , however ryegrass leys are grown and are becoming a cause for concern

 

[Cab-over Pete]

I can say for certain that the farms I see with the least or no blackgrass have a big heap of manure and a plough and every arable acre sees both each year.

A customer of mine with cattle and arable had his baler in bits one day. He said he was considering not bothering to repair it and calling a contractor.

I asked if he had blackgrass. He said he didn’t know what it looked like, so I said to him to either repair the baler or buy a new one otherwise he would soon find it.

 

[Two Tone]

Plough it down, plough it back up again. Next door have put the whole lot down to grass after spreading BG round the place with the plough. It came in with some cheap hay...

Plough it down and as long as you did it properly with the skimmers set well, 70% of it will die before you plough it up again, as long as it was buried 2” below any daylight.
Try to plough it a different depth the following year so as not to bring the remaining 30% back up.
The key word is to plough Properly.
It isn’t a race!
Forward speed and furrow width are very important. I find 16” width is best for me on most of the soil types I have. I narrow up to 14” if speed falls below 4.5mph. It’s just a question of looking at what speed allows the skimmers to throw the topsoil into the bottom of the furrow, not up the slope of the previous furrow or over the top of it.

 

[Cobblers]

Drilling date combined with good ploughing goes a long way to beating BG
ploughing normally allows a bit longer drilling window if it stops bloody raining

 

[ajd132]

Ploughing did little to help us control blackgrass or anyone else round here , (they still do it).
Widening the rotation has helped us the most. Not disturbing the soil or mixing BG through the profile helps. I think the herbicides work much better when the BG has grown from the surface.
Ploughing this land Properly is hard, I don’t think anyone around here does it particularly well, it’s also hideously expensive to knock down after usually requiring 2/3 rexius/culti press passes or a few goes with a power Harrow.
if anyone read what Rishi Sunak has said about red diesel and carbon ploughing will be completely unviable economically (it already is here!)

 

[tr250]

In my opinion ploughing works well on light loamy soil because it skims nicely and turns over nice. Ploughing is not the answer if it’s coming up in lumps the bigger than footballs. Trouble is that type of land doesn’t usually have bg. I see on Facebook all this plough and combination straight behind that only works on nice soil

 

[yellow belly]

ploughing did not control black grass before chemicals came along

once chemicals ipu hoegrass had resistance develop ploughing did not stop black grass building up

having a good rotation plus’s drilling into a seed bed with no established black grass goes a long way
proper ploughing or spray off with glyphosate gets a clean start
the heavier or shallower the soil the harder it is to do proper ploughing
I now notill and have reduced black grass to a minor problem with spring crops in the rotation
early drill wheat but later drill spring crops
We were ploughing in the 1990s after the burning ban But had black grass build up
where we used Avadex there was much less of a problem
that farm had the slowest build up and antlantis did a good job when we used it last

In an all arable rotation the most effective cultural control is a double spring break
here spring barley followed by a spring break crop land too heavy for any root crops

 

[Gong Farmer]

Has to be rotational ploughing, and as said has to be good ploughing.

 

[britt]

We had a problem with BG when we ploughed, but it's under control now that we are notill. But for how long I don't know, as we are reliant on the sprayer and actives that still work. Ploughing on its own is not the answer.