Do rakes actually do anything?

[Feldspar]

Have been trundling around with the rake over the past few weeks and in the third year of using one I am still a little uncertain as to whether they actually help that much.

I think undoubtedly if you have big lumps of straw where the combine has stopped they help to spread them out. If, on the other hand, the combine is not spreading the straw to the full with I think they only do a limited amount. I don't think (as per what York said about an experiment where they dyed the straw) that they can really move the straw much more than about 50cms.

In some soil conditions (normally in fields that have been ploughed last year) they can move quite a bit of soil. In harder conditions they just skate over the top and don't move any at all. I had one block of barley stubble which I raked before OSR and the rake was moving the top 1 inch pretty well. Looking a few weeks later the field has certainly greened up quite a bit, but looking at the odd patch that I missed on purpose I am not convinced that there is any less greenery in those patches. Rape in the OSR stubbles seems to germinate quite happily on its own.

Having raked some rape stubbles this morning I think the turning of the rape trash probably does something to disturb the slugs. Last year where the rape stubbles weren't raked the slugs continued life merrily beneath the mat of residue which remained moist all the way through harvest. Whilst they may turn the residue and allow it to dry, I wonder if the rake actually destroys any slugs / eggs itself.

Has anyone done any experiments with rakes and seen big effects in the amount of weeks germinating / slug problems etc?

Irrespective of the above, they do make nice stripes though with GPS.

 

[Andy Howard]

Used one for seven years. Staying in the nettles this year. We have used it more after drilling with the claydon rather than before to cover seed. I think they are recreational tillage but happy to be proved wrong.

 

[Feldspar]

Used one for seven years. Staying in the nettles this year. We have used it more after drilling with the claydon rather than before to cover seed. I think they are recreational tillage but happy to be proved wrong.

Whenever I'm ploughing I normally feel that I am doing more harm than good (especially given my ploughing skills). With the rake I feel that I may be doing no harm but also no good either - so, looking on the bright side, a slight improvement.

Surely with all the time you'll have saved by not raking you can strim those nettles and be in the running for the Most Tidy Farmyard of the Year Award.

 

[Clive]

Waste of fuel IMO unless you have a rubbish combine

 

[Feldspar]

Waste of fuel IMO unless you have a rubbish combine

Is a Carrier a waste of fuel?

 

[Clive]

Is a Carrier a waste of fuel?

Not when it's needed - Its doing a great job of cover crop establishment for us this year and levelling out the mess we still have in places after years of solo use

A rake wouldn't do either of the above and I wouldn't use the carrier on a field that didn't need levelling or I wasn't establishing a cover crop into

By next year it's only use will be fast cover crop establishment hopefully

 

[SilliamWhale]

Whenever I'm ploughing I normally feel that I am doing more harm than good (especially given my ploughing skills). With the rake I feel that I may be doing no harm but also no good either - so, looking on the bright side, a slight improvement.

Surely with all the time you'll have saved by not raking you can strim those nettles and be in the running for the Most Tidy Farmyard of the Year Award.

Maybe your more skilled on the rake than the plough?

I don't really rate them. I'd say best chopper and chaff spreader you can possibly get is the first thing to do. Slugs come and go all the time imv.

Otherwise if you have spots of trouble people use ring roller with shatterboards but 've never tried that.

 

[Tractor Boy]

Waste of fuel IMO unless you have a rubbish combine

Cheaper than a dose of slug pellets though!

 

[Clive]

Cheaper than a dose of slug pellets though!

I think there is a certain placebo effect re slugs and rakes - it feels as if you are actively doing something so therefore must be a good thing !

Slugs seem to cease to be a big problem quite fast with zero-till from what's I've seen so far

 

[SilliamWhale]

I think there is a certain placebo effect re slugs and rakes - it feels as if you are actively doing something so therefore must be a good thing !

Slugs seem to cease to be a big problem quite fast with zero-till from what's I've seen so far

I just think they are what they are.

Sometimes you will have a biblical amount of them due to bad conditions but generally they don't seem to be much worse. If you can get your wheat post rape in early enough then that solves one problem, if you can spring crop after winter wheat that solves another, if you can bale even rotationally that solves another etc. To me if you find the point at which the slug pressure is likely to be worse then manage it away ie maybe don't grow rape planted after sept 5th in chopped straw that was harvested at 20%!

 

[B&B Pig Man]

I just think they are what they are.

Sometimes you will have a biblical amount of them due to bad conditions but generally they don't seem to be much worse. If you can get your wheat post rape in early enough then that solves one problem, if you can spring crop after winter wheat that solves another, if you can bale even rotationally that solves another etc. To me if you find the point at which the slug pressure is likely to be worse then manage it away ie maybe don't grow rape planted after sept 5th in chopped straw that was harvested at 20%!

So my plan of WB / WOSR / WB / Spring Beans, with everything apart from the beans being baled, should work well then?!

 

[SilliamWhale]

So my plan of WB / WOSR / WB / Spring Beans, with everything apart from the beans being baled, should work well then?!

Its ok but remember you can't do much for brome in winter barley and you may find you hit a brick wall with it quickly if not careful.

Its worth thinking about WW if you can use it in pigs. Then you can get a decent brome herbicide every now and again. Another option would be to look at an 8 yr rotation of WB/WOSR/WW/Spring Beans/SBarley/WOSR/WB/Beans it just gives you an option of broadway star and delayed sowing now and again. Or can you use broadway star in triticale?

Just an opinion!

 

[SF1]

In my opinion after useing a rake for 2 seasons i feel its a pointless exersise.
One year raked chopped osr 3 times,the residue did disapear but i found that the slugs were living inside the rape stems.Now i run the rapid across osr stubbles 3 /4 cm deep just feel that light cultivation kills them .
Raking can also make a good distributed straw chop into a not so good one.
Sold the rake last week.

 

[tw15]

To kill slugs with straw rakes you have to do it when they are on the top AT NIGHT. No point doing it when you are hopeing to kill a few slugs at the same time in the middle of the day imo.

 

[SilliamWhale]

In my opinion after useing a rake for 2 seasons i feel its a pointless exersise.
One year raked chopped osr 3 times,the residue did disapear but i found that the slugs were living inside the rape stems.Now i run the rapid across osr stubbles 3 /4 cm deep just feel that light cultivation kills them .
Raking can also make a good distributed straw chop into a not so good one.
Sold the rake last week.

To be honest I find doing nothing works for me. I can find the odd slug about post rape but the plan will be to drill WW from about 20th sept and it should be quick enough to beat anything.

Its very strange how slugs come and go within the space of a few months - they definitely don't seem to multiply perpetually. They seem to ebb and flow quite a bit. I don't feel I'm getting more and more in fields longer no till - actually possibly less.

 

[Baling Hay]

Not when it's needed - Its doing a great job of cover crop establishment for us this year and levelling out the mess we still have in places after years of solo use

A rake wouldn't do either of the above and I wouldn't use the carrier on a field that didn't need levelling or I wasn't establishing a cover crop into

By next year it's only use will be fast cover crop establishment hopefully

Not going to use it to establish wheat then?

 

[Andy Howard]

To be honest I find doing nothing works for me. I can find the odd slug about post rape but the plan will be to drill WW from about 20th sept and it should be quick enough to beat anything.

Its very strange how slugs come and go within the space of a few months - they definitely don't seem to multiply perpetually. They seem to ebb and flow quite a bit. I don't feel I'm getting more and more in fields longer no till - actually possibly less.

I think you are right. I think raking just scratches that tillage itch that people have when they move to DD. They see the fields there empty for six weeks and think "I must do something" so they rake. For me the aim is to try to work out how to have something growing in that six weeks not just bare ground. It will do a lot more good for the soil and probably better for BG too.

 

[SilliamWhale]

I think you are right. I think raking just scratches that tillage itch that people have when they move to DD. They see the fields there empty for six weeks and think "I must do something" so they rake. For me the aim is to try to work out how to have something growing in that six weeks not just bare ground. It will do a lot more good for the soil and probably better for BG too.

I thought about putting something in but decided not to bother. There is a bit of volunteer rape there actually but I think I'll chuck some FYM on and that will be my equivalent present for the crop.

I couldn't be bothered running about in a rake either to be honest.

 

[Clive]

To be honest I find doing nothing works for me. I can find the odd slug about post rape but the plan will be to drill WW from about 20th sept and it should be quick enough to beat anything.

Its very strange how slugs come and go within the space of a few months - they definitely don't seem to multiply perpetually. They seem to ebb and flow quite a bit. I don't feel I'm getting more and more in fields longer no till - actually possibly less.

I dont think they like no-till soils - its to well consolidated for them

I'm certainly seeing less which was n0t the case when we strip tilled in the past

I think its all down to consolidation over the last 20 years we ran plough and combi, slugs were a big issue, then we went to min till with a rapid, it consolidated much better and slugs were less of an issue, then a claydon (V drill) slugs came back and were a problem as it was hard to roll effectively after and lacked consolidation, then we went back to a rapid and slug problems were less again, then the 750a and slugs really no issue at all now

 

[Clive]

Not going to use it to establish wheat then?

no, way to much disturbance for me