Will Blackburn
Member
- Location
- Cheshire
Not saying you are wrong, but due to subs and lack of new biotechnology, Europe is a lumbering agricultural dinosaur.
Its that time of year when I sit down and review costings.
Whilst I do that I ask several questions,
Can I do it better , cheaper , more efficiently , differently etc.
So my question is this ,
Those of you who have moved to a genuine direct drilling system have you actually
1 Saved money
2 Increased profit
The reason I ask is this, we direct drill OSR , then we have 2 passes before drilling wheat, Sumo , joker, drill)
and 1 before drilling beans (sumo trio)
So effectively 1 1/2 passes before drilling across the total acreage , all rolled after .
A lot of the direct drilling passes all involve either a straw rake , or cover crop seeding pass.inc covers
Assuming we spray , fertilize and harvest at the same cost, is direct drilling saving approx. £10-12 acre in establishment costs.
Which whilst is a substantial saving on a 1000 acres, is it a big enough saving to warrant investment in a new drill .
I understand direct drilling is more than just changing the drill and its a mindset thing with a change in rotation labour practices etc , but for those who have just changed a machine did it pay?
Those of you who changed complete systems , do you find management easier, and is your farming business more profitable ?
If it is, and I suppose this is what I am really trying to find out , is your new system Brexit proof in other words are you making enough profit before subsidy to make a living at todays prices .
Its a bit of a convoluted question ,
It all depends on your mindset, are you trying to farm without tillage or a notill system because they are poles apart. Taking the short term view that .5 tonne pays for a lot of tillage is the reason so many people fail and are stuck in a system of more tillage and more chemicals. Can people not see that that system is broken and has no long term future
Depending on gly is the greatest challenge facing c a, don't have the answer, yetThe system has managed for the last few hundred years! No need to quote Dustbowls and declining soil organic matters to me
What would you say the main barriers are to switching to DD @Fred ?
https://www.ahdb.org.uk/no-till
- Fear of failure
- Reduced yields, particularly in the first few years
- Slugs
- Grass weeds like sterile brome
- Lack of knowledge
- Increased crop disease from surface residues like fusarium, sclerotinia
- Timing is everything
- Dependency on glyphosate
- Spending your cultivation savings on cover crops
- Poor soil structure and compaction
- Harder to adopt on very heavy warp clays and light sands that have no natural structure
Seen my post in DD machinery section , we wait with baited breathJust buy a Cross slot and be done with talking about it Mark!!
The system has managed for the last few hundred years! No need to quote Dustbowls and declining soil organic matters to me
What would you say the main barriers are to switching to DD @Fred ?
https://www.ahdb.org.uk/no-till
- Fear of failure
- Reduced yields, particularly in the first few years
- Slugs
- Grass weeds like sterile brome
- Lack of knowledge
- Increased crop disease from surface residues like fusarium, sclerotinia
- Timing is everything
- Dependency on glyphosate
- Spending your cultivation savings on cover crops
- Poor soil structure and compaction
- Harder to adopt on very heavy warp clays and light sands that have no natural structure
I would say fear of losing yield , knowledge , rotation , slugs , blackgrass, timing of change in business sense, contract farming agreements and perception
Several , being a bit of a no-till tart , and yes all of my fears are always answered ,How many no till farms have you visited?
Its that time of year when I sit down and review costings.
Whilst I do that I ask several questions,
Can I do it better , cheaper , more efficiently , differently etc.
So my question is this ,
Those of you who have moved to a genuine direct drilling system have you actually
1 Saved money
2 Increased profit
The reason I ask is this, we direct drill OSR , then we have 2 passes before drilling wheat, Sumo , joker, drill)
and 1 before drilling beans (sumo trio)
So effectively 1 1/2 passes before drilling across the total acreage , all rolled after .
A lot of the direct drilling passes all involve either a straw rake , or cover crop seeding pass.inc covers
Assuming we spray , fertilize and harvest at the same cost, is direct drilling saving approx. £10-12 acre in establishment costs.
Which whilst is a substantial saving on a 1000 acres, is it a big enough saving to warrant investment in a new drill .
I understand direct drilling is more than just changing the drill and its a mindset thing with a change in rotation labour practices etc , but for those who have just changed a machine did it pay?
Those of you who changed complete systems , do you find management easier, and is your farming business more profitable ?
If it is, and I suppose this is what I am really trying to find out , is your new system Brexit proof in other words are you making enough profit before subsidy to make a living at todays prices .
Its a bit of a convoluted question ,
Several , being a bit of a no-till tart , and yes all of my fears are always answered ,
However this isn't what I asked , does no-till actually save money and if so how much in £acre have you saved .
Management is easier in some respects but harder in others, its certainly less physical work / time spent in cabs but there is a higher investment in managements time and re educating yourself
I have found initial management harder as I had a lot to learn but as experience goes on my management time is way less. Once a winter crop is up I barely need to look at it until March to decide a herbicide. Maybe OSR fungicide if I feel its necessary but no till really is very simple. And even after that fungal management is pretty predictable with a few tweaks to acknowledge the weather.
butI agree - was a lot more effort / stress and worry in the early years plus I spent a lot of time listening to speakers, reading, understanding and visiting others. These days it seems to kind of farm itself sometimes (although I have an excellent agronomist and great operators who have also educated themselves over the last few years !)
Will I was only responding to your point of what is the point of cultivationI answered you and told you you can save on cultivation costs immediatly as well as tractor hours and tractor hp. You then changed the goalposts and said you felt crops did better under cultivation which is a different debate to your question
Ok lets take this further , I can make profit from wheat and OSR ,spring barley, spring oats & Linseed break even , beans lose money , are you making money from spring sown crops , I assume you are using overwintered covers
Ok lets take this further , I can make profit from wheat and OSR ,spring barley, spring oats & Linseed break even , beans lose money , are you making money from spring sown crops , I assume you are using overwintered covers