Establishing Beet under Conservation Agriculture

[Wil M]

Now had 4 harvests since I started direct drilling (Simtech) cereal crops in a rotation which also includes OSR, Fodder Beet and Grass Leys. For the last 2 seasons I have become comfortable enough with the DD to leave the plough in the corner for the shed for everything except the beet.
The rotation has now come round to putting the beet in one of the year 1 direct drilled fields, and I am loathed to resort to undoing soil improvements which may have accumulated over this time with the plough. Soil here is a reasonable medium loam, some slighly heavier patches within fields. The beet usually has a application of FYM prior to cultivation.
Any suggestions on how I establish my beet without plough followed by power harrow.
The beet is harvested, so really needs to be precision seeded- I have an elderly, but trusty 7 row Webb drill.
I expect stip tillage of some sort will be needed- the simtech coulters are good on the end of a spring tine, but I dont think inverted T slots below a Webb drill will produce enough tilth!
I am in Fife, so not really any suitable strip tillage cultivators in use around here to hire. Only growing 10ac, so budget has to be justifiable.
My original thought was that a machine with tine to provide some loosening at depth, followed by a wavy disc (Vaderstad Crosscutter or similar) to mix trash, incorporate the FYM and provide tilth down each row would be what was required.
There was suggetsion in an earlier post of modifying a rotavator to only cultivate the required strips, so maybe this would be another option- probably not the friendliest to AMF and other soil life, but if only in resticted stips maybe acceptable.
Sharing of comments, suggestions and any other experience would be appreciated.

 

[Ruston3w]

There are plenty of people down here establishing beet into over-wintered mintill/subsoiled ground, with or without a winter cover. Some still daft enough to keep trying strip-till/mulch drilling but it works sometimes and then the next field for no obvious reason......it doesn't. I don't know if I would be brave enough to try without a direct/mulch drill of some sort though. Saying that there are 6 row rigid Kliene (and others, no doubt) disc drills about cheap enough.
Richard.

 

[alomy75]

You could re-purpose one of those inter-row potato cultivators which were basically like a mini rotavator down each row...haven’t seen one for a few years now though. After battling with over wintered ploughing this spring with the beet I am having a go just using the discaerator and then normal spring cultivation’s (germinator etc) but I don’t have a disc drill which is a concern. I don’t really want to buy one either with the beet job as it is so am considering a power harrow with a piggy back linkage just to tickle the top and redistribute any trash and just drill 6 rows at a time on that field. Quite a few people sumo trio in east anglia and don’t bother ploughing. At least the soil profiles will be roughly where you found them after a sumo rather than the plough

 

[Spud]

I have a low disturbance tine bar with leading discs that we built last winter primarily to run on the front of our Moore drill. To assist the idea of running this in front of the beet drill (leg spacing deliberately the same as the beet drill) I stumbled across a genuine Stanhay row crumbler on the front of an old drill.
Our drill has clod pushers fitted, so I'm hopeful we can sow the beet nearer moisture, with less cultivation, and an easier way down for roots.
We'll see.

 

[alomy75]

I have a low disturbance tine bar with leading discs that we built last winter primarily to run on the front of our Moore drill. To assist the idea of running this in front of the beet drill (leg spacing deliberately the same as the beet drill) I stumbled across a genuine Stanhay row crumbler on the front of an old drill.
Our drill has clod pushers fitted, so I'm hopeful we can sow the beet nearer moisture, with less cultivation, and an easier way down for roots.
We'll see.

I think I have some of these row cleaners in the nettles if anyone wants them. They’re on a toolbar but the units themselves are on parallel linkages. I bought it for the toolbar but the units themselves are surplus

 

[Spud]

I think I have some of these row cleaners in the nettles if anyone wants them. They’re on a toolbar but the units themselves are on parallel linkages. I bought it for the toolbar but the units themselves are surplus

That sounds like the same as I've bought. Have you used it in the past? Any good?

 

[Wil M]

You could re-purpose one of those inter-row potato cultivators which were basically like a mini rotavator down each row...haven’t seen one for a few years now though. After battling with over wintered ploughing this spring with the beet I am having a go just using the discaerator and then normal spring cultivation’s (germinator etc) but I don’t have a disc drill which is a concern. I don’t really want to buy one either with the beet job as it is so am considering a power harrow with a piggy back linkage just to tickle the top and redistribute any trash and just drill 6 rows at a time on that field. Quite a few people sumo trio in east anglia and don’t bother ploughing. At least the soil profiles will be roughly where you found them after a sumo rather than the plough

Have had a quick look at inter-row cultivators as an option. The machines I looked at had three levels of build, the medium duty models with rotovator units down to 10" width, or the light duty down to 6" width. Decided cultivating 10" strip for 18" drills wasn't really going to give much advantage over full width cultivation, and the light duty models quite possibly not up to cultivating at depth into a stubble. I wonder if a regular rotovator with the blades only where required along the rotor might work.

 

[scholland]

DD on livestock farm

Mix of barley or oats and say peas or all three Ah right, for silage? We've followed brassica and beet with cereal no bother. You may need some cultivation to sort any compaction though. There is usually some surface capping here so do a shallow run with short discs first

thefarmingforum.co.uk

We dd fodder beet but not harvesting so obviously very different.
Going to try strip till before drilling this year, pictures etc in the above thread.

George sly on twitter has some great photos of strip till beet.

 

[alomy75]

Have had a quick look at inter-row cultivators as an option. The machines I looked at had three levels of build, the medium duty models with rotovator units down to 10" width, or the light duty down to 6" width. Decided cultivating 10" strip for 18" drills wasn't really going to give much advantage over full width cultivation, and the light duty models quite possibly not up to cultivating at depth into a stubble. I wonder if a regular rotovator with the blades only where required along the rotor might work.

I’ve often wondered about doing this with a power harrow...removing every other pair of blades. Whether it work out right I don’t know but I suspect it would leave both the tilth and the subsoil in marginally better condition than a rotavator would...especially on heavy soil

 

[alomy75]

That sounds like the same as I've bought. Have you used it in the past? Any good?

Never used it I’m afraid. I was involved in a strip drill trial years ago and did find that any strips established in the autumn really needed something to break the cap and these would have been perfect for that...

 

[DrWazzock]

We have used non inversion techniques to grow beet for years. But it comes down to the basics.
Can you get enough soil round the seed to get it chitted and going?
Are there residual herbicides laid about that will knacker it?
Can you incorporate 375 kg of ag salt by just leaving it on the surface without creating a cap etc particularly on clays? Yes if applied early enough.
I'd say on average we drop 10 t/ha growing without ploughing but the costs are lower and I don't lie on bed at night listening to equinoxial gales blowing it away.
Our old Webb managed it fairly well with a reekie tine in front of each unit to push mouses nests out the way.
The kverneland has clod pushers but also needed the reekie tine and the gap between the front roller and coulter nose increasing so trash didn't "gather" there. Made huge difference.
Any kind of "mulch till" equipment from Kverneland was so ridiculously expensive it just wasn't a goer with beet at £20 per tonne.
We loosened with paraplow then knocked tops down with power harrow, not deep. This was in to wheat stubble with chopped straw. Did alright, conserved moisture . Well worth rolling the hard areas if its dry.

 

[alomy75]

We have used non inversion techniques to grow beet for years. But it comes down to the basics.
Can you get enough soil round the seed to get it chitted and going?
Are there residual herbicides laid about that will knacker it?
Can you incorporate 375 kg of ag salt by just leaving it on the surface without creating a cap etc particularly on clays? Yes if applied early enough.
I'd say on average we drop 10 t/ha growing without ploughing but the costs are lower and I don't lie on bed at night listening to equinoxial gales blowing it away.
Our old Webb managed it fairly well with a reekie tine in front of each unit to push mouses nests out the way.
The kverneland has clod pushers but also needed the reekie tine and the gap between the front roller and coulter nose increasing so trash didn't "gather" there. Made huge difference.
Any kind of "mulch till" equipment from Kverneland was so ridiculously expensive it just wasn't a goer with beet at £20 per tonne.
We loosened with paraplow then knocked tops down with power harrow, not deep. This was in to wheat stubble with chopped straw. Did alright, conserved moisture . Well worth rolling the hard areas if its dry.

That’s a good idea...I used to have to drill onto real black fen into a barley cover crop; it was a Webb 5 and the clod pushers had little spikes underneath them to rake up the CC where the beet was going...I do like the Reekie tine idea though

 

[Wil M]

I have a low disturbance tine bar with leading discs that we built last winter primarily to run on the front of our Moore drill. To assist the idea of running this in front of the beet drill (leg spacing deliberately the same as the beet drill) I stumbled across a genuine Stanhay row crumbler on the front of an old drill.
Our drill has clod pushers fitted, so I'm hopeful we can sow the beet nearer moisture, with less cultivation, and an easier way down for roots.
We'll see.

Could you have put up a quick picture of the row crumbler units please?