Fallow it or crop it.?

[Clever Dic]

So assuming that wet mild weather continues till the end of Feb do you go with a spring crop and if so which?or save the costs involved and forgoe a harvest.
Interested in your situation and picking up the consenus.
For the 1st time we are rotating 200 acres of wheat into our 1500 acres of temp grass..managed to get 40 in but the rest not drilled but had been worked. We are blackgrass free and heavy land.
Cheers

 

[Wombat]

I only have winter wheat seed, spring wheat seed is like rocking horse crap and priced as much.

So we will see what we get in, up our spring barley by 50% and then fallow anything we don't get in with wheat. I have enough fert to do all the spring barley in the shed and probably enough fungicide which is all paid for.
No finance payments, small bit of borrowing for some land we can cover without too much issues so not too bothered.

 

[Spud]

We will sow wheat until March, particularly after beans where historically it performs best.
May sow one field with second wheat, unless it gets too late, then spring barley.
Spring barley mostly where winter barley should be growing.
Some spring oats brought forward a year on land destined for second wheat
Wheat sown as beet is harvested instead of spring barley
Winter beans sown shallower than normal with Moore instead of Kockerling up until end of Jan. Considering still doing that even if it's March and taking them off as a cover crop pre wheat if they're crap.
Seed oats after spuds (assuming we get them up!)
Beet and potatoes planted where planned.

Could do with it drying up by February, we still have 10% of the spuds to lift, March will be busy enough as it is

 

[ajd132]

If you don’t sow anything, you still have overheads to pay for so is not better to cover costs with an average spring crop than lose money?

 

[Spud]

If you don’t sow anything, you still have overheads to pay for so is not better to cover costs with an average spring crop than lose money?

There are several drivers for me:

Rent is to pay, family is to feed.
I have some decent staff that need work to do
I have virtually all of the kit, seed and half the agchems already here.
Set aside fallow back in the day was awful
I need straw for the pigs next winter
I always try to take the veiw that where there is a problem, there is a solution, and hopefully an opportunity
I am far too determined (stubborn) to give up yet!!

 

[teslacoils]

I'll plant a combinable crop until the end of April. After that I'll probably still plant something but might be a catch crop. I'm used to not starting until early April, and crops will have very low costs almost to the point of no real costs.

Tbh, I'll hire a crawler and drill for a week to get it done if needed. Don't really want any feed oats though.

 

[Clive]

If you don’t sow anything, you still have overheads to pay for so is not better to cover costs with an average spring crop than lose money?

years like this where a low fixed cost structure can really pay off

farming one year at a time has got many into the rotational / grassweeds / slugs mess etc that they find themselves in today

being forcef to fallow (summer cover) a failed soya crop a few years ago has proved to me that if you can afford the short term pain of missing a cash crop year it will pay back in subsequent crops

trouble is most of us are in a situation where we need cash flow to survive and have to generate cash flow regardless of profitability- it’s a sad state of affairs and no way to run businesses really

 

[tr250]

We will drill if at all possible even if it gets into may. We are in need of the straw more than the grain

 

[benny6910]

If you don’t sow anything, you still have overheads to pay for so is not better to cover costs with an average spring crop than lose money?

This to me is the million dollar question. I have no winter crops in the ground at the moment. Realistically I won’t be able to spring crop all my area as it’s heavy wet land with small blackgrass patches in most fields. If I attempt to sow spring barley on heavy land and the weather doesn’t work in my favour blackgrass will not have any competition and I’ll get new seed generation. I’ve had 4 clean years with only small amount of manual labour to remove it so am I going to undo my last 4 years good work?

 

[casemx 270]

There are several drivers for me:

Rent is to pay, family is to feed.
I have some decent staff that need work to do
I have virtually all of the kit, seed and half the agchems already here.
Set aside fallow back in the day was awful
I need straw for the pigs next winter
I always try to take the veiw that where there is a problem, there is a solution, and hopefully an opportunity
I am far too determined (stubborn) to give up yet!!

Great attitude to life

 

[teslacoils]

This to me is the million dollar question. I have no winter crops in the ground at the moment. Realistically I won’t be able to spring crop all my area as it’s heavy wet land with small blackgrass patches in most fields. If I attempt to sow spring barley on heavy land and the weather doesn’t work in my favour blackgrass will not have any competition and I’ll get new seed generation. I’ve had 4 clean years with only small amount of manual labour to remove it so am I going to undo my last 4 years good work?

Tbh it sounds a lot like my land. But if I can get a crop in during a nice April there's still some good dosh to be made by keeping fss seed rates up, urea in the seedbed, basic but robust fung and pgr.

I can afford to leave a lot bare, but I can't ignore money on the table.

 

[Brisel]

Well depreciated kit with sensible overheads and no rent to pay make fallow a better option, especially if you can do remedial work to drains, get the next crop in better or get on top of weeds etc.

High rents, finance repayments and you’re far better off growing a crop. I can’t remember the thread but I costed out a 2t/ac spring barley crop as contributing around £136/ac towards “fixed” overheads of £150/ac. A fallow contributes little even after saving around £32/acre in fuel, overtime, wearing parts, drying and storage costs. I worked it out at being £82/ac worse off with a fallow. As I said above, if you can grow better crops subsequently from sorting problems out then that deficit is soon recovered.

 

[benny6910]

Tbh it sounds a lot like my land. But if I can get a crop in during a nice April there's still some good dosh to be made by keeping fss seed rates up, urea in the seedbed, basic but robust fung and pgr.

I can afford to leave a lot bare, but I can't ignore money on the table.

I’ve got plenty of spring barley in the shed to sow everything so I suppose high seed rate will be used if needed. I may have to try some direct drilling to keep costs/ loss down.

 

[teslacoils]

I’ve got plenty of spring barley in the shed to sow everything so I suppose high seed rate will be used if needed. I may have to try some direct drilling to keep costs/ loss down.

Yes, wants to go in in one pass now either into stubbles or worked land. Mine all cultivated and rolled in early September so will just get drilled if it dries. Otherwise will broadcast mustard .

 

[GeorgeK]

We've got sheep on some covers so I'm going round the arable on a daily basis. You'd think it impossible but the fields round here are even wetter than they look. Probably more money to be made in the spring digging out stuck tractors than drilling crops!

 

[yellow belly]

Always Grow a crop
spring beans seed booked plus some home saved
spring barley till 10 May home saved seed in the shed 500 plus seed notill if needed
in 2013 1st week of April planted made a small margin
the later in April planted the bg seed return is minimal especially after avadex which also covers wildoats cheap blw spray
borage on contract

all the above crops will get mole drained upto2 weeks after drilling twin leg moler following wheelings 1/3 less fuel needed than autumn mole draining
the driest fields I have were mole drained post drilling in spring 18 or 19

the problem with a cover with no Avadex is late May June germinating bg will produce seed without a dense crop from fertiliser the nicer the land the more late bg

would plant some wheat in feb if dry enough on a couple of brashy fields got new seed that I wanted to multiply up for harvest 2021

not planting heavy land reduces 2021 harvest yields

 

[sexy lexy]

Got to put a crop in, if you think you you will be better off leaving it fallow, should you be farming?!

 

[Mc115reed]

Rent the land to Plant maize/ potatoes or stubble turnips... might not be pretty and might make next autumn hard again if we have the same weather but it’s money in the bank

 

[benny6910]

Rent the land to Plant maize/ potatoes or stubble turnips... might not be pretty and might make next autumn hard again if we have the same weather but it’s money in the bank

If I could grow potatoes or maze on my heavy land then I wouldn’t be worried one bit about trying to grow a average crop of spring barley. Compaction is the biggest problem for me, since moving to a combine with tracks 30ft header, wide tyres on trailers and chop the majority of my wheat straw my soil health is improving, establishment costs reducing. Renting out isn’t a option for looking after the soil for a short term view in my opinion.

 

[Mc115reed]

If I could grow potatoes or maze on my heavy land then I wouldn’t be worried one bit about trying to grow a average crop of spring barley. Compaction is the biggest problem for me, since moving to a combine with tracks 30ft header, wide tyres on trailers and chop the majority of my wheat straw my soil health is improving, establishment costs reducing. Renting out isn’t a option for looking after the soil for a short term view in my opinion.

I could bet money that there will be people planting spuds/ potato’s on land a lot heavier than yours... but they will always make a mess getting it off if it’s wet...

As others have said.... looking after the soil short term isn’t going to pay your bills.... if you can stand it your better standing it...