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Agricultural Media
Direct Driller Magazine
Farmer Focus - Clive Bailye (Direct Driller Issue 4 - Article 16)
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<blockquote data-quote="Two Tone" data-source="post: 6100714" data-attributes="member: 44728"><p>Very interesting and well written [USER=6]@Clive[/USER].</p><p>The No-til technique is something we have all got to look at, not only to reduce costs and increase profitability, but Mr Gove wants us to head in this direction to meet our Climate change commitments AND pay us for it!</p><p></p><p>I am so pleased you emphasise overall profitability and not Gross Margins too.</p><p></p><p>I have a question that I would like your opinion and some advice on that slightly worries me: For many years we have been using grass in our rotation. In many ways, this could be claimed to be an ultimate Min-till crop as absolutely no cultivations take place after year one. I can definitely see that on the whole drainage is better as a result which we would expect, the more years that grass is left in place. We are now also in a Mid Tier CS scheme that will see Herb and Legume rich pastures in for certainly 3 and probably up to five years. However, despite a good and recently replaced drainage system, certain renowned wet hole areas do not seem to improve as much as I would have hoped. Some of our soils are renowned for their slump. Why isn't the grass helping as much as I expected and what could we do to help? (I think I might answer this myself below!)</p><p></p><p></p><p>There is one little point that I picked up in your article that I take issue with:</p><p><em>Today our capital employed per acre is less than half the level it was when we min-tilled and a quarter of the level I believe would be required should we return to the plough,</em></p><p>On this farm, the only saving (if any!) that Min-till ever gave us was time. The fuel savings compared to ploughing were outweighed by the extra spray passes needed. Not to mention the massive increase in the number and amounts of herbicides needed. Min-till turned out to be Max cost here and yields also suffered. So, maybe I'd dispute what you said there. But that is my only criticism.</p><p></p><p>The good news is that there is definitely optimism in the No-till technique that several Ducks are now lining themselves up in a row for us to exploit:</p><p>1. You rightly emphasise the importance of rotation in your system.</p><p>2. No-till, even on difficult soils, is where Government wants us to head and we will be rewarded for doing so, to replace BPS.</p><p>2. Stewardship Schemes already and will increasingly play an important role in farming, ALSO to replace BPS.</p><p>3. Combining the above 2, could create a win win situation for us all. By using CS to remove the really difficult land from production AND rotationally using various CS options as a break crop.</p><p></p><p>What do you think?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Two Tone, post: 6100714, member: 44728"] Very interesting and well written [USER=6]@Clive[/USER]. The No-til technique is something we have all got to look at, not only to reduce costs and increase profitability, but Mr Gove wants us to head in this direction to meet our Climate change commitments AND pay us for it! I am so pleased you emphasise overall profitability and not Gross Margins too. I have a question that I would like your opinion and some advice on that slightly worries me: For many years we have been using grass in our rotation. In many ways, this could be claimed to be an ultimate Min-till crop as absolutely no cultivations take place after year one. I can definitely see that on the whole drainage is better as a result which we would expect, the more years that grass is left in place. We are now also in a Mid Tier CS scheme that will see Herb and Legume rich pastures in for certainly 3 and probably up to five years. However, despite a good and recently replaced drainage system, certain renowned wet hole areas do not seem to improve as much as I would have hoped. Some of our soils are renowned for their slump. Why isn't the grass helping as much as I expected and what could we do to help? (I think I might answer this myself below!) There is one little point that I picked up in your article that I take issue with: [I]Today our capital employed per acre is less than half the level it was when we min-tilled and a quarter of the level I believe would be required should we return to the plough,[/I] On this farm, the only saving (if any!) that Min-till ever gave us was time. The fuel savings compared to ploughing were outweighed by the extra spray passes needed. Not to mention the massive increase in the number and amounts of herbicides needed. Min-till turned out to be Max cost here and yields also suffered. So, maybe I'd dispute what you said there. But that is my only criticism. The good news is that there is definitely optimism in the No-till technique that several Ducks are now lining themselves up in a row for us to exploit: 1. You rightly emphasise the importance of rotation in your system. 2. No-till, even on difficult soils, is where Government wants us to head and we will be rewarded for doing so, to replace BPS. 2. Stewardship Schemes already and will increasingly play an important role in farming, ALSO to replace BPS. 3. Combining the above 2, could create a win win situation for us all. By using CS to remove the really difficult land from production AND rotationally using various CS options as a break crop. What do you think? [/QUOTE]
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Farmer Focus - Clive Bailye (Direct Driller Issue 4 - Article 16)
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