SilliamWhale
Member
Any fields with liberator seem to look very lacklustre at the moment. Hoping a few days will improve their vigour
Getting concerned
- Thread starter Mr Charisma
- Start date
Any fields with liberator seem to look very lacklustre at the moment. Hoping a few days will improve their vigour
puntabrava
Member
- Location
- Wiltshire
Of course it is, stating the obvious there, most of Wiltshire you can have 3” of rain in the morning and go drilling in the afternoon,
Devon James
Member
- Location
- Devon
I am concerned now. Very wet this morning when had hoped to get ploughing and drilling. I think the dry spell next week will be just slightly less wet!
- Location
- Down south
Anyone want 25 ton of winter barley seed? Ffs! Still not a seed in the ground
Same here,
4 days coming next week with no rain, so not getting wetter, but not much wind, so not getting much drier.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Put the post knocker on yesterday and did some round the field edge. Didn't really need to apply the handbrake even on the hill. Sticky and soft as cack. Plough that kind of land and the shares will smear the furrow bottoms never mind the damage the in furrow tyre will do.
Where I direct drilled rape into grass it's disappearing in ever increasing patches and despite my best efforts is no longer a viable crop. Beetles are still very active. But the upside is the grass ley is coming back as every seed that was ever shed while it was in place is germinating and clover and some of the established grass never died anyway. So all I need to do is roll it in the spring and turn the sheep back on it. Ranching looks like a good option here. The grass fields look excellent. The arable is rubbish and an utter pain. Never thought I'd be so glad that half the farm is sheep and grass. No erosion, low inputs, not much cultivation or expensive machinery needed nor wet weather trials.
Just got to convince the vegans.
Where I direct drilled rape into grass it's disappearing in ever increasing patches and despite my best efforts is no longer a viable crop. Beetles are still very active. But the upside is the grass ley is coming back as every seed that was ever shed while it was in place is germinating and clover and some of the established grass never died anyway. So all I need to do is roll it in the spring and turn the sheep back on it. Ranching looks like a good option here. The grass fields look excellent. The arable is rubbish and an utter pain. Never thought I'd be so glad that half the farm is sheep and grass. No erosion, low inputs, not much cultivation or expensive machinery needed nor wet weather trials.
Just got to convince the vegans.
Jo28
Member
- Location
- East Yorks
jobs knackered
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Reality has dawned on me that most of this farm would be better down to grass with a bit of barley and turnips for stock feed. It's all down to soil types really. There is some very light land here, but in every field there is also a lot of very heavy land that stops you. We get sucked in by the wheat rape system but it no longer works here, other than on a limited opportunistic basis. It's certainly not a reliable system any more, is high risk and you can lose your shirt. I am speaking as farmer in grade 3 cack though. I might be more optimistic about arable on better more uniform soils.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Can't decide whether to sign the beet contract. Another year knocking seven bells out of my soil structure if it stays wet? Machinery past its sell by date. Loader made in 1978. Beet harvester in 1970. Having spares made in a machine shop as we speak as they laugh at you at the dealers. No neonic seed dressings for second year. Difficult one. Get a few Lincoln Reds instead? Hey ho.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Grass is the future here. It's debatable if we even need arable for the straw, it being so cheap in the area.
You defiantly chose the right year to jump off the hamster wheel!
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Both defiantly and definitely appropriate words. I have been pondering if Teslacoils might take up a new career as a tipster! I would just like use of his crystal ball.
Good old predictive text!
There are still a few good things to come out of this wet spell.
1. It seems everyone is in the same boat(ironically we may need one)
2. We hopefully will kill a lot of black grass if we ever can spray again.
3. Hopefully it will curtail big wheat yields and so we won’t have export surplus.
4.we still have until may to get crops in the ground.
1. It seems everyone is in the same boat(ironically we may need one)
2. We hopefully will kill a lot of black grass if we ever can spray again.
3. Hopefully it will curtail big wheat yields and so we won’t have export surplus.
4.we still have until may to get crops in the ground.
- Location
- Darlington
12.5 mm in the gauge this morning, looks like a weekend off.
The problem with grass is making money from it. Maybe ok if coupled with an environmental option( that you actually get paid on time )
In due course, it would be quite interesting to see posted here just what, if anything, the new operator of his erstwhile acreage has actually managed to do with it all this autumn.
Little in farming changes - I was reading AG Street last night (best known for Farmers Glory, written in the 30’s) and came across the following:
‘...grass farming is always a much slower road to bankruptcy than plough farming’ (Ditchampton Farm, 1946)
A perceptive man