Getting concerned

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
For the hell of it I am going to order some wheat seed and sow one field by plough power Harrow and MF30, the other by direct drill Unidrill. I just want to see what happens. Both fields have sand and clay so it will be a good test. I am guessing the clay will be shite with both systems but I won't know for sure till I try.
 

farmer99

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
suffolk
re spring wheat, I have been growing abit for several years tried cochise this year did well 2.9 tonnes/acre 1 fungicide,140 units an but full of ergot Belepi on field next to it yield 2.5 but no ergot as flowered earlier probs .The ergot was not just the odd little bit but big swollen grains of the stuff.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Have picked a fair bit of ergot out over the years as it comes down the spout and flows down the heap. Often better with late sown WW here. If we can't get WW in before the cutoff date then the chances are we can't get spring wheat in early enough either. Spring barley is much more flexible and does better here even if drilled later. We can feed it to the stock as well.
 

czechmate

Member
Mixed Farmer
Have picked a fair bit of ergot out over the years as it comes down the spout and flows down the heap. Often better with late sown WW here. If we can't get WW in before the cutoff date then the chances are we can't get spring wheat in early enough either. Spring barley is much more flexible and does better here even if drilled later. We can feed it to the stock as well.


Take them into city centres and sell them in bags. Be the best margin from this farming hobby
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I was told that ergot was the most valuable part of the load and was used by the pharmaceutical industry to produce the drug that induces labour. Studied the play " The Crucible" by Arthur Miller at O level. The madness there was supposed to have been induced by ergot infested rye bread eaten by the early settlers in America, rye being particularly prone to ergot as we found when we used to to grow it.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
If you drive down the cliff road north of Lincoln, the low land at North Carlton has almost got new rivers in the low spots. Yuuk. Even my kinder stuff has patches of stood water where moled and rolled for spring :(
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
If you drive down the cliff road north of Lincoln, the low land at North Carlton has almost got new rivers in the low spots. Yuuk. Even my kinder stuff has patches of stood water where moled and rolled for spring :(

Bishopbridge looks particularly bad. Somebody has been trying to run water off but it looks like it has actually overflowed from the river and backed up into the fields. We don't seem quite as bad as that further east but I'm kidding myself to think the heavy land here will go any time soon.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Bishopbridge looks particularly bad. Somebody has been trying to run water off but it looks like it has actually overflowed from the river and backed up into the fields. We don't seem quite as bad as that further east but I'm kidding myself to think the heavy land here will go any time soon.

My child goes through it every day on the way to DeAston. That house on the north side of the road was re rendered I think this summer. Rendered in silt now.

There is nothing done near here. This last week the green carpet of barley volunteers has gone very sad and yellow.

I'm not saying no, but it won't be in November, and will need to be -4 all the day to get a field of wheat done. The forecast will have to look decent for the week or ten days after to even risk it. Otherwise it will April. March drilling finds all the wet spots and usually disappoints Vs even late April.
 

bert

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
n.yorks
For the hell of it I am going to order some wheat seed and sow one field by plough power Harrow and MF30, the other by direct drill Unidrill. I just want to see what happens. Both fields have sand and clay so it will be a good test. I am guessing the clay will be shite with both systems but I won't know for sure till I try.
Well I’m disappointed in you wazzock, you’ve been saying for the last 75 pages that you weren’t going to bother
 

Spanish

Member
Ok. What would be your rent/ha? in euro and how much is wheat and barley currently worth in spain? Also I bet we use many more herbicides and fungicides than you do. Also more nitrogen fertiliser. I reckon much wheat will do well to do 8000kg/ha now.
The current price of wheat in my area is € 183 / ton. The high oleic sunflower is € 390 / ton. Here, as in the UK, the important thing is to have a system adjusted to the reality of the expected average production. We must not look for the greatest production, if not the greatest benefit.
Me with a direct drill system, with the least investment in machinery within the logic, with a rotation of wheat-sunflower-wheat-wheat-peas-wheat-wheat-sunflower ..., without applying fertilizer to sunflower or peas, applying about € 200-230 / ha of fertilizer and about € 90-100 / ha of phytosanitary products to wheat .. let's say I'm happy.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Well I’m disappointed in you wazzock, you’ve been saying for the last 75 pages that you weren’t going to bother

Can't make my mind up to be honest. I will need 5 good drying days to even attempt direct drilling. And as said, it's what happens weatherwise after drilling that has just as much effect. So really a 10 day window needed and a calm dry leaf day to spray it off and slug pellet pre-drilling. We need a blocking high pressure system to settle in and we could do somthing. I don't like ordering seed without having some certainty that I can drill it. We carry all the risk as usual but C'est la vie.

Ploughing might work but it will still need time to dry off the surface a bit before ploughing then it will have to weather and dry a bit after ploughing. Won't combi straight in. Then if it rains heavily after ploughing it's game over till spring. If it rains heavily after ploughing and drilling some considerable patches will turn to slop, run together and drown. Ploughed and drilled land won't travel well here either. Spraying it would be a nightmare. Then there are the slugs.

Direct drilling is the least damaging and least expensive, least time consuming option if it fails. Ploughing could either be very good or a disaster. It's expensive and high risk here and has the potential to do more damage than a quick rush over with the direct drill

That's why I am going to do one field ploughed, the other direct drilled, but it does need to dry up a bit for either to stand a chance.

Then I also need to start harvesting beet. When does the factory close? March, I hope.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
My child goes through it every day on the way to DeAston. That house on the north side of the road was re rendered I think this summer. Rendered in silt now.

There is nothing done near here. This last week the green carpet of barley volunteers has gone very sad and yellow.

I'm not saying no, but it won't be in November, and will need to be -4 all the day to get a field of wheat done. The forecast will have to look decent for the week or ten days after to even risk it. Otherwise it will April. March drilling finds all the wet spots and usually disappoints Vs even late April.

The river Rase (I think) that runs along the roadside there looks very high in that area as if it's blocked or backing up for some reason, which can't be helping the drainage in that area. The fields around it look waterlogged. Maybe it's a water vole hotspot!
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
The current price of wheat in my area is € 183 / ton. The high oleic sunflower is € 390 / ton. Here, as in the UK, the important thing is to have a system adjusted to the reality of the expected average production. We must not look for the greatest production, if not the greatest benefit.
Me with a direct drill system, with the least investment in machinery within the logic, with a rotation of wheat-sunflower-wheat-wheat-peas-wheat-wheat-sunflower ..., without applying fertilizer to sunflower or peas, applying about € 200-230 / ha of fertilizer and about € 90-100 / ha of phytosanitary products to wheat .. let's say I'm happy.
what type/make of drill have you got ? do you plough anything, or are you all min-til , and what sort of soil are you ?
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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