Getting concerned

I don’t understand why everybody’s running around with drills planting wheat. I’ve seen on one fb page a guy proudly staring he’d finished putting in 2500ac of wheat!!

The stuff we put in last year before the rain yielded half that of the spring wheat so put it in if you like, spends many thousands applying expensive herbicide programs and it still rains and your back to square one.

Stick to your guns with normal drilling dates to reduce your herbicide spend and if you can’t get it in then swap to spring wheat.

Do this by farm saving seed, not applying any dressing and just clean it when your ready to drill.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
I don’t understand why everybody’s running around with drills planting wheat. I’ve seen on one fb page a guy proudly staring he’d finished putting in 2500ac of wheat!!

The stuff we put in last year before the rain yielded half that of the spring wheat so put it in if you like, spends many thousands applying expensive herbicide programs and it still rains and your back to square one.

Stick to your guns with normal drilling dates to reduce your herbicide spend and if you can’t get it in then swap to spring wheat.

Do this by farm saving seed, not applying any dressing and just clean it when your ready to drill.
Different here though. Early drilled stuff yielded at least a good average.
 

Flintstone

Member
Location
Berkshire
My September 2019 drilled wheats yielded far more than my November / December drilled ones, by about 2.5 tph.

As a result, I had 510 acres to get in this autumn and as of last night I’ve done 479 acres. I did 8 days of 18 hours per day, and I’d do it again if I could rewind time. Call me a muppet all you like, but I don’t trust this forecast one iota...

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wuddy

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
I don’t understand why everybody’s running around with drills planting wheat. I’ve seen on one fb page a guy proudly staring he’d finished putting in 2500ac of wheat!!

The stuff we put in last year before the rain yielded half that of the spring wheat so put it in if you like, spends many thousands applying expensive herbicide programs and it still rains and your back to square one.

Stick to your guns with normal drilling dates to reduce your herbicide spend and if you can’t get it in then swap to spring wheat.

Do this by farm saving seed, not applying any dressing and just clean it when your ready to drill.
All drilled up here will finish rolling tomorrow! Mid September drilled here is usually 0.5-1t more than Mid October drilled, no black grass issues though.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Couldn't give a stuff this year. Not getting on the weather/worry treadmill. I will do what I can when I can. Finally getting my very late drilled winter wheat away to homes that will take it. sh!t quality and yield but 50% better price than last year and half the cost to grow, so no worse than drilling early and having to throw the kitchen sink at it.
We have 6 months to get something in the ground.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
One day of drilling here. Seedbeds just waiting for a whif of roundup once some more oats are up. Don't want any bydv, and will only get one herbicide so a bit of moisture needed.
 

DRC

Member
Never seen people so drilled up as around here. Only one neighbour seems to be waiting, and he’s drilled a cover crop with his Claydon. Everyone else is just cracking on. Not sure about wheat being drilled after spring barley this early, but you can’t blame people after last year. Drilled first wheats after rape and about half planned winter barley . some continuous wheat to drill and then waiting on maize and beet to be harvested . Will carry on with the plough/ combi drill as long as we can on wheat.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
There is close to no wheat done here. Couple of fields on the cliff in a wheat / rape rotation still. Everyone else has either just got straw off, or is going after spring barley so needs a chit due to heads on the floor.
 

J 1177

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Durham, UK
Iv got all barley and Tritt in. But no ww. One block needs a chit (blackgraas) one still has sp beans to cut and one has a cover crop that's been sprayed off and I'm wating for the man to top it. 3 decent days I'd be finished.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Was hoping to start dd this year but with all the crazyness I think it’s going to have to be finished for spring.

Got most of my stubbles disced just one field waiting on a new mole expander to finish one field.

Here last winter nothing would have survived That would have been worth keeping if we drilled in sept anyway with the 6months of rain following so will wait a bit yet.

If others are drilled on land that can take the rain and bg then good on them
 

Warnesworth

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Chipping Norton
I don’t understand why everybody’s running around with drills planting wheat. I’ve seen on one fb page a guy proudly staring he’d finished putting in 2500ac of wheat!!

The stuff we put in last year before the rain yielded half that of the spring wheat so put it in if you like, spends many thousands applying expensive herbicide programs and it still rains and your back to square one.

Stick to your guns with normal drilling dates to reduce your herbicide spend and if you can’t get it in then swap to spring wheat.

Do this by farm saving seed, not applying any dressing and just clean it when your ready to drill.
By that rationale you should be putting in all spring wheat?!
Anyhow you have one of those drills which can drill in any condition, so you have no need to worry...
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
I just don’t get this “We must delay drilling because of Blackgrass” issue here.

It only works if late drilling conditions are really good and you are certain you can travel and get a good competitive wheat crop by late drilling, that will out-compete BG and you still get a high yielding crop.
I was forced into drilling late (for me, mid Oct) last year and my worst BG fields by far were the last ones drilled, because the crop could not out compete it so well.
BG is a very adaptable weed and soon learns to became just as bad in late drilling as normal drilling time.

It is the conditions that relate when to drill and they have been ideal up until today.
I have started drilling my wheat by No-till using a Weaving GD. It won’t go this morning after all the rain last night. But give it a few hours of sunshine and I’ll be going again.

Nearly all my Winter Barley, Bazooka hybrid grown specifically because it out-competes BG better than anything else, was Planted last week into ideal conditions and some is already emerging! It had a robust pre-em of 4l of Crystal and 0.2l of DFF, to be followed by Avadex and that should be the entire herbicide for the crop. The wheat will get the same treatment.

Unless you are certain you can drill late and get a good crop of wheat, IMO drilling late to control BG is a myth.
The only way to do that is to leave the stubbles completely alone until just before you drill and let the roots from last year’s crop draw the water away. And/Or possibly use a cover crop to suck the water in and realise it back to the atmosphere by transpiration. However this will risk too much soil shading not allowing it to dry, which might rule DD out on wetter, heavier soils.

Thinking that you can stubble rake and keep getting BG flushes to spray off before drilling, not only endangers the soils surface becoming a bog, but hardly makes any dent into the total BG burden.

It’s all a huge compromise. Drill when your gut thinks it is best to and you’ll probably be right.
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
I don’t understand why everybody’s running around with drills planting wheat. I’ve seen on one fb page a guy proudly staring he’d finished putting in 2500ac of wheat!!

The stuff we put in last year before the rain yielded half that of the spring wheat so put it in if you like, spends many thousands applying expensive herbicide programs and it still rains and your back to square one.

Stick to your guns with normal drilling dates to reduce your herbicide spend and if you can’t get it in then swap to spring wheat.

Do this by farm saving seed, not applying any dressing and just clean it when your ready to drill.
We generally only get one chance to sow , and imo this was it
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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