Green Manure & Soil Improvers - 15th July

[York]

Hello,

on Monday there will be a field day on Cover Crop mixes and soil improvement S-W of London.
See the details in the attachment.
Special guest is the developer of the widely used mixes over here in Germany, Mr. Felgentreu of DSV seed AG. The people which visited us here on various occasions know him very well and have visited his site.
Here you find info about the various mixes they do:
http://www.dsv-uk.co.uk/export/site...0_TerraLife_EN_The-soil-is-alive-2013_web.pdf
and this info is in English.
Have a good day!
York-Th.

 

[Jim Bullock]

Hello,

on Monday there will be a field day on Cover Crop mixes and soil improvement S-W of London.
See the details in the attachment.
Special guest is the developer of the widely used mixes over here in Germany, Mr. Felgentreu of DSV seed AG. The people which visited us here on various occasions know him very well and have visited his site.
Here you find info about the various mixes they do:
http://www.dsv-uk.co.uk/export/site...0_TerraLife_EN_The-soil-is-alive-2013_web.pdf
and this info is in English.
Have a good day!
York-Th.

I have registered for the event so perhaps might see some FF's's there..

 

[BSH]

It is near to me so will be there...probably around lunchtime!

 

[Barleycorn]

I'll be there, I'll make it lunchtime too so perhaps we'll meet.

 

[Andy Howard]

I'll be there, I'll make it lunchtime too so perhaps we'll meet.

Sounds like you two have a date!

 

[Jim Bullock]

Perhaps I will arrive just before lunchtime so there is plenty of food still available...!

 

[York]

Perhaps I will arrive just before lunchtime so there is plenty of food still available...!

Jim,
I think you should do this.
For the others, after you left the buffet, there might be just left the crumbs fallen off the table ;-)
Have fun. Hope they get some German stuff as well. Some Sauerkraut & Bratwurst or so.
When we visit France we are always asked to take some beer & sausage with us.
Pas on my greetings to Christopf
York-Th.

 

[tw15]

I will be going as want to find out more info . A ff meet up as well and a bbq.

 

[Brisel]

Damn. I'm fully booked that day

Shame as it's not far from me. TW15 - please may you get me a copy of any notes or presentations? I deal with Brights a fair bit so I'm sure I can get stuff off them if necessary. Thanks

 

[tw15]

Yep i am going to the open trials day hope to get there about 10 ish will be good to put a few faces to names on here i will be wearing a dow agrosciences cap. Hope to see a few fellow members there.

 

[JNG]

Yep i am going to the open trials day hope to get there about 10 ish will be good to put a few faces to names on here i will be wearing a dow agrosciences cap. Hope to see a few fellow members there.

Post a few thoughts on here when your back, if you dont mind!

 

[Dan Powell]

I was hoping to make it to this but have too much on right now. If someone can report back on likely prices for these mixtures that would be great. I suspect they will be rather more expensive than Pedders, although they are offering some different plants in their mixes which look interesting.

 

[Lapwing]

The tillage radish looked interesting, but the mixture prices seemed pretty steep for something which will probably only be growing for 6-8 weeks and not be harvested at the end. Doubtless we will all have to grow them soon anyway under greening of CAP

 

[tw15]

I will second that lapwing the tillage radish does look like it can be a real benefit to help to improve structure as a whole the day was intresting . i can also see cover crops taking off as we will all need to be doing some greener farming to keep our income support . I recon it might be worth doing a few trials around the place this autumn to see results esp where we want to add humas and n fixing cover crops. Was impressed with the grass plot at the end . The thing i would like to see really is a trial / demo plots put in at harvest time and be able to veiw them in the winter to get a better picture of how they establish in the short daylight days and lower temps. I have got a few photos of all the plots that i will try to post later .

 

[Jim Bullock]

I have to agree with tw15 and Lapwing, I found it a most interesting and informative day. Thank you Bright Seeds for the invitation.

I felt I was asking rather basic questions but having grown cover crops with varying degrees success and (mostly) failure over the last 20 years I still need convincing that spending upwards of £30..£50..£+++ /acre on cover crop seed that I am going to see an economic return when I know I can buy in compost or chicken manure at a given cost with a known nutritional value..
BASE French groups measure DM production from their Bio-Max cover-crops, have it analysed, then have a view on its contribution to the nutritional input into their following crops, I was surprised that this was not something that DSV had not at least looked at..
Like the other people attending I think the Tillage Radish looked very promising and added to a mixture of more easily available cheaper species could be very useful..

 

[tw15]

Jim nice to see you yesturday , after getting back i have been trying to look into tillage raddish abit more . Isee the canadians are using it a lot also have found a few videos about tillage raddish on youtube all may be worth a look.
Also we were already going to try drilling some peas into ww stubble are now thinking of doing peas and fodder raddish i alternate rows with the pillar disc hoe drill.

 

[Clive]

Sounds an interesting day

Anyone got a mix and price list ?

 

[Feldspar]

There's a few new videos out from the USDA. Here's one of them:

ETA: First 20 mins (as far as I've watched) is nothing very new.

 

[BSH]

Clive the mixes are in the link at the start of the thread, the prices I don't think are finally published but I think David Bright said +/- £25 Acre? depending on the mix. My impression was that they were good mixes for green manure between winter crops but it seemed to me that most would need topping or spraying off before setting seed in the autumn so weren't suited to over wintering? That said, Jim said his experience was that CC needed to be killed off in good time to not lock up N in spring drilled crops. None would supply the bulk needed for feeding livestock over the winter. The rye vetch crimson clover mix looked good but only for feeding the cattle the following year, not the winter after establishment. I can see that possibly a cc mix that got a little n at establishment in aug would be able to get away from the n lock up of chopped straw and could then release it for the following crop to advantage when the NVZ window was closed. I guess though it is a timing issue of getting whatever crop it is off in time to get most advantage of the cc. I has to be a positive thing though that we have now got trial plots in the UK and retailers prepared to sell the mixes.

 

[JNG]

Some photos of Radish planted in raised bed in Garden in early june, Kindly provided by @greatingrass. Nice tap roots growing, if it does as well in the field as a winter cover crop I would be very happy, good channels for letting away winter rainfall and breaking any hardspots? Very sorry for product placement of Claydon pens, do you think they will give me a few quid? It is Terra Nova Radish.