Have any of the religious direct drillers been ploughing or tilling this time?

[ajd132]

' Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler?'
If I had bit then 'stupid boy' would not have been my response.
Stupid boy

To be fair, ploughing could well get banned with the way the legislation is going!

 

[SilliamWhale]

Well, we don’t know.
You maybe have got one angle of it covered and maybe I have the other angle.

However, wouldn’t it be a bugger if having made ploughing illegal (which I doubt that they could or would do), they then banned glyphosate?

That is why I warn of certain farmers shouting too load about their system, with no regard whatsoever that it won’t work everywhere.


Where a-bouts in Suffolk are you? I used to farm there myself.

It might not work everywhere. But it could work in a lot more places.

I don't want to see glyphosate or ploughing banned

 

[Two Tone]

South bury on the hanslope. I agree with you, I don’t really care what others do, it’s fun to stir though!

I get you. I was North Suffolk, Harleston, Halesworth, Bungay area. Beccles serried clays. I keep in contact with many old friends over that way. A few are trying No-til, mostly using Claydon Type drills. Many I know tried min-TIL, gave that up a s a bad job and have gone back to the plough.

I suppose you must be fairly close to Geoff Claydon. I know Geoff very well and he is a super chap and inventor, no doubt about it.

Yours and his Hanslope series is less prone to water-logging than mine was and certainly far less prone to it where I am now. A few have tried the Claydon in this area and it works some years and not others. There is one guy I know near here who farms on kinder land who has stuck with it. He’s a one man band. He’s also a very loyal supporter on our local show and enter’s the crop competitions. Unfortunately his crop don’t show quite as well others do. Which is a great shame because his system is absolutely the right one and most profitable for him.

Once you get onto true Cotswold Brash a little south of here, No-til is a serious proposition. If I was farming such land, I would absolutely be doing No-til myself, no doubt about it! Harry’s farm is a typical example.
But on Warwickshire Clays, it remains questionable. (Despite my postal town being Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos, most of my land is in Warks.)

Do you grow Beet or any other vegetables?
Can you or anybody around you do so without ploughing?

I’m convinced that there are fashions that we all succumb to. Min-til was one of them, to a certain extent on some farms No-til is another. It’s not like many of them haven’t been tried before. 40 years ago Direct drilling was the rage around Cirencester.
Fashions are great when they work and that there are the other tools in the box to allow them to work.
When those other tools, such as Atlantis which no longer works, or like Glyphosate that could shortly disappear, we need to keep all our options open. And ploughing is definitely one of them.
Any attempt to ban it must be rigorously fought against.

Anyway, keep it up, but try not to wind people up too much! It’s great to have younger chaps such as yourself on TFF. You are the guys that face some enormous challenges in the future and need to come up with something constructive, rather than just taking the pee! Keep yew a-gorn, boy!

By the way, What is that picture on your Avatatar?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Tell the truth so help you God.

seems topical

 

[Two Tone]

View attachment 860764
seems topical

Oh bugger!
I thought I was Christian until I read that!

To me, Christianity is a set of very good principals to live by, far more than whether you actually believe in God or Jesus.
Religion actually means what you believe in.

When it comes to DD, some would do well to remember that there are other Religions that work and are very profitable too!

 

[Two Tone]

Just came back from a conference held by a local Solicitor firm.
One of the speaker was trying to motivate us to look into new technology to stay ahead of reduced BPS incomes.
In his presentation he put something on the screen that said something like this:

“90% of new Agricultural technology is sold to us to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist!”

Sort of shot himself in the foot, me thinks!
But thinking about it, it is absolutely true!

Not so with No-TIL perhaps. But definitely so with a lot of the electrical toys/gadgetry, most of which never gets used.

 

[ajd132]

Just came back from a conference held by a local Solicitor firm.
One of the speaker was trying to motivate us to look into new technology to stay ahead of reduced BPS incomes.
In his presentation he put something on the screen that said something like this:

“90% of new Agricultural technology is sold to us to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist!”

Sort of shot himself in the foot, me thinks!
But thinking about it, it is absolutely true!

Not so with No-TIL perhaps. But definitely so with a lot of the electrical toys/gadgetry, most of which never gets used.

Absolutely spot on!
steering is about the only tech I can think of that is worth it at the moment.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Just came back from a conference held by a local Solicitor firm.
One of the speaker was trying to motivate us to look into new technology to stay ahead of reduced BPS incomes.
In his presentation he put something on the screen that said something like this:

“90% of new Agricultural technology is sold to us to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist!”

Sort of shot himself in the foot, me thinks!
But thinking about it, it is absolutely true!

Not so with No-TIL perhaps. But definitely so with a lot of the electrical toys/gadgetry, most of which never gets used.

There's quite a bit of very reasonably priced technology out there, widely used in other sectors and walks of life and much cheaper than products for the relatively small agricultural market.
For example, i've just had fitted trackers designed for the haulage and distribution industry, in my three tractors and a forklift, at a cost of under £10 per unit per month. Benefits in logistics, security and safety are already very apparent. Also we have a farm WhatsApp group that enables my team to keep in contact and organise themselves and everyone knows what is going on. Just two ludicrously cheap examples.

 

[yellow belly]

on my fields the driest (least amount of standing water ) have a crop on either wheat drilled in September or cover crops drilled between harvest and wheat drilling
plenty of ploughed and cultivated fields with lots of standing water and deep rutted tramlines

this weather will delay the adoption of notill by many farmers who look over the hedge
walk over field 2 days after the rain has stopped and experience the difference
I will keep on with notill until glyphosate is banned without a replacement

 

[farenheit]

Absolutely spot on!
steering is about the only tech I can think of that is worth it at the moment.

And MS Office

 

[glasshouse]

Big estate near here, not bern ploughed for ten or more yrs
All ploughed now

 

[JCfarmer]

I am disappointed that not all DDers have replied? To my mind they have SINNED!
For those that have replied I offer forgiveness and for those that haven't I offer forgiveness for not being able to reel there neck in and admit that adverse conditions can cause a need to do what ever to get a crop to grow.
I think direct drilling is one of the ways forward.

 

[martian]

've struck by a thunderbolt?

 

[simonk88]

We had 3 drills at various points, mix of land types from Chalky Wold to Marsh Clay and everything in between. Our philosophy is to have the kit to get the job done irrespective of the weather. We now have a 9m Sumo DTS, 4m Sumo DTS and 8m Horsch Avatar. We can cover 500ac a day comfortably which the sprayer can get pre-em'd at 200l/ha while spraying off in front. Yes one 12m drill should be able to cover everything, however it can only be in one field at a time. We adapt our drills to the fields at the time of drilling. We have no ploughs anymore and are not considering buying one, blackgrass can be reduced through rotation and cultivation adaptations, not necessarily glyphosate. I would be more concerned about the removal of red diesel, putting £1.40/l fuel into a tractor to burn 100l/hr when I could be at 40l/hr doesn't make sense, as long as yield is maintained. I'm not bothered what anyone else does and am quite happy to show people round what we do and how if you want to know!

 

[Steevo]

We had 3 drills at various points, mix of land types from Chalky Wold to Marsh Clay and everything in between. Our philosophy is to have the kit to get the job done irrespective of the weather. We now have a 9m Sumo DTS, 4m Sumo DTS and 8m Horsch Avatar. We can cover 500ac a day comfortably which the sprayer can get pre-em'd at 200l/ha while spraying off in front. Yes one 12m drill should be able to cover everything, however it can only be in one field at a time. We adapt our drills to the fields at the time of drilling. We have no ploughs anymore and are not considering buying one, blackgrass can be reduced through rotation and cultivation adaptations, not necessarily glyphosate. I would be more concerned about the removal of red diesel, putting £1.40/l fuel into a tractor to burn 100l/hr when I could be at 40l/hr doesn't make sense, as long as yield is maintained. I'm not bothered what anyone else does and am quite happy to show people round what we do and how if you want to know!

What days do you run tours please?!

 

[britt]

Absolutely spot on!
steering is about the only tech I can think of that is worth it at the moment.

And exactly what is the problem that autosteer solves ?
You have a driver that can look where they are going and turn the wheel guide the tractor.
I can see the point on a sprayer or fert spreader where there are no tramlines to follow, but then tramlines solve that problem.
From what I've seen autosteer failures (incorrect setting or signal loss ) cause more drilling misses than driver errors.

 

[Fish]

And exactly what is the problem that autosteer solves ?
You have a driver that can look where they are going and turn the wheel guide the tractor.
I can see the point on a sprayer or fert spreader where there are no tramlines to follow, but then tramlines solve that problem.
From what I've seen autosteer failures (incorrect setting or signal loss ) cause more drilling misses than driver errors.

I'm guessing you don't use auto steer.

 

[Brisel]

And exactly what is the problem that autosteer solves ?
You have a driver that can look where they are going and turn the wheel guide the tractor.
I can see the point on a sprayer or fert spreader where there are no tramlines to follow, but then tramlines solve that problem.
From what I've seen autosteer failures (incorrect setting or signal loss ) cause more drilling misses than driver errors.

It solves overlaps. Can be over 25% overlap on some jobs which for a big high hp tillage train at £80/hour soon adds up. We had a Quadtrac and 4.5m Solo working in tramlines as a land then filling in. The last pass was about 1/2m wide and the tramlines were 23m not 24m. That’s an extreme example and better drivers would have far less <10%.

 

[sjt01]

And exactly what is the problem that autosteer solves ?
You have a driver that can look where they are going and turn the wheel guide the tractor.
I can see the point on a sprayer or fert spreader where there are no tramlines to follow, but then tramlines solve that problem.
From what I've seen autosteer failures (incorrect setting or signal loss ) cause more drilling misses than driver errors.

When drilling into a fair amount of mulch, we found conventional markers are pretty much useless, so got autosteer for that purpose

 

[ajd132]

And exactly what is the problem that autosteer solves ?
You have a driver that can look where they are going and turn the wheel guide the tractor.
I can see the point on a sprayer or fert spreader where there are no tramlines to follow, but then tramlines solve that problem.
From what I've seen autosteer failures (incorrect setting or signal loss ) cause more drilling misses than driver errors.

I’m guess you don’t have auto steer. I havnt had a drop out for longer than 20 seconds in about 7 years. It pays for itself very quickly.