How’s your OSR looking now

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Glad to hear. We’ve opted for quite a few acres of this and just got accepted in mid- tier CSS. New land to us and very low OM levels need raising.

*Tin hat applied*

Om is over rated and raising it should only be considered at nil cost, unless you are on the world's lightest sands.
 

TWF

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Peterborough
*Tin hat applied*

Om is over rated and raising it should only be considered at nil cost, unless you are on the world's lightest sands.
I disagree on our heavier or light land it adds resilience to the extreames of wet and dry weather extreams we keep having. Also while we are going through some very unpredictable years of transition of Brexit the more knowns I can fix the better. So taking advantage of public good and improving my land at the same time with CSS.
 

richard hammond

Member
BASIS
View attachment 858380
Small but an ok plant population. This has lost a lot of biomass since October. About 1/4 of the plants have CSFB larvae in the leaf petioles and it’s clear which plants are clean as they are growing faster and are greener. Sown 27/8/19.
View attachment 858379
A surprising number of slugs about...! Hopefully they will drown this weekend.
View attachment 858381
What would graze the plants off at ground level? Hares? Deer?
Mice!
 

Worsall

Member
Arable Farmer
View attachment 858380
Small but an ok plant population. This has lost a lot of biomass since October. About 1/4 of the plants have CSFB larvae in the leaf petioles and it’s clear which plants are clean as they are growing faster and are greener. Sown 27/8/19.
View attachment 858379
A surprising number of slugs about...! Hopefully they will drown this weekend.
View attachment 858381
What would graze the plants off at ground level? Hares? Deer?
Had this last year, great looking crop over Christmas but aware of some larvae. A combination of kerb application, wet weather then frost penetrated the stem through the migratory holes. Plant collapsed and is eaten from within and migratory CSFB. Sorry.
We planted an ex 2019 harvest OSR field last week and the drill was covered in CSFB!!!
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Plenty of plants pigeons if only it was all like the 2nd pic :(
IMG_20200215_084312645.jpg
sre hammering them though
IMG_20200215_085807254.jpg
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I disagree on our heavier or light land it adds resilience to the extreames of wet and dry weather extreams we keep having. Also while we are going through some very unpredictable years of transition of Brexit the more knowns I can fix the better. So taking advantage of public good and improving my land at the same time with CSS.

If they are going to pay for it fair doos. Having done a som test on my arable, grassland, and the road verges (control) and using the figures from adas, I'll be long dead to get my som to those levels. And if it costs me to do that then it won't be done.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
If they are going to pay for it fair doos. Having done a som test on my arable, grassland, and the road verges (control) and using the figures from adas, I'll be long dead to get my som to those levels. And if it costs me to do that then it won't be done.

It’s not a quick fix. Raise SOM by reduced cultivations. Save cost and build your soils. It’s a lot more sustainable than lowering SOM by growing ever worse crops at ever increasing cost.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
If they are going to pay for it fair doos. Having done a som test on my arable, grassland, and the road verges (control) and using the figures from adas, I'll be long dead to get my som to those levels. And if it costs me to do that then it won't be done.

The OM will vary as you do deeper presumably. Here we are trying to build it on top and keep it on top in / on the 2” drilling layer. Mix it in too deep and dilutes to insignificance which is why we never saw much improvement after years ploughing straw in. It also oxidises faster with cultivation. We have one particularly heavy area where we have plastered on wood waste and horse muck. The drill will soon run cleanly through it and the surface is very resilient to capping and smearing.Well it’s early days but that’s the plan. Worms love taking it down. Build OM on the surface like nature does. Leave the putty down below. The worms gradually make inroads into it making it a fairly good load bearing honey comb structure which percolates water well with low disturbance subsoiling in the very dry early autumn where needed. Noticed this effect while soil sampling with my spade. Would seem a real shame to mix it all up and pulverise it back to nasty snot but a lot of direct drills are still crap which is what holds us back especially on beets where mulch till drill mods are insane prices.

ramble over
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
I think every rape crop I have ever grown looked like pic 1 after the pigeons and slugs have munched it all winter so don’t worry

Some did a tonne and half some a tonne. I am not sure if it's our clays or what but thy seem to retreat back to the soil surface and are slow to get moving in spring
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The OM will vary as you do deeper presumably. Here we are trying to build it on top and keep it on top in / on the 2” drilling layer. Mix it in too deep and dilutes to insignificance which is why we never saw much improvement after years ploughing straw in. It also oxidises faster with cultivation. We have one particularly heavy area where we have plastered on wood waste and horse muck. The drill will soon run cleanly through it and the surface is very resilient to capping and smearing.Well it’s early days but that’s the plan. Worms love taking it down. Build OM on the surface like nature does. Leave the putty down below. The worms gradually make inroads into it making it a fairly good load bearing honey comb structure which percolates water well with low disturbance subsoiling in the very dry early autumn where needed. Noticed this effect while soil sampling with my spade. Would seem a real shame to mix it all up and pulverise it back to nasty snot but a lot of direct drills are still crap which is what holds us back especially on beets where mulch till drill mods are insane prices.

ramble over

Give it ten years and they will be saying surface layers are too acidic; preferential flow is causing too speedy pesticide to water; excessive nutrient lock up in top layers. Then be paid to black it all over and start again.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Team Clipboard. Whatever form that takes.

Team Clipboard currently like no till, organic matter increase, higher worm numbers (these cycle your nutrients through the profile), cover crops and don't like cultivation, soil erosion, reduced fertiliser efficiency and pesticides. Perhaps the view is closer to home? We'll agree to disagree and all systems have their weaknesses.

I wasn't growing better osr by doing more cultivation hence cutting steel and fuel use. I've yet to see evidence of less flea beetle in plough based establishment systems though am happy to be proved wrong.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I have various systems on the go including ploughing. I sleep easier at night leaving the surface with as little disturbance as possible. Less erosion by wind and water and a lot less effort and money wasted if it goes wrong for other reasons like flea beetle. In the past dad worked so hard to create a fine seedbed only for it to slump or blow. Soul destroying.

not saying it’s the holy grail but the more I dig about with m spade the more encouraged I am by worm activity and the surface protection and stability afforded by leaving organic matter where it falls.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Team Clipboard currently like no till, organic matter increase, higher worm numbers (these cycle your nutrients through the profile), cover crops and don't like cultivation, soil erosion, reduced fertiliser efficiency and pesticides. Perhaps the view is closer to home? We'll agree to disagree and all systems have their weaknesses.

I wasn't growing better osr by doing more cultivation hence cutting steel and fuel use. I've yet to see evidence of less flea beetle in plough based establishment systems though am happy to be proved wrong.

Just saying that it all goes around in circles. Shoehorning cover crops, DD, and all that onto land that , without IACS, would and should all be grass is simply going to lead back to farming the system.

It's a fad steered by interest groups. I refer back to the Malcolm Tucker view of experts. All these geniuses require a constant stream of funding and in ten years time I'd bet that today's cool ideas are tomorrow's BBC farmer fodder.

My worm numbers as per recent Nottingham Uni study, are very high. Just saying that raising om etc is all very good but in the absence of it being free (compost, fym at same price as bagged fert, digestate) or linked to a government scheme teat, then it's very much a non starter for many.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
I kno
I think every rape crop I have ever grown looked like pic 1 after the pigeons and slugs have munched it all winter so don’t worry
I know but still makes me nervous when you see some on here, I have worse, some is currently underwater. It's had a sniff of N + S03 which I think has helped so fingers crossed
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Just saying that it all goes around in circles. Shoehorning cover crops, DD, and all that onto land that , without IACS, would and should all be grass is simply going to lead back to farming the system.

It's a fad steered by interest groups. I refer back to the Malcolm Tucker view of experts. All these geniuses require a constant stream of funding and in ten years time I'd bet that today's cool ideas are tomorrow's BBC farmer fodder.

My worm numbers as per recent Nottingham Uni study, are very high. Just saying that raising om etc is all very good but in the absence of it being free (compost, fym at same price as bagged fert, digestate) or linked to a government scheme teat, then it's very much a non starter for many.

There's a difference between what is fashionable and what has centuries of evidence to prove it works. Yes, today's news is tomorrow's fish-and-chip-wrapping but there's more to this than just fashion.

Grant aid - ok, strip it back to what you see as good for business. Mixed farming with livestock building fertility on leys which you cash in with crops. See Coke of Norfolk's Four Course Rotation.

There's a knowledgeable farmer just down the road from me who has the theory that soil organic matter levels are finite - you can only push them so far before gains tail off and you're limited by soil texture, drainage, cation exchange capacity etc. I think his ideas are fairly sound but a little simplified. I know I can improve my soils and grow better crops if I can boost organic matters so I've got CS funded cover crops, DD and later this year, livestock returning to the downland farm I manage. My challenge is to make it all pay.
 

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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