How’s your OSR looking now

[DrWazzock]

Just saying,I think it’s where you keep your OM that is important. Keep it on top. Can’t hope to build it at depth here. Scrape back the soil in the wood that’s been there for 200 years and it’s still pure sand 6” down. It’s oxidised or dissolved or something has broken it down. Organisms have evolved to work OM into the surface. No organism really evolved to accept freshly buried OM at depth. Nothing in the natural world suddenly buries a load of fresh organic matter or manure or aerates the soil at depth adding huge quantities of oxygen. We always get manganese deficiency if we plough due to soil bacteria going into overdrive with increased oxygen then using up the manganese. Keep it natural. Don’t over loosen. Don’t over aerate.

I am not interested in grants or schemes. Just want an easier kinder more productive balanced system.

 

[DrWazzock]

And now this wet spring is so wet that conventional cultivation is just about beaten and risks a huge mess and soil damage. Ok the DD stuff might fail but it’s quick and low cost and risks a lot less possible damage than conventional, which would work it into an impermeable render here at the moment.

 

[DrWazzock]

We are moving into a completely different farming era fairly rapidly out of necessity to build a more resilient system to climate change both wetter and drier. Interesting times.

 

[B'o'B]

Saw a slide at a presentation this week in a long term soil amendment trial where a plot which had built up the OM by 0.4% over quite a few years (can’t remember exactly) but that plot stood out a mile in the photo of the ploughed field compared to the rest. You could see it was much better structured and workable.

 

[ajd132]

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.

I’m 28 so hopefully they will have raised by then time I plan to retire. You can raise om carbon levels without spending much money. Don’t cultivate, grow covers and don’t bake anything.
plants make carbon through sugary root exudates.

 

[Flat 10]

Went to a presentation by Philip Wright the cultivation guy, and as a result of his experiences in Eastern Europe where mice are at plague levels where min- till is practised, he is anticipating mice problems in this country too in similar conditions.

Min or zero till? I know Australians can suffer badly, I didn’t know that it was a problem in Eastern Europe. What about America?

 

[radar]

He didn't talk about America, but unless soil is moved then mice will explode. He has seen fields in E Europe disappear overnight due to mice pressure.

 

[B'o'B]

Min or zero till? I know Australians can suffer badly, I didn’t know that it was a problem in Eastern Europe. What about America?

We’ve been no-till for 20 years. You can see where a mouse nest is in rape because there is a 2-4m bare patch, but there aren’t too many of them. It probably doesn’t help them that for the rest of the year every raptor know exactly where the mice are!

 

[Flat 10]

He didn't talk about America, but unless soil is moved then mice will explode. He has seen fields in E Europe disappear overnight due to mice pressure.

Blimey. One for the future then maybe?

 

[Flat 10]

We’ve been no-till for 20 years. You can see where a mouse nest is in rape because there is a 2-4m bare patch, but there aren’t too many of them. It probably doesn’t help them that for the rest of the year every raptor know exactly where the mice are!

Must be plenty of raptors in Eastern Europe too?

 

[radar]

Apparantly raptors, owls etc need trees etc to sit/roost on and there are none. Landscape bereft of things to sit on.

 

[B'o'B]

Must be plenty of raptors in Eastern Europe too?

Have no idea! I was just saying what our experience has been in the UK over the last 20 years. Maybe woods, hedges, and grass margins have their advantages after all.

 

[DrWazzock]

We have sometimes lost an acre of beet seed to mice in a slow cold spring. Difficult to believe until you see it and despite seed coating. I recon they work out the spacing and keep on progressing up the row digging each seed out. I would say no till has done more for many species of mice and vole than the ELS strips did. Undisturbed stubbles also leave plenty of foraging area for birds over winter. We have plenty of buzzards and owls to keep numbers manageable, so we haven’t had a plague so far. Weasels are more common as well now.

 

[Laggard]

Osr leaves appear to be curled up, is this a sign of deficiency?

 

[willy]

Drought stress

 

[Laggard]

 

[Brisel]

https://www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/oilseed-rape/nutrient-deficiencies-oilseed-rape/

What variety is it? Campus and Pictor seem particularly prone to this. Has it had any fertiliser yet? If not, take a few entire plants from the bottom of the stem upwards, not including any dead leaves, and sent them to NRM or Lancrop for plant tissue testing. With wet feet, crops will show a number of symptoms until it dries up and root growth gets going again. You can get lots of symptoms of trace element deficiencies in a drought too, when the main problem is a lack of H2O to get the nutrients already available in the soil solution.

I test a couple of fields every year & have seen consistent deficiencies in boron, manganese, magnesium and potash. Don't bet the farm on tissue testing - it's only a snapshot of a few plants on a particular day but what you're looking for are common themes as your library of results builds.

 

[Dan Mac]

Could be molybdenum ?
Known as moly whip tail in brassicas
Seen it occasionally in rape but more of a curiosity than an issue

View attachment 858739

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View attachment 858739

 

[Dan Mac]

Could be molybdenum ?
Known as moly whip tail in brassicas
Seen it occasionally in rape but more of a curiosity than an issue

View attachment 858739

m

View attachment 858739

 

[shakerator]

Osr leaves appear to be curled up, is this a sign of deficiency?View attachment 858732

Did it get astrokerb ?