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Arable Farming
Cropping
How Do I Avoid the Wet Winter Slump?
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<blockquote data-quote="DrWazzock" data-source="post: 7595689" data-attributes="member: 2119"><p>The wet winter has really tested us this year on the heavy clay land.</p><p>We have different scenarios:</p><p>1. Ploughed nicely late summer, drilled a bit late in the autumn, November. Not terrible but a low plant population in the worst areas due to drowning. What had survived looks good but it’s too thin despite high seed rate. 6/10.</p><p>2. Ploughed nicely late summer, drilled in the spring. Once over with power Harrow but it had slumped solid and wet underneath, while rapidly drying to concrete on top. Looks rubbish now. Yellow poor rooting spring cereals that got another swilling by recent 4”. 3/10.</p><p>3. Direct drilled undisturbed stubbles in the spring. Fairly similar result to the over wintered ploughing. Solid and wet underneath, dried very rapidly to concrete on top making almost a 24 hour window for the direct drill and it had gone a bit hard. Doesn’t look great, low population 3/10.</p><p></p><p>4. Spring ploughed, and drilled with spring crops. Looks slightly better then the winter ploughed land. Hasn’t had time to slump underneath so took the 4” rain in May much better. But the seedbed was dry and knobbly and no weathering tilth so maybe 5/10.</p><p></p><p>5. Land worked with a stubble cultivator to 2 or 3” in the autumn.Direct drilled in the spring. This looks best of all despite not being loosened to any depth. There was reasonable tilth for the direct drill and it didn’t seem as wet underneath 7/10.</p><p></p><p>For the future I’m considering using stubble cultivator behind the combine again but also additionally followed by low disturbance subsoiler then something to leave it level but weather proof ready for “direct drilling” in autumn or spring after a spray off.</p><p>I’m considering a low disturbance tool bar in front of a power Harrow to leave it level, with the power Harrow not going at any depth but just knocking any ridging down. I don’t want to leave it fine. The hope is the low disturbance legs allow better infiltration without ruining the structure while the surface is level enough and broken down enough for a chit and direct drilling, but not so fine that it swills down through and blocks the fissures underneath.</p><p>If there is a machine that does this in one pass (Low disturbance loosening, surface left weatherproof, chitting, ready for spray off and direct drill in autumn or spring) without mixing blackgrass seed in to depth then I’d be interested to hear about it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DrWazzock, post: 7595689, member: 2119"] The wet winter has really tested us this year on the heavy clay land. We have different scenarios: 1. Ploughed nicely late summer, drilled a bit late in the autumn, November. Not terrible but a low plant population in the worst areas due to drowning. What had survived looks good but it’s too thin despite high seed rate. 6/10. 2. Ploughed nicely late summer, drilled in the spring. Once over with power Harrow but it had slumped solid and wet underneath, while rapidly drying to concrete on top. Looks rubbish now. Yellow poor rooting spring cereals that got another swilling by recent 4”. 3/10. 3. Direct drilled undisturbed stubbles in the spring. Fairly similar result to the over wintered ploughing. Solid and wet underneath, dried very rapidly to concrete on top making almost a 24 hour window for the direct drill and it had gone a bit hard. Doesn’t look great, low population 3/10. 4. Spring ploughed, and drilled with spring crops. Looks slightly better then the winter ploughed land. Hasn’t had time to slump underneath so took the 4” rain in May much better. But the seedbed was dry and knobbly and no weathering tilth so maybe 5/10. 5. Land worked with a stubble cultivator to 2 or 3” in the autumn.Direct drilled in the spring. This looks best of all despite not being loosened to any depth. There was reasonable tilth for the direct drill and it didn’t seem as wet underneath 7/10. For the future I’m considering using stubble cultivator behind the combine again but also additionally followed by low disturbance subsoiler then something to leave it level but weather proof ready for “direct drilling” in autumn or spring after a spray off. I’m considering a low disturbance tool bar in front of a power Harrow to leave it level, with the power Harrow not going at any depth but just knocking any ridging down. I don’t want to leave it fine. The hope is the low disturbance legs allow better infiltration without ruining the structure while the surface is level enough and broken down enough for a chit and direct drilling, but not so fine that it swills down through and blocks the fissures underneath. If there is a machine that does this in one pass (Low disturbance loosening, surface left weatherproof, chitting, ready for spray off and direct drill in autumn or spring) without mixing blackgrass seed in to depth then I’d be interested to hear about it. [/QUOTE]
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How Do I Avoid the Wet Winter Slump?
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