How many farms are using voluntary / unpaid fallow in their rotation?

[Flat 10]

Never have that problem here.

Always something growing, usually couch.

Biggest challenge is to get minimum 6-8 weeks clear of slugs before 20th September

Do you know something? If you wanted to sell your farm to me I don't think I would buy it.
Does it have any good points?

 

[90hp farming]

Not sure whether mine is `fallow` by your definition @Feldspar.....

Here on our set up of heavy but not horrific land, I alternate W Wheat with my fallow. This consists of spring oats drilled as soon after the baler as conditions allow. These oats grazed off in February / March by in lamb ewes. There is not a right lot of feed volume but excellent ground cover from September thru to end of January. Ewes fed fodderbeet and hay/silage when they have cleaned up oats. Keeps the sheep off the grass as no buildings available. The land can look a bit of a mess on the surface in a wet time, but this seems to be fairly superficial. The oats can green up again when the sheep have left. Land then drilled with stubble turnips / kale in May when ground is nice and warm and dried out. These then grazed again by sheep in August / September before wheat drilled in October. One glyphosate used pre drilling in May which is hopefully the only chemical input over the 12 month period. At no point does any BG appear to cause a problem by running to seed. Have to confess that the last two open backends have allowed me to plough the turnip residue in and combi drill directly behind. Both cover crops established with trusty Duncan Ecoseeder.

My theory is better to aim for one 4 ton crop every other year which will pay me, rather than two 3.25 ton crops that won`t earn a bean. Plus it makes managing the sheep easier and reduces the `strain` the artificial inputs place on the land.

 

[Feldspar]

Not sure whether mine is `fallow` by your definition @Feldspar.....

Here on our set up of heavy but not horrific land, I alternate W Wheat with my fallow. This consists of spring oats drilled as soon after the baler as conditions allow. These oats grazed off in February / March by in lamb ewes. There is not a right lot of feed volume but excellent ground cover from September thru to end of January. Ewes fed fodderbeet and hay/silage when they have cleaned up oats. Keeps the sheep off the grass as no buildings available. The land can look a bit of a mess on the surface in a wet time, but this seems to be fairly superficial. The oats can green up again when the sheep have left. Land then drilled with stubble turnips / kale in May when ground is nice and warm and dried out. These then grazed again by sheep in August / September before wheat drilled in October. One glyphosate used pre drilling in May which is hopefully the only chemical input over the 12 month period. At no point does any BG appear to cause a problem by running to seed. Have to confess that the last two open backends have allowed me to plough the turnip residue in and combi drill directly behind. Both cover crops established with trusty Duncan Ecoseeder.

My theory is better to aim for one 4 ton crop every other year which will pay me, rather than two 3.25 ton crops that won`t earn a bean. Plus it makes managing the sheep easier and reduces the `strain` the artificial inputs place on the land.

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting.

I think the bit in bold is the key bit. It's easy to think, "Oh, I couldn't possibly afford to not crop some of my land each year." But then I think we increasingly need to think, "I can't possibly afford to keep cropping all of my land every year when overall it's a loss making effort." And as you have your livestock side of the business you aren't in the trap that a lot of people are in where they can't reduce their cropped acreage because their existing business set-up won't allow it.

 

[fudge]

It comes down to the individual operator"s view of the market and the quality of the land. It takes a certain amount of bloody mindedness to always back one"s own judgement. Something I would never do, because I have a pathological aversion to financial products, is insure against any shooting up of the grain market with the purchase of an option.

 

[franklin]

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting.

I think the bit in bold is the key bit. It's easy to think, "Oh, I couldn't possibly afford to not crop some of my land each year." But then I think we increasingly need to think, "I can't possibly afford to keep cropping all of my land every year when overall it's a loss making effort." And as you have your livestock side of the business you aren't in the trap that a lot of people are in where they can't reduce their cropped acreage because their existing business set-up won't allow it.

Yes, the flipside to the view of a great crop every other year is better than two average ones is how much does the preceeding crop make a difference? Because in my experience the difference between a 3t crop and a 4t crop is more down to factors I cant control than ones I can.

I also think that the "heavy but not horrific" land definition does not hold due to the phrase "ploughed and combi straight behind in October". But I very much like the idea of the cheap oat cover fb the turnips. It's almost a Norfolk 4-course condensed into 2 years with the cereal, the grazing grass as oats, and the deeper rooting turnips.

 

[fudge]

One has to cost the above approach carefully. I’m not convinced one years cover is always financially viable. If increasing OM is the aim, I believe longer term leys would work better, depending on site of course.

 

[franklin]

I'll add "the long-term is just a lot of short-terms bolted together" to useful wisdom. I have yet to find someone who has been able to say that chopping the straw for x number of years has made y contribution to long-term profitability. Dad reckons the land is better after chopping since 1991, but I would counter than by saying that the straw value would have paid for it all to be redrained.

But to do some science, I am going to take a sample of some neighbouring long-term, low input pasture and some adjoining arable and just see what the difference actually is. I am going to guess that the pasture will have higher OM, but will have the thin end of f all pottasium and need a big dollop of lime.

Why is it that heavy land goes sad if a crop is not grown on it? Is because there isn't a crop there wicking out the moisture, or is it more to do with a lack of biological activity in the soil?

Because the land is dead. The water, nitrogen, carbon cycle all break down.

 

[90hp farming]

Yes, the flipside to the view of a great crop every other year is better than two average ones is how much does the preceeding crop make a difference? Because in my experience the difference between a 3t crop and a 4t crop is more down to factors I cant control than ones I can.

I also think that the "heavy but not horrific" land definition does not hold due to the phrase "ploughed and combi straight behind in October". But I very much like the idea of the cheap oat cover fb the turnips. It's almost a Norfolk 4-course condensed into 2 years with the cereal, the grazing grass as oats, and the deeper rooting turnips.

reference the factors outside one`s control - I have to agree these play a part. But I like to think I am increasing the odds of a 4 ton crop by my system. All I know is that an average crop is a waste of time for me. I don`t own a combine so I don`t feel obliged to cut something......

reference the type of land - do I infer you do not consider mine to be heavy land if it allows the combi straight behind the plough? Two things. I hope that the 12 months of covers and sheep help make the land more workable. I am ploughing 12" furrows about 7 - 8" deep and this year went over the ploughing with a set of Cambridge rolls BEFORE the drill outfit. I did qualify my earlier comments by saying I have been lucky with the dry autumn.

reference the Norfolk 4 course - I suppose ours is broadly an 7 year rotation with a 4 year grass ley preceding the 3 years of wheat/fallow/wheat. Its not set in stone - can have a 2nd wheat after grass.

reference @ fudge and the viability of a one year cover. If the arable boys are being told to grow a cover just to flail up or plough in then surely grazing something with your own sheep is more viable. I don`t earn a fortune with the sheep but I don`t earn anything growing 3.25 tons of wheat. So surely it is the lesser of 2 evils for me. (Yes, I know all arable farmers think sheep are the greatest evil.................)

As usual, I am not saying I`m right but rather this is what I am trying.

 

[franklin]

There will always be debate that one persons heavy is another persons light, but several (wont say many) here would say plough then straight behind with combi cant be considered as heavy. Even plough, roll, combi wont fit in the heavy bracket for several (many). But this is not a competiton. The 4 years of grass probably makes a fair difference too.

So as a rotation, you have 2 wheat crops in 7 years. Can I ask how hard you push the grass leys and if they are solely for mowing, grazing or a mix?

I really like the idea of the spring oats then turnips in spring, then back into wheat. Infact I am wondering about trying it out. But the arable man in me is trying to add a crop of spring barley in aswell. With the mild winter my spring oat volunteers were knee high before it turned cold.

 

[bankrupt]

I don`t own a combine so I don`t feel obliged to cut something......

.

I do own a combine, 90hp farming, and the less it has to cut, the better.

As to one 4t crop + fallow making better margin than 2 x 3.25t on interesting soils, you're entirely right (although here, over thirty years, it's been 3.5t + fallow opposed to 2 x 2.75t ).

My only concern is that eventually we may have a big crop failure on this block due to disease, to lodging or to take-all, which will mean three years with little income.


Risk analysis strikes again!

 

[franklin]

What sticks in my mind is that you only need one 2012 to wreck a lot of good plans one way or another.

 

[bankrupt]

What sticks in my mind is that you only need one 2012 to wreck a lot of good plans one way or another.

Funnily enough, static, the only decent quality, respectably yielding wheat we harvested in 2013 was behind the 2012 fallow.

This meant that, taking those two years together, it was by far the most profitable block on the farm, and the only one not to need its rotation recalibrated.

 

[hindmaist]

Not sure whether mine is `fallow` by your definition @Feldspar.....

Here on our set up of heavy but not horrific land, I alternate W Wheat with my fallow. This consists of spring oats drilled as soon after the baler as conditions allow. These oats grazed off in February / March by in lamb ewes. There is not a right lot of feed volume but excellent ground cover from September thru to end of January. Ewes fed fodderbeet and hay/silage when they have cleaned up oats. Keeps the sheep off the grass as no buildings available. The land can look a bit of a mess on the surface in a wet time, but this seems to be fairly superficial. The oats can green up again when the sheep have left. Land then drilled with stubble turnips / kale in May when ground is nice and warm and dried out. These then grazed again by sheep in August / September before wheat drilled in October. One glyphosate used pre drilling in May which is hopefully the only chemical input over the 12 month period. At no point does any BG appear to cause a problem by running to seed. Have to confess that the last two open backends have allowed me to plough the turnip residue in and combi drill directly behind. Both cover crops established with trusty Duncan Ecoseeder.

My theory is better to aim for one 4 ton crop every other year which will pay me, rather than two 3.25 ton crops that won`t earn a bean. Plus it makes managing the sheep easier and reduces the `strain` the artificial inputs place on the land.

I think that's more of a "non cash crop" than a fallow.Sound husbandry.Well done.

 

[90hp farming]

There will always be debate that one persons heavy is another persons light, but several (wont say many) here would say plough then straight behind with combi cant be considered as heavy. Even plough, roll, combi wont fit in the heavy bracket for several (many). But this is not a competiton. The 4 years of grass probably makes a fair difference too.

So as a rotation, you have 2 wheat crops in 7 years. Can I ask how hard you push the grass leys and if they are solely for mowing, grazing or a mix?

I really like the idea of the spring oats then turnips in spring, then back into wheat. Infact I am wondering about trying it out. But the arable man in me is trying to add a crop of spring barley in aswell. With the mild winter my spring oat volunteers were knee high before it turned cold.

I quite agree this forum should be constructive not competitive! Of course soil type is relative and mine is not yellow clart but it is strong land compared to the other farm we manage. Over there I pulled 54 fat lambs across a stubble turnip field with the landrover in mid December without a frost. So that for me is light land.

reference grass leys - I sow a good quality mix with clover. used for sheep and hay. not pushed with masses of nitrogen but have started using plumbo`s dust.

reference @bankrupt - every year here is a year with little income! (or rather there is plenty of income but little margin - please tell me where it all goes......)

 

[Flat 10]

I quite agree this forum should be constructive not competitive! Of course soil type is relative and mine is not yellow clart but it is strong land compared to the other farm we manage. Over there I pulled 54 fat lambs across a stubble turnip field with the landrover in mid December without a frost. So that for me is light land.

reference grass leys - I sow a good quality mix with clover. used for sheep and hay. not pushed with masses of nitrogen but have started using plumbo`s dust.

reference @bankrupt - every year here is a year with little income! (or rather there is plenty of income but little margin - please tell me where it all goes......)

Plenty of income is a good start......
I know others will disagree but I have found there is slightly more chance of hanging on to some if there is more floating by......

 

[bankrupt]

there is slightly more chance of hanging on to some if there is more floating by......

That's certainly generally true, Flat 10.

But there may be certain business circumstances, one such example being revealed by the question titled in this thread, where margins can be increased by reducing turnover a bit.

Of course, had that ever been an easy option to adopt, even Carillion might have done it.

 

[fudge]

Carillion? Maybe I should have a word with Gove see if I could have my BPS before I drill?

 

[franklin]

But there may be certain business circumstances, one such example being revealed by the question titled in this thread, where margins can be increased by reducing turnover a bit.

My mid-tier gubbins has increased my margin and reduced turnover. But only if you forget that there would have been a machine earning its keep and a man (me) getting paid from an arable crop, which now has to be borne by that extra margin. Net effect same but for less risk and less wear and tear of vital components (my sanity).

 

[Feldspar]

My mid-tier gubbins has increased my margin and reduced turnover. But only if you forget that there would have been a machine earning its keep and a man (me) getting paid from an arable crop, which now has to be borne by that extra margin. Net effect same but for less risk and less wear and tear of vital components (my sanity).

Same for us. I am firmly putting the income from Mid Tier into our arable gross margin (whereas BPS stays out of it) as I feel we've done something to earn it. All the least productive areas of the farm (most of which would definitely be loss making areas averaged over the rotation) are now producing a positive return.

 

[Feldspar]

I think that's more of a "non cash crop" than a fallow.Sound husbandry.Well done.

That another thing, if you've got a year without a cash crop in, I imagine most people, if they can get a return off letting it out for sheep grazing are going to at least consider it, especially given the lifeless heavy soil problem of not cropping it at all. Although, as has already been said, the optimal time for grassing bits down for grazing is probably not one year. Cover crop grazing perhaps.