How much Winter Wheat is established with a plough?

The Agrarian

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
For those of you doing shallow cultivations, how do you deal with the stones brought up, that is if you have stones? We find that it takes ploughing to create a deep enough bed to be able to absorb stones at rolling, and anything bigger has to be lifted. With shallow cultivation they will be sitting on the top of the ground too close to cutting bar level.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Interesting thread, virtually nil around here, winter wheat is why farmers went out and bought no-till drills in the 80s and 90s. Ploughing is generally only a last resort or to tip pasture over .
And, the diehard ploughmen would rather skip WW into OSR or legumes than do anything in the way of changing from their plough - the biggest fixed cost on a farm is the need to "be right" about everything, but I'm f**ked if I will go down that rabbit hole at the moment
 

D14

Member
What % of Winter Wheat is still established with a plough?

We farm in Cumbria and my guess would be as a county 90% will still be put in with a plough, what about in other parts of the country?

Is there a national figure?

People seem to be ploughing within a rotation, so perhaps ploughing once every 4 years from what I can see and that seems to be in front of spring crops.
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
100% here.nice to start with uncompacted and level clean ground for next crop.last crop I put in behind a cultivator was rape and it was a disaster.tried a round on some fallowed stubble last sep with front cultivator and combi on the rear.growing ok but compared to ploughed land it’s stunted and walks wet too
nick…
 
100% here.nice to start with uncompacted and level clean ground for next crop.last crop I put in behind a cultivator was rape and it was a disaster.tried a round on some fallowed stubble last sep with front cultivator and combi on the rear.growing ok but compared to ploughed land it’s stunted and walks wet too
nick…

Genuine question ……… moving forward with the loss of BPS and ELMS not worth the hassle. Potential loss of Red diesel. Wearing metal prices on the up. Replacement machinery prices frightening, will you continue to plough irrelevant of the cost?
 

Fish

Member
Location
North yorkshire
Between my self and my neighbours, i have 2 who are 100% plough, 2 who are 100% no-till, the rest are around 50/50 plough/ non-inversion cultivation.
In the wider area I would say the plough is still dominant, certainly on the light to medium ground.
But DD/no-till is definitely gaining traction, with new drills appearing every year.
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Genuine question ……… moving forward with the loss of BPS and ELMS not worth the hassle. Potential loss of Red diesel. Wearing metal prices on the up. Replacement machinery prices frightening, will you continue to plough irrelevant of the cost?
Can’t see it to be honest.I’m nearly 60 and with a small farm I feel we are being squeezed out by costs and regulations.I’ve no idea what’s going to happen to be honest.it’s all vey worrying and it gives me sleepless nights worrying
nick…
 
Can’t see it to be honest.I’m nearly 60 and with a small farm I feel we are being squeezed out by costs and regulations.I’ve no idea what’s going to happen to be honest.it’s all vey worrying and it gives me sleepless nights worrying
nick…

I think some farms will go for it pushing yield to its limits whilst increasing their costs but hoping for £200/t + headline prices.
Whilst others like me will just farm to a cost structure and not be worried about yield.

Last autumn I saw a chap use a disc/tine/press machine. He let that green up then used glyphosate, then ploughed it, then pressed it, then power harrowed bits but not all. Then drilled it with a cultivator drill, then rolled it. Finally used a pre-em.
I just don’t get it 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Most is ploughed in this area although some now say 'we will see if we can get away without ploughing'!. Bit expensive if you can't. You either take the plunge or you don't. Personally using the plough less and less without huge disasters. You have to think ahead as soon as the combine enters the previous crop as to what your land needs to get a crop established.
 

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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