How much Winter Wheat is established with a plough?

stablegirl

Member
Location
North
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?
 
Seems to be mainly plough/power Harrow drill combi around here in north west Shropshire, mainly smaller scale arable farmers and livestock farmers growing some for own use.
That’s how mine is all drilled by a local contractor, it’s what all the contractors around seem to use, the only direct drills I know of are used for grass or small seeds such as stubble turnips
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Still a lot done with a plough round here, from big areas on the cliff, to smaller farms. Very little on my farm is ploughed, and that's mainly after later grass or when we grew it after osr.
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
There’s very little established around here behind a plough, I used one after long term grass this year which is the first time for me for 10 years !!
 
I know of places where a lot of acres are still put under a plough annually for cereals and also maize.

Min-till in the early 2000s really really contributed to the blackgrass/grass weed issues we have today, I'm certain of that. It was cheap at the time but were paying for it now. A good herbicide stack of residual chemistry can buy a lot of fuel and metal.
 
Seems to be mainly plough/power Harrow drill combi around here in north west Shropshire, mainly smaller scale arable farmers and livestock farmers growing some for own use.
That’s how mine is all drilled by a local contractor, it’s what all the contractors around seem to use, the only direct drills I know of are used for grass or small seeds such as stubble turnips
There’s a few more direct drillers around Shropshire than you think, but agree plough still dominates the area!
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
Thinking about this in a bit more detail I would say on the 15 or so farms immediately surrounding me, there’s one farm that ploughs consistently and all the others are a mix of shallow cultivation and DD, around 12 of those farms have bought a Direct Drill in the last 5 or 6 years
It’s interesting how the situation differs around the country !!
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Around here in the Borders there is a lot of 1st wheat put in after 'non inversion cultivation' (Sumo / Terrano / SL type cultivators) but 2nd wheat (and subsequent) goes in after the plough to minimise 'take all' which would seriously effect yield.
On this farm with 3rd wheat it works out at 1/3rd 'non inversion', 2/3rds plough.
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Most is maxi-tilled in this area. A few DDers and a bit of rotational ploughing. As a guess I would say less than 10% ploughed, but not much of that prior to WW.
Its not ploughing that is the problem, its making a seedbed afterwards without a winter of weather on it.
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I am flexible and still have a plough and try to use it only when necessary. I have one block of land that is definitely best not ploughed.

Last season was the first where I didn’t plough any land going into maize.

Bg
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Seems to be mainly plough/power Harrow drill combi around here in north west Shropshire, mainly smaller scale arable farmers and livestock farmers growing some for own use.
That’s how mine is all drilled by a local contractor, it’s what all the contractors around seem to use, the only direct drills I know of are used for grass or small seeds such as stubble turnips
T'other way around down here on the fertile flat bits of the County. Wall to wall, min/no till around here.

Many still using Plough and combi after roots though.
 

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
Around here in the Borders there is a lot of 1st wheat put in after 'non inversion cultivation' (Sumo / Terrano / SL type cultivators) but 2nd wheat (and subsequent) goes in after the plough to minimise 'take all' which would seriously effect yield.
On this farm with 3rd wheat it works out at 1/3rd 'non inversion', 2/3rds plough.
Not noticed much diff in Take all however 2nd wheats are sown? ive stopped ploughing for 2nd wheats & ok so far? Mind you the wheat all had expensive LATITUDE so maybes i wouldnt know?
find out this year again i guess... to Answer OP err roughly 50% of my current wheat had the plough infront. could be slightly less for next year but just experimenting still atm
All WB land will be ploughed. its the only way too give best control of previous crop not growing volunteers on mass i think.
Going by how some of current WB looks it was the right move
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Most is maxi-tilled in this area. A few DDers and a bit of rotational ploughing. As a guess I would say less than 10% ploughed, but not much of that prior to WW.
Its not ploughing that is the problem, its making a seedbed afterwards without a winter of weather on it.
Even after max till, my preference is to get it rolled down or even follkw the solo with the power Harrow and get a true seedbed as soon as I can. It looks risky but it's less so than waiting for weather.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,286
  • 1
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/
Top