Is it worth subsoiling in these dry conditions?

[DeeGee]

The use of a spade will tell you if you need to do any at all

Good luck to you with a spade trying to dig here at the moment!

 

[ollie989898]

View attachment 702208 Perfect conditions for subsoiling here. Land we have just taken on plough pan at 8” and last years stubble still there!

You have a rather large tractor pulling that I think?

Being a lazy so and so, I would:

Drill crop in the tramlines- something to drive on in spring.
Run with wider wheels on the sprayer all year round.
Keep the tramlines in the same place year after year.

Unless of course they were completely fudged and needed pulling out.

 

[wuddy]

You have a rather large tractor pulling that I think?

Being a lazy so and so, I would:

Drill crop in the tramlines- something to drive on in spring.
Run with wider wheels on the sprayer all year round.
Keep the tramlines in the same place year after year.

Unless of course they were completely fudged and needed pulling out.

We do all of the above as on ctf! but as I said we have just taken this on. It was drilled by the previous owners who were at 30m tramlines. we fertilised it in the spring and are at 36m trams so had two sets of tramlines in it. Yes tractor is overkill but doesn’t struggle spin wheels etc well on top of the job to do it properly

 

[John]

Not subsoiling here but started mole ploughing yesterday on rape stubble a surprised how good a job it was making.

 

[Hooby Farmer]

are ground could never mole plough like that!! that should run some water away.

 

[Flat 10]

View attachment 702518 Not subsoiling here but started mole ploughing yesterday on rape stubble a surprised how good a job it was making.

Great photo

 

[mikep]

View attachment 702518 Not subsoiling here but started mole ploughing yesterday on rape stubble a surprised how good a job it was making.

Just to be perverse it looks a bit dry to me.

 

[No5]

Just to be perverse it looks a bit dry to me.

Was thinking the same, to many cracks and crumbling. Our land is way too dry to mole, although it hasn't stopped the neighbours.

 

[mikep]

Was thinking the same, to many cracks and crumbling. Our land is way too dry to mole, although it hasn't stopped the neighbours.

Golden rule was if it doesn't smear it's too dry. Not wet smear but enough to draw the clay into a nice tunnel with regular 'pouts' (drawing curls) No sign of smear or 'pouting' just dry compacted clay and plenty of heat.

 

[yellow belly]

Looks too dry and crumbly

 

[ollie989898]

Subsoiling is best done in the dry I always thought, never done any moling but understood that it needed to be moist enough to smear and create a neat and smooth 'tube'.

Subsoil in the dry and the ground heaves up like a tidal wave is passing under it. Always left it rough as sin mind but nothing the discs and press wouldn't sort.

 

[John]

Looks too dry and crumbly

We think it’s ok. The digger bucket smeared the side of the trench we dug to see the mole. You wouldn’t want it any drier mind

 

[yellow belly]

I am not doing any here as it is too dry cracks 1m deep or more and I am sure the mole would be very hot and take a lot of pulling

I will locate some of last years and year before moling and have a look
Because in previous dry times when it is followed by wet the moles fail early

Subsoiling and making bricks will also be too expensive to break down if it does not rain heavy before drilling
To day had 15 mm in 20 minutes on one farm
Had 22 mm at end of July and 25 so far in August before to today’s 15 it had only gone in 2inches

 

[FarmerBruce]

Surely anyone on heavy land that’s been paddled over last few years, through cultivation, who isn’t subsoiling is pretty daft!!

 

[ajd132]

Surely anyone on heavy land that’s been paddled over last few years, through cultivation, who isn’t subsoiling is pretty daft!!

And here is the problem. recreational over cultivation that many see as essential only leads to more and more correctional cultivation and thus the cycle continues.

 

[Brisel]

And here is the problem. recreational over cultivation that many see as essential only leads to more and more correctional cultivation and thus the cycle continues.

So, what would you do if you found a pan at 10" that needed lifting? Ignore it and hope it sorted itself in time, taking the hit on yield for a year or two?

 

[principal skinner]

I’m taking advantage of the dry conditions and pulling a low disturbance subsoiler through my heavy ground that has a pan at 8 inches. Loads of vertical cracks but I can lift the lumps out and a hard layer under where they shear off. Year two with the claydon and years of shallow ploughing and a retired driver who used to lift it out if pulling hard!

 

[ajd132]

So, what would you do if you found a pan at 10" that needed lifting? Ignore it and hope it sorted itself in time, taking the hit on yield for a year or two?

Not what I meant i was raising the point that often cultivating causes issues which causes more cultivating. Of course if you have created a pan or compacted it loads then you have to do something but there is a lot of ways around these issues nowadays.

 

[FarmerBruce]

And here is the problem. recreational over cultivation that many see as essential only leads to more and more correctional cultivation and thus the cycle continues.

And here is the stereotypical know it all who thinks they know all land types on all farms in all situations!!

 

[ajd132]

And here is the stereotypical know it all who thinks they know all land types on all farms in all situations!!

It's not being a know it all it's common sense. Ploughing in horrendously wet conditions because you've compacted with harvest traffic all over the place causes a pan, then you work it down in poor conditions and the cycle of compaction starts again. Then the next year you have to subsoil the plough pan out, but it's really dry and you pull out massive lumps. Then it gets really wet when you have to work it down with 4 or 5 passes because the lumps are so big and more compaction is added even worse because the subsoiling has completely destabilised any kind of structure. Hamsters on a wheel.
That 'you don't my land' rubbish is such a pathetic excuse for refusing to believe anything you could do could possibly be wrong.