Is this a stupid idea for establishing wheat after potatoes??

[melted welly]

After spuds its likely to be your highest margin cereal crop ...... why bugga it up by saving a few quid on establishment!!!

Quite often bugger it up with the one pass after potatoes . Our soil won’t stand being overly fine then rained on, creates an impervious layer, waterlogs, crop rots.
I’m thinking I could leave it more open and cover ground quicker. Plus am short staffed so more likely to get caught.

 

[Chae1]

Lift spuds, Karat, spin seed on with fert spreader, rolls with paddles, done

Except he said he doesn't have rolls with paddles.

 

[melted welly]

Could you blow the seed on in front of the karat packer, then roll. Would get a bit more depth and cover.

Yes could do, or maybe blow it in amongst the discs???

 

[Flat 10]

Quite often bugger it up with the one pass after potatoes . Our soil won’t stand being overly fine then rained on, creates an impervious layer, waterlogs, crop rots.
I’m thinking I could leave it more open and cover ground quicker. Plus am short staffed so more likely to get caught.

As I said before why use karat?

 

[melted welly]

As I said before why use karat?

Because that’s what we have.

Used to use flat lift but it doesn’t mix the stones well enough so you end up with wheat drilled into stones every 2m which it doesn’t like. Plus the finish was like a corrugated roof.

Karat boils the soil, and levels it out reasonably, you need an element of levelling or your sowing into stone filled wheelings . The One pass levels it out but turns the soil too fine so it tends to cap in the wet.

We’re growing seed potatoes in soil types that are not forgiving.

 

[thorpe]

Things are still quite dry, both on top and at depth. We’ll be lifting potatoes in a few weeks, if there’s no excessive rainfall it’s gonna be relatively dry, soils going to be in nice condition for the following crop.

I follow the potatoes with wheat, generally extase as it is amazing at hanging in thru winter.

Normally post harvest I’ll karat the ground then sow with one pass. Only have the one drill.

this year I’m wondering if the ground stays in good nick whether to follow the karat with the rollers, hang the front hopper of the drill on the tractor, blow the wheat to the back, thru mushroom and out spreader plates mounted on rollers, blowing wheat in front of rolls. Rolls incorporate and consolidate.

Is this a stupid idea?

Rolls are 12m, sprayer 36m so the wheelings would work in. Be no consistency in depth but karat leaves a nice finish with a DD packer, I’m thinking wheat would mostly fall into the troughs then after rolling would be about 1/2”deep, apart from the wheelings, but hey ho.

I’m struggling to see a negative. Obviously if it turns wet it’s a no go, but if its dry I get the wheat in quicker (12m drill ) without the compaction of the power harrow pass as this is often an issue if there’s a lot of rain post drilling, seed bed is tight and tends to waterlog.

Thoughts and criticism welcome!

have a go , often less = more!

 

[hollister]

Will the hopper be able to cope with putting out 10% increase in seed rate and 12m of "drill" width?

 

[melted welly]

Will the hopper be able to cope with putting out 10% increase in seed rate and 12m of "drill" width?

Yeah, that’s something I hadn’t thought about. Pointed out by a pal also, I don’t think I’d be able to blow enough seed to the back for 12m or if I could, fwd speed would be embarrassing. Maybe try broadcasting some in front of karat packer roller as someone else suggested.

 

[Lowland1]

I’m doing all my wheat and barley similarly. ( except for spinning the seed on)
Discordan to cultivate and leave rows for broadcast seed to fall into then follow with press with leading tines. It works very well. Broadcasting seed gets a bad name because it’s usually a last resort but if you plan it it works very well. We are using 50 kg an acre. I’ve found you actually can use less seed rather than more seed with broadcasting as you get less seed competition as it’s spread out more than in rows. I have thought of a hopper on the press but then you’re going back to drilling.