It’s official. Ploughing is good for soil OM!
- Thread starter Farmer Fin
- Start date
- Location
- Dorset/Wilts
I enjoyed that
- Location
- Lincolnshire
It's certainly not as reliable here for winter cereals. But more reliable for spring cereals.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
You’d have both my grandfathers and father turning in their graves!
All land destined for spring cropping needs ploughing in reasonable conditions before Christmas to give it the chance of a good frost mould, before drilling it.
Trying to get any sensible seedbed from fresh ploughed ground in the Spring is usually difficult, forced and doesn’t get the crop off to a decent start unless it is boys land.
You’ll know when it is suitable to work and drill, by dropping you trousers and being able to sit bare arsed on the ploughed land for a couple of minutes without being in too much pain!
Word of advice: Beware of any flint stones.
- Location
- Hampshire
We plough grass in a few weeks before drilling, like to have a green cover over the winter.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
The slide mentioned manures being returned to the ground too. If you are importing OM in the form of manure, it will be increasing soil OM more than the ploughing is burning off.
Of course, if you DD (or min-till) that ground and let the increased numbers of worms incorporate the manure, you will increase SOM by more....
Of course, if you DD (or min-till) that ground and let the increased numbers of worms incorporate the manure, you will increase SOM by more....
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Yes, grass is a good drainer and even my grandfathers and father might do the same. But they were all mostly arable men. Or ploughed up the grass in the Autumn and planted a Winter crop.
Forgot to add that while sat bare arsed on the plough, if your appendages shrivelled up a bit, you might want to wait a day or two.
But:
1. Make sure you give them a good wash before you go to bed anyway!
2. If your Mrs wonders how your arse and nether regions got so dirty yet your trousers are still quite clean, invite her down to the field with you the next time you go to test it.
(3ish!). Perhaps see if she would like a go herself!
(4ish!!). Leave the bloody dog at home!
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Bossfarmer
Member
- Location
- between Perth and Inverness
Depends how heavy the land is surely? We plough in the spring then straight in with combi drill we get great establishment this way
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Not heavy then is it.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
I am sure there are parts of the Country that you can get away with it.
But there are many parts where ploughing for Spring crops after Christmas is regarded as bad farming.
Just as in Gardening, digging/ploughing pre Christmas is regarded as good husbandry.
When various Stewardship schemes came out paying farmers to over-winter stubbles, this always struck me as bad farming and husbandry.
The reasons why may have changed. Today the thinking would be precisely to reduce soil C02 losses. But originally, it was for winter bird feeding. The irony being that birds don’t eat stubble or the weeds that will have gown since harvest.Any tail corn and weed seeds will have gerinated and grown way before the birds could make use of them in Winter. No doubt an over-influence from RSPB.
On heavier land, ploughing just before you plant it in the spring will need a lot more HP to get a suitable seedbed. Crops will never yield as well either.
What is the balance between the extra energy and C02 created to do this over how much extra C02 the soils loses from ploughing earlier, I wonder?
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Has anyone got a link to the actual paper?
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
What is that map showing? It looks like tree cover to me....
CORK
Member
- Location
- East Cork, Ireland
Soil Carbon in organic forms in grams per kg of soil. I don’t know what the sampling depth is.
- Location
- sw scotland
Tree cover and undisturbed soil in Scandinavia but in the west of Scotland and Ireland it is mostly grass and very little cultivation.
High rainfall, more livestock, more grass, more stored carbon. Who would ever have thought that?
High rainfall, more livestock, more grass, more stored carbon. Who would ever have thought that?
We had to spring plough some heavier fields last year as simply couldn't move the plough in the wet winter . Plough fully closed in , power harrow on stand by and tried a few times before finally going approx 48 hours after the plough , this seemed the right time for not being too raw but before it dried out too much. Rolled then power harrow combi drill and rolled again and again a few weeks later to try and aid emergence.
Other fields with similar soil type had been ploughed by end January , we prefer before Christmas but weather doesn't always allow it . These where better to sow , requiring less fuel and metal , better emergence and definitely yielded better . Also ripened far quicker and more even . The spring ploughed was so variable glyphosate saved the job as far as I'm concerned.
We also tried some mintill and claydon direct. Might have been the year but both did better than anything ploughed in late March or early April .
The same is happening this winter with plough parked up , so it looks like I'll be trying some more mintill spring barley .
The problem is , early ploughing suits our spring crops on our soil type but it does damage the soil as a few gullies have already been cut on hillsides . I have 10m margins at waterways and they are stopping most of the soil getting washed away but it's not ideal to allow it in the first place but for the reasons above I see no other option if going for yield and consistency.
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theres only bad management not a bad system
warksfarmer
Member
Yes but even with exceptional management you can’t beat the weather. The weather always wins.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Interesting. The slide in the OP appears to be contradicted by this
taken from SRUC's website here: https://ww1.sruc.ac.uk/media/4qgfjtuh/valuing-your-soils.pdf
taken from SRUC's website here: https://ww1.sruc.ac.uk/media/4qgfjtuh/valuing-your-soils.pdf
That goes for any system though.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
That's because the slide in the OP has been misrepresented. Listen to to the webinar for this slide, starts at around 10.10 on this link. The speaker never suggests that ploughing is good for SOM, quite the opposite, she suggests that to increase SOM intensive cultivations need to be reduced. The bullet point about SOM is merely suggesting that Scottish soils has good levels of SOM. Ploughing is never mentioned.