Metcalfe +\- surface cultivation?

[alomy75]

Couple of photos taken today; w wheat after s wheat after beet. LD subsoiled the whole field in the dry (September) and then attempted to lightly level the odd lump with a Rabe FieldBird (short disc type thing). But it was too wet (October) and kept bunging up so I only ended up having a couple of rounds. Drilled the whole field (early November) and can’t decide whether the plants look better after the Rabe or straight into subsoiled stubble? No standing water on either but the Rabe bit walks wetter

 

[HarryB97]

After the rabe the wheat does look better but the plants are against a dark background unlike the light stubble and you would of mineralised some N. I would be very happy with either crop.

 

[alomy75]

I agree; it’s tricky to remove the darker soil effect from a visual comparison. In hindsight I wish I had just gone a lot shallower to literally just level the lumps rather than fall into the trap of cultivating but I look at where I’ve done nothing and it hasn’t suffered through not being level so query whether I should have been there at all with the Rabe I might do some plant counts...the Rabe stuff looks less gappy

 

[Andy26]

Rabe looks more even and uniform.

Quite wide row spacing?

 

[alomy75]

250mm Sprinter. 250kg/ha KWS Kerrin (over-wintered, treated FSS so hefty seed rate)

 

[Rich k]

Just an extra thought for you alomy75 I’ve added these to the back of my Subsoiler to level up behind Metclaffe by legs I have not tried it yet as only just finished building it

 

[Warp Land Farmer]

Just an extra thought for you alomy75 I’ve added these to the back of my Subsoiler to level up behind Metclaffe by legs I have not tried it yet as only just finished building it

I like that idea a lots and it looks like you have made a good gob gabbing it up. If you would post some photos when in work that would be great. Also where did you source the paddles and ends from if you don’t mind sharing?

 

[alomy75]

That looks a smart bit of kit! I have a set of simba ld legs to go in a flatliner but still searching for a decent machine (with worn legs!) to convert. My only current flatlift is a converted 7 leg blench with simba SL ld legs which are quite short; especially when I’m trying to go deep enough as to not rupture the surface. Update on the OP-plant counts were broadly similar in and out of the cultivated area so any differences are due to vigour rather than establishment.

 

[Rich k]

All the parts came from NRH engineering Neil was very helpful.

 

[alomy75]

All the parts came from NRH engineering Neil was very helpful.

I’m sure like me you’ve considered opening discs to reduce soil burst; is it something you rate? I can’t make my mind up-when dry my land comes up in big lumps and I’m not sure id ever get a disc going deep enough to make a difference

 

[Rich k]

I did think about fitting discs yes but I have ng legs with the narrow shins on right to the bottom with the medium size wings fitted and i find we don’t get a lot of lumps even on our heavy clay plus I like a bit of soil movement on the surface for drilling rape into a clean strip of soil.

 

[alomy75]

Photo update; non-rabe’d part of field has now fallen behind. Had its first liquid N last week.

 

[chester]

Uncultivated will produce best margin and be more sustainable I would think.

 

[alomy75]

Uncultivated will produce best margin and be more sustainable I would think.

I agree. This wheat is now best looking WW on the farm (including some true dd wheat after beans). Following on from the ELMS pilot release last week I wonder if my LD subsoiling will count as ‘reduced depth tillage’ Why haven’t they called it ‘non-inversion tillage’ if they want to reduce ploughing?? A subsoiler works to the same depth (or more) than a plough yet the initial text doesn’t seem to differentiate them despite their very different modes of action and effects on the soil layers...

 

[deleted user 837354]

Both look very similar to me. The stubble and roots have kept the land from being saturated as readily unlike the cultivated part I would say. Both crops look AOK.