Min till bellend

[scottishsnake]

Hi guys, up in North East Scotland here, thought i was the kiddie making min till work without too much spraying for the first few years, am now on my ass visa vis annual meadow grass... Have plenty for sale btw if anyone interested?.... Pick your own for a discount naturally... Am now getting complaints from neighbors regarding their Geiger counters keeping them awake at night due to my new "get rid of that sh!t by any means possible" policy... Given there's not a lot i can do about meadow grass while my spring barley is growing, my thought is to chit and knock out like buggery all winter, given the stuff goes to seed within two weeks of being born, my question to you guys is, will a straw rake do this for me? Is it fit to both germinate new seeds and knock out the last ones that grew in one go?

 

[michael N123]

Buy a plow

 

[scottishsnake]

Buy a plow

Trying to get away from that, blowing sand pushed me towards the min till in the first place.

 

[Brisel]

A straw rake is for spreading straw out, not as much of a weeding tool. Shallow discs like a Carrier would be better.

 

[scottishsnake]

I have a set of bullock discs, cracking things, was just wondering if a nice light wide rake would get me a chit for less per acre

 

[Zebbedee]

Sheep ??????

 

[jed]

Sheep ??????

You can have mine?

 

[7610 super q]

At times like this, you have to ask yourself.......what would Joel Salatin do ? ?

 

[Sandy]

Meadow grass is very easy to control pre emerge on a wet day job done

 

[Brisel]

I have a set of bullock discs, cracking things, was just wondering if a nice light wide rake would get me a chit for less per acre

I have a Claydon straw rake. It will create 1/2” of tilth with each pass but this will vary with soil type, moisture etc. It seems like a lot of money to spend for little gain. Have you checked the soil pH? Increase seed rates and the crop will compete better. Use bigger pre em herbicides as these will help too.

https://projectblue.blob.core.windows.net/media/Default/Imported%20Publication%20Docs/AHDB%20Cereals%20&%20Oilseeds/Weeds/The%20encyclopaedia%20of%20arable%20weeds%20(2018%20edition).pdf

 

[scottishsnake]

Sheep ??????

Not fenced for that I'm afraid

 

[scottishsnake]

Meadow grass is very easy to control pre emerge on a wet day job done

Aye, that's been part of the reason I'm in this mess, two desperately dry seasons in a row, the first year the pre em went on and just did nothing, and this year the chemical is still in the shed, to expensive to waste it

 

[Sandy]

Aye, that's been part of the reason I'm in this mess, two desperately dry seasons in a row, the first year the pre em went on and just did nothing, and this year the chemical is still in the shed, to expensive to waste it

Aye but even a heavy dew will activate it just get it on

 

[SilliamWhale]

Doesn't pdm do a job on meadow grass?

 

[scottishsnake]

I have a Claydon straw rake. It will create 1/2” of tilth with each pass but this will vary with soil type, moisture etc. It seems like a lot of money to spend for little gain. Have you checked the soil pH? Increase seed rates and the crop will compete better. Use bigger pre em herbicides as these will help too.

https://projectblue.blob.core.windows.net/media/Default/Imported%20Publication%20Docs/AHDB%20Cereals%20&%20Oilseeds/Weeds/The%20encyclopaedia%20of%20arable%20weeds%20(2018%20edition).pdf

Aye, ph is ok, all my land is tested every 4 years and everything goes on variable rate, including lime. Aye, competition definitely helps, but as i said somewhere else here, I'm on pretty light soil, and we've had two desperately dry springs and early summers in a row, so pre em hasn't worked, the crops have been very slow to get going in the dry, add that to me not really being on top of a small meadow grass problem in the previous seasons, now it's a big problem.... Sounds like I'm just going to be better sticking to roundup when i can and hoping for a good season for pre em next year.... Even wondering about spraying a pre em onto my cover crop in the back end if there's decent moisture, just to stop the bloody stuff seeding all winter?

 

[scottishsnake]

Aye but even a heavy dew will activate it just get it on

Did that last year, it was so dry it ended up being a total waste of thousands of pounds, couldn't see the difference between the fields I'd sprayed and the ones i hadn't. it was monumentally dry though. The kind of dry where everyone around here got spring cereals coming through with all the heavy clay and light sandy patches missing, then when it finally rained in mid June, those bits finally germinated... Was a bit the same this year, but thankfully it happened a bit earlier

 

[scottishsnake]

Doesn't pdm do a job on meadow grass?

That's the active in liberator isn't it? Thats the stuff that didn't work here last year, but it was just so desperately dry. Looks like I'm just going to have to hope for rain next spring lol

 

[jh.]

When I used to sow and spray for a fairly light farm, they had bother with meadow grass. I can't say I was that impressed with pre em spraying . Just seemed very hit or miss .

Your min till but what are the cultivation timings? . I often wondered if the ploughing usually fairly close to spring drilling could be a factor. Plough seed up and then level it off a week later rather than winter ploughed months earlier , possible chit and frost checks then getting stirred up with cultivators or power harrows at drilling .

 

[scottishsnake]

When I used to sow and spray for a fairly light farm, they had bother with meadow grass. I can't say I was that impressed with pre em spraying . Just seemed very hit or miss .

Your min till but what are the cultivation timings? . I often wondered if the ploughing usually fairly close to spring drilling could be a factor. Plough seed up and then level it off a week later rather than winter ploughed months earlier , possible chit and frost checks then getting stirred up with cultivators or power harrows at drilling .

I've been trying all sorts, mostly discing in the back end to get a chit, then twice in spring, followed by a couple of weeks to go stale and then sow. It's worked with just about all the other weeds, just the meadow grass goes to seed so fast. I had been determined to keep the spraying to a minimum, but I'm resigned to bring wrong on that front. I did get a reasonable kill on one field, roundup on the stubble after the combine, left untouched all winter, then as late as humanly possible... Like into may to let as much germinate as poss, roundup again and then direct drill the barley in. Got the sprayer guy to miss a few bits because i had misgivings about spraying a field that looked pretty dead and clean... But no, the missed bits are definitely worse now, so the cleaner result isn't solely down to the low disturbance drilling approach. I miss the days of the plough when we just solved all our problems with diesel lol

 

[Bury the Trash]

Is there something available /allowable these days with ipu in ?