Min till vs plough peas

[Try to succeed]

Ladies/Gents,

Does anyone have any experience of pros and cons of min till established peas vs those that have gone in on over wintered ploughing? Has there been any yield differences? I trio'd my pea land in the autumn and drilled at a slightly higher rate and all looking good so far. We're on heavy land and I'm after anyone else's experiences of different establishment techniques on such land?

Cheers

 

[Brisel]

I can't help with the peas, but on heavy land spring establishment is all about seedbed quality & moisture retention if dry. IMO establishment makes more difference to yield than timing or method in spring crops.

 

[Will0]

We had peas last year: field 1 was failed rape that we min tilled 2" deep and ploughed the headland (Centium), field 2 was Autumn ploughed and a seed bed prepared in the spring.
The difference was about 100kg/ha from field to field, but field 1 did not have any noticeable difference on the headland.
Not a fair trial, I know, but I would have no worries about min tilled peas

 

[Try to succeed]

I can't help with the peas, but on heavy land spring establishment is all about seedbed quality & moisture retention if dry. IMO establishment makes more difference to yield than timing or method in spring crops.

Thanks for the reply. We've never needed to worry much about moisture retention on our land in spring! However, we can be susceptible for Autumn drilling. We normally worry about the soil being too wet in spring, and the trio'd land definitely didn't dry as fast as ploughing has in the past, but that's to be expected. I think this was a blessing in disguise this year, as I had to wait for the land to dry sufficiently so didn't rush to get them in early (weather was ****) and when they did eventually go in, they were up and away in some sun. Hoping there won't be much difference in yield as this new strategy for us will make up a large part of black grass management.

 

[Try to succeed]

We had peas last year: field 1 was failed rape that we min tilled 2" deep and ploughed the headland (Centium), field 2 was Autumn ploughed and a seed bed prepared in the spring.
The difference was about 100kg/ha from field to field, but field 1 did not have any noticeable difference on the headland.
Not a fair trial, I know, but I would have no worries about min tilled peas

How did the harvesting go last year?? Ours were literally flat!

 

[Will0]

Harvesting them was painful. The cutterbar had a lot of black grass to chew through as well as trying to get the peas off the ground!
We don't have any peas this year...

 

[Try to succeed]

Harvesting them was painful. The cutterbar had a lot of black grass to chew through as well as trying to get the peas off the ground!
We don't have any peas this year...

Enough said!