My new rotation plan

[Clive]

Would like opinion on my proposed rotation.

In short 50% WW 50% mostly spring break - diverse spring breaks with a long cycle

Winter Wheat

Winter OSR

Winter Wheat

cover crop

Spring Peas

Winter Wheat

cover crop

Spring Linseed

Winter Wheat

cover crop

Spring Oats

Winter Wheat

cover crop

Beans (winter or spring weather dependant)

so each break crop only gets grown once every 13 crop cycle - lots of diversity and lots of opportunity for good cover crops to build my soil as fast as possible (cover probably a multi species like Peders no 1 )

I see big cash flow and labour / machinery profile advantages in making the breaks spring planted and also see the diversity of crops as good risk management not having all my eggs in one basket etc

I see excellent opportunity to use varied chemistry to stay on top of grass weeds, I no longer need to worry about residual from WW hitting my break crops and I see little slug pressure in a rotation that only grows WOSR once every 13th crop

On a 2000ac farm there would be 200ac of each break crop and 1000ac of milling wheat - 1 man 1 tractor and 1 drill can cope with establishing all that easy direct drilling with a 50/50 spread of work between autumn and spring

I'm not sure we will miss big areas of WOSR - its such an expensive, risky and hard work crop to grow that brings problems to the soil, however keeping a smaller manageable area means we retain kerb use and can probably stay on top of wildlife better ! on a longer rotation I suspect its average performance might well be much better.


is my thinking sound or am I missing something here ?

 

[db9go]

The one thing that stands out to me product (crop) storage

 

[Clive]

The one thing that stands out to me product (crop) storage

I have plenty of storage capacity but agree might need to invest in better segregation - especially as I grow 3 milling varieties of wheat to spread risk that need to be stored separately

 

[Great In Grass]

If your a grass seed supplier like me, this is what nightmares are made of. Gone to lie down in a cool dark corner now.

 

[Daniel]

Id have thought it would work, here on the fen second wheats are always poor so our rotation goes:

WW
S Beet
WW/SW (depending on harvesting date)
Linseed
WW
Potatoes (land let to large grower)

No blackgrass or slugs. Millions of pigeons!

Why the cover crops, why not just leave stubble overwinter, excuse my ignorance?

 

[Fred]

Bloody fantastic, love it, going into a dark room to copy you ,

 

[Dockers]

Clive, your rotation relies heavily on first wheat performance. ( as ours does ) Not sure how sustainable it is with the input treadmill of wheat crops ? Dwaine Beck would say we should have two different crops in front of wheat ? Are the break crops profitable ? or do the first wheat margins carry them ? Can you make any sense of spring barley in your part of England ?
We are considering continuous S.Barley/S.Wheat with over winter cover crop. 6 months cover, 6 months crop ?

 

[marco]

always thinking of this when on the tractor,

w.wheat

w.wheat

cover

spring oats

w.wheat

w.wheat

cover

beans/peas

w.wheat

w.wheat

 

[Andy Howard]

Add in a companion crop with each crop Clive and you will be well away. I would love to do something similar but on our heavy ground I would worry about spring cropping every other year. We got lucky this year. a double break followed by a couble cereal crop could be added as stated above. Coming to conclusion here that rotation is going to be very loose here in the future. Opportunistic

 

[Banana Bar]

I like it, it would be best to see it through 2 or 3 complete rotations before making an informed opinion though!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rob1]

I like it, it would be best to see it through 2 or 3 complete rotations before making an informed opinion though!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reckon I will be pushing up daisys in 39 yrs to see that, ploughing & combi drilling will be the latest fad by then

 

[Clive]

Clive, your rotation relies heavily on first wheat performance. ( as ours does ) Not sure how sustainable it is with the input treadmill of wheat crops ? Dwaine Beck would say we should have two different crops in front of wheat ? Are the break crops profitable ? or do the first wheat margins carry them ? Can you make any sense of spring barley in your part of England ?
We are considering continuous S.Barley/S.Wheat with over winter cover crop. 6 months cover, 6 months crop ?

A good spring break can equal the GM of a poor WOSR crop here. It can't beat the gm of a really good WOSR. Crop but being honest we only get really good WOSR 1 year in 5, 3 years average and 1 an utter disaster ! If we take this consistency into account my gut feel is that spring breaks will on average at least equal ww/WOSR

I dont think I could afford 2 breaks in front of ww though - we don't grow massive ww yields but with no black grass here we can grow it quite cheap and achieve consistent quality

I will try and put some numbers on this rotation when I get a minute

The moisture conservation is giving me the confidence to do this, Spring crops planted into dried out worked land here can be a disaster if we then don't get much rain between drilling and combine - however min disturbance into a cover crop should provide a lot more moisture to sustain them in a dry year ? And then help keep what rain we do get in the soil

 

[Clive]

Id have thought it would work, here on the fen second wheats are always poor so our rotation goes:

WW
S Beet
WW/SW (depending on harvesting date)
Linseed
WW
Potatoes (land let to large grower)

No blackgrass or slugs. Millions of pigeons!

Why the cover crops, why not just leave stubble overwinter, excuse my ignorance?

Cover crops to build carbon and SOM, sustain biology, fix N, remove compaction, store water and mulch surface !

 

[Clive]

Add in a companion crop with each crop Clive and you will be well away. I would love to do something similar but on our heavy ground I would worry about spring cropping every other year. We got lucky this year. a double break followed by a couble cereal crop could be added as stated above. Coming to conclusion here that rotation is going to be very loose here in the future. Opportunistic

If the pea SOSR is a success then many of those breaks would be companioned ad part of the plan

 

[Clive]

always thinking of this when on the tractor,

w.wheat

w.wheat

cover

spring oats

w.wheat

w.wheat

cover

beans/peas

w.wheat

w.wheat

I have never grown good 2nd wheats here but I guess the overall gm of what you suggest might be a bit better if not quite as agronomicly sound as my plan ?

 

[Clive]

To add more brome is my biggest potential issue with dd on this farm, spring crops will sort that

I'm thinking I would let over crops grow to about march 1st they spray off with glyphosate, maybe twice if cover is big and brome potentially shadowed by taller species

Target April 1st drilling date (away from glyphosate toxicity issues) all crops direct into the dead cover - about a weeks work for 1 man and one tractor

 

[Clive]

just another thought - I could put winter barley in between WW and OSR ? - would give the OSR a nice early drilling date and I would sell the barley straw (again helping WOSR) as it is quite valuable. Also helps spread harvest as with a reduced area of WOSR i think i would be itching to get started on something while waiting for crops to come ready ?

 

[Elmsted]

Maybe time to own up to not having a planned rotation at all ever. Some principal things like when it is best to plant a crop. What to do if a crop fails to come out of winter in good state. And stick to block cropping with 50% autumn 50% spring.
Motive very simple have to work with nature and that has no plan IME. What goes in planter is only thing I can control

 

[Clive]

Maybe time to own up to not having a planned rotation at all ever. Some principal things like when it is best to plant a crop. What to do if a crop fails to come out of winter in good state. And stick to block cropping with 50% autumn 50% spring.
Motive very simple have to work with nature and that has no plan IME. What goes in planter is only thing I can control

I have never had a fixed rotation either - but I have had a range of crops that I would choose to grow and priority of those crops (ie as much WW and WOSR as pos then everything else as a plan B )

I guess I'm think the same with this "rotation" its not fixed but more a set of loose rules/ principles ie WW/Break and most of those breaks being spring vs winter meaning a MUCH reduced WOSR area every year

which spring break goes on which field can be very fluid

 

[JNG]

My current plan:

W OSR
W Barley (grows away from slugs quicker and does well on this farm)
(cover of some description being careful of scleratinia or other diseases pre legume)
S Peas/Beans
W Wheat
W Barley
(early established cover)
S Oats (Linseed on trial on farm, usefull where wild oat problems)
(late Aug harvested oats so leave oat vols as cover maybe add legume/brassica mix if early enough to establish)
S Barley

We have grass on approx 8-10% of rotational area, this will be down for approx 3 years, not included in rotation scheme because needs to stay relatively close to farm yard for cattle logistics etc so not available on rest farm apart from some silage ground where I use red clover ryegrass mix and hoping to try Lucerne. (but small area)

What strikes me from reading this rotaion is the lack of wheat, 5 years ago half the farm was in wheat in WW/WW/WB/Break (pea,osr,oat) rotation. But its now becoing expensive to grow, yields not as reliable as before. Also in this part of world wheat harvest does not usually start before late Aug so getting cover crops in not going to be easy.


Winter Barley straw valuable also and new hybrids giving fantastic yields here (on par with wheat and apart from seed costs, cheap to grow (much less N and fungicides)

S Oats and Barley along with breaks key to weed control (brome can be a problem) and we have good market potential for both, Oats does well here, a bit new to S Barley but some neighbours growing 2.8-3t/ac (sometimes more) consistently.


This is my template, things I am aware dont go to plan but I hope this rotation along with strategically targeted FYM and Compost can improve soil fertility and help keep input spend in check, with the old rotaion all high spend crops and when year like 2012 come along there is a lot of ground to make up.