Nightmare Beet Cultivations

[The Fenster]

Got two fields due to come beet this year, nice black land but been under water all winter . Contractors have come in and reprofiled ditches , and under drained, finishing last week. Fields are now drying out fast, some areas are rock solid , some are rutted up to hell where drainage kit has been driving , and there's tonnes and tonnes of sludge thats been dug out the drains which is about 1 foot high in places , spread over a width of 10 to 20 yards the length of the field. This stuff is hard on top but sloppy underneath.
So how would you tackle this to level field and make a seed bed without losing all moisture and ground becoming concrete.

 

[Adeptandy]

I ted to cart the spoil off nowadays, heap it and leave it a year to dry, then take it back to the lows after harvest.

 

[Lincsman]

Give it a good subsoiling first.

 

[robbie]

With the wind were getting at the minute I'd be putting a chiesel plough/pigtail through the dredgings to dry them out. Run through them let it dry and repeat, it'll dry it out and level it off.
Then plough and press the whole lot.

 

[michael N123]

Where we have ruts in stubble fields from leading feed out to sheep cows ect I normally get rid of them with a bit of powerharrow abuse dragging the soil into the hollows then plow

 

[The Fenster]

Thanks for suggestions. Anyone had any luck getting a seed bed for beet through subsoiling , pigtailing etc, min till style ? Or would you always go for plough and press etc ?

 

[robbie]

@Will 1594 and @DrWazzock have I believe.

I have some that I could probably drill by just terra discing, it'd had muck and has been chiesel ploughed and then disced to incorporate the much and cover crop. This was done a month ago so hasn't lost much moisture if I was to now pigtail then terra disc I'd loose too much moisture so for me the plough and press is king.

 

[Nearly]

Thanks for suggestions. Anyone had any luck getting a seed bed for beet through subsoiling , pigtailing etc, min till style ? Or would you always go for plough and press etc ?

It sounds like Max Till with everything but the plough.

 

[GeorgeK]

I've read on here that strapping a railway sleeper across the tines of a sturdy cultivator massively increases the leveling capabilities. My preferred choice for leveling is wide pointed tines pulled as fast as possible. Leveling is all about the distance soil is moved, you want to be dragging a bow wave along with you scraping soil off the high spots and depositing it where it's low. Working it intensively but keeping it in the same area will only do a limited amount of leveling.

 

[Will 1594]

@Will 1594 and @DrWazzock have I believe.

I have some that I could probably drill by just terra discing, it'd had muck and has been chiesel ploughed and then disced to incorporate the much and cover crop. This was done a month ago so hasn't lost much moisture if I was to now pigtail then terra disc I'd loose too much moisture so for me the plough and press is king.

Just had last lot gone in from non ploughing beet . Field did well for blowing sand but started prepping it for beet previous year to get it in good order

Where is @The Fenster located

 

[The Fenster]

Just had last lot gone in from non ploughing beet . Field did well for blowing sand but started prepping it for beet previous year to get it in good order

Where is @The Fenster located

How did you prep ?
Located at Southery near Downham Market , Norfolk Cambridgeshire border . Black land which should be bloody fantastic but at the lowest point on the fen, so massive drainage issues . Getting there slowly though

 

[DrWazzock]

We used a stubble cultivator in early spring (terradisc, seven shallow broad legs, levelling discs and cross kill roller all in one machine) Then power harrowed in front of drill. Thank god we did otherwise it would have blown away by now. There is just enough stubble and chopped straw left to hold it plus it’s very ridgy after the drill being soft.
My spring beans, ploughed , power harrowed then MF 30 are blowing like a desert with a dune forming at one end. Supposed to get a preem herb on. What a joke. Thankfully the only light land ploughed this year, the test is DD or min till.

 

[DrWazzock]

 

[DrWazzock]

Same land ploughed

only drilled on thursday. Disaster. Never ploughing sand again.

 

[Will 1594]

How did you prep ?
Located at Southery near Downham Market , Norfolk Cambridgeshire border . Black land which should be bloody fantastic but at the lowest point on the fen, so massive drainage issues . Getting there slowly though

Just over river then

 

[Niteforce]

Going straight into autumn ploughed and pressed . Last year into autumn sumoed land that never got drilled with wheat .It was wet underneath though but so was a lot of land.!!
View attachment 950722

 

[Will 1594]

Got two fields due to come beet this year, nice black land but been under water all winter . Contractors have come in and reprofiled ditches , and under drained, finishing last week. Fields are now drying out fast, some areas are rock solid , some are rutted up to hell where drainage kit has been driving , and there's tonnes and tonnes of sludge thats been dug out the drains which is about 1 foot high in places , spread over a width of 10 to 20 yards the length of the field. This stuff is hard on top but sloppy underneath.
So how would you tackle this to level field and make a seed bed without losing all moisture and ground becoming concrete.

go plough the spoil only as deep as its spread ,to get some air into it ,leave it to dry , then if you
Have you a super flow or sabre tine drag , put all tines in a row on back beam , put it on front linkage , and spend a bit of time or a lot of time dragging it back across the field with it on front you dont get a stiff kneck , , just done about a 1000 m of ditch spoil on same land as you ,on other side of river ,then i tripple pressed it to level it ,
that bitbis getting drilled with spring wheat ,
yours ,i would level spoil like i did , remove your compaction ,then plough it well ,if you have a 6 furrow and have a press arm will lend you the monster press with following coil and then drill into it so you dont work it any more and loos e moisture , or do you want it drilling ,as have front cultivator ,that just does the beet row ,and mulch drill will cut through clods and press wheels do a good job on clods ,
,last years beet land ,on field i mentioned ,had a bit of chicken and pig muck ,after barley then mixed in with ,knight press with seeder on it , dribbled a bit of rape mustard oil raddish and stubble tonnops , The white lice ate it off , then subsoiled it at 450 cm row spacings , with a 24 inch heavy coil on bridge link following the 800 packer ,then drilled with mulch drill following subsoiler lines , fert and nitrogen was put on before subsoiler ing , ,had 53 loads off nearly 19 ha , ,did not think it was too shabby for this year ,

 

[Will 1594]

We used a stubble cultivator in early spring (terradisc, seven shallow broad legs, levelling discs and cross kill roller all in one machine) Then power harrowed in front of drill. Thank god we did otherwise it would have blown away by now. There is just enough stubble and chopped straw left to hold it plus it’s very ridgy after the drill being soft.
My spring beans, ploughed , power harrowed then MF 30 are blowing like a desert with a dune forming at one end. Supposed to get a preem herb on. What a joke. Thankfully the only light land ploughed this year, the test is DD or min till.

Wazcock ,donyou think terra disc ,with wide wings on leaves a pan like layer , are you better with a chisel type point ,that will dig ,not convinced with those really wide wings

 

[DrWazzock]

Wazcock ,donyou think terra disc ,with wide wings on leaves a pan like layer , are you better with a chisel type point ,that will dig ,not convinced with those really wide wings

The wide wings seem to leave a more level finish, cut weeds off and move more ground, mixing better. We used to use the super flow but even the power Harrow struggled to get the ridges out. I understand what you are saying about leaving a polished pan though, especially power harrowing it afterwards. If it needed subsoiling I’d do it separately in the autumn. It’s mostly sand and fairly soft at depth. Ploughing has always brought slightly higher yields or a complete loss due to erosion damage.

 

[DrWazzock]

What I need is a low disturbance mini subsoiler tine with seed down the back for spring beans and OSR straight into stubble. Then I’m erosion proof.
Last year for beet here so couldn’t really care less.
But I digress.