One for the direct drillers !

[hillman]

My biggest worry with direct drilled grass with say a Duncan or atitchsion is the row width and not tillering out , also on shale based soils how well do they work would a disc like a Moore be better , in other wards would the tines flick up too many stones , what's best to put back down if so without recking the slots ?
Question 2 if you use a tine drill spray weeds off any one gone in between the 2 grass rows using sat nav to drill in clovers /herbs would you rip grass too much ?

Prehaps I'm overthinking this !

 

[neilo]

I always double drill grass seed with my Simtech, at a slight diagonal. Even then, you can still see distinct drill lines in both directions for a good 12 months. A long term pp ley will tiller out and fill in more than shorter lived varieties, but the double drilling gives a helping hand. I’m not sure if i’d Do the same if it was costing me an extra £20/ac in contractor’s costs to do so though.

As for drilling clover between rows of grass, how accurate is the GPS over there? Even the expensive subscription outfits over here wouldn’t give that level of accuracy.

 

[Al R]

I always double drill grass seed with my Simtech, at a slight diagonal. Even then, you can still see distinct drill lines in both directions for a good 12 months. A long term pp ley will tiller out and fill in more than shorter lived varieties, but the double drilling gives a helping hand. I’m not sure if i’d Do the same if it was costing me an extra £20/ac in contractor’s costs to do so though.

As for drilling clover between rows of grass, how accurate is the GPS over there? Even the expensive subscription outfits over here wouldn’t give that level of accuracy.

I’ve seen people sow wheat at 12.5cm spacing and then go through with the drill on a 6.25cm offset but not drilling so that they “chopped” the weeds up.

 

[hillman]

Clover between rows was more a brain fart to see if would work or had been done @neilo

 

[JD-Kid]

Clover between rows was more a brain fart to see if would work or had been done @neilo

sow the grass in rows and spread the clover seed a few guys I know. have a 3rd box just for clovers and let seed drop on the ground. a set of chain harrows behind drill will cover it
a few others I know will sow just grass then use harder chems for weed control on grass. then spread clovers with spinner. a year or so later

 

[JD-Kid]

another way is under sow the clovers herbs in lighter rate of rape then. drill grass in to the clovers. giving. the clovers a chance to get going

 

[hillman]

another way is under sow the clovers herbs in lighter rate of rape then. drill grass in to the clovers. giving. the clovers a chance to get going

Limited sprays here so to kill out weeds docks etc I'd end up loosing the herbs and clovers

 

[JD-Kid]

Limited sprays here so to kill out weeds docks etc I'd end up loosing the herbs and clovers

in that set up not sprayed before drilling the grasses just hard grazed to. nip back the clovers

 

[cows r us]

My biggest worry with direct drilled grass with say a Duncan or atitchsion is the row width and not tillering out , also on shale based soils how well do they work would a disc like a Moore be better , in other wards would the tines flick up too many stones , what's best to put back down if so without recking the slots ?
Question 2 if you use a tine drill spray weeds off any one gone in between the 2 grass rows using sat nav to drill in clovers /herbs would you rip grass too much ?

Prehaps I'm overthinking this !

Are you reseeding a grass ley or putting arable ground back too wheat?

 

[hillman]

Are you reseeding a grass ley or putting arable ground back too wheat?

Forage crop then under sow barley to whole crop, stitch in clovers and grasses aswell

 

[cows r us]

Just be careful with seed depth. Barley wants to be in a good inch but grass and especially clover want to be nearer surface. I'd be inclined to drill the barley, broadcast the grass and clover then roll.

 

[Cluny]

Just be careful with seed depth. Barley wants to be in a good inch but grass and especially clover want to be nearer surface. I'd be inclined to drill the barley, broadcast the grass and clover then roll.

I broadcast 50kgs of barley before I sow the grassed with the Einbock and it has worked for me like that for about the last ten years. Get a cut of silage of early and let’s us graze with sheep a couple of times before winter

 

[Global ovine]

I diamond drilled pasture seed mix after Roundup using a Duncan drill with a Baker Boot (inverted T coulter). Over 20 + years covered over 1,000 acres with only a couple of failures due to drought. I found single pass with 8 inch coulters too wide for good pasture establishment in year one (they did fill out but weedy in year 1), but 2 passes on the diamond was really good using half rates with seed at each pass.
If drilling after mid spring, slugs can be a real problem in our parts.

 

[Yale]

I diamond drilled pasture seed mix after Roundup using a Duncan drill with a Baker Boot (inverted T coulter). Over 20 + years covered over 1,000 acres with only a couple of failures due to drought. I found single pass with 8 inch coulters too wide for good pasture establishment in year one (they did fill out but weedy in year 1), but 2 passes on the diamond was really good using half rates with seed at each pass.
If drilling after mid spring, slugs can be a real problem in our parts.

Interesting about the drought.

This last spring was our first season with the Simtech drill and I overseeded about 10 acre.

We had a cold late spring which flipped into the driest summer for 30 years.

I haven’t seen much sign of the overseeding mix however the acid test will be next spring when I will hope to see the overseed mix in rows as it should get going earlier....hopefully.

I’m leaning towards doing the overseeding late summer now just before we get a damper spell when pasture can be hammered back and soil temps are good.

 

[JD-Kid]

Interesting about the drought.

This last spring was our first season with the Simtech drill and I overseeded about 10 acre.

We had a cold late spring which flipped into the driest summer for 30 years.

I haven’t seen much sign of the overseeding mix however the acid test will be next spring when I will hope to see the overseed mix in rows as it should get going earlier....hopefully.

I’m leaning towards doing the overseeding late summer now just before we get a damper spell when pasture can be hammered back and soil temps are good.

just be careful if the temps drop fast
do a lot more over sowing very late summer autumn on this place but if temp drops too fast. clovers etc etc get hammered and we have mild winters due to being close to the coast
spring sowing here. can be hit and miss as very summer dry most years with next door to no growth. from early dec till march have even had the odd year. with no good rains until may

 

[Global ovine]

To put a figure around the very good point made by JD, don't sow clovers (using any system) when mean soil temperature is below 5 deg. C in the spring, or heading to that in the autumn. The reason is clover seedlings are small and easily get over topped by the faster growing grasses which tolerate lower temperatures. Clover must have plenty of light. They are very attractive to pests and can be wiped out at emergence. Their risk is greater than faster growing grass species at low temps.
I have seen too many farmers blaming direct drilling for legume failure in spring because they drilled too early.