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Regenerative Agriculture and Direct Drilling
Regen Ag General Discussion
Organic no till
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<blockquote data-quote="Highland Farmer" data-source="post: 7504567" data-attributes="member: 40586"><p>Good thread. I farm organic and have tried many different methods from full tillage, direct drill, min till and lots in between. I would recommend reading Robert Elliot's excellent clifton park farming system and newman turners book, both available online for free. In summary for me that main issue is the weed bank accumulation, especially charlock, hemp nettle and spurry in spring oats. Min till and no till can also exacerbate weed growth if the soil substructure is a problem as the cereal crop will struggle to get down roots whereas the shallow rooting weeds will mop up the surface nutrients. I am of the opinion that the tillage method is just one factor of a very complex equation and isn't a magic bullet for good organic crops although I find that deep conventional ploughing buries the important living humus too deep for the new seeds to get the nutrients and high concentration of bacteria when required e.g. compare using a heavy flat roller with a cambridge roller, the flat roller will encourage weed seed germination far more than the cambridge roller.</p><p>I am still learning and refining my approach but this year I am using a chisel plough on a field that had winter kale and hybrid rape last year. Another field will be chisel ploughed, I have cattle overwintered on that field and they are doing the initial tillage. I tried that same method last year on a 5a park and by spring the field looked like something from world war 1, but by the time it was disked the organic matter from the broken turf and cattle dung made an amazing seed bed. I grew Bere barley over sown with a herbal ley that has no ryegrass and it came a treat. I actually ran an experiment with an adjacent field that the cattle had access to as well. I conventional ploughed that field and it was laid down with oats and the same over sown herbal mix. The grass response was poor when compared with the disked field, although it looks fine now. The weeds were far worse on the deep ploughed field. I put this down to a long term weed bank issue that is exacerbated by deep tillage. All it does is bury the seeds in a safe moist location ready to germinate when they are brought to the surface at next tillage. The weed seeds are moist and therefore more ready to germinate and get a head start on the cereal crop. I don't do enough cropping to justify expensive robotic machinery but I am convinced that historically farmers did not have our modern methods and found ways to be productive.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Highland Farmer, post: 7504567, member: 40586"] Good thread. I farm organic and have tried many different methods from full tillage, direct drill, min till and lots in between. I would recommend reading Robert Elliot's excellent clifton park farming system and newman turners book, both available online for free. In summary for me that main issue is the weed bank accumulation, especially charlock, hemp nettle and spurry in spring oats. Min till and no till can also exacerbate weed growth if the soil substructure is a problem as the cereal crop will struggle to get down roots whereas the shallow rooting weeds will mop up the surface nutrients. I am of the opinion that the tillage method is just one factor of a very complex equation and isn't a magic bullet for good organic crops although I find that deep conventional ploughing buries the important living humus too deep for the new seeds to get the nutrients and high concentration of bacteria when required e.g. compare using a heavy flat roller with a cambridge roller, the flat roller will encourage weed seed germination far more than the cambridge roller. I am still learning and refining my approach but this year I am using a chisel plough on a field that had winter kale and hybrid rape last year. Another field will be chisel ploughed, I have cattle overwintered on that field and they are doing the initial tillage. I tried that same method last year on a 5a park and by spring the field looked like something from world war 1, but by the time it was disked the organic matter from the broken turf and cattle dung made an amazing seed bed. I grew Bere barley over sown with a herbal ley that has no ryegrass and it came a treat. I actually ran an experiment with an adjacent field that the cattle had access to as well. I conventional ploughed that field and it was laid down with oats and the same over sown herbal mix. The grass response was poor when compared with the disked field, although it looks fine now. The weeds were far worse on the deep ploughed field. I put this down to a long term weed bank issue that is exacerbated by deep tillage. All it does is bury the seeds in a safe moist location ready to germinate when they are brought to the surface at next tillage. The weed seeds are moist and therefore more ready to germinate and get a head start on the cereal crop. I don't do enough cropping to justify expensive robotic machinery but I am convinced that historically farmers did not have our modern methods and found ways to be productive. [/QUOTE]
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Organic no till
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