Pasture Cropping

[Farmer Roy]

Wasn't sure if best place to post this, but seemed as good as any

This is not my place, I'm planting this for a neighbour.
Barley into a tired grass pasture.
Would be at least 15 years or more since this ground was ploughed, cultivated or grew any crops. What is growing here now is basically what has come back when they stopped cropping. A range of native grasses, naturalised medics & a range of exotic grasses & broad leaves.
Paddock was sprayed with glyphosate & urea spread yesterday ( don't know how much )
I'm interested how this goes & will post updates if anyone interested.
At this stage, his intention appears to be to graze cattle on it this year, then zero till it through to next year

 

[Farmer Roy]

I will also say that when this paddock was cropped, it was farmed "conventionally", being ploughed & cultivated to within an inch of its life, pounded into dust, with poor structure & no soil life.
It basically was uneconomic to crop.
When it was conventionally farmed, the soil used to have a light reddish colour - the soil in the above pictures is much darker & appears to hold moisture better

 

[TelesnaAg]

Non treated seed...be good to see how it goes disease wise...

Ant...

 

[Farmer Roy]

I don't think disease will be an issue, we are a fairly dry environment
I haven't treated any wheat seed for 10 yrs & have never applied fungicide to a cereal
Haven't treated any chickpea seed for 3 yrs, last yr when most people did 6 - 7 fungicide sprays, I did 1 . . .

 

[Farmer Roy]

What has amazed me most is how this soils structure & colour has improved so much . . .

 

[Steel]

Looks great sowing conditions. I only cultivate to landform or grade paddocks to improve irrigation.

Hopefully I will have a disk planter soon to reduce soil disturbance.

 

[Farmer Roy]

Looks great sowing conditions. I only cultivate to landform or grade paddocks to improve irrigation.

Hopefully I will have a disk planter soon to reduce soil disturbance.

These disc units I'm using are Baldan. I bought reconditioned ( new discs, bearings & tyres) from Serafin for $950 each I think it was

 

[Steel]

I was talking to Rod at serafin yesterday about a 9 m seeder on 50 cm spacings for sowing into heavy stubbles. For now planning on keeping my HB paralagram seeder on 25 cm for closer spacings and sowing into less stubble.

 

[TelesnaAg]

Next spring barley or oat crop i will sow untreated...which for spring crop is way to go as if you dont get it in you can jam the grain into stock and utilise it...

Ant...