Written by Charlotte Cunningham from CPM Magazine
Over-cultivating seedbeds, or cultivating them too soon after harvest, risks damaging soil structure and impairing following crop establishment, warns Hutchinsons. Speaking at a recent open day at the firm’s Helix West demonstration farm in Oxfordshire, Dick Neale, technical manager at Hutchinsons, urged growers to be patient before going onto land with the cultivator after harvest. He says that there’s a particular risk where shallow or minimal cultivations were carried out too early, leaving soils exposed to weathering for several weeks before drilling, and potentially leading to seedbeds slumping, capping and less able to infiltrate water. “Poor water infiltration is a fundamental problem on many UK farms. It’s often exacerbated where seedbeds are over-cultivated or where shallow tillage is done too early in the season, leaving the same weathering time as would be allowed for deep-tilled seedbeds. All too often soils then breakdown too much and growers find seedbeds have slumped by the time they get to drilling in September or October.” Tailor timings Dick advises growers to tailor cultivation timing more closely to the type of machine used, soil type and time required for weathering or further cultivations before drilling. But he also acknowledged that workloads and time constraints at…
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Over-cultivating seedbeds, or cultivating them too soon after harvest, risks damaging soil structure and impairing following crop establishment, warns Hutchinsons. Speaking at a recent open day at the firm’s Helix West demonstration farm in Oxfordshire, Dick Neale, technical manager at Hutchinsons, urged growers to be patient before going onto land with the cultivator after harvest. He says that there’s a particular risk where shallow or minimal cultivations were carried out too early, leaving soils exposed to weathering for several weeks before drilling, and potentially leading to seedbeds slumping, capping and less able to infiltrate water. “Poor water infiltration is a fundamental problem on many UK farms. It’s often exacerbated where seedbeds are over-cultivated or where shallow tillage is done too early in the season, leaving the same weathering time as would be allowed for deep-tilled seedbeds. All too often soils then breakdown too much and growers find seedbeds have slumped by the time they get to drilling in September or October.” Tailor timings Dick advises growers to tailor cultivation timing more closely to the type of machine used, soil type and time required for weathering or further cultivations before drilling. But he also acknowledged that workloads and time constraints at…
The post Patience required to stop soils slumping, warns Hutchinsons appeared first on cpm magazine.
Continue reading on CPM website...
If you are enjoying what you read then why not considering subscribing here: http://www.cpm-magazine.co.uk/subscribe/