Pheasant covers

[willy]

does anyone dd their maize, i have tried but really struggle for good descent crops. Which seems crazy as maize is possibly the biggest crop on the earth dd.

My maize always seems stunted and poor, and so i do tend to plough the cover crop ground. Any one else find this.

 

[Brisel]

You need a Claydon...

 

[willy]

You need a Claydon... [/QUOTE

 

[willy]

This is the most important crop on the farm, and so I need precision placement with no holes barred in terms of investment

 

[Brisel]

Game covers tend to be the most abused bits of ground on the farm. I used to plough ours & they always came up badly. All that pheasant, rat, badger & pigeon manure obviously doesn't do the soil biology any good.

Can you scrounge a deep cultivator & something to level it off with later on then use your direct drill at the time?

 

[yellow belly]

I gave up with maize a few years ago it is not compatible with wheat crops due to micotoxins
maize need a warmer climate than we have here
in warmer areas it grows well but then harbours rats and badgers
I find artichokes chicory and canary grass more reliable game crops
we do plough fore establishment but pland later mixtures in the summer less slugs and fleabeetle problems on heavy land

 

[mo!]

I've sown ours with the Dts for the last two years. The contractor says what good crops we have. I have only tried a small patch without ploughing and it looked awful early in the season but came on later. Maize does need looking though and not every site is suitable. Deep loosening is essential.

 

[TWi58630]

Don't drill to early. Maze likes a warm damp seed bed. If the conditions are right it will romp away.
Reed canary grass is a lot easier to establish but grow it in strips or you will have to mow or spray to get a way through it.

 

[Oakbank]

Maize does like an easy life, so a well constructed seedbed is ideal. That said, ploughing stale ground when it is wet can often create worse conditions and we have a number of clients that do DD their Maize game crops on heavy clay to great effect. You need the right kit and a good operator, plus a good nutrition and herbicide package, but it can be done very successfully.
Subsoiling is almost always part of the programme but again it MUST be done when the soil is in the correct state or it will probably make any deep-soil problems worse.

 

[JACK F]

Ploughing I have always found produced best crops but pain to do with odd shapes of some of our pheasant covers. Tend to deep cultivate and then drill as a compromise. Had a piece of cover I was extending so tried the claydon direct as not to worried if it failed. Ended up looking terrible and 1/4 the height of the rest.
Do them deep cultivated with shakerator 11inch and vibroflex 7inch combo, power harrow and then drill. Definitely would not dd here.

 

[willy]

Ploughing I have always found produced best crops but pain to do with odd shapes of some of our pheasant covers. Tend to deep cultivate and then drill as a compromise. Had a piece of cover I was extending so tried the claydon direct as not to worried if it failed. Ended up looking terrible and 1/4 the height of the rest.
Do them deep cultivated with shakerator 11inch and vibroflex 7inch combo, power harrow and then drill. Definitely would not dd here.

Yes i found the same with the claydon, no good on clays for maize. Just stunted crops