I am new to direct drilling. Just last autumn I bought used Mzuri Pro Till, done with it about 50ha of winter wheat. I am planning to seed spring beans and possibly spring rape with it. In conventional farming I am used to apply pre emergent herbicides. I am wondering how efficient pre em herbicides would be with all the residue on the surface. Your experiences and comments would be very appreciated. What would be your herbicides choice (pre em or post em) When growing beans and rape?
Pre em herbicides in direct drilling when growing beans, rape
- Thread starter Marius
- Start date
- Location
- Essex/Herts Border
Used Nirvana as pre-em on spring beans drilled with our DTS into stubble or cover crop residue the past 2 years and it's always done a good job. Remember the idea of the strip-till drill like the Mzuri is to create a fairly trash free strip of soil for the crop to grow so that strip will still take a pre-em quite well. The trash and less disturbed areas between the strips should have fewer weeds grow anyway and the pre-em will still have some affect I believe.
That's my thinking too. The trouble with strip tillage is that you have the worst of all worlds for weed control - soil disturbance, higher crop residue levels to intercept sprays and lock them up yet poorer consolidation close to the seed from the clods that you can't get to with the rolls that ride over the undisturbed ridges furthest away from the legs. This is where regular spring cropping is needed IMO.
- Location
- Essex/Herts Border
Agree about rolls riding over ridges, still can't decide whether rolling with the drill or at 30 degrees to it is better, I think 30 degrees seems to do a better job (might just be be me thinking it is though) although any rolling is normally better than no rolling. The DTS does have its rear press wheels which give good seed to soil contact in the majority of situations so rolling more for consolidation and reducing clod size for herbicides rather than seed to soil contact, but... when its a bit wet the DTS would probably be better off with some form of rear harrow like the Claydon rather than press wheels pushing down on wet clay, Though I think the answer to that problem for me is called patience (in the spring) and continued attempts to improve soil OM to try and improve its structure and workabilty because atm some of my soils are in pretty crap nick I feel.
90 degrees seems to work well. Go slow though.
- Location
- Essex/Herts Border
Think I will give this a go possibly this spring if not then next autumn, not to bad in square fields, bit of a pain in long thin ones though.
A mate is doing this. Not a comfortable ride & you'd want a set of rolls that can pivot forwards/backwards so the front and rear gangs can float relative to one another.
I have a set of Cousins Contour rolls with breaker rings running at around 30 degrees to the drilling. You can see the breaker rings riding up & down into the grooves but it's not ideal. Rough patches get rolled twice.
The Mzuri that I bought is equiped with harrow paddles in the rear after the press wheels I think they can help to reduce clod sizes in certain situations. I didn't use them when sowing whinter wheat last autumn the soil was quite friable. Hopefully with all that equipment and another set of narrow press wheals I can escape rolling.
But what about post emergent herbicides insted of pre-em in beans and rape? Any experiences? Are they not so commonly used of the fear that weeds whould outcompete the main crop?
Well it has very nice conventional finish. What was it seeded with?
That box on the rolls is for slug pallets I believe. Have you tried to seed cover crops with it? I guess the dispersing plates should be faceing the opposite dirrection then.
Well it has very nice conventional finish. What was it seeded with?
That box on the rolls is for slug pallets I believe. Have you tried to seed cover crops with it? I guess the dispersing plates should be faceing the opposite dirrection then.
A Claydon Hybrid with rear batter boards much like you have on your Mzuri.
The Techneat air seeder on the back is for slug pellets or Avadex herbicide. I've been sowing cover crops with the Hybrid but with a better unit that the Techneat such as a Vaderstad Biodrill I would certainly consider sowing with the rolls. I also have a 15m straw rake so to be honest I'd probably put the seeder on that, blow the seed in front of the tines then roll afterwards.
I don't know where you are farming, but where I am slug pellets soon after sowing are a very important part of the establishment of winter oilseed rape or the following winter wheat crop. I have 2 fields of winter oilseed rape that didn't get rolled due to rain - both were hammered by slugs.
Pre emergence herbicides are also an important part of growing crops here. Having a level consolidated finish after the drill gives a better surface for the pre em to work, getting a dose of chemical into the weeds as they emerge. Post emergence herbicide options here are limited - I like to get my attack on weeds started early! For spring crops conserving moisture is important so that's another reason to roll afterwards.
I don't grow spring oilseed rape as it has never done very well here. Maybe a low dose of metazachlor and clomazone or a post em dose of Galera? I am growing spring beans, so will be using a pre em of 0.25 l/ha clomazone for cleavers & hedge mustard with 3 l/ha Nirvana (imazamox + pendimethalin) for the rest. If any broad leafed weeds get past that then there's Basagran (bentazone) post emergence. For grass weeds the Nirvana should do a bit but I expect to use Falcon or Laser post em for wild oats, brome and ryegrass. Do you have access to an agronomist?
Would the surface residue not be perhaps considerably diminished by Spring anyway, so not such a worry? We are also in the first year of using a Mzuri, have found you can get a pretty decent level finish with the rear harrow well pressured (although it will wear quickly on stoney ground) and rolling in the same direction as the drill, if your rolls are heavy enough. We bale all straw anyway, but have drilled into grass and bean haulm, and haven't found, nor heard of, surface residue affecting the pre-em, at least noticeably.
Incidentally, how do you like your drill? Mounted, fert?
- Location
- Essex/Herts Border
On my land last spring I still had large amounts of chopped wheat straw lying about and the stubble was all pretty much intact as it had been left by the combine hence the ground stayed very wet, this year should be better as it has all been raked once already, and may get raked again before spring drilling to let air into the top of the soil and get the trash moved about again. I assume my chopped straw and stubble still lying around on top is an indicator that my worms/soil life aren't quite up to scratch? To many years ploughing and powerharrowing! Another example of this is quite often if I do plough a bit of ground that hasn't been ploughed for 2 years say, I can plough up buried wheat trash from the last time it was ploughed under, lack of worms, anaerobic conditions underground? All things I need to improve!!
Yes we do have agronomists hereA Claydon Hybrid with rear batter boards much like you have on your Mzuri.
The Techneat air seeder on the back is for slug pellets or Avadex herbicide. I've been sowing cover crops with the Hybrid but with a better unit that the Techneat such as a Vaderstad Biodrill I would certainly consider sowing with the rolls. I also have a 15m straw rake so to be honest I'd probably put the seeder on that, blow the seed in front of the tines then roll afterwards.
I don't know where you are farming, but where I am slug pellets soon after sowing are a very important part of the establishment of winter oilseed rape or the following winter wheat crop. I have 2 fields of winter oilseed rape that didn't get rolled due to rain - both were hammered by slugs.
Pre emergence herbicides are also an important part of growing crops here. Having a level consolidated finish after the drill gives a better surface for the pre em to work, getting a dose of chemical into the weeds as they emerge. Post emergence herbicide options here are limited - I like to get my attack on weeds started early! For spring crops conserving moisture is important so that's another reason to roll afterwards.
I don't grow spring oilseed rape as it has never done very well here. Maybe a low dose of metazachlor and clomazone or a post em dose of Galera? I am growing spring beans, so will be using a pre em of 0.25 l/ha clomazone for cleavers & hedge mustard with 3 l/ha Nirvana (imazamox + pendimethalin) for the rest. If any broad leafed weeds get past that then there's Basagran (bentazone) post emergence. For grass weeds the Nirvana should do a bit but I expect to use Falcon or Laser post em for wild oats, brome and ryegrass. Do you have access to an agronomist?
I am from Lithuania. Problem is that not so many direct drillers here, mostly conventional farmers, some min till. And in direct drilling there is "little" different approach to the issues. So to be confident you must have experience and that is only gained by doing. I have been following your forum for awhile now, been learning from your discussions, went to Lamma, Groundswell shows last year to see the drills and other equipment like straw rake (we don't have them here) etc. that you use in UK.
So I made up my mind and got used Mzuri 3T drill (grain+fert) prices for the new I think went through the roof.
So anyway I am quite pleased with the drill so far. Even though I had quite a headache trying to do all the fine tuning at the beginning. Drilled WW after beans and another field WW after radish for seed. It emerged and was growing untill could weather has stopped the vegetation. It's under the snow now, we got ~ minus 10 Celsius. So it's just to wait for the warm weather to come but that's not going to happen before March.
Yes we do have agronomists here
I have been following your forum for awhile now, been learning from your discussions, went to Lamma, Groundswell shows last year to see the drills and other equipment like straw rake (we don't have them here) etc. that you use in UK.
So I made up my mind and got used Mzuri 3T drill (grain+fert) prices for the new I think went through the roof.
So anyway I am quite pleased with the drill so far. Even though I had quite a headache trying to do all the fine tuning at the beginning. Drilled WW after beans and another field WW after radish for seed. It emerged and was growing untill could weather has stopped the vegetation. It's under the snow now, we got ~ minus 10 Celsius. So it's just to wait for the warm weather to come but that's not going to happen before March.
Don't know what your winters are usually like but in Poland they like the drill because they can leave the following harrow off, have a decent amount of pressure on the press wheel and leave fairly deep ridges which catch the snow and create an insulated layer from the cold temperatures (sometimes -20). Supposedly anyway.