Rape and the 750

[SilliamWhale]

Help me out with my thought process here please boys.

Two years ago drilled rape with 750. Probably went in about 5th Sept. Looked ok all year and yielded well. 1.5t/acre no till only, kerb only herbicide. Cheap and profitable

Last year drilled rape with the 750 and whilst with hindsight it was too cold, too wet, too sluggy I no tilled them and to be honest a lot of it was a write off. Some was ok but most crap. I got my rotorvator out and redrilled a couple of fields and they came ok. End result about 1.1-1.3 acre if that.

All this year I'd been planning to potentially use a sumo grassland seeder but to be honest I'm not confident it will get good enough seed to soil contact and feel it could be a costly risk. I have the option to lightly rotovate which I don't like doing but it wouldn't cost a lot but is slow and then drill.

So given that my fields are pretty much ready to go, I'm a week or two earlier than normal and the soil is generally good and warm and slug and compaction free I've suddenly become very risk averse to putting rape in with the 750 this year after last.

What should I do? Stupid thing is if it was forage rape or turnip I'd have no hesitiation in putting them in with the 750, is OSR super fussy or am I scarred by last september and the slugs and rain?

 

[Clive]

Have you removed the straw ? if so and yo can go now (early) in good soil conditions I would go for it with the 750

I just dont think its suited to late / wet / cold etc with OSR

 

[SilliamWhale]

Have you removed the straw ? if so and yo can go now (early) in good soil conditions I would go for it with the 750

I just dont think its suited to late / wet / cold etc with OSR

Yes straw is gone, it is friable. I think perhaps I should. I'd know once and for all then.

 

[JNG]

Put some N and P down the spout and go for it ASAP, assuming conditions are right, in another week consider other options as the calender is ticking. If still worried pick a variety with good Autumn growth and give it the best chance.

 

[mushnt grummmble]

field scale trail time
1/2 and 1/2
at least then you've only made half a cock up

 

[Simon Chiles]

Last year drilled rape with the 750 and whilst with hindsight it was too cold, too wet, too sluggy

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but rape can fail in cold wet and sluggy conditions when you plough. Just DD it with the 750 if conditions are right, it'll be OK.

 

[martian]

We're drilling our osr at the moment with 750a into baled barley stubble. It's going in perfectly. Go now is my advice...

 

[York]

Now Will,
I think if people put your comments on the CS and your intro on this thread together they will get the right impression about your expertise.
sorry, stop making a comment on the CS when you are so weary on if you should. Instead of taking the time to even post this I would have gone out and drilled the rape, even if it's early. always early rape was the easiest. We even had OSR drilled in July, when normal starting was the 15th of August and it worked out fine. there are ways to prevent overgrowth and this is not with chemicals but with foresight & N regime.
York-Th.

 

[SilliamWhale]

What's it got to do with a crossslot? Just accept people have an opinion on the price of them which is why sales are low.

This is nothing to do with the rape see

 

[Fuzzy]

Not many people use a rotavator for establishing rape, but give it a try maybe on a small area as a trial plot, if you have some discs try those and maybe a cultivator? Just once across the field is enough, preferrably at an angle to drilling. If you dont try something different you will never learn and for the rest of the season you will be thinking if only!!
I tried this with some Winter Beans this year, wanted to DD them but not sure so Discaerated some of the field and DD the rest, Result ?? should have Discaerated the whole field!!! (Just like father said !!) But if we hadn't tried we would never know !
Never be afraid to try something different. Now is the ideal time to be drilling with a 750 IMO.

 

[York]

we have now quite a diverse range of tools.
one is Dd with Moore
same one is rotavating & using Moore drill
one is rotavating & using JD 750
one is using old Horsch Semexactor, the one which had a bar behind the rotavator in the shadow of the soil trowing so the seed was always placed on the undisturbed soil and the "rotavated soil" thrown on top of it.
All versions done, not the JD750 on, done on the same field after the flooding.
Looks very interesting indeed.
York-Th.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Off I go today - no tilled. Think you are right about conditions being right this year and wrong last year.

Of course according to a Cross slot salesman who doesn't farm anything (and therefore never gets it wrong) if I were to spend £120k on a cross slot and another 90k on a tractor to pull it I wouldn't have any problems, ever....(apart from paying for stuff....)

 

[York]

Off I go today - no tilled. Think you are right about conditions being right this year and wrong last year.

Of course according to a Cross slot salesman who doesn't farm anything (and therefore never gets it wrong) if I were to spend £120k on a cross slot and another 90k on a tractor to pull it I wouldn't have any problems, ever....(apart from paying for stuff....)

Sorry Will,
your are barking to the wrong tree.

We have a saying over here: "What does a German Oak tree think when a wild boar is rubbing on his trunk".
I wish you a blessed Sunday.
York-Th.

 

[Devon James]

Is there a punchline?

 

[warksfarmer]

Help me out with my thought process here please boys.

Two years ago drilled rape with 750. Probably went in about 5th Sept. Looked ok all year and yielded well. 1.5t/acre no till only, kerb only herbicide. Cheap and profitable

Last year drilled rape with the 750 and whilst with hindsight it was too cold, too wet, too sluggy I no tilled them and to be honest a lot of it was a write off. Some was ok but most crap. I got my rotorvator out and redrilled a couple of fields and they came ok. End result about 1.1-1.3 acre if that.

All this year I'd been planning to potentially use a sumo grassland seeder but to be honest I'm not confident it will get good enough seed to soil contact and feel it could be a costly risk. I have the option to lightly rotovate which I don't like doing but it wouldn't cost a lot but is slow and then drill.

So given that my fields are pretty much ready to go, I'm a week or two earlier than normal and the soil is generally good and warm and slug and compaction free I've suddenly become very risk averse to putting rape in with the 750 this year after last.

What should I do? Stupid thing is if it was forage rape or turnip I'd have no hesitiation in putting them in with the 750, is OSR super fussy or am I scarred by last september and the slugs and rain?

Sumo grassland through it then in with the 750

 

[JNG]

@SilliamWhale, Hows the rape looking Will, up in the rows yet?

 

[SilliamWhale]

@SilliamWhale, Hows the rape looking Will, up in the rows yet?

Yeah its fine- definitely the right thing to do this time by no tilling it, conditions perfect, was a bit jittery after last year but that was last year!..

The only thing with it is its a little bit bunched in places because of the fluted rollers I use and fleshed out with cheap pellets. I need to find a better way of doing it with a granule exactly like rape that won't set seed.

 

[JNG]

Yeah its fine- definitely the right thing to do this time by no tilling it, conditions perfect, was a bit jittery after last year but that was last year!..

The only thing with it is its a little bit bunched in places because of the fluted rollers I use and fleshed out with cheap pellets. I need to find a better way of doing it with a granule exactly like rape that won't set seed.

In the past we have used the tiger sulphur pellets to increase the volume to help metering, not in those type of drills tho. Worked well but can be prone to seperating in the seed tank so only mix a bit at a time.