Rolling Sugar beet

[Mixedupfarmer]

How long post drilling can you get away with rolling? Have a reasonably heavy fen skirt / high mag field, the beet have gone in reasonably into moisture, but the surface is very cloddy (very hard clods) and open. Just got finished drilling as it started to rain, so could not roll them in. Only had 6mm rain, less than was predicted, so it hasn't really had much affect on the clods. The top had dried now (coupe of days), and would roll, although it is wet underneath. would the seeds be swelled enough to damage them by rolling?

 

[Nearly]

@carbonfibre farmer

 

[Sam Partridge]

The only time I heard someone rolled their beet, they lost the lot, surface sealed and it couldn't break through apparently. Is it common practice? We've never done it. What outcome are you trying to achieve? Would more rain do the job, is there rain expected?

 

[spin cycle]

are you confident they'll come up if nothing done?

if not then you've not a lot to loose

I chain harrowed capped beet once

I'd roll ASAP cos worst case it's not to late to re drill..but you need to find out If this crop will make it first

 

[Bury the Trash]

The only time I heard someone rolled their beet, they lost the lot, surface sealed

Let the ground dry out, yes dry out , roll with cambridge type not overly just a relativly light pressing and it wouldntv done that.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

@carbonfibre farmer

We generally roll, if we are going to, up to 3 days later. BUT, that'll be on a dry cloddy overworked seedbed with no rain in the forecast
Beet are coming up quickly this time of year, ours through in 8days.
What Sam said above re anymore rain coming, rings true. If there was some to moisten the ground up again I'd be inclined not too.
Maybe roll the worse bits? A set of lighter gang rolls rather than some heavy folding ones would be better.

@robbie on light land, his thoughts would be good.
Also @Daniel and @Sonoftheheir on fen soil would be handy to have their thoughts.

 

[tullah]

Not rolled beet for ten years and went across rows to break the cap.

 

[Daniel]

We generally roll, if we are going to, up to 3 days later. BUT, that'll be on a dry cloddy overworked seedbed with no rain in the forecast
Beet are coming up quickly this time of year, ours through in 8days.
What Sam said above re anymore rain coming, rings true. If there was some to moisten the ground up again I'd be inclined not too.
Maybe roll the worse bits? A set of lighter gang rolls rather than some heavy folding ones would be better.

@robbie on light land, his thoughts would be good.
Also @Daniel and @Sonoftheheir on fen soil would be handy to have their thoughts.

Never tried it.

 

[robbie]

Rolling my land would be a disaster and would potentially cause blow issues.
I always plan to plough and Flexi coil press and then drill straight into that for the reason mentioned about.

I do have some "heavy" land and I did contemplate rolling that after drilling because it was worked down on that hot weekend we had with those strong winds a fortnight ago but rain was forecast so I didn't bother and they've come fine.

 

[Mixedupfarmer]

The only time I heard someone rolled their beet, they lost the lot, surface sealed and it couldn't break through apparently. Is it common practice? We've never done it. What outcome are you trying to achieve? Would more rain do the job, is there rain expected?

More rain would do the job, but would probably need 20mm + to break the clods down, we only had 6mm after drilling, when more was forecast, and there now doesn't look like much tomorrow. Bit worried if it will dry out, and no doubt some seeds will not have enough moisture to get going, although most seem to be in moisture below the clod layer. It would be better for herbicide / weed control if it was rolled.

 

[Mixedupfarmer]

are you confident they'll come up if nothing done?

if not then you've not a lot to loose

I chain harrowed capped beet once

I'd roll ASAP cos worst case it's not to late to re drill..but you need to find out If this crop will make it first

Confident some will come up, but it could end up gappy if some seeds dry out / are under a big clod, etc. Don't think it would cap unless we had serious amounts of rain.

 

[spin cycle]

Confident some will come up, but it could end up gappy if some seeds dry out / are under a big clod, etc. Don't think it would cap unless we had serious amounts of rain.

light Cambridge roll

 

[Mixedupfarmer]

light Cambridge roll

Will have another look in the morning, and see what the weather says. I'm thinking maybe a fast Cambridge roll across the rows

 

[DrWazzock]

I’ve never regretted rolling a cloddy beet seedbed after drilling.

 

[alomy75]

The last ‘cloddy’ spring (2020) I had 3 fields that shared a corner post. Left one alone; one rolled with rows and one at 90 degrees to rows. Absolutely no difference in any of them. Having said that; I did roll one this year to finish the cultivation as was forced to power Harrow and it was loose. If it’s medium land you’d prob be fine up to 7 days after drilling.

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Have only ever rolled once, several years ago now and I can’t remember the outcome!

 

[Sam Partridge]

More rain would do the job, but would probably need 20mm + to break the clods down, we only had 6mm after drilling, when more was forecast, and there now doesn't look like much tomorrow. Bit worried if it will dry out, and no doubt some seeds will not have enough moisture to get going, although most seem to be in moisture below the clod layer. It would be better for herbicide / weed control if it was rolled.

One of our fields looks awful on top, I went to stop the drillman after a few rounds but when we dug down the seed had gone in fairly deep into moist well consolidated soil.

 

[Mixedupfarmer]

One of our fields looks awful on top, I went to stop the drillman after a few rounds but when we dug down the seed had gone in fairly deep into moist well consolidated soil.

The same in this case. Have rolled it today as we have had none of the forecast rain. Will see if it was the right decision or not, many seeds had small chits on, but some were just out of the moisture. It has firmed it up and it looks better.

 

[Sam Partridge]

The same in this case. Have rolled it today as

were you brave enough to leave some unrolled to see if it made any difference?

 

[Mixedupfarmer]

were you brave enough to leave some unrolled to see if it made any difference?

No, done it all. If we had as much rain as originally forecast I would have left it.