Rotation help

[Beefsmith]

Banging my head against a wall a bit so want some advice please. We’ve Some land that was awash with black grass 6 years ago to the point it wasn’t viable to put wheat on it any longer so we took it out of winter cropping and have grown in no particular order spring barley, spring linseed, short term ley. It’s had a few cover crops as well in that time. Whilst we know the black grass hasn’t disappeared we do struggle to find any at the moment. Historically it’s not grown good osr as it’s wet clay soil in the main. It’s just come out of an average spring barley and we don’t know what to do with it. There’s little call for grass around here and hay at £50/tonne isn’t very enticing plus the fact we haven’t got enough storage for any more hay. It’s not seen beans for probably 15 years so they are on the list, although we will struggle to dry them with underfloor drying. Wheat is in the back of our mind but we don’t want to undo the last 6 years work of reduced income from it by going wheat again now. We could put a cover crop in now if we go for another spring crop, but what? We are short on storage in general so lots of different crops cause headaches.

 

[Chickcatcher]

@Beefsmith
Always a first question Where the heck are you!
With Blackgrass I assume you are in England. Bad Blackgrass probably north hertfordshire!
If as you state ("Wheat is in the back of our mind but we don’t want to undo the last 6 years work of reduced income from it by going wheat again now.") are you expecting a lower income from growing wheat? if so carry on with what you have been acheiving the better result with over that last 6 years.
Here I intend to go down my normal route Wheat but 50/50 drilled and broadcast none before the 22nd of October spring wheat after 3rd November again 50/50.
Trying this season no "Drilled" tramlines as most of our black grass was in the tramlines or drill misses hence the broadcasting (that broadcast, has no seed dressing on it)

 

[Rob Holmes]

Whats your establishment regime?

If you're struggling to find BG then I'd be tempted to DD wheat in

 

[Flat 10]

Depending on where you are in the world beans don't always need drying.....

 

[AndrewM]

are beans going to provide any benefit in terms of black grass control over a wheat crop? i would of thought that after 6 years you could try a wheat, no deep cultivation though. spring breaks of 3 years seem to do a good job. keep your pre-em spend robust, seed rates high, ect . late drilling works wonders so long as you get could emergence and ground cover. then another few years of spring cropping next time. if its a disaster get in with the glyphosate early and make sure it doesn't set seed.

based on observations for 8 years of bg trials up in the east.

 

[ejhb]

Continuous spring barley?

 

[HarryB97]

Root crop followed by a spring crop or something like Maize for an AD plant