Spring Barley drill date

[Flat 10]

I think the AB6 option has the potential to bugger up the field for 2 years, there's a chance Blackgrass will set seed before a delayed spray in May. On a small field I fallowed last year it was heading early and I sprayed it off on 6th of april which makes me think that's not an option I want.
Also agree, most land needs a crop over summer so stick with spring barley I think. All it should need when drilled mid April is Avadex a cleaver spray and 1 fungicide, we all have the fert and seed waiting , anyone think 400 seeds /m in reasonable conditions (big assumption !) is NOT enough ??

Not enough

 

[Flat 10]

40mm here in the last 6 days when I got stuck trying to drill spring wheat. Think I will probably write off the rest of that and tempting to write off a bit of spring barley. Most worried about beet drilling and will prioritise that now.

 

[scholland]

Another day at it

 

[Flat 10]

You will be able to pop down and help some of the rest of us......
Approximately where is ze3 ? Scottish islands or am I completely wrong?

 

[solo]

He’s on Shetland going by the code so I think your chances of assistance are ....er nil

We’re all on here literally twiddling our thumbs waiting for an improvement and just jealous that @scholland is able to crack on.

 

[bankrupt]

40mm here in the last 6 days

85mm here, Flat 10.

Had a couple of, usually smart, grain traders 'phone us up out of the blue in the last 6 days enquiring about forthcoming harvest prospects.

Whatever next?

 

[Flat 10]

85mm here, Flat 10.

Had a couple of, usually smart, grain traders phone up here out of the blue in the last 6 days enquiring about forthcoming harvest prospects.

Whatever next?

Jeeez. I couldn't cope in your position I don't think, another place I wouldn't be man enough to farm in.....
Hope it dries soon...

 

[bankrupt]

Hope it dries soon...

Within 21 days, Flat 10, we'll all be praying for a bit of rain.

 

[yellow belly]

This is a topic that I keep thinking about at the moment in relation to the Mid Tier extended overwinter stubble option. The rules, as you well know, are that you can spray off for black-grass from 15 May onwards but can only start doing what you want with the field after 1 August. Given these rules, what are the best ways of managing the fallow to reduce as far as possible the effects from a fallow that you describe?

I would hope to leave enough losses out the back of the combine so that there was a crop of whatever had been harvested growing in the field for the first part of the year. After 15 May, if the field had been sprayed with glyphosate for black-grass, there would be a bare period for a while. Would it really be worth planting a cover crop from 1 August to help dry the soil before direct drilling wheat in late September / early October? For OSR did you have problems drilling it into a fallowed field? Was the ground lacking in tilth?

This far north and heavy land notill this option is not soil improving
Your problem wth spraying off in may is take all from volunteer cereals I saw that when we had set aside sprayed off then ploughed
I preferred winter cover crop followed by low imput cereal ab14
Osr on fallowed field could work on fire draining soil but
Without growing cover May to July soil can retain to much moisture
I have one farm I contract for where they have a few acres of extended winter cover in wet years no till does not work Rest of field is no problem

 

[yellow belly]

I think the AB6 option has the potential to bugger up the field for 2 years, there's a chance Blackgrass will set seed before a delayed spray in May. On a small field I fallowed last year it was heading early and I sprayed it off on 6th of april which makes me think that's not an option I want.
Also agree, most land needs a crop over summer so stick with spring barley I think. All it should need when drilled mid April is Avadex a cleaver spray and 1 fungicide, we all have the fert and seed waiting , anyone think 400 seeds /m in reasonable conditions (big assumption !) is NOT enough ??

I agree

 

[yellow belly]

Within 21 days, Flat 10, we'll all be praying for a bit of rain.

Hope so dry April never hurts

 

[yellow belly]

Another day at it
View attachment 654106View attachment 654108View attachment 654110

When we have it wet the norther half of Scotland has the good weather
2012 they had a drought 2011 wettest ever
High pressure in north Scotland forces the rain over England

My daughter near loch long / loch Lomand has had tee shirts on for Easter

 

[Wombat]

Within 21 days, Flat 10, we'll all be praying for a bit of rain.

Ha I certainly wouldn't be praying for rain in 21 days

 

[snarling bee]

hardly be on the ground in 21 days!

 

[Dan Attle]

whats the cut off date think i shall drill all our light land got 45 acres of heavy clay hoping for barley but the way one headland sits wet im questioning it weather ill get on in time

 

[Feldspar]

This far north and heavy land notill this option is not soil improving
Your problem wth spraying off in may is take all from volunteer cereals I saw that when we had set aside sprayed off then ploughed
I preferred winter cover crop followed by low imput cereal ab14
Osr on fallowed field could work on fire draining soil but
Without growing cover May to July soil can retain to much moisture
I have one farm I contract for where they have a few acres of extended winter cover in wet years no till does not work Rest of field is no problem

Very interesting. We have had about 60ac of extended overwinter stubble through our ELS and we have used it to quite good effect to clean up our worst black-grass fields. I am not too worried about the May timing because Stephen Moss's work said you have until first week in June normally before seed is viable.

What about if you put a Sumo Trio through the fallowed ground in front of wheat? How much would that help compared to no-tilling it? Cover crop option and low input cereal is not an option on the new simplified scheme.

 

[Feldspar]

@yellow belly, what exactly is your type of clay? Is it one of the nicer self-structuring clays? If you were on chalky boulder clay, would your view on the behaviour of land after a fallow be any different?

 

[yellow belly]

@yellow belly, what exactly is your type of clay? Is it one of the nicer self-structuring clays? If you were on chalky boulder clay, would your view on the behaviour of land after a fallow be any different?

Hanslope will self structure if it has a descent crop but silt with the clay make it slump if no crop in the summer
Below average rain fall years are alway good 18 to 20 inches per year is enough
We now have 26 inches as average 30 years ago under 24 inches with summers dryer than now

 

[Feldspar]

Hanslope will self structure if it has a descent crop but silt with the clay make it slump if no crop in the summer
Below average rain fall years are alway good 18 to 20 inches per year is enough
We now have 26 inches as average 30 years ago under 24 inches with summers dryer than now

Do you mean you also have Hanslope? What about a cover crop planted at the beginning of August until drilling in early October? Would that help much?

 

[Timbo1080]

I've provisionally planned to not drill 2 small fields of spring baley to save seed to raise the seed rate on the other fields and because these 2 fields will take 3 weeks without rain before I'd even consider going near them with a drill. One has had a lake in one corner since last September.

I've got some spare vetch/buckwheat/phacelia cover crop seed which I would consider planting to keep the soil alive until next spring when the next crop will be spring oats. I won't enter them into EFA because I've sprayed them off since 1st Jan. I'm not concerned about the cover crop setting seed as those 3 species are all easily controlled by herbicides. My main concern is grass weeds & other broad leafed weeds which I don't want going to seed so may have to terminate the cover crop and resow in the autumn. Any thoughts?

Prepared to be shot down in flames, but how about a summer forage crop....Perhaps Stubble turnips, or Westerwold (Potential grass issue I suppose for westerwold-Spring Oats?! And you may not want brassicas at this juncture in your rotation etc, so ignore the rest if so, or otherwise!). Rent it out or sell it for strip grazing sheep (Shouldn’t be too much of a poaching issue at that time of year - But given the current weather, I fully reserve the right to be totally wrong). Sow ASAP after the combinables have gone in, cleared by the sheep by mid August (is that about right?!), then bung in your vetch, buckwheat & phacelia with the Claydon, and you’ve made a bit of money, achieved a bit of soil improvement and will feel pretty holy too....