Spring drought 2020

[ajd132]

Do you think zero tilled soils hold moisture better?


I've no experience of it, but think they should as your not powderising the soil with a power harrow.

yes but it’s harder to get as food establishment sometimes. Ploughed/cultivated crops round here that were Worked in the autumn are fine, it’s where people have ran around with power harrows or spring time’s trying to make a perfect seedbed where the crops look worst. I would say our no till crops have overtaken a lot of our crops that had been shallow cultivated last August after originally looking worse.

 

[Fuzzy]

yes but it’s harder to get as food establishment sometimes. Ploughed/cultivated crops round here that were Worked in the autumn are fine, it’s where people have ran around with power harrows or spring time’s trying to make a perfect seedbed where the crops look worst. I would say our no till crops have overtaken a lot of our crops that had been shallow cultivated last August after originally looking worse.

I have similar with my DD crops they are now looking better than the min till ones, also anything 'cultivated' in the spring was an invitation for Blackgrass to return !!

 

[Bossfarmer]

Cfa agreements contracting charges do not cover overheads, you are supposed to have incentive for profit. We will still be in profit even with lower than usual yields 90% of spring crops I think look really good now I’ve compared them to many others on this forum. Spring milling wheat will also probably be more profitable than winter wheat. Our osr looks good compared to most and the winter barley is okay. As glasshouse said landlords want profit and we have a good track record when I benchmark results against strutts and business average returns for the east of England. A great excercise to do comparing each contract farm to the area average.
View attachment 881274,

still much less risk than renting it and growing it yourself it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about when i see crops like this are you in one of the wetter parts of england or just been lucky with showers?

 

[Manny]

Spring crops just hanging on at the moment but i don't know how long for. In the picture below grassed grass in the fore ground, spring barley top left and spring triticale top right through the hedge. The grass was lush and green 4 days ago before the cows went in now its all turning a horrid straw colour.

 

[ajd132]

still much less risk than renting it and growing it yourself it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about when i see crops like this are you in one of the wetter parts of england or just been lucky with showers?

We rent aswell. There’s pluses and minuses for both. Cfa means you have to keep people happy and some are easier than others, rent means you can get on with exactly how you want to do it but you need good landlords.
we are in the east of England so the driest part of the country however we got 25mm about a month ago.

 

[Bossfarmer]

Spring crops just hanging on at the moment but i don't know how long for. In the picture below grassed grass in the fore ground, spring barley top left and spring triticale top right through the hedge. The grass was lush and green 4 days ago before the cows went in now its all turning a horrid straw colour.View attachment 881423

ive never seen grass like it, u mustve missed all that rain?

 

[Wombat]

ive never seen grass like it, u mustve missed all that rain?

What rain?

 

[teslacoils]

ive never seen grass like it, u mustve missed all that rain?

I think you may underestimate the difference in climate between here and you. I suspect that you receive on average 30 percent more rain than us, and our average temperature at least a degree warmer.

So in a three month period where you would expect to see maybe 8" of rain in your part of the world, we have currently had perhaps one. Humidity is well down, and temps are up. Rooting in new grass and any planted crops can best be described as "crap". Local scalped lawns now look like brown and yellow stumps.

 

[Bossfarmer]

I think you may underestimate the difference in climate between here and you. I suspect that you receive on average 30 percent more rain than us, and our average temperature at least a degree warmer.

So in a three month period where you would expect to see maybe 8" of rain in your part of the world, we have currently had perhaps one. Humidity is well down, and temps are up. Rooting in new grass and any planted crops can best be described as "crap". Local scalped lawns now look like brown and yellow stumps.

over 1000mm a year here, that said the wind has dried a lot of those showers at the weekend up so i expect by mid june things will be seriously struggling

 

[jd2013]

I think you may underestimate the difference in climate between here and you. I suspect that you receive on average 30 percent more rain than us, and our average temperature at least a degree warmer.

So in a three month period where you would expect to see maybe 8" of rain in your part of the world, we have currently had perhaps one. Humidity is well down, and temps are up. Rooting in new grass and any planted crops can best be described as "crap". Local scalped lawns now look like brown and yellow stumps.

Not to dissimilar to up here, we may be 10 degrees cooler( bloody feels like it most of the time!) but still waiting for an 1" of rain to fall since we started sowing beginning of April.

 

[som farmer]

our straw chap is pushing to find out how much we need, telling us to book early, as poor straw crops in Sussex,
we wont have any grass for silage, till we get rain, x2 cuts off 14 acres grass, that's it, hybrid rye, looking fairly good, but to wet last autumn to get it all in, hopefully the maize will be ok, but buying hay for next winter now, farmings never easy !!!!!

 

[teslacoils]

over 1000mm a year here, that said the wind has dried a lot of those showers at the weekend up so i expect by mid june things will be seriously struggling

Sorry, I guessed and averaged Perth and Inverness rainfall. Our average is 550mm here. If nicely spaced out, 400mm would be adequate. I'm guessing we will see spring barley send out in crop under a foot high.

 

[Bossfarmer]

Sorry, I guessed and averaged Perth and Inverness rainfall. Our average is 550mm here. If nicely spaced out, 400mm would be adequate. I'm guessing we will see spring barley send out in crop under a foot high.

you will be far more used to these dry conditions than me

 

[Happy]

Not to dissimilar to up here, we may be 10 degrees cooler( bloody feels like it most of the time!) but still waiting for an 1" of rain to fall since we started sowing beginning of April.

Agree.
Temperature rather than rainfall is the big difference between the grain growing parts of Scotland and England.
Eastern Scotland is not nearly as wet as most down in England imagine.
Edinburgh only gets 80mm more Annual rainfall than London but average temp 8.5c compared to 11c. Temp difference even greater during growing season.

 

[Wombat]

you will be far more used to these dry conditions than me

The issue is the combinaiton of events. Dry years aren’t normally much of an issue. What was was having 660mm from sept to March (normal annual 580mm) then 39mm since first march to now the plants have been drowned then roasted

 

[Honest john]

It’s F dry. Grass is drying up like first week July.
some seeds are laying dry.
Irrigators keep breaking.
Hot week forecast.

what next ?

 

[glasshouse]

It’s F dry. Grass is drying up like first week July.
some seeds are laying dry.
Irrigators keep breaking.
Hot week forecast.

what next ?

Locusts

 

[bankrupt]

Locusts

Texas 1916 - shot in Wiskey Gap, Alberta 1976

 

[uztrac]

Saw some winter wheat in mid Norfolk at growth stage 65 today,sitting on the top of straw about a foot tall.The PGR seems to have been very successful.

 

[Northern territory]

Some sands near Scarborough and thirsk way just burning up now. Barley crops going whiteish with lack of moisture. Combines will be in early this time if weather allows.