Strip till or direct drilling with a tight rotation

[Deere 6430]

Looking for some advice on the following please.

How would strip tillage, ie using a Claydon, Sumo DTS, McConnell seedaerator type drill vs a more low disturbance type of drill such as a Sky Easydrill work with the following type of rotation

Growing wheat and winter/spring oats (as we have the contract for a feed market with the oats) sometimes beans, (either winter or spring) and grass which is for hay so it’s down for 2 or 3 or maybe 4 years. We also grow stubble turnips or forage rape for sheep keep and would like to try cover crops occasionally IF WE HAD TIME AFTER HARVEST.

we always plough for the grass and currently for some of the cereals but would like to reduce the ploughing, (soil benefits etc)

we have tried a bit of low disturbance drilling with a disc drill, seems to be a bit hit and miss, but feel it needs a bit more air or tilth when sowing. We don’t have masses of time in the autumn as we finish combining late due to having to do 2nd cut hay.

Drills listed above are the options as they are available secondhand,never really tried the min till route as feel it’s not really ideal as the time we’ve cultivated to get a ‘stale seedbed’ we’ve probably missed the opportunity to get anything drilled as it gets wet and then wouldn’t dry out.

Drill doesn’t need to sow the grass. Haven’t tried a tine drill but did have a demo of a Horsch Sprinter into the ploughed and cultivated ground which we quite liked

soil is a medium clay loam, easy to work but isnt much fun in the wet and will dry out in the spring if overworked.

 

[Hobbit]

In all fairness any one of those drills will work. The sumo and Claydon are aggressive but sometimes that’s what’s needed for flexibility if it tough going and they are very good bean drills. The Claydon is better in damp conditions but it will keep going long after you should have stopped. The sky drill is great drill, a bit more high disturbance than a Horch avatar or JD 750a. But in my opinion doesn’t do beans to well. The split hoppers are great for drilling fert and companion crops. I currently have a sky and a Claydon. The Claydon replaced a DTS because it didn’t like the wet but in hindsight the DTS was a better drill.

 

[robs1]

A simtech will do it well and also drill the grass

 

[principal skinner]

Claydon can do all of the above.

 

[Deere 6430]

Have had experience of a SimTech and never again.
@Hobbit if you had to have one drill which would you choose?

Would the Claydon type be beneficial long term vs the low disturbance or am I missing something with the low disturbance that would make it maybe better than going for the strip till?

 

[Deere 6430]

Also should you always put fertiliser down in the above situation? Never drilled with fertiliser as we are in an NVZ so it wouldn’t suit with late drilling but interested to know if others would suggest fertilisers on either the strip till or low disturbance option?

 

[Hobbit]

Have had experience of a SimTech and never again.
@Hobbit if you had to have one drill which would you choose?

Would the Claydon type be beneficial long term vs the low disturbance or am I missing something with the low disturbance that would make it maybe better than going for the strip till?

Short answer : Claydon. Some people start with strip-tillage as a stepping stone to zero-till. It give your soil time to adapt and your head some time to get around the whole mindset. It’s what happened here, hence the sky drill but I kept the Claydon because of the amount of acres we cover and contacting.

 

[Hobbit]

Also should you always put fertiliser down in the above situation? Never drilled with fertiliser as we are in an NVZ so it wouldn’t suit with late drilling but interested to know if others would suggest fertilisers on either the strip till or low disturbance option

We use nitrogen for spring crops and WOSR. I have heard of some people using N in the autumn on cereals but I don’t know on the legislation regarding this other than you can’t do it in a NVZ.

 

[ajd132]

Be very wary about diving straight into using a disc drill

 

[redsloe]

Short answer : Claydon. Some people start with strip-tillage as a stepping stone to zero-till. It give your soil time to adapt and your head some time to get around the whole mindset. It’s what happened here, hence the sky drill but I kept the Claydon because of the amount of acres we cover and contacting.

A Claydon can be fitted with a leading disc in the place of the tine for lower disturbance. Works well two or 3 years in once fields are level. Done a lot of mine with that setup this year.

 

[yellow belly]

soil condititons when the drill is in the field are the most important factor
dry enough to get soil around the seed
if heavy rain is forecast do not be tempted to rush in the the drill the day before unless the soil is very dry
remember 2 weeks earlier in the autumn and 2 weeks later in the spring
in my experience drilling early does not lead to black grass unless the field is full of it then the only answer is wait till april at the earliest
black grass canot cope with the lower availability of nitrogen if the crop is established well and is strong and is easier to control with a pre emergance shallow black grass roots help with control
a later drilled crop is often not as competitive and has more weed problems
we found this 35 years ago with min till burn and scratch

using a tine drill in wetter years that leaves an open slot with loose unrolled soil is also a disaster with slugs on a heavy land farm it is the nicer fields that can suffer worse