Jock
Member
- Location
- Central Scotland
Been on this forum for a while now and though mainly a stock farmer find the direct drilling section the most interesting. Probably because it's what I feel I understand the least and therefore would like to learn about most.
Nobody I'm my area seems to be doing DD but from reading and seeing what you guys are achieving with it makes me wonder why that is.
The reason for it would stack up for me. Mainly a stock farm with 450 acres grassland running 120 sucklers and 450 breeding ewes but also got 300 acres arable.
Father now over 70, stockman of 50 years due to retire next year and my wife a full time job which leaves me juggling all the work with school runs etc. so the less time spent sat on a tractor seat in future the better.
Soils range from heavy clay to sandy loams. One farm is all arable, the other largely grassland with cropping breaks. How successful is moving straight from a plough based system to DD likely to be? Most of you guys seem to have up got there by progression from min till.
We bale everything for the suckler enterprise. Can it be done successfully when straw is removed rather than chopped? We produce plenty of FYM though, can this successfully be incorporated or is the surface compaction created when leading bales in and spreading muck back on likely to be problematic?
Also re-seed around 40 acres of grassland annually on the stock farm, current system is plough out grass to spring barley year 1, swedes/kale year2 then undersown barley year 3. Could I successfully do this with DD and the swedes/kale system? Thinking of dropping the barley and doing more direct re-seeds in future.
Only thing I know about the drills involved is from the stuff I read on here. Only 300 acres arable probably rules out a lot of them. With swedes and straight re-seeds of pasture in the system has me thinking sim tech may possibly be a route to go down but would welcome any advice and thoughts from you DD guys.
Nobody I'm my area seems to be doing DD but from reading and seeing what you guys are achieving with it makes me wonder why that is.
The reason for it would stack up for me. Mainly a stock farm with 450 acres grassland running 120 sucklers and 450 breeding ewes but also got 300 acres arable.
Father now over 70, stockman of 50 years due to retire next year and my wife a full time job which leaves me juggling all the work with school runs etc. so the less time spent sat on a tractor seat in future the better.
Soils range from heavy clay to sandy loams. One farm is all arable, the other largely grassland with cropping breaks. How successful is moving straight from a plough based system to DD likely to be? Most of you guys seem to have up got there by progression from min till.
We bale everything for the suckler enterprise. Can it be done successfully when straw is removed rather than chopped? We produce plenty of FYM though, can this successfully be incorporated or is the surface compaction created when leading bales in and spreading muck back on likely to be problematic?
Also re-seed around 40 acres of grassland annually on the stock farm, current system is plough out grass to spring barley year 1, swedes/kale year2 then undersown barley year 3. Could I successfully do this with DD and the swedes/kale system? Thinking of dropping the barley and doing more direct re-seeds in future.
Only thing I know about the drills involved is from the stuff I read on here. Only 300 acres arable probably rules out a lot of them. With swedes and straight re-seeds of pasture in the system has me thinking sim tech may possibly be a route to go down but would welcome any advice and thoughts from you DD guys.
you know you want to.
