Techneat 24m applicator for cover crops

[Feldspar]

As I wrote elsewhere I had a chat to the Techneat people at the Suffolk Show and apparently they will be showing their 24m avadex / granular applicator at Cereals.

At 25k it's pretty expensive for applying just avadex and slug pellets so I thought about other uses for it.

With a pretty decent sized hopper (over 1000l I think) it occurred to me that it could be used to over-seed cover crop seeding into a standing crop before harvest. Certainly poking around the crops today we've got a lot of really nice moist tilth which to the untrained eye looks ideal.

The challenge of getting cover crops growing early enough in the season still seems to be a huge barrier to successful adoption in the UK. Question is whether it would be cheaper to gave a twin hopper system fitted to a 24m spray boom as has been done already.

I'm off to do some renewed research in to the success of broadcasting cover crops compared to drilling post harvest.

 

[Clive]

Be interesting to see what you find

My bet is it would work well for small seed like mustard etc but not so well for the bigger stuff

I could broadcast into standing crops with a outcast unit but I think it's better to drill into moisture really and probably worth the cost / slight delay to do so ?

 

[Feldspar]

Be interesting to see what you find

My bet is it would work well for small seed like mustard etc but not so well for the bigger stuff

I could broadcast into standing crops with a outcast unit but I think it's better to drill into moisture really and probably worth the cost / slight delay to do so ?

Are you going to try any this year through the outcast system?

 

[Feldspar]

Actually what I might do is kindly ask Richard Harding (who has somehow persuaded ProCam to allow him to go on the US BASE trip and is Frederic Thomas's room mate) to ask the question about broadcasting cover crops to those in the know.

 

[Clive]

Are you going to try any this year through the outcast system?

All my 2013 wheat will go into spring cropping so will get cover crop established with drill to do a top job hopefully

I will try a bit with the outcast as a trail though if you like ?

I'm not sure I'm going to bother with cover crops pre ww this autumn as I thinking harvest might be late and time limited to really get value from them ??

 

[Clive]

Actually what I might do is kindly ask Richard Harding (who has somehow persuaded ProCam to allow him to go on the US BASE trip and is Frederic Thomas's room mate) to ask the question about broadcasting cover crops to those in the know.

I asked him this at the first BASE meeting - he said drill them, broadcast and other cheap fast methods gave variable results

 

[Feldspar]

I asked him this at the first BASE meeting - he said drill them, broadcast and other cheap fast methods gave variable results

Interesting. I seem to come across quite a few videos from the US where they broadcast them (even with planes which seems a bit haphazard) which just made me think.

I would only do a trial if it interests you. I can quite easily wander out into some wheat and fling some seed in by hand to satisfy my own curiosity.

 

[Clive]

Interesting. I seem to come across quite a few videos from the US where they broadcast them (even with planes which seems a bit haphazard) which just made me think.

I would only do a trial if it interests you. I can quite easily wander out into some wheat and fling some seed in by hand to satisfy my own curiosity.

I have a block going into winter beans that might be worth a autumn cover ? Was thinking of just mixing up some left over linseed, mustard, sunflower and oats that I have lying about as its really wouldn't cost much to try

I don't think it's worth spending much on autumn cover crops due to limit growth window, in many cases I think rolling stubbles to encourage volunteer growth might be the most economic think you could do

Stuff going into spring cropping is worth investing in though I reckon, pedders number 1 drilled properly and grown as a crop