dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Three
The Cross slot vs 750a trial
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
yorkie
Member
- Location
- pe34 norfolk,but not born there
if it hasn't been welded or bent in the first 2 years it will be fine,it is road work that kills them,seen a 12mtr one look like a banana going up the field when it was new in its first year,had a 6mtr with 350hp on the front direct drill rape into heavy ground with duet coulters,the tractor will stop first,just check for welding and bracing on where coulters lift with main ram behind metering unit,they go with a bang when it snaps
,other wise they go for ever if looked afterusedtofarm
Member
boys boys boys. Quite a lot of petty point scoring on this thread. IMHO you are all too fixated on expensive ways to put seed into soil. I would ask you all to leave a space in any of your fields and try broadcasting a small amount on the same day as drilling the rest. perhaps up the rate by 10%, that's up to you. Then cover seed with a light springtine (triple k etc) or power harrow. Then roll. Unless you are chesil beach stoney, you should be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. If you trawl this site or the web, there have been plenty of trials conducted that suggest it is better to broadcast than drill in rows to achieve higher yields. A lot of people used to do it but strayed back to drills when tramlining came in. But hey you all seem to have GPS now so give it a trial.
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
That point has already been made several times on this thread, so sorry to disappoint you!
usedtofarm
Member
I know but repeating a point seems to be the norm here. No names nopacker drill !
its been done and quantified ................right here on TFF a couple of years ago
https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/tff-drill-trial.5932/
and guess what won...........................................
usedtofarm
Member
so why are people not doing more of it?
Louis Mc
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
They would if it worked consistently. It doesn't
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
If you don't want to no till then it's a great idea
Louis Mc
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
perhaps but the fact you can cultivate and broadcast seeds successfully isn't very relevant to this trial.
It worked well in that field you showed us but do you think it would reliably work on all your farm if you did it all that way?
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Honestly, yes I think it would work great. If I wasn't interested in no till that's what I would be doing everywhere. I can't see a problem with it.
As it happens we effectively did it for OSR last week as we couldn't drill into pea stubble without blocking up, so we dumped the seed on top and disced it.
Louis Mc
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
That will be Interesting. Have you ever grown rape after peas before? Are you inspired by Frederick Thomas and Dwayne beck's fondness for double breaks?
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
It's nothing that glamorous, it's only because I needed a double cereal break so we can have wheat trials there next year.
Louis Mc
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
Ah, will be interesting none the less
beardface
Member
- Location
- East Yorkshire
Always find it funny how you get the best strike of rape behind the combine straight off the sieves. The same goes for cereal volunteers. The only problem with the broadcast and harrow/roll method is you disturb all the nasty little weeds seeds at the same time.
moisture - im not sure it work work as well in a dry autumn so it lack the consistency of drilling into moisture I think
also it involves tillage and as David points out not all of us what to do that
dontknowanything
Member
- Location
- Cambridge
Don't think that would be consistent where you have high levels of residue. Probably fine on bare soil, although over here you may be waiting a while for that rain.
Yes you are right but I may try some late drilling in November, just as an experiment, if it fails It can become a spring crop
usedtofarm
Member
i'm slightly surprised by this. If there are negligible yield differences but lower costs, surely as a commercial farmer your 'interest in no till' would wane?