Thinning thick rape

[T Hectares]

Our local regenerative farming pioneers are talking about us grazing this.....
View attachment 1138780
... not a great pic, but it's a field of self set osr. Was rape last year and nothing has been done in there since the combine left.

No seed cost, no fert, no spray and no flea beetle damage (well, not enough to have thinned it out at - I expect there's that many plants there the poor little beetles just choked to death).

Apparently, it will be grazed at some point during the winter.

Who knew? Continuous rape - all you need is to establish a crop once and you're quids in for the next few years

The couple of people i know who have tried this have had issues with high Erucic levels

 

[ollie989898]

My concern would be how hard to prune an overly thick crop when it could be going backwards fast by the end of January? Lots of OSR looks great going into winter then sits looking at you in spring and doesn't move because the growing point is being annihilated creepy crawlies.

 

[Flintstone]

Well, the ‘Glypho-pruning’ was done, but only on three landwork turns, to check it works.

After lots of trial and error with water, I decided that low drift nozzles still had too much angle in them, and the glyphosate band would be too wide.

Liquid fertiliser stream nozzles however gave a perfect drift-proof alternative, and ‘two off and one on’ seemed to be the best spacing when I passed over a concrete yard with water.

Getting the pressure down to 1 bar with only a third of the nozzles on was a fiddle, but a combination of messing around with forward speed, PTO speed and engine speed got a steady 8kph and 1.0 bar of pressure. A boom height of 50 cm then gave 30 cm bands of glypho, and 60 cm bands of untouched crop.

The picture doesn't show the stream very well, and it also doesn’t show how thick the crop is that well. I’ll take another one once the glypho kicks in.

If it works, whether this actually has any effect on getting the crop to branch out more remains to be seen!

 

[FMF74]

Please keep us updated, really interested to see if this works.
I have my fingers crossed for you.

 

[FMF74]

Well, the ‘Glypho-pruning’ was done, but only on three landwork turns, to check it works.

After lots of trial and error with water, I decided that low drift nozzles still had too much angle in them, and the glyphosate band would be too wide.

Liquid fertiliser stream nozzles however gave a perfect drift-proof alternative, and ‘two off and one on’ seemed to be the best spacing when I passed over a concrete yard with water.

Getting the pressure down to 1 bar with only a third of the nozzles on was a fiddle, but a combination of messing around with forward speed, PTO speed and engine speed got a steady 8kph and 1.0 bar of pressure. A boom height of 50 cm then gave 30 cm bands of glypho, and 60 cm bands of untouched crop.

The picture doesn't show the stream very well, and it also doesn’t show how thick the crop is that well. I’ll take another one once the glypho kicks in.

If it works, whether this actually has any effect on getting the crop to branch out more remains to be seen!

View attachment 1139349

How’s it looking now?

 

[Flintstone]

Hi

It’s interesting to be honest.

The four tramlines that I ‘thinned’ have got slightly bigger plants, that also look stronger. I wish I’d done more now.

 

[Brisel]

Are pigeons landing in the bare strips?

 

[Flintstone]

There are actually, but thankfully it’s growing away quite fast with these temperatures.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any yield difference between the thicker crop or the thinned crop at harvest.

 

[FMF74]

Does look good, our slugs thinned ours out but not so uniformly

 

[Chae1]

There are actually, but thankfully it’s growing away quite fast with these temperatures.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any yield difference between the thicker crop or the thinned crop at harvest.

Has it had N yet?

 

[Flintstone]

Yep. Four days ago.

 

[FMF74]

Has it had N yet?

Yours is normally so good I guess it’s nearly flowering

 

[Chae1]

Yours is normally so good I guess it’s nearly flowering

It looks like somebody's applied something to thin it at the moment!

Not woken up from winter yet.

 

[Flintstone]

The difference is becoming quite remarkable now. I wish I’d done the whole 59 ha.

Unthinned. (Boot for scale).

Thinned.

 

[Iben]

Is there time yet to do the rest?

 

[Chae1]

Looks fine to me.

This is ours

 

[Flintstone]

Is there time yet to do the rest?

I’d like to, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough! The crop is romping on now, and I’m worried that the Glypho will be less accurate through the stream nozzles when the crop is so tall.

Next year I’ll definitely plant 10 kgs and then thin accordingly across the lot.

 

[Iben]

I’d like to, but I’m not sure I’m brave enough! The crop is romping on now, and I’m worried that the Glypho will be less accurate through the stream nozzles when the crop is so tall.

Next year I’ll definitely plant 10 kgs and then thin accordingly across the lot.

Just do one more tramline as a trial, then you will know. Better than years of wondering 'what if......'

 

[Wigeon]

Wish mine looked as good as that!

 

[Flintstone]

Weirdly, the thinned area is coming into flower much more slowly.

Red marks show thinned area.

I’m glad I didn’t do any more now. The proof will be in the yield map.