To cultivate or not to cultivate that is the question

[FMF74]

So historically spring barley is direct drilled here into a cover crop established with a cultivator in the autumn and sprayed off late February.
Records show our best yields come from a crop planted late February early March with later planted crops suffering in both reduced yield and higher N jeopardising malting specs.
Obviously time is creeping on now and our chalk has suffered with all the rain and almost slumped over the winter leaving it like plasticine so do I just sit tight in the hope it dries and doesn’t slot or do I give it a gentle cultivate and let the air in and give it a chance to dry in between the showers??
Apologies for the ramblings but it’s stressing me out.

 

[YELROM]

We are going to cultivate, probably just a light discing but spring barley seems hit or miss at the best of times DDed and this year certainly isn’t the best

 

[yellow belly]

Notill here high fs seed rate low n and reduced herbicide and 1 fungicide for April planting
the trials have always been done on cultivated early crops which have higher weed desease and nutrient needs

supply industry hate it and always pays high inputs
high inputs only needed on early drilled crops which always need robust herbicide and fungicide

 

[Wigeon]

I'm going to cultivate when i can get on. Heavy land.

Last time I didn't it cost 2.5t/ha full spec spring barley At £270/t. Not doing that again!

 

[T Hectares]

So historically spring barley is direct drilled here into a cover crop established with a cultivator in the autumn and sprayed off late February.
Records show our best yields come from a crop planted late February early March with later planted crops suffering in both reduced yield and higher N jeopardising malting specs.
Obviously time is creeping on now and our chalk has suffered with all the rain and almost slumped over the winter leaving it like plasticine so do I just sit tight in the hope it dries and doesn’t slot or do I give it a gentle cultivate and let the air in and give it a chance to dry in between the showers??
Apologies for the ramblings but it’s stressing me out.

I am on chalk like yourself, I will shallow cultivate as SB hates a compromised start

It’s fairly well accepted that SB results are variable with DD, my own on farm trials have certainly shown this, a little shallow cultivation can pay dividends in a year like this

As for later sown SB into April, I will increase seed rates and incorporate all the N pre drilling.
If you think you will struggle with high N cut rates back, I have no idea what rates you use but I’ll be 100-110 N kg/ha
Pre ems will be out the window if it warms up and it may well end up with one fungicide and no PGR

We didn’t start drilling until the 23rd in ‘20 and had a pretty decent year

 

[Wilbada]

I’m also on chalk and cultivated all of our SB ground to 3/4 inches with a Vaddy Swift a week ago to get it to dry/ take out a bit of sheep grazing/ rain compaction. Should drill pretty quickly if given more than a single day of drying... Spring Oat ground I’m still planning on DD

 

[Brisel]

You're not alone. Spring barley is one of the crops I've struggled with the most in DD. No way anything will travel at the moment, even spraying off anything with any kind of clay content wasn't possible.

 

[ajd132]

Notill here high fs seed rate low n and reduced herbicide and 1 fungicide for April planting
the trials have always been done on cultivated early crops which have higher weed desease and nutrient needs

supply industry hate it and always pays high inputs
high inputs only needed on early drilled crops which always need robust herbicide and fungicide

Never used a pre em even on cultivated early drilled spring barley. The only difference will be an extra fungicide possibly, maybe £15/ha. You will be spending more than that on extra seed. Will never need any more than 100 kg/n regardless of drill date. no till spring barley too hit and miss here.

 

[DrWazzock]

I’ll stick my neck out.
No till spring barley is the easiest crop to no till for us. Very easy on the sand. On the clay you get about a day when it’s on the turn between plasticine and concrete but get it right and it will grow away fine. There’s no toxic fresh straw around to ruin it. It’s brittle.
The problem for us with spring cultivations is normally the creation of an incredibly dry and loose layer or if it’s wet, a layer of sludge.
What’s needed is patience and daily monitoring of soil conditions on the clay. It needs to be the consistency of fudge, drill, let it dry off then roll it. And normally things are getting drier rather than wetter so drowning in the slot isn’t likely.