To roll or not to roll

[Tarw Coch]

Drilled a couple of fields of winter barley on Saturday and wondering wether to get them rolled tomorrow before rain Wednesday or leave till the spring. Ground conditions were reasonable but certainly not perfect for barley with the very odd damp patch. Having a glorious day today and the top has dried out nicely so do I take advantage of the current weather or would it be better left till spring ?
Could also ask the same question of a couple of fields of wheat but I guess that would be more tolerant of wheelings.
Just thinking if rolled would give less opportunity for slugs to hide

 

[4R Man]

If ground conditions are good now, then roll - you never know what the spring will deliver.
Also here we seem to have an abundance of slugs, rolling does reduce their impact.
Often just turn on the headlands and not worry about what get missed - the double rolling can be too much....

 

[teslacoils]

Probably not. I reckon 12mm of rain will "roll it for me" and here at least there is no shortage of moisture or seed to soil contact.

 

[Zippy768]

Roll. Everything is getting rolled here this time. Last autumn didn't roll and thought I'd do it on the spring....and we all know what happened in spring.
Ended up doing alot of stone picking, cutting higher and still managed to damage a baler!

 

[ollie989898]

I am generally a fan of rolling but you know your dirt. If a farmer had told me the above wasn't going to be rolled I would be less concerned as there is clearly a nice tilth and no doubt some good seed to soil contract in there even if there are some (small) clods on top.

Where I'd be far more concerned is where it's just clods clods and more clods with some seed thrown in amongst it. That is where the slugs will get at the seed far more readily and germination will be more staggered.

 

[teslacoils]

With the forecast as it is, mines not getting rolled.

 

[Huno]

View attachment 1141449
Drilled a couple of fields of winter barley on Saturday and wondering wether to get them rolled tomorrow before rain Wednesday or leave till the spring. Ground conditions were reasonable but certainly not perfect for barley with the very odd damp patch. Having a glorious day today and the top has dried out nicely so do I take advantage of the current weather or would it be better left till spring ?
Could also ask the same question of a couple of fields of wheat but I guess that would be more tolerant of wheelings.
Just thinking if rolled would give less opportunity for slugs to hideView attachment 1141459

go and have some fun... put your favorite tunes on.. and switch off... roll it!!

 

[teslacoils]

I mean, I do love rolling. My favourite farming job.

 

[Grass And Grain]

Has been really too wet to drill here, but it got drilled anyway.

Too risky to roll imho. Negatives outweigh the positives.

Expecting Manganese deficiency, but can be helped with the sprayer. Not ideal, but that's just how it is. Slug issues on heavier ground, but soil is warm, seed is germinating, will have to use more pellets.

 

[Grass And Grain]

Bigger decision for me is pre-em or not pre-em on lighter soils. Think might cut the rate back.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Bigger decision for me is pre-em or not pre-em on lighter soils. Think might cut the rate back.

What do you see as the pros and cons of a pre em?
I ask as a dairy farmer dabbling in a bit of arable.
Last year we pre em’d the wheat and a few days later agronomist was then wanting it sprayed for aphids so two passes in just over a week and two bills from contractor. Talking to a local farmer with quite a bit of arable and he said they never spray pre em early but wait and see if it needs spraying for aphids as they can put it all on in one go.
I’ve got myself a new agronomist this year as I don’t think the last one was working in my best interests

 

[ollie989898]

What do you see as the pros and cons of a pre em?
I ask as a dairy farmer dabbling in a bit of arable.
Last year we pre em’d the wheat and a few days later agronomist was then wanting it sprayed for aphids so two passes in just over a week and two bills from contractor. Talking to a local farmer with quite a bit of arable and he said they never spray pre em early but wait and see if it needs spraying for aphids as they can put it all on in one go.
I’ve got myself a new agronomist this year as I don’t think the last one was working in my best interests

Pre-em on first- if it's anything like around here there is no guarantee you will travel later. You will also get better control this way also (it's also tamer on the crop).

The fact you have two sprayer passes is neither here nor there. I'd sooner put manganese in with the aphicide than herbicide.

Your priority as a dairy farmer is using the wheat/crop to clean up your ground ready for the next one. Dirty stubbles and grass weeds do not aid you in that. You want to be looking around at your paddocks and working out which ones aren't that productive any more and putting them into wheat. At some point in the future you may look around and find you don't want to tear anything up for a year or two because it's all productive. At that point you can buy some wholecrop etc in, no point in ploughing up stuff that is good.

Lastly, don't baulk at the use of atlantis, ally etc on your land- they are useful and will be cleaning your dirt up in the longer term. Ideally you should end up with a clean stubble that you can min-till grass into very readily. Killing docks etc in wheat is a doddle.

 

[bobk]

No chance here , last thing our land needs is more rain .
Mauled 10 acres in today , looks ok from the road .

 

[teslacoils]

Bigger decision for me is pre-em or not pre-em on lighter soils. Think might cut the rate back.

Depends on product. I just drop the harsher ones out and get the rest on. Due 6mm Wednesday morning, so it would be spot on if I could get a tank of preem on ahead of that.

 

[workin f nowt]

All got rolled and pre em. Post em always scorches badly

 

[Grass And Grain]

What do you see as the pros and cons of a pre em?
I ask as a dairy farmer dabbling in a bit of arable.
Last year we pre em’d the wheat and a few days later agronomist was then wanting it sprayed for aphids so two passes in just over a week and two bills from contractor. Talking to a local farmer with quite a bit of arable and he said they never spray pre em early but wait and see if it needs spraying for aphids as they can put it all on in one go.
I’ve got myself a new agronomist this year as I don’t think the last one was working in my best interests

First thing, is it wheat or barley? AFAIK no spring options to take out meadow grass in barley, so need an autumn product on either pre or post.

What's your land like? Will this be last opportunity to travel, or are you likely to be able to spray post em? Again, the wheat or barley issue, as there are spring options for wheat.

If you're dairy with a bit of corn, then you won't have black grass. For most others, blackgrass is an issue, and residuals work better pre-em of the black grass emerging (unless very dry and warm, then could argue would work better later on,).

Negative for pre-em. As someone said, post em has higher likelihood to cause scorch. However, I've known pre-em all but kill the crop on sand with heavy rain after application. A couple of days post rain gives the active more time to adhere to the soil particles, and reduces it getting washed down to the crop roots. Actives adhere to clay particles better than sand, hence why a risk on sand.

A few mm of rain after application is perfect, as helps spread chemical across soil surface. Ball-park figures, depending on how moist soil is...... 3-9mm is perfect, 9-15mm is OK, 15-25mm is more than I'd want, 25-40mm is far too much and will wash it down on sand.

As you point out, possibly need to go back with insecticide and manganese. Mix can get a bit hot if not careful, but it saves a sprayer pass if you're not targeting blackgrass. Manganese scorches for fun. Liquid Mn is better than powdered.

^^^^^^ my thoughts anyway. Someone with more knowledge might have other things to add (or a different opinion altogether!!).

 

[ollie989898]

Shouldn't be putting manganese in with any herbicide in reality. It's not ideal.

Powered manganese, if you're asking spray contractors to mess with that stuff be sure to turn your phone off that weekend.

 

[DRC]

I wouldn’t roll that if it’s had a fairly heavy powerharrow combination with a roller on the back. It’ll be firm enough with heavy rain forecast

 

[warksfarmer]

View attachment 1141449
Drilled a couple of fields of winter barley on Saturday and wondering wether to get them rolled tomorrow before rain Wednesday or leave till the spring. Ground conditions were reasonable but certainly not perfect for barley with the very odd damp patch. Having a glorious day today and the top has dried out nicely so do I take advantage of the current weather or would it be better left till spring ?
Could also ask the same question of a couple of fields of wheat but I guess that would be more tolerant of wheelings.
Just thinking if rolled would give less opportunity for slugs to hideView attachment 1141459

Drilled and rolled after pots as conditions are good and to be honest we need some rain to put the pre-em on.
Won’t be rolling where we direct drill but that won’t be for another 2-3 weeks.

 

[PSQ]

I wouldn't touch it if your ground prone to capping.

But if it's not then crack on with either duals or the tractor tyre pressures dropped to the manufacturers bare minimum.
A few years ago I rolled a couple of passes for a comparison on some 'too fresh' ground before rain, and then had all winter to regret not rolling the rest of it.