Traditional mixed Farming

[No wot]

microbial expertise, is lacking by me.
but l do believe they are fundamentally important to maintaining soil health, along with worms etc. Ploughing is meant to kill off 50% of worms, so logic would say it affects microbial action as well.

l don't think we will start adding microbes to the soil, seems a bit 'snake oil' to me. But some would swear by it. We have concentrated on non inversion tillage, soils seem to be improving, more worm casts, and, alas, moles are coming back, as are mushrooms. So something has changed.

Its easy to say, not ploughing, saves the 'goodies' in the soil, and it must help. Whether that improves soils, is perhaps dependant on a few more years yet, to confirm. Being a mixed farm, and a former lover of ploughing, it has altered my opinion. Mixed, ploughing every 4-6 yrs, is very different to ploughing every year, for cereals.

We think it will help soil to become more resilient, and perhaps fertile. I also think its better to try some of these regen ideas, before they are inflicted upon us, by a bigotted nerd, in defra.

Good post , I'm interested in how you establish a cereal crop after a grass ley when practicing DD as I understand it , it can be a challenge to have a good crop of DD wheat after grass or is that when you would plough as part of the grass ley rotation

 

[som farmer]

Good post , I'm interested in how you establish a cereal crop after a grass ley when practicing DD as I understand it , it can be a challenge to have a good crop of DD wheat after grass or is that when you would plough as part of the grass ley rotation

dd wheat straight into maize stubble, excellent take

s/barley, some min-til after kale
some dd into sprayed off grass ley
not a lot of difference between either, but only small acreage

the maize was drilled, after 1 pass of tines, and rolled, heavy crop.

ploughing has moved to 'last' resort, its there as a tool if needed.

grass reseeds or over seeding, vaderstat 2nd hand drill, does everything bar the maize.

over the last few years, we have been drying out more frequently, or to frequently, as a dairy farm, it was getting very expensive, so went broadly down the regen route. All l can say, so far, things have worked well, reducing tillage, saves a lot of money, ground appears to like it, our 'drought' last summer, left us better off, than our neighbours, usually the other way around.

But, like all new things to us, you never know if they will work, until you have tried them, what works on our sandier soil, might not work on clay soils. We just keep trying things, most of them have worked.

 

[TelesnaAg]

I will unlikely be cropping but will grow barley and vetch as spring crop.

I will also be moving to a soil health program withthe aim of keeping diesel, chem and fert requirements to a minimum due to taxes and regulations that will be applied in future.

Cattle on farm all year, store lambs in summer.

Ant...

 

[tr250]

Good post , I'm interested in how you establish a cereal crop after a grass ley when practicing DD as I understand it , it can be a challenge to have a good crop of DD wheat after grass or is that when you would plough as part of the grass ley rotation

This is a field of ours after a 2 year grass ley taken first week of feb. It is tricky to get right but possible
Edit. This would of been a plough breaking situation and several times over with the ph to get a seedbed so saves huge amounts of time fuel and metal

 

[Kevtherev]

View attachment 1101432This is a field of ours after a 2 year grass ley taken first week of feb. It is tricky to get right but possible
Edit. This would of been a plough breaking situation and several times over with the ph to get a seedbed so saves huge amounts of time fuel and metal

Big savings with DD I’ve spent thousands of hours cultivating and beating soils to death with P Harrows BUT didn’t know/have the mindset to do things differently.
I’ve ploughed fields that probably should never have been turned over and spent lot of time picking stones.
Not to mention bringing up ash roots

 

[TelesnaAg]

Big savings with DD I’ve spent thousands of hours cultivating and beating soils to death with P Harrows BUT didn’t know/have the mindset to do things differently.
I’ve ploughed fields that probably should never have been turned over and spent lot of time picking stones.
Not to mention bringing up ash roots

The video i posted talks anout plowing and some of it may not have been a waste, i laugh at germany and bio fuel plants and ploughing they moldbourd and power harrow everything wearing out gear and using energy.

Ant...

 

[Kevtherev]

The video i posted talks anout plowing and some of it may not have been a waste, i laugh at germany and bio fuel plants and ploughing they moldbourd and power harrow everything wearing out gear and using energy.

Ant...

Yes I notice Germany and lot of Eastern European farms into ploughing and cultivations.
Lot of heavy land out there so I’m told.

 

[britt]

Not to mention bringing up ash roots

And replacing shear bolts.

 

[britt]

Good post , I'm interested in how you establish a cereal crop after a grass ley when practicing DD as I understand it , it can be a challenge to have a good crop of DD wheat after grass or is that when you would plough as part of the grass ley rotation

Works fine !
I did it on ground that I took on and had taken 6 cuts of hay from (6 years) before I DDed wheat. Was n't the best wheat, but given cheap establishment was OK. Crops have got better ever since. Had been grass for at least 4 years before I took it on and was not farmed well. This, given poor drainage as Land owner won't collaborate (being diplomatic).

 

[thorpe]

You seem to need to be small enough to be able to do it all yourself or big enough to justify the big machinery, employees wages etc.
I’d say either up to 400 acres doing absolutely everything yourself or greater than 1000 acres. My cousin reckons he doesn’t make much more on 2000 acres employing folk and buying new kit than we do on 200 doing it ourselves with old kit.

we are 450 acres father and son owned and rented run good kit make the most of what do paying to much tax! what are we doing wrong? we should be skint!

 

[Bossfarmer]

we are 450 acres father and son owned and rented run good kit make the most of what do paying to much tax! what are we doing wrong? we should be skint!

Ploughing or dd? High yielding land?

 

[thorpe]

Ploughing or dd? High yielding land?

total mix of cultivations had a new plough last year , just bought a sumo lsd subsoiler , runing sand to brickyard clay often in the same field . it's all good fun we get decent yields but we do work at it, timing is everything!

 

[BredRedHfd]

Big savings with DD I’ve spent thousands of hours cultivating and beating soils to death with P Harrows BUT didn’t know/have the mindset to do things differently.
I’ve ploughed fields that probably should never have been turned over and spent lot of time picking stones.
Not to mention bringing up ash roots

Ash roots, give me nightmares

 

[Kevtherev]

Ash roots, give me nightmares

Best thing for them is a ripper tooth on excavator

 

[BredRedHfd]

Best thing for them is a ripper tooth on excavator

I used to run besides them with a real heavy duty mole plough, cut them like butter. Withing a few years when back to grass, then ploughed for cereals again, they'd all have grown back!

 

[MulchDiggins]

Hello, and thanks for welcoming me to the forum.

A little background, I'm a market gardener and tree nursery man that keeps rare breeds for utility production. I have a passion for good food, enterprise stacking and closed loop systems.

I'm working on multiple campaigns to save farms from the eco-lunacy many of us are now facing. I work with many groups, and the British Farming Union seems to be the final part of the puzzle.

Here's my thinking in brief (I understand the details will get much more complicated with every farmers unique situation):

Link UK barley grows to UK livestock farmers.

Set up small mills on farms.

Network and support for closing loops to exit international input markets.

Link into existing food pick up points (farm shop, butchers, green grocers) and create new collection/drop off point network.

Use Peoples Food and Farming Alliance to link people to pick up points after campaign to teach them how to store and use bulk produce - The Great Pantry Revival.

Enterprise stack multiple farms with income share cooperatives to bring vegetables, herbs, fruit etc to the offerings.

Network with and support British Farming Union to direct people to Peoples Food and Farming Alliance by using bale end stickers, farm gate signs and flyer campaign, t-shirts, angry naked farmers Calander.... Something like:


FOOD SHORTAGES ARE COMING

WE WANT TO FEED YOU

JOIN THE PEOPLE'S FOOD AND FARMING ALLIANCE TO SECURE YOUR FOOD SUPPLY

BRITISH FARMING UNION

I would be happy to drive this campaign along side my other projects.

Please link me in on any conversations that might help to get this going.

Warmth to you,

MulchDiggins

 

[TelesnaAg]

I used to run besides them with a real heavy duty mole plough, cut them like butter. Withing a few years when back to grass, then ploughed for cereals again, they'd all have grown back!

Yes I notice Germany and lot of Eastern European farms into ploughing and cultivations.
Lot of heavy land out there so I’m told.

And the best way to keep it heavy is to plough it to death!!

Ant...