Vaderstad Rapid autumn drilling

[anthonybecvar]

I’m thinking of nailing a seedbed early after harvest and leaving it as long as possible to get the best chit (always get as many weeds in the final seedbed than the stale seedbed). Then spray off and kind of direct drill with Vaderstad rapid with cultivating discs raised so just coulter discs in and tyre press behind to closer slits. That way not disturbing the soil too much again. Any thoughts?

 

[Flat 10]

Think @teslacoils does this. Can’t argue with the theory but not sure practically how little disturbance a vad makes in these circumstances as don’t have one. Obviously a true direct drill would be less but how much I don’t know.

 

[teslacoils]

Works fine.

But on stiff clay it takes a bit of patience to leave it tight. Best weed control last autumn came in winter barley.....which was previously osr. Solo, ph, drill, roll twice in August. Then vaddy just the Coulter's in mid October.

 

[radar]

Drill?

 

[Tompkins]

Worked well for us last year, cleanest crops were drilled with rapid with front discs only just grazing the top....

 

[Bramble]

Works fine.

But on stiff clay it takes a bit of patience to leave it tight. Best weed control last autumn came in winter barley.....which was previously osr. Solo, ph, drill, roll twice in August. Then vaddy just the Coulter's in mid October.

What did you drill?

 

[pdagriservices]

Did a bit of Spring Barley this year! Did use the system disc and had to go a bit deeper with them to cut and mix the trash! Worked really well looks like one of our best fields! Alot of disturbance though? So not ideal if you are looking for very little disturbance on top!?

 

[anthonybecvar]

Was think that by just using the disc coulters and not disturbing the ground too much I wouldn't be encouraging any more blackgrass to emerge by mixing that top 4 inches again.

 

[teslacoils]

What did you drill?

Barley.

 

[teslacoils]

Drilling Cereals shouldn't be moving four inches.

 

[Bramble]

Barley.

Sorry, did you drill a cover crop in August before you drilled the barley in October. Or was the barley the cover crop??

 

[teslacoils]

Sorry, we drilled a proper crop of oilseed rape. But......beetles. Sad face. But, great barley and few weeds.

 

[anthonybecvar]

Drilling Cereals shouldn't be moving four inches.

What I meant was that by not putting the front two sets of discs down, I won’t be recultivating and mixing the the soil in front of the seed, whether I’d be 1/2/4 inches.

 

[Bramble]

Sorry, we drilled a proper crop of oilseed rape. But......beetles. Sad face. But, great barley and few weeds.

Similar experience here as well. Failed OSR eaten by beetles that had lots of BG, sprayed off and drilled with wheat mid Oct. Very clean crop now, despite having bad BG in the wheat previous to the OSR. The control is much better than just stale seedbeds alone. Cultivations were similar in both situations.

Maybe I should use OSR as a companion crop for BG control??

 

[teslacoils]

Similar experience here as well. Failed OSR eaten by beetles that had lots of BG, sprayed off and drilled with wheat mid Oct. Very clean crop now, despite having bad BG in the wheat previous to the OSR. The control is much better than just stale seedbeds alone. Cultivations were similar in both situations.

Maybe I should use OSR as a companion crop for BG control??

Expensive cover, but shows what sort of seedbed needs to be like for good weed emergence and pre em control.

 

[teslacoils]

What I meant was that by not putting the front two sets of discs down, I won’t be recultivating and mixing the the soil in front of the seed, whether I’d be 1/2/4 inches.

Yes, if the seedbed is good then there is no need to use the front cultivation element. But in any case the front discs should be set shallower than the seeding discs.

 

[deleted user 837354]

We might be on to some there, OSR as a cover crop- cheap FSS available and readily killed in cereals?

 

[Brisel]

Beware of using a Rapid as a direct drill. Slot closure can be poor & the discs will hair pin residues into the slot too.

 

[matttargett4]

Been doing this for several yrs for one customer.

it depends on the soil type and climate, this is angry dirt in a wet hole its rarely pretty tbh. If you have the benefit of a dry harvest like we are at the moment then cultivate however you feel fit, then roll it ten times to get it tight. If you leave it at all uneven or loose when you come to drill it the cultivated soil will peel off the uncultivated layer and come along for the ride under the drill. To combat this we normal have to reduce drilling depth, the problem then becomes wheel marks, so the inclination is then to use the system discs to cover It up a bit, but you didn't go out planning to do that.

if theres much trash just go home.

Tbh I think theres nothing in it, to reduce disturbance further the guy got a 750a demo last autumn, did a good job and theres half a chance ill buy one on the back of it, but both lots of drilling were bg free in march, the pre ems worked well but by the end of april both lots were full of bg. Maybe its just here but its the spring flush that's the biggest issue for me and im not sure that what drill I used 6 months previous makes much difference to that? However I know a crop that is spuddled in trying not to disturb soil doesn't often yield well.

 

[anthonybecvar]

Been doing this for several yrs for one customer.

it depends on the soil type and climate, this is angry dirt in a wet hole its rarely pretty tbh. If you have the benefit of a dry harvest like we are at the moment then cultivate however you feel fit, then roll it ten times to get it tight. If you leave it at all uneven or loose when you come to drill it the cultivated soil will peel off the uncultivated layer and come along for the ride under the drill. To combat this we normal have to reduce drilling depth, the problem then becomes wheel marks, so the inclination is then to use the system discs to cover It up a bit, but you didn't go out planning to do that.

if theres much trash just go home.

Tbh I think theres nothing in it, to reduce disturbance further the guy got a 750a demo last autumn, did a good job and theres half a chance ill buy one on the back of it, but both lots of drilling were bg free in march, the pre ems worked well but by the end of april both lots were full of bg. Maybe its just here but its the spring flush that's the biggest issue for me and im not sure that what drill I used 6 months previous makes much difference to that? However I know a crop that is spuddled in trying not to disturb soil doesn't often yield well.

I get exactly what you’re saying. We’re on a mix of heavy clay on part of the farm and sand on the other so autumn work can be very different. BG comes as much in the spring as it does in the autumn. We will avadex as well as pre em, so part of me thinks to put the discs down and get a seedbed chit too. To be honest I’m willing to give it a shot this year and if it doesn’t work I’ll have crossed it off my list.