Weaving GD demo

Old John

Member
Location
N E Suffolk
Thanks again for your replies. I have experimented with no nitrogen down the spout in the spring with the seedhawk Tyne when sowing barley under sowed with white clover. Sometimes it works just fine but if we have a dry spell at the time of drilling or for a few weeks after I have found broadcast N is lost to the atmosphere and the crop really suffers . Hence I always like to make sure I sow N when drilling in the spring. Autumn sowing is different as the window for N seems to be longer and conditions cooler with more heavy dews. Our base fertility for P and K is very high so not so necessary to put down the spout. Maybe if I went the weaving Gd route we need to keep the seedhawk to cover ourselves but I like the look of the weaving very low disturbance for reducing our herbicide bill overtime. The old locals in our area say if you took all the weed seeds out of our soil it would drop a foot!!
I had the impression from the sales pitch that the weaving was an all round no tillage machine but maybe that is not quite the case in relation to sowing very small seeds.
Interesting you are not allowed to sow N down the spout in the autumn as here the authorities seem keen for us to use the this new overseer model to count our N losses over a year and that still allows N use in the autumn. The use of overseer then allocates N use to each farm based on historical use so dairy farms end up with a lot higher N allocation than cropping farms.( called grandfathering of N rights ).
We've been using a GD for about 15 months now and planted hundreds of acres of OSR and stubble turnips and had no problems. Many of the farmers where we have planted stubble turnips have been very impressed with how shallow we can plant and the good crops behind the drill.
 
on heavy land open slots are a problem under certain conditions
when it is wet and stays wet slugs move down them
when it is wet at drilling and it dries out they can open more
when it is hard then rains slug get down them

waiting till it is dryer can alleviate some of the problems for wet conditions
the problem with a gd compared to a big disc is that it will go in conditions that are wetter when you should not be drilling

I would agree that a 4 m trailed should have enough weight

having a wider drill and traveling slower is always better and leads to reduced wear on disks and bearings
on a big disc and a moore at speed the disc get warm and bearing can get warm which reduces their life
 
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Second wheat drilled with the gd 3m demo machine 28th September, hasn't looked great all winter but seems to be looking better by the day now.
 
notill will never look good all winter compared to cultivated

Think it's one thing you need to get your head around is the fact that no till crops are never pretty to look at till spring, this field is certainly looking better each day now very pleased with it! Attached some photos of establishment.

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once you get used to the sight of trash and stubble and uneven looking crops it becomes easier this was also the case with mintill once burning was banned

I also suspect that as soil gets more years of notill it gets more even looking

allowing bigger hedges reduces the embarrassment !
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
Not sure about all this fert application on the drill, have it with the dale but crops never do any better they just look better earlier.

Also you don't need many pipes or spilt fert to start damaging a drill worth many £000s.

Personally I thought it was the way but it does not make up for building indices using sewage sludge or any other natural form.
 

Old John

Member
Location
N E Suffolk
Does the fert on a grain and fert come down the same pipe? And planted alongside the seed? Does this not scorch the seed?
The seed and fertiliser use separate pipes but but both exit into the slot together.
As far as scorch is concerned, so long as you don't put too much fertiliser down at seeding, it's ok. When we used to combine drill,up until the 1970's, where fertiliser was placed, it used to slow emergence a bit.
 

tomildinio

Member
I like the idea of the fert one, gives two bins if mixing cover crops seed, can be used to do normal sowing too and can place fert. Studies over here have p and k placing giving up to 14% extra yield in sp barley compared to spreading on ploughing and it could also help getting crops going without the mineralisation of N from ploughing. Only thing I would be worried about is the scorching if the fert is placed too near the seed.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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