What is "heavy" land?

[76masseyman]

Thats what id call heavyView attachment 865027

Pulling seven furrows ! Sorry, can’t class that as heavy either.

 

[76masseyman]

Whay the marine silts , hell they are wet or have been , local beet man lifts a lot on heavy silts and marine clays , they finished thursday ,he said it should of had another week drying ,but factory shutting , used to deal with this stuff , get it worked dry and get it right , superb stuff , two catogorys cat sh!t or concrete.
what this stuff @Dave6170

Nine furrows on that Xerion ! Old boys land, pull a five bar gate behind you for a seedbed

 

[Dave6170]

Pulling seven furrows ! Sorry, can’t class that as heavy either.

Thinks its on a fendt 1050 though

 

[Phil P]

We have quit a bit of yellow stuff, most still has stubble on it at the moment and water in some patches.

Problem an equal amount of sand as well but you have to watch out for the sand stone!

Then there’s the moss where when it’s wet you need best part of 400hp on a 5 furrow plough

 

[MrNoo]

What is Moss ground? Never heard of it before, looks light in the picture!!

 

[John Slejpner]

Thats what id call heavyView attachment 865027

Great ploughing. Not heavy.

 

[Phil P]

What is Moss ground? Never heard of it before, looks light in the picture!!

Depends which part of the country your from, some just call it peat, however the peat it the bit below the moss. Very black ground high in OM.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Only farmers in Bedfordshire and Warwickshire are qualified to answer this although some south Essex come close.

and Leicestershire - which still has lots of permanent pasture

 

[Lincsman]

My heaviest has a clay pit at one side, it would all have gone as roof tiles had the factory not closed down years ago Marine alluvium I think its called, its also used as a reservoir liner.

Areas of it is overgrown with hawthorn, which floods for most of the winter, hence cropped land needs deep cultivation if you dont want it to be the same. Anyone want to prove DD will work on it for fun?

 

[michael N123]

I proberly won’t have any spring barly planted before second week of April some years I havnt started plowing until may

 

[Bobthebuilder]

Anywhere a company will have tillage demo days is never on heavy land [emoji849]

 

[jh.]

Direct drilling sad unmoved clay in the spring here is not really a goer. Putty to concrete in a day. Hard semi closed tilthless slots aren’t the best start for a seed.

Hopefully those are in right order and clear enough . It's a bit of a sales brochure for cross slot but a lot does make sense. Part of me thinks a tine cutting some drainage is a must on heavy land but many direct drill books push minimal disturbance with residue left on surface and time , as being the only way . Wouldn't mind trying the theory as after many years of ploughing I see the damage we are doing in heavy soils with ploughs . Power and metal let's a lot of us produce cereals on land that should be in grass imo .

 

[Lincsman]

Hopefully those are in right order and clear enough . It's a bit of a sales brochure for cross slot but a lot does make sense. Part of me thinks a tine cutting some drainage is a must on heavy land but many direct drill books push minimal disturbance with residue left on surface and time , as being the only way . Wouldn't mind trying the theory as after many years of ploughing I see the damage we are doing in heavy soils with ploughs . Power and metal let's a lot of us produce cereals on land that should be in grass imo .

View attachment 865084View attachment 865085View attachment 865086

I would let them have a field for free to see if they could make it work, but they wont... despite massive cracks in summer and under drainage with stone backfill it WILL flood in winter if not cultivated. Permanent Grass fields that have not had a tractor on them for 20 years do

 

[DrWazzock]

Well I did direct drill drill some clay with wheat a week ago. It was like putty then. It’s getting like concrete now, some very unhappy coleoptiles pushing up through shrinkage cracks.

no. I would rather be facing weathered ploughed clay than undisturbed clay stubbles in springtime.

 

[DrWazzock]

The only thing that turns solid clay into tilth is disturbance and weathering. Left to its own devices if turns itself into a pond bottom which is what it was before it was farmed,

 

[jh.]

Unless it's the tillage putting in the pans causing the water not to get away ?

Ploughing to 8 or 10 inch gives it a clean sheet with a good airing but wrecks everything below the surface. Then we spend a he'll of a diesel and metal to batter it into a seed bed .

Perhaps unmoved ground with cover crops and the right drill , not some min till drill adapted to try and direct drill ,would stand a better chance

 

[Lincsman]

Unless it's the tillage putting in the pans causing the water not to get away ?

See #49 water does not get away if no one walks on it even.

 

[Norfolk Olly]

 

[jh.]

See #49 water does not get away if no one walks on it even.

Have you seen the hutchinsons soil videos on YouTube . There are 8 of them and definitely worth a watch .

 

[colhonk]

If you consider growing spring crops in it ,it is not heavy clay...................so there