What's wrong with my DDed wheat

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Cereals after long term grass always been a risk imo, but not from short term Leys in a rotation. When we ploughed out grassthat had never been ploughed in living memory we had three years of fighting wireworm and leather jackets, but we had Dursban back then, and even that wasn’t completely successful.
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
With out looking it was drilled early October on some rented land that seems well structured
The owner normally makes haylage and wanted to give the land a break before reseeding so asked me to DD it with wheat
It has sat wet all winter
Well I think I'd go for low fertility if its cut rather than grazing, plus the wet feet, looks like the slots are opening up which would ring alarms for me that it was possibly a bit wet at drilling too.
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
Sorry to go slightly off topic - is wheat following grass considered to be a high risk? I wasnt aware of this and have been using first wheats after grass as part of a rotation for many years.

Last spring i ploughed up some 12 year old grass to drill maize to avoid wireworm issues.

Was going great till the bloody rooks worked out that if they pulled up a maize plant at the 3/4 leaf stage they got a nice juicy worm to chomp on. Lost 3 acres in on 17 acre field in a matter of hours.
 

Adeptandy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
PE15
Struggling here as well, DD wheat drilled Nov @ 210kg/ha ( KWS Barrel + Austrel Plus ) and not looking great, thin, short and small flag leaf and then to add to the heartache, somethings attacking that :banghead:
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Fertility will be there after grass as long it hadnt been cut constantly without appropriate 'replenishment '

and structure will be good.

....but wheat is just another grass so no break there.

Like Jerry said what about takeall. ....
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Fertility will be there after grass as long it hadnt been cut constantly without appropriate 'replenishment '

and structure will be good.

....but wheat is just another grass so no break there.

Like Jerry said what about takeall. ....
Just because its grass doesn't mean it has inherent fertility, some of the poorest ground gets left in grass because it sort of grows regardless.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Just because its grass doesn't mean it has inherent fertility, some of the poorest ground gets left in grass because it sort of grows regardless.
You are right of course.

My assumption :rolleyes: is based on our 'grass' ley which always has clover in the mix and is grazed the majority of the time.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Struggling here as well, DD wheat drilled Nov @ 210kg/ha ( KWS Barrel + Austrel Plus ) and not looking great, thin, short and small flag leaf and then to add to the heartache, somethings attacking that :banghead:
I don't think you can realistically expect zero till wheat after grass sown in November to be much good in the first place?
 

Andy Howard

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Ashford, Kent
I personally wouldn’t DD a cereal straight after a long term ley. Last time I did it was spring barley. It came up great then looked like your picture. I think it is allelopathy of the grass effecting the roots. If you really want to do it make sure you sprayed the grass off 3 months earlier.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I personally wouldn’t DD a cereal straight after a long term ley. Last time I did it was spring barley. It came up great then looked like your picture. I think it is allelopathy of the grass effecting the roots. If you really want to do it make sure you sprayed the grass off 3 months earlier.

Agree - I always go beans out of grass and then wheat the following year

Wheat after grass is “2 Simon's” effect at its worst !
 
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