Wheat after grass?

[Cutlerstom]

Apologies if this has been done to death, but I can't find anything in the search. I'm considering a 2 year "legume fallow" in CS, the suggested mix is 66% ryegrass with the rest made up of clovers, vetches, flowers.
My question is what to follow this with? I'd like to put wheat in - It would be in until 15th August in the 2nd year - and it seems a waste of any N fixing that's been done over the 2 year period not to go into wheat.
However, I've heard it said that direct drilling wheat after grass doesn't work and beans are a better option. Unreliable beans were one of the reasons for trying the option - I could miss them out! Does anyone have any success drilling wheat after a grass crop?

 

[E_B]

Tried it a couple of times with strip till, neither had spectacular results. Had to re-drill some. Would probably be a better job with a disc drill to be fair as far as seed placement goes. Am pondering a similar thought. A two year clover ley followed by beans seems overkill on the N fixing without a wheat inbetween, but beans into grass stubble is so much easier, and gives you a longer kill of the grass before the beans coming through, as it will need spraying off more than once probably.

Current crop of beans after IRG:

 

[ih1455xl]

Yep do it ever year 3yr grass leys in to wheat spray of early is the key maybe even drill cover crop, lime helps a lot spread on top before drilling
We use a weaving gd

 

[yellow belly]

In 07 fetched up some grass with discodon sprayed off
half had a lot of clover in it was the best yield in a very good year
looking at the legume rich mixture I would aim to establish enough grass to cover the ground
we notill established some high cocksfoot grass strips and part fields in 2018 they took well with little weed growth
nector mix last year was established in June and 2 foot deep by harvest
in longer term notill the surface tilth and the low number of slugs would help a good establishment
a 1st or second year notill would be the hardest due to slugs and low biology
the legume mix in seeds per m2 terms would have a lot of legume seeds ryegrass seeds are weighty

 

[deleted user 837354]

Tried it a couple of times with strip till, neither had spectacular results. Had to re-drill some. Would probably be a better job with a disc drill to be fair as far as seed placement goes. Am pondering a similar thought. A two year clover ley followed by beans seems overkill on the N fixing without a wheat inbetween, but beans into grass stubble is so much easier, and gives you a longer kill of the grass before the beans coming through, as it will need spraying off more than once probably.

Current crop of beans after IRG:

Looks ace. Going into a broad leaved crop makes sense, for starters the pest and BYDV angle is much reduced. Second, you have access to a variety of graminicides in beans etc.

 

[E_B]

Looks ace. Going into a broad leaved crop makes sense, for starters the pest and BYDV angle is much reduced. Second, you have access to a variety of graminicides in beans etc.

Thank you. This field was drilled a couple of days after we had over 70mm in one day, and it's not light land. Another plus is, as far as strip till goes, that the grass dries the ground out so even in a wet time you can get on with the beans down a single shoot coulter. Drilling wheat with a dual shoot cereal coulter would be more difficult to get good seed to soil contact in the same conditions, and would peel the soil away more. This would be less of an issue with a disc drill admitedly.

 

[martian]

We tried wheat behind two year ryegrass ley...always disappointing. Would now put beans in there. Two year ryegrass and clover ley looks a different story. We drilled it into living sward (well, sprayed off day before) in wet period of October. Went in a dream, looking lovely now. Clover mostly still alive, Will have to deal with it later (red clover, it'll swamp the wheat before harvest )

 

[Ladybird]

We have gone wheat after 3 year perennial grass ley. Looks a bit thin ?‍I’ll put some photos up but does look pretty unimpressive. Was expecting it to of gone a bit better.

 

[Michael S]

I have used my Simtech to drill wheat into two year herbage seed stubble for the last two autumns. In 2018 this was through the chopped hay as well. The wheat looked pretty ropey all,year until about a fortnight before harvest when it suddenly perked up and yielded 9.6t/ha which would be in line with expectation. I did apply 25m3/ha pig slurry directly after chopping the hay and about three weeks before spraying off. I feel that this gets nitrogen into the grass and helps reduce lockup of soil nitrogen. Follow the links below for pictures.

Autumn 2019:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1193138489698799616

Direct/Strip-till drilling photo gallery

Wheat going in after oats with contractors Sumo strip till machine. 3rd year of going down this route at home and the ground is noticeably firmer under foot and more traffic-able. Baby steps! That will grow well

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Drilled autumn 2018 with the hay chopped:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1091612099732824064

 

[Devon James]

Spring barley into long term grass? Soil structure sounds ok. Dont bother doing it or what should be in place for a good result?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Spring barley into long term grass? Soil structure sounds ok. Dont bother doing it or what should be in place for a good result?

My money says that is anything is gonna stick being drilled into long term grass it will be spring barley that grows like a weed in warm dirt. Never seen it done unfortunately.

 

[Devon James]

My money says that is anything is gonna stick being drilled into long term grass it will be spring barley that grows like a weed in warm dirt. Never seen it done unfortunately.

Too much grass really so left it at that after this field

 

[DrWazzock]

dare I direct drill spring barley into a heavy land sprayed off grass ley. Pictures aren’t great but had a trial run in it with the unidrill. Slots are a bit shiny sided and don’t close fully with seed sort of trapped between the sides but some visible from above. Lovely worms and moisture there but seed to soil contact isn’t great and if it stays dry I don’t rate the chances of good establishment. Loathe to plough it this late but seems only way to get some tilth. Another week and it will be too hard to do anything with it. It’s a bit uneven as well which makes drilling depth very variable across the drill. I think I will plough it.