Wheat drilling 2019

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Suits our size of farm and type of cropping. I do have a set of discs which will work in a dry year on some fields. We have such a varied soil type with everything from sand and gravel, through to horrible clay

The most robust system here is undoubtedly plough, power harrow, drill, but we don't have a combi. A lot of our clay just won't achieve a seed bed in one pass after the plough. We try to plough dry and let the weather do the work, but if it gets catchy we will plough, power harrow and drill same day similar to your system. We use an MF30 with the plough/power harrow system.
We dabble in direct drilling but once it gets wet on the clay its a non starter. Will go anytime on the sand.
Awaiting arrival of "new" plough and power harrow. Getting a bit impatient, especially with all this rain. 4th October is normally cut off date here on the heavy land. Better to leave it till spring then, in a normal winter.
 

DRC

Member
The most robust system here is undoubtedly plough, power harrow, drill, but we don't have a combi. A lot of our clay just won't achieve a seed bed in one pass after the plough. We try to plough dry and let the weather do the work, but if it gets catchy we will plough, power harrow and drill same day similar to your system. We use an MF30 with the plough/power harrow system.
We dabble in direct drilling but once it gets wet on the clay its a non starter. Will go anytime on the sand.
Awaiting arrival of "new" plough and power harrow. Getting a bit impatient, especially with all this rain. 4th October is normally cut off date here on the heavy land. Better to leave it till spring then, in a normal winter.
I’m happy to go anytime in October if conditions allow . 15th October is optimum date I think, but am waiting on maize being harvested , so made an early start for us
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
When you have blackgrass that cannot be controlled who do you blame?
You blame your rotation and the over reliance on using chemicals for control :facepalm: If you have blackgrass you can not control maybe you shouldn't be drilling cereals at all :unsure: This is anecdotal evidence that the best way to cure a blackgrass problem is to become an organic farmer... There are some fields I saw in Lincholnshire this year where the blackgrass was so bad you could not see the wheat, perhaps the only sensible thing to do is give up growing cereals and put livestock on it until you have depleted the seedbank! I am not planning to take the organic route so I will make dam sure I don't let black grass get out of control here! I have yet to find a plant in a field after Atlantis and I hand rouge every last BG plant I find elsewhere. This year I found 2, I must be getting on top of it as last year I found a few armfulls... I don't have all the answers though, I spend plenty of Wild Oats and Cleavers every year and I can grow a good carpet of groundsel.
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Not sown a seed yet as was too dry, I fear now it's way too wet after nearly 2" in the night here!! Still should keep the Flea Beetle away and wake the OSR up a bit
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Ask John Pawsey about how organic blackgrass control works!
He definitely gets blackgrass but from looking over the hedge it’s not st levels that do anything to the crop. Other weeds seem to be far more of a problem in his system.
Blackgrass is an absolutely nitrogen and cultivation’s junkie, add that into continuous winter cropping and hey presto.
 

Dockers

Member
Location
Hampshire
John Pawsey had the most blackgrass we saw on our Suffolk tour this summer. ( in winter beans) He does a great job but have to say I was disappointed at the level of investation !
PS finished our wheat drilling on Friday. Have not sown wheat in October for 30years .
 

wuddy

Member
Location
Scottish Borders
How's it looking?

Seems you weren't so crazy to start so early!??
All looking pretty good at the minute. Some yellow patches in corners and some low heavy clay parts of the fields with the amount of water that’s going about it’s kind of expected. Everything went in well with the exception of the last 200acre but it’s all up and green so fingers crossed! We hedged our bets and this year it’s paid off won’t always work like that as it can all go wrong as well! Will take some pics tomorrow when I’m out an about.
 
All looking pretty good at the minute. Some yellow patches in corners and some low heavy clay parts of the fields with the amount of water that’s going about it’s kind of expected. Everything went in well with the exception of the last 200acre but it’s all up and green so fingers crossed! We hedged our bets and this year it’s paid off won’t always work like that as it can all go wrong as well! Will take some pics tomorrow when I’m out an about.
Please don’t take any pics !!!!!!!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

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  • 1
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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