Wheat drilling 2020

[teslacoils]

Interesting. Why do you think that?

Ok, bear with me here. In my earlier days of farming, I was terrified of not getting land worked in time to weather for a seedbed. This was the day of the Simba DD packer. So we would chase the combine around slooshing clay into various sized chunks, and "packing" them into fairly loose ridges for the weather to get into, then work in front of the drill.

Two things seemed apparent - that more bf grew in the trough of the pressed ridges, and secondly big rain didn't soak into the soil evenly but ran almost around the clods and settled at the point where cultivated soil met uncultivated. After big rain, if you walked on it the top was drybbut you could hear the slurp of wet underneath. The same went for overwintered ploughing which looked like it was drying on top, but was "chocolate pudding" because all the water was trapped at the point where the soil density changed the greatest. Untouched stubble dries fairly quickly.

Since we often "need" some cultivation for best yield / enough tilth to drill / remove wheelings I now go from stubble to proper seedbed asap. So cultivator and power harrow at the same time, or disc/ press then roll. Overly loose seems to be worse for weed chit, drying, and the drill works better in well consolidated soil.

Not scientific. Just seems to be how it appears.

 

[DRC]

I think it's right to crack on , no knowing what the weather will , huge hurricane coming our way .

Dry until Wednesday morning and then light showers afterwards into October on our forecast .

 

[RAF]

Would people be worried about spring barley vol in winter barley

 

[holmes65]

Would people be worried about spring barley vol in winter barley

Depends how many. A lot yes I would be, a few here and there not really a problem

 

[RAF]

Be a lot . Disced up to get a chit but now it’s to dry . Daddy wants to drill the winter barley though now .

 

[Flat 10]

Be a lot . Disced up to get a chit but now it’s to dry . Daddy wants to drill the winter barley though now .

Happens quite a lot here. Tend to plough to mitigate. Helps sample but your problems are disease and making it too thick

 

[Zippy768]

I've left the bit be that is ex Spring Barley that is going to WB.
Seems to be plenty green enough and did catch some rain. Left the muck off at moment so I can target it all. Spray it off tomorrow, spread muck end of week. Disc and drill straight behind - hopefully- week beginning 28th Sept

 

[Northdowns Martin]

I quoted wrong, its £445

I can see a conversation happening Monday

IMO TGW appears to be heavy this year (winter barley 57-60) so you need to buy more to get seed numbers.
Paid sub £400 for barley from ADM

 

[farmerm]

not used seed dressing or insecticide for 9 or 10 years now and not had a problem yet

Get your soils and rotation healthy and it’s a none issue , healthy soils grow healthy plants with brix levels that aphid don’t like / bother with

yields actually ended up much better than expected.......... but we’re still rubbish !

Interesting. I have head the term used widely in strawberries but I don't recall hearing it widely discussed in wheat. Do you measure your brix levels? Agnonomists up and down the country are stomping their feet, literally holding onto growers ankles as they walk toward their drills to delay them and stocking up for a bonkers multiple pass autumn aphicides and all that is really required is reducing cultivations? It seems a bit counter intuitive, one would think that the sap from a heathy plant has much more "goodness" in it, higher levels of sugars and minerals and would be more attractive to aphids than a stressed plant? I have now fallen down the google rabbit hole of Brix levels, electromagnetic frequencies emitted by plants and how EM can attractor repel insects... For those whos soils and rotation are not so healthy, could EM devices be use to actively mass trap or deter aphids perhaps?

 

[ajd132]

Interesting. I have head the term used widely in strawberries but I don't recall hearing it widely discussed in wheat. Do you measure your brix levels? Agnonomists up and down the country are stomping their feet, literally holding onto growers ankles as they walk toward their drills to delay them and stocking up for a bonkers multiple pass autumn aphicides and all that is really required is reducing cultivations? It seems a bit counter intuitive, one would think that the sap from a heathy plant has much more "goodness" in it, higher levels of sugars and minerals and would be more attractive to aphids than a stressed plant? I have now fallen down the google rabbit hole of Brix levels, electromagnetic frequencies emitted by plants and how EM can attractor repel insects... For those whos soils and rotation are not so healthy, could EM devices be use to actively mass trap or deter aphids perhaps?

When you start getting your head around this stuff it’s really simple (it’s harder making it work!). Pest attack unhealthy plants with weak cell walls etc. Same for disease, this is why in U.K. ag the huge doses of nitrogen fit in perfectly with big multiple pass fungicide programs, in terms of weeds we have changed the microbial balance of the soil that favours certain weeds with our practices, lack grass for example.
basically we have been heading down the wrong path agronomically for decades. We’re getting to a crux point where the majority of agronomists and farmers don’t know what to do anymore, and it will only get worse now their chemical pipeline is drying up. I actually think this is a bigger threat to most farms in the long term than brexit/subs going etc

 

[farmerm]

When you start getting your head around this stuff it’s really simple (it’s harder making it work!). Pest attack unhealthy plants with weak cell walls etc. Same for disease, this is why in U.K. ag the huge doses of nitrogen fit in perfectly with big multiple pass fungicide programs, in terms of weeds we have changed the microbial balance of the soil that favours certain weeds with our practices, lack grass for example.
basically we have been heading down the wrong path agronomically for decades. We’re getting to a crux point where the majority of agronomists and farmers don’t know what to do anymore, and it will only get worse now their chemical pipeline is drying up. I actually think this is a bigger threat to most farms in the long term than brexit/subs going etc

Do you and your agronomist have the answers? The path we are on is the inevitable effect of allowing the majority of agronomists to be salesmen first and advisors second... "we" changed the microbial balance when we felled trees to start grazing animals, "we" changed the microbial balance again when we started tilling the soil, "we" changed the microbial balance when we cut back on mixed farming, "we" changed the microbial balance again with each new chemical, each new artifical fertiliser and even each new crop we introduced into the system. We can cut back on Nitrogen and fungicides but ultimately few of us are going to be able to survive on organic levels of outputs whilst selling commodity grains at world market price.

 

[ajd132]

Do you and your agronomist have the answers? The path we are on is the inevitable effect of allowing the majority of agronomists to be salesmen first and advisors second... "we" changed the microbial balance when we felled trees to start grazing animals, "we" changed the microbial balance again when we started tilling the soil, "we" changed the microbial balance when we cut back on mixed farming, "we" changed the microbial balance again with each new chemical, each new artifical fertiliser and even each new crop we introduced into the system. We can cut back on Nitrogen and fungicides but ultimately few of us are going to be able to survive on organic levels of outputs whilst selling commodity grains at world market price.

I don’t have an agronomist I do it myself but have a pool of advisors with a different way of thinking that we use.
We don’t have the answers, it’s a slow process but I think we are heading in the right direction. There is many farmers further down the line than me who are having some great success now, many who I have visited to learn from and seen the crops.
I would rather try a different approach as opposed to sitting around crying about chemicals not working or being banned.

 

[texelburger]

What percentage are people upping seed rates by for overwintered seed?

My home germination test showed our overwintered seed to be 70/80% so will adjust seed rate accordingly

 

[bobk]

My home germination test showed our overwintered seed to be 70/80% so will adjust seed rate accordingly

Ah , but what were they last year ?

 

[Flat 10]

Do you and your agronomist have the answers? The path we are on is the inevitable effect of allowing the majority of agronomists to be salesmen first and advisors second... "we" changed the microbial balance when we felled trees to start grazing animals, "we" changed the microbial balance again when we started tilling the soil, "we" changed the microbial balance when we cut back on mixed farming, "we" changed the microbial balance again with each new chemical, each new artifical fertiliser and even each new crop we introduced into the system. We can cut back on Nitrogen and fungicides but ultimately few of us are going to be able to survive on organic levels of outputs whilst selling commodity grains at world market price.

@ajd132 has all the answers, the rest of us are idiots.... (apologies @ajd132 i follow your posts with interest and I absolutely think that most of what you say is right but the tone isn’t great, not that you likely care which is your prerogative, taking lessons from Clive.., )
@farmerm i absolutely agree with you, no farming that’s going to feed 8 billion people is particularly natural! Even if it’s no till and organic......

 

[ajd132]

@ajd132 has all the answers, the rest of us are idiots.... (apologies @ajd132 i follow your posts with interest and I absolutely think that most of what you say is right but the tone isn’t great, not that you likely care which is your prerogative, taking lessons from Clive.., )
@farmerm i absolutely agree with you, no farming that’s going to feed 8 billion people is particularly natural! Even if it’s no till and organic......

I did say in my last post I didn’t have all the answers....I just think there’s many avenues we need to explore which have up until now, been completely ignored because of the easy solutions that have been provided in a can.
Apologies if it comes across in the wrong tone.

 

[thorpe]

My home germination test showed our overwintered seed to be 70/80% so will adjust seed rate accordingly

our overwintered seed at 93% will drill at 75kgs an acre same as usual wheat and barley, im very traditonal its only kgs im forward thinking in. dad always put 1 1/2cwt on and it always worked!

 

[Clive]

Interesting. I have head the term used widely in strawberries but I don't recall hearing it widely discussed in wheat. Do you measure your brix levels? Agnonomists up and down the country are stomping their feet, literally holding onto growers ankles as they walk toward their drills to delay them and stocking up for a bonkers multiple pass autumn aphicides and all that is really required is reducing cultivations? It seems a bit counter intuitive, one would think that the sap from a heathy plant has much more "goodness" in it, higher levels of sugars and minerals and would be more attractive to aphids than a stressed plant? I have now fallen down the google rabbit hole of Brix levels, electromagnetic frequencies emitted by plants and how EM can attractor repel insects... For those whos soils and rotation are not so healthy, could EM devices be use to actively mass trap or deter aphids perhaps?

yes I test Brix a lot - it tells you the most important thing there is to know about any plant - how well its doing its job of creating carbohydrates, if its doing that well the likelihood is its healthy and being fed everything it needs

You are googling the right thing re EM.

we don’t use any autumn sprays, herbicide application drops brix several points ......... so then you are making crops visible / attractive / vulnerable to aphids - easy to test, get a cheap brix tester and leave a control area, then test after application, chemicals fix sone problems but like any drug often not without creating new ones

why don’t we hear more about these things ? .............. I wonder !

as always, follow the money

 

[Warp Land Farmer]

yrs I test Brix a lot - it tells you the most important thing there is to know about a out a plant

You ate googling the right thing

we don’t t use any autumn sprays, herbicide application drops brix several points ......... so then you are making crops visible / attractive / vulnerable to aphids - easy to test, get a cheap brix tester and leave a control area, then test after application, chemicals fix sone problems but like any drug often not without creating new ones

why don’t we hear more about these things ? .............. I wonder !

as always, follow the money

Do you Avadex everything with the drill rather than it autumn sprayed herbiced?

 

[Banana Bar]

I think latitude is the really bad one for germination on over wintered seed?

Zyatt, Beret Gold plus Latitude still 98% germ on overyeared seed here. Vigour still good too. It’s going in next week .