Where am I going wrong ??

[Louis Mc]

Maybe with slugs, we need to wait till ground is properly warm/dry before drilling susceptible crops like spring barley. It needs to emerge within a week and grow like hell to get away from them

 

[Muddyboots]

No doubt in my mind that cultivation disrupts their life cycle and reduces slug pressure.

 

[Simon Chiles]

No doubt in my mind that cultivation disrupts their life cycle and reduces slug pressure.

I remember years ago ploughing a farm in the autumn and then having to go back in the spring to plough 300 acres again because slugs had had the lot. We had far more slug problems before we dd'ed than ever we did after.

 

[yellow belly]

if the seed is in a firm closed slot then the slug have to be on the top to get at the growing plant

last autumn here slugs were a reduced problem due to the dryer summer
notill wheat after rape had very little damage despite seeing many slug eggs 4th crop notilled

I had planned to lightly cultivate after rape in early august to control slugs but earlier wheat harvest then later august rains and rape planting got in the way

very rarely use pellets on wheat but need a firm fine seed bed or a well consolidated notill drill slot
some striptill drills leave heavy land too open with very little consolidation allowing the slugs to operate

early drilling in the autumn is the most effective slug risk reducer

in the spring planting later when it is dryer and warmer also reduced the risk

 

[Breakthru]

Try an alternative approach. Liquid N at dusk or my avatar. Damn sight cheaper than 25kg sluxx

 

[warksfarmer]

I'm in my third season of no-till and I am plagued by slugs and snails. Others on this forum proclaim to hardly use any slug pellets whereas my use has rocketed this year!
Getting rape up and away was the first challenge - only used about 10kg/ha of sluxx ....a few small bare patches in the crop.
Then the fun began ...wheat after rape ....one field has had 25kg/ha of sluxx, and still i've lost a few patches!
Even wheat after spring beans required one trip out with the pelleter.
Now i've got spring barley following a cover crop. Having anticipated the worst, we applied 4kg of sluxx off the back of the drill ....I was out yesterday with another 5kg! This was drilled on the green ...apparently slugs eat the decaying cover crop before turning to your cash crop ...not my slugs, they go straight for seed hollowing!

I try to avoid rolling in a cereal crop because I fear that more grass weeds will grow ....perhaps this is where I'm going wrong?? I have been using sluxx instead of methaldehyde in an attempt to boost the beneficials eg.beetles, I'm not convinced that I've made the right choice.

How is everyone else getting on with slugs and snails? What can I do differently?

No all soils are good for no till so if your on wet high magnesium clay then it might just be you need to run a very shallow tillage pass (carrier type thing) to get a kill of slugs as well as giving you some tilth so when you then go and drill with the no till drill you get the seed covered properly. Then you are going to have to roll which I dont think is a bad thing.

Its all about soil type!

Also think about applying compost as theres something in it the slugs dont like to the point we dont use pellets at all if its applied.

 

[The_Swede]

Not disputing your experience with the compost @warksfarmer but i'll put up a picture later in the week of a local field - its min-tilled for the record. OSR last year, green waste compost applied at a reasonable rate post harvest then drilled into what appears to be WW - decent looking green headland all the way round, everything inside that bare, brown earth with a fair selection of quad bike wheel marks through it following numerous over winter pellet applications... total and utter write off and i'm pretty sure the middle was re-drilled around Christmas too!

Tiny sample of one field I know (probably 25 acres) and I only drive past so just simple observations but shows to me the destructive potential of OSR in a rotation where slugs are concerned, certainly in a wet, warm winter like just gone. The headland still being a viable crop clearly shows the value of 'consolidation' though - i'm with you 100% on that.

 

[Breakthru]

I add my avatar to the glyphosate preharvest. Best result so far cost £9.40 for season control.

 

[Flintstone]

I have spoken with various Spring barley growers in the last 10 days, and all of them are having slug issues, whether they're strip till, DD or max till (Rapid). I think it's just a result of a long, mild, damp winter, with a heavy volume of chopped straw sitting in the base of the stubbles. Add in the fact that it's been the slowest Spring growing season, with frosts, cold soils and persistent rain, and the slugs have never had it so good.

I've pelleted too.

I'm not going to point my finger at strip till for the reason I've slug pelleted for the first time in a spring crop this year. I just think it's been the perfect storm for slugs, that's all.

 

[Douglasmn]

About slugs in spring barley, I've found them this year for the first time ever. Ploughed ground, everything conventional. Not enough to have done any damage, but never seen them before in SB. Or maybe they're always there, but because crops growing so slowly this year it's just easier to see them!

 

[DrWazzock]

In ploughed fields and DD fields we've lost patches of WW to slugs despite pelleting following OSR. In places the WW only started getting away from the slugs about 3 weeks ago due to slow cold growing conditions. I knew there would be a problem when I could sweep thousands of the slimy blighters off the rape swather bed last summer.

I think the OSR WW rotation is dead here, whatever the establishment method on heavier land. Sands are never a problem.

Strangely, grass leys don't seem to build slug populations. Maybe a better balance of predators or animals feet and manure doesn't suit them.

 

[Breakthru]

You have to thin them out, conditions are ideal for them as per above replies.
Meta % too low to be effective now, remember the days we used 7kg/ha 5%.
There are other methods which mostly revolve around novel use of ferts and foliar feeds.
You will have to join the fray or stop growing what is and has been the most profitable break crop.
I have been in the home counties etc and some of you have the what used to be mythical levels of 1mill/ha.
Very impressive, not by the way, especially when it is relatively cheap and very easy to decimate them without poisoning the countryside.

 

[warksfarmer]

Get rid of osr and your slug issue will halve immediately.

 

[Breakthru]

Get rid of osr and your slug issue will halve immediately.

And your profitability, once you have mastered the slugs the main prob is Flea Beetles

 

[warksfarmer]

And your profitability, once you have mastered the slugs the main prob is Flea Beetles

Profit and osr ........ Really!

 

[Tim May]

I'd also be inclined to map where the slugs are most problematic, and have a look at the soil. This winter I just drilled, and rolled the fields and walked away till the spring, if I've spent nothing on the crop I worry less if the slugs have written it off. I used to find that I'd go out with pellets once and then because I'd started spending money I had an investment to protect then I'd keep on spending, I would end up doing whole fields instead of patches as it would be hard to know exactly where to stop, and I'd end up regretting patch treatment. This spring I've got area's of the farm that have too much black grass, or have been taken out by slugs and I've just gone in and re drilled these areas with S Barley. where I've had the same problem twice in a row I've done some soil tests and found PH to be a problem so looked harder to see if it was a Mag or a Calcium problem, and dealt with that. I've also seen a part of a field that didn't do so well with the stubble turnips in the winter so added some muck. I guess my thinking is that I'd rather let the beneficials build up and deal with the issue than to keep spending the money. I've also stopped with Seed dressing and insecticide's I think they could be contributing to the lack of natural protection problem as well. When doing rape I found that a single pass with the carrier was worse than DD or a single plus a ring roller pre drilling, I also found that the stubble rake had an impact if used a few times. I don't know what it was like before min till and DD as I've never done anything else on the farm since I've been back, but we have used a load of pellets in the past.

 

[RTK Farmer]

I like the idea of this
I've also stopped with Seed dressing and insecticide's I think they could be contributing to the lack of natural protection problem as well.
but as a convention farmer (belt and braces) you need to be brave to embark on this route.
Is anyone doing any work monitoring the build up of "benifitials" in crops where no insecticide is used.

 

[SorenIlsoe]

I like the idea of this
I've also stopped with Seed dressing and insecticide's I think they could be contributing to the lack of natural protection problem as well.
but as a convention farmer (belt and braces) you need to be brave to embark on this route.
Is anyone doing any work monitoring the build up of "benifitials" in crops where no insecticide is used.

Yes, by making a beetle-trap og two beer cans and a little cover. Easy to lift the inner can to inspect. Every morning found many beetles in a SB field after 6 years no-till.
Have unfortunately not checked a plowed neighbour farm - must do this year!

 

[Breakthru]

Profit and osr ........ Really!

5yr 5t/ha + average. Yep. The only commodity going up by more than pennies.

 

[moretimeforgolf]

The Spring barley is making a comeback ! It's just really slow with this cold spring and we must have had a high slug population with the mild winter. We've lost a couple of patches but nowhere near as bad as I'd feared. If I'm struggling, I feel sorry for the guys trying to grow a crop in Scotland!