Louis Mc
Member
- Location
- Meath, Ireland
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
No doubt in my mind that cultivation disrupts their life cycle and reduces slug pressure.
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?
And your profitability, once you have mastered the slugs the main prob is Flea BeetlesGet 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
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.
5yr 5t/ha + average. Yep. The only commodity going up by more than pennies.Profit and osr ........ Really!