Which tool for min till

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Mans land stops being hard to work if you don`t compact it
So if you go to the beach and run a vibrating roller over it and then plough you can make clods that needs a pecker on a digger to break?

Do you have clay pits in a field that is dug to make roof tiles? clay digs out in lumps even though only rabbits have walked on it for 50 years.

PS most of the suggestions above are buy a bigger heavier tractor!
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
No black grass, got strerile brome and Ryegrass to keep an eye on. What extra kit? Certainly not going to get in to an argument over which system is better but for actually getting the corn in the ground there is no comparison, and I have done both. I love a day tootling up and down the field with the combi, it is far more relaxing than flying about with the Vaddy but the end of the day I will have done approx half as much and used twice as much diesel and probably killed quite a few more worms :(
All that will change with min till, it did on thousands of acres including mine.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
Absolutely, every 4 years mixed with late drilling, spring crops has got my 1t/acre yielding infested blackgrass field to no pre em and maybe this year no spring spray.
Are you serious? That’s incredible. I can adopt a similar strategy to you and 4 years later and gaps in a ww pre-em and it would have way too much BG
 

Dman2

Member
Location
Durham, UK
So if you go to the beach and run a vibrating roller over it and then plough you can make clods that needs a pecker on a digger to break?

Do you have clay pits in a field that is dug to make roof tiles? clay digs out in lumps even though only rabbits have walked on it for 50 years.

PS most of the suggestions above are buy a bigger heavier tractor!
Trouble is everyone seems to be going bigger and heavier, then they find they need to go bigger and heavier again
No different here
Back in the 80s we still only had 2 tractors, a case 844xl and a case 785Still got all the work done in a timely fashion.
Now we have 2 tractors both @ 140ish HP
However one of those is a lightweight 4cyl Massey 5480 on 600 tyres.
We learnt our lesson after buying a McCormick 155, a lump of a tractor
Had loads of grunt, but we found the land quickly getting harder to work.
Got rid and replaced it with the Massey and now back to 1 pass
And yes we HAD some yellow clay you could fire for pots, but with careful management, it is improving every year
If it doesn`t work as well as the rest of the field we just increase seed rates to compensate
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Trouble is everyone seems to be going bigger and heavier, then they find they need to go bigger and heavier again
No different here
Back in the 80s we still only had 2 tractors, a case 844xl and a case 785Still got all the work done in a timely fashion.
Now we have 2 tractors both @ 140ish HP
However one of those is a lightweight 4cyl Massey 5480 on 600 tyres.
We learnt our lesson after buying a McCormick 155, a lump of a tractor
Had loads of grunt, but we found the land quickly getting harder to work.
Got rid and replaced it with the Massey and now back to 1 pass
And yes we HAD some yellow clay you could fire for pots, but with careful management, it is improving every year
If it doesn`t work as well as the rest of the field we just increase seed rates to compensate
I think you are making a lot of sense. Whatever system you decide on those lighter tractors are a major part of the solution.
 

thorpe

Member
Nobody mention a Discordon Cheaper than most second hand, effective, If you get a bigger one than you can pull you could take a leg off each side which you could then sell the fixing brackets to me as I want to close my legs up to 50Cm then room for one extra on each side.
cheaper for a reason they leave a crap finish , trio finish chalk and cheese i know which id rather drill behind.
 

alomy75

Member
I think you are making a lot of sense. Whatever system you decide on those lighter tractors are a major part of the solution.
I agree. If we give up beet after this year and carry on the journey to no-till I really think 150hp would be ample. Less fuel, less cost, cheaper repairs and less damage to the soil. We do have an old challenger which will stay for emergencies though but that’s only because I love a crawler!
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
reno man if your land is in good order
and your making / buying something
we did a bean drill using shzkerstor legs , but they are at 35 cm centres and a cousins razor packer on it , leaves it nice and moves everything and easy to pull , even stuck in at 10/14 inch deep ,once over , leave it then combo drill
Thanks Will the Xpress I have has been brilliant, but has now done a lot of work, not thinking of parting with it but it will need every bush and pin doing fairly soon. Looking for something similar so I can drop my current one to spare and have the option to put 2 out together if need be. Poor son has to work all the hours on the Xpress for me to catch him up in short time with the drill. I am hugely over mechanised for m to acreage but I wouldn't have it any other way. The only thing I buy new is my sprayer.
 

alomy75

Member
Thanks Will the Xpress I have has been brilliant, but has now done a lot of work, not thinking of parting with it but it will need every bush and pin doing fairly soon. Looking for something similar so I can drop my current one to spare and have the option to put 2 out together if need be. Poor son has to work all the hours on the Xpress for me to catch him up in short time with the drill. I am hugely over mechanised for m to acreage but I wouldn't have it any other way. The only thing I buy new is my sprayer.
If your land is the sort of land where you can just xpress and drill I’d wager you’d be fine direct drilling too if that’s what you’re thinking
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
If your land is the sort of land where you can just xpress and drill I’d wager you’d be fine direct drilling too if that’s what you’re thinking
I'm on high Mg clays I like to think the policy of using Gypsum annual light covering of muck or digestate on every acre is improving it and I am hopefully ready for the next step.
 

alomy75

Member
I'm on high Mg clays I like to think the policy of using Gypsum annual light covering of muck or digestate on every acre is improving it and I am hopefully ready for the next step.
Now’s the time, have a dabble with your best/worst field and if it works you can expand it in time for whenever they get SFI sorted which no doubt will compensate (a little!) you for doing so 👍. I’m on medium land in south lincs and if I can keep on top of the blackgrass I’m not losing any yield so far but I’m only 2 years in.
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Now’s the time, have a dabble with your best/worst field and if it works you can expand it in time for whenever they get SFI sorted which no doubt will compensate (a little!) you for doing so 👍. I’m on medium land in south lincs and if I can keep on top of the blackgrass I’m not losing any yield so far but I’m only 2 years in.
I think we may be lucky being further North and have the advantage of learning the experiences of you further farmers South. I know min till certainly isn't the answer, and some old heads say that direct drilling isn't either but this is the way agriculture is going at the moment. I started min till on my own 10 years ago and took a farm on that had been min tilled for a lot longer. The biggest issue there is resistant Rye grass, I think we are slowly winning the battle against that using everything we can. Rotation, chemical, sterile seedbed and even whole cropped some last year but taking 3 cuts before late drilling and that seems to have had a really good result. Sorry for hijacking your thread Dman. I'll catch up with you soon.
 

Dman2

Member
Location
Durham, UK
I think we may be lucky being further North and have the advantage of learning the experiences of you further farmers South. I know min till certainly isn't the answer, and some old heads say that direct drilling isn't either but this is the way agriculture is going at the moment. I started min till on my own 10 years ago and took a farm on that had been min tilled for a lot longer. The biggest issue there is resistant Rye grass, I think we are slowly winning the battle against that using everything we can. Rotation, chemical, sterile seedbed and even whole cropped some last year but taking 3 cuts before late drilling and that seems to have had a really good result. Sorry for hijacking your thread Dman. I'll catch up with you soon.
No problem @Renaultman I am learning from the comments your receiving
We`re on Magnesium land as well
Farm is in the distance on pic below
image_2022-01-22_152207.png
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

  • 1,285
  • 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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