Who's bottled it ?

[whindy]

How many dd guys have gone cultivating?
Out next door neighbours practices a full range of cultivating and has 95% crop cover after a hard winter we dd a majority of ours and a currently re drilling 50% .cultivating a fair bit as the top is solid from rain.
Any one else feal like abandoning dd and practicing a more conventional approach?

 

[Adeptandy]

I’m regretting not doing a bit more.
Then again, if we get some sensible rain Sunday I’ll have gotten away with it
Everywhere I disturbed pre autumn drilling is poor, slugs and rotted seed. No difference between paraplowed and left stubble, if it’s a low point it flooded.
I do think a Sabre type drill in the spring would have been better than the GD in years like this though.

 

[Pan mixer]

How many dd guys have gone cultivating?
Out next door neighbours practices a full range of cultivating and has 95% crop cover after a hard winter we dd a majority of ours and a currently re drilling 50% .cultivating a fair bit as the top is solid from rain.
Any one else feal like abandoning dd and practicing a more conventional approach?

The difference between min till, let alone the disaster of direct drilling, and ploughing here has made the return of the plough the only way that I can see to get reliable yields - this isn't just the one year, an 8 year trial now.

Last winter was the final straw.

 

[Renaultman]

How many dd guys have gone cultivating?
Out next door neighbours practices a full range of cultivating and has 95% crop cover after a hard winter we dd a majority of ours and a currently re drilling 50% .cultivating a fair bit as the top is solid from rain.
Any one else feal like abandoning dd and practicing a more conventional approach?

I think you have to go with what you believe is right on the day.
Clinging desperately to one system is the road to disaster IMHO.
I know people who have been no till for many years who have recently cultivated.

 

[alomy75]

How many dd guys have gone cultivating?
Out next door neighbours practices a full range of cultivating and has 95% crop cover after a hard winter we dd a majority of ours and a currently re drilling 50% .cultivating a fair bit as the top is solid from rain.
Any one else feal like abandoning dd and practicing a more conventional approach?

We’ve learnt a lot this year. True DD worked brilliantly last year but has left us redrilling this year. More widespread use of a LD subsoiler this autumn. But still happy to be playing with DD. It keeps the job interesting.

 

[FMF74]

We normally DD everything in the spring. This year we cultivated all but one of the spring barley fields and unfortunately that field has since been cultivated and re drilled mainly due to slugs but also just poor in general

 

[Renaultman]

The difference between min till, let alone the disaster of direct drilling, and ploughing here has made the return of the plough the only way that I can see to get reliable yields - this isn't just the one year, an 8 year trial now.

Last winter was the final straw.

I am going to bide my time, till the combines are rolling, but at this moment in time, my DD looks to have as much potential as any other method locally, I only DD'd the fields that I thought it would work on though, with one late gamble that looks like it may pay off.
If it comes really dry I believe the DD crops will cope better than some of the mauled in stuff locally, which is already looking stressy if we get 3 dry days in a row
DD early October. My poorest.

 

[L P]

The difference between min till, let alone the disaster of direct drilling, and ploughing here has made the return of the plough the only way that I can see to get reliable yields - this isn't just the one year, an 8 year trial now.

Last winter was the final straw.

Its hardly pretty here with conventional tillage tbh and it busts a gut each and every year to achieve. I could post a photo that made you all jealous of my spring corn, I could send you another that would just make you wonder why I bothered. 85% is there I'd say, but it's not growing away. Been in a month now and most of it was a really good seed bed, now subjected to a further few inches of rain. Reckon next years ploughing will be like ploughing bedrock. Have I won the dd vs tillage? Yes, this year. Over all? Not sure... farm saved undressed seed broadcast and cultivated in I believe would be the most reliable profit margin year on year and the best carbon release vs nitrogen release ratio.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I am going to bide my time, till the combines are rolling, but at this moment in time, my DD looks to have as much potential as any other method locally, I only DD'd the fields that I thought it would work on though, with one late gamble that looks like it may pay off.
If it comes really dry I believe the DD crops will cope better than some of the mauled in stuff locally, which is already looking stressy if we get 3 dry days in a row
DD early October. My poorest.

I've had claydon'ed crops look like that this time of year that went on to go respectable yields. Walking amongst it I always felt disheartened if I had a crop I could see the ground in but the older hands always told me a somewhat thinner crop was preferable from a yield point of view as you would get better ears and the like.

 

[delilah]

@janethughes

 

[neilo]

@janethughes

But @Clive told her…

 

[Grass And Grain]

Always seems to be such contrasting experiences. Some say DD is fab and best system, others say struggle to get it to work.

Obvs we can have different local weather conditions, but where is the difference?

Is it the soil type?
Skill/knowledge/system?
How wet the particular field is in comparison to others?
Something else?

Generally speaking we plough here, although this spring the field we could get on first was one which had been non-ploughed AB9 winter bird food for last 3 years, either DD established or 1.5" tickle with combi drill. Worst field was ex veg crop and farmer had rotovated post crop, so top 6 inches were like pudding, dry lower down.

Will watch thread with interest.

 

[delilah]

But @Clive told her…

Janet unsubscribed on here some time ago, I only did the tag thing for a giggle but it glowed green so it seems there is/was a different Janet Hughes signed up. Apologies Janet, none of the ELMS shitfest is your doing

 

[Grass And Grain]

But @Clive told her…

Saving a drop of diesel or sequestering a bit in the soil isn't a great deal of use if you don't get the yield.

Then again, some seem to swear by the DD technique. Others swear at it.

I don't know what's best, but ploughs are reasonably reliable, although can end up with low moisture retention if comes dry. No system works if you're trying to drill when soil is too wet, unless you've got every forgiving sand.

We seem to get such extremes of weather.

 

[Grass And Grain]

Saving a drop of diesel or sequestering a bit in the soil isn't a great deal of use if you don't get the yield.

Then again, some seem to swear by the DD technique. Others swear at it.

I don't know what's best, but ploughs are reasonably reliable, although can end up with low moisture retention if comes dry. No system works if you're trying to drill when soil is too wet, unless you've got every forgiving sand.

We seem to get such extremes of weather.

Although I've a feeling Clive did very well with his autumn crop establishment. Fair bit of it into green covers iirc.

 

[Grassman]

A lot of luck is the key to good farming. What works one year can be hopeless the next.

 

[neilo]

Although I've a feeling Clive did very well with his autumn crop establishment. Fair bit of it into green covers iirc.

…and not much of it into heavy clay soils I suspect.

 

[Grass And Grain]

…and not much of it into heavy clay soils I suspect.

All our farms are so different. Soil type. Height above sea level. Local rainfall. Slope.

 

[MF CI]

I thought this was going to be about Leeds United and Liverpool.

Sorry I will go and find the football thread.

 

[The Gentleman Farmer]

Always seems to be such contrasting experiences. Some say DD is fab and best system, others say struggle to get it to work.

Obvs we can have different local weather conditions, but where is the difference?

Is it the soil type?
Skill/knowledge/system?
How wet the particular field is in comparison to others?
Something else?

Generally speaking we plough here, although this spring the field we could get on first was one which had been non-ploughed AB9 winter bird food for last 3 years, either DD established or 1.5" tickle with combi drill. Worst field was ex veg crop and farmer had rotovated post crop, so top 6 inches were like pudding, dry lower down.

Will watch thread with interest.

It’s always the same. No-till doesn’t work blah blah blah. What is missing from all of the comments above is the back story, or detail. It works fine for me and several others I know of who have been practicing it for varying amounts of time. On a range of soils. Yes we’ve had failures but I don’t feel I am any better or worse than anybody else this year. Similarly I have seen plenty of good, and bad crops, this year established with varying degrees of cultivation. As with any system the devil is in the detail, and how we view our resource-the soil. What I find with no-till is that the time and cost savings are considerable. Yields don’t seem to be any less or any more than with cultivation. The soil just seems to improve year-on-year and the crops look more even across the field. And we don't see the ponding we used to which suggests the infiltration rate has improved. So what are the downsides? You have to be prepared to be very flexible with your rotation. Less wheat (cereals in general), more spring cropping and more breaks. It’s not for everyone. I also think the rush into expensive drills, which probably wouldn’t have happened without the silly grants, has led a lot of people to try it wholesale without fully understanding the risks and pitfalls.