Why are you a No Tiller?

[Richard III]

A friend said to me today,

"is there any truth in the rumour going round, your only a No Tiller because your cr@p at ploughing?"

 

[SilliamWhale]

I'm rubbish at ploughing. Its boring. And I find ploughing matches very very strange.

 

[Clive]

I like a challenge and using my brain - tillage is farming for simpletons (that will get the thread going ! )

I actually like ploughing matches, fancy a go one day

 

[Banana Bar]

I'm cr@p at ploughing

 

[No Worries]

I'm crap at ploughing, but have no desire to waste my time getting better at it!

 

[Will Blackburn]

I don't like mundane tractor driving or burning diesel, and now i can justify crap yields as I haven't spent a fortune getting there.

 

[Simon Chiles]

I actually like ploughing matches, fancy a go one day

That not very charitable, especially at this time of year. So it's OK to stuff someone else's soil structure but you won't do it to your own!

 

[Clive]

That not very charitable, especially at this time of year. So it's OK to stuff someone else's soil structure but you won't do it to your own!

there was a ploughing match on some land we farm this year (landowner had committed before we started farming it) I couldn't bring myself to go !

 

[SilliamWhale]

I don't like mundane tractor driving or burning diesel, and now i can justify crap yields as I haven't spent a fortune getting there.

No you can't! No till isn't an excuse or a reason for crap yields

 

[roscoe erf]

someone stole my plough

 

[Jim Bullock]

I got fed up with...... doing 1000 hours + on a tractor, changing plough points, changing power harrow tines and worse still scrapers on the packer, hiring tractors +additional power harrows, trying to find part time tractor drivers, paying massive fuel and wearing parts bills, trying to move big kit around a busy town, running three 200hp tractors (now 2 140hp doing less than 400 hours/year).... declining yields, rutted tramlines, soil erosion, poor weed control...! I could go on but I think its all be said before.

 

[roscoe erf]

hows the black grass

 

[Clive]

Actually I think the final straw for me was this bit of impressive kit

or to be more specific putting fuel in it buying metal as fast as we could change it and trying to keep it running ungodly hours just to get the work done in half decent time

would you believe in that video all that effort is going in putting a 1.5mm seed 5mm into the soil !!

 

[Will Blackburn]

No you can't! No till isn't an excuse or a reason for crap yields

I get very similar yields (8t/ha), I can see the potential to do better through no till, once I've honed my technique.

 

[Simon C]

I'm a No-Tiller because my crops were crap after ploughing. Could never achieve anything resembling a seedbed afterwords, either too wet or too dry, nothing in between. That's in spite of keeping a power harrow following up behind within half an hour, before the soil dried into rock solid hardcore.

I actually enjoyed ploughing in the old days, dead straight furrows, completely changing the field from yellow to brown and finishing the headlands without leaving any wheel marks in the corners. It was always nice to look back after a days work and see clearly what you had done.

Don't worry, I would never go back, all it did was encourage blackgrass and take-all, and kill all my soil life, not to mention how much organic matter was lost to atmosphere every time.

 

[Mellors Chatterley]

I'm a no tiller because I'm a gamekeeper and got no money. So I read all your posts over the last few years, and now all game crops are direct drilled saving me a lot of money, and a happy boss. My next aim is to follow clive and go zero till. I'm only a minnow but saved a fortune over the last few years. I would love 5 mins of your time one day clive.

 

[Clive]

I'm a no tiller because I'm a gamekeeper and got no money. So I read all your posts over the last few years, and now all game crops are direct drilled saving me a lot of money, and a happy boss. My next aim is to follow clive and go zero till. I'm only a minnow but saved a fortune over the last few years. I would love 5 mins of your time one day clive.

you can have a whole day if I come shooting !

seriously though, anytime, your welcome to come take a look around etc

 

[Mellors Chatterley]

you can have a whole day if I come shooting !

seriously though, anytime, your welcome to come take a look around etc

You may be here shooting before you know it !!

In this industry we are looking at the costs as well, this 750a is the ultimate, that no one else has really managed to get to work in my game. They said the same about the Claydon years ago, The last 6 years its worked, took a lot of testing though. When your growing the acerage that I am, it saves a lot of dosh over the year, especialy when your in HLS etc.

 

[Clive]

You may be here shooting before you know it !!

In this industry we are looking at the costs as well, this 750a is the ultimate, that no one else has really managed to get to work in my game. They said the same about the Claydon years ago, The last 6 years its worked, took a lot of testing though. When your growing the acerage that I am, it saves a lot of dosh over the year, especialy when your in HLS etc.

wouldn't say its the ultimate, there are better (but at cost) and everything can always be improved, its not a bad old tool though certainly !

 

[Mellors Chatterley]

I will never have the budget for a cross slot. I'm waiting for that banged out old 750a, or a moore unidrill to come up cheap, I mean dirt cheap, then get it shipped to my neck of the woods, open the workshop up, get the welder out, don the music, settle in for a long week, and hey presto.

Now who said us Keepers were bone idle and lazy, not this kid.

Might call in the stand at Lamma, I'm driving the boss. oh joy