Will's No Till Diary

[SilliamWhale]

Will, do you think you went a little early? I find that I only really get the right conditions around the 10th April onwards although this year I have gone a little earlier. I am further south than you. Do you normally get away with drilling so early? Or do you have to go when the soil is right for fear of a wet spring in your part of the world? I dont have enough data to show whether delayed drilling has any effect on yield.

Yes definitely. The weather was really warm for 3 days and when i discovered feldspar had finished and gone fishing i cracked and felt i needed to go myself. April 10tb is ideal in this part of the world as rain is never far away

 

[Feldspar]

Yes definitely. The weather was really warm for 3 days and when i discovered feldspar had finished and gone fishing i cracked and felt i needed to go myself. April 10tb is ideal in this part of the world as rain is never far away

Sorry! For future reference, if you pay any attention to what I'm doing, it should only be to know what not to be doing.

 

[SilliamWhale]

 

[SilliamWhale]

 

[SilliamWhale]

Bit different today. Spring wheat (kilburn) into Kale grazed. 250kg ha. Ground look rock solid but nice underneath.

Plan to chuck some fym on it when its up hopefully. Wanted to do this 3 weeks ago but too much rain.

 

[SilliamWhale]

And yesterday was drilling into spread fym. Spring barley plus grass seed in small seed box as an experiment. I dont think it will work very well as too much stuff on surface

 

[Baling Hay]

Bit different today. Spring wheat (kilburn) into Kale grazed. 250kg ha. Ground look rock solid but nice underneath. View attachment 500662View attachment 500664

Plan to chuck some fym on it when its up hopefully. Wanted to do this 3 weeks ago but too much rain.

What sort of yields do you typically get from spring wheat?

 

[SilliamWhale]

What sort of yields do you typically get from spring wheat?

Maybe 3t acre. Not grown it for a good few years

 

[SilliamWhale]

Yesterdays effort was the last of the spring barley. This was very grassy not long ago and so drilled today. One of these fields will hopefully be next years seed crop so i bought some treated seed. (Planet) just in case of bunt etc.

All this years untreated barley seed and beans had simply been cleaned in the mobile grain dryer and then bagged up. Ill pay the royalty on a per ha basis and i upped it slightly. Just wanted to see how well fss can work without getting reso and treatment in.

Last pic is this field on 3rd april - spray day.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Been to nervous to post any pictures lately as waiting for the spring crops to emerge. Its dry here but not at drought levels.

Spraying T1 on wheat today. First fungicide of the year

 

[Flat 10]

Been to nervous to post any pictures lately as waiting for the spring crops to emerge. Its dry here but not at drought levels.

Spraying T1 on wheat today. First fungicide of the yearView attachment 506066View attachment 506068

Nice.

 

[Great In Grass]

Looking grand.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Its pretty good but there are these odd light coloured patches which is annoying. Its not bydv or anything just not dark green all over.

But we are definitely benefitting from lack of septoria pressure at the moment but we do need a drop now

 

[SilliamWhale]

Beans coming through at last. They feel a bit thin on seed rate but theyre not all up yet. Some i fear where the slot was a bit tough have been pecked up. Ive definitely packed the sidewall too tight here on reflection i should have planted deeper and reduced the downpressure and tried to get more crumble over the slot. But didnt expect 21 dry days after!

Second picture demos night crawler activity which explodes this time of year. I think we farmers think in terms of days and calendars too much sometimes whereas the natural world does its job when its ready

 

[SilliamWhale]

Refurbishing the 750 for another 4 years work this week.

Some needham wheels a bit fecked. Then re discing it and finally doing some embarassingly bad hard facing - it does help a bit though.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Needham sent me some new toys today

Will try this Bonilla tab again even though i felt the first ones wore quickly enough. Also some new firming rubbers.

It will cost about 1k to redisc and do a load of little jobs on it and should be ok for about 1500-2000 acres for me then which should take 3-4 years.

May need new boots by then too. There is more rock in the seed boots than id like so they need rebushing but its a difficult job so i cant be f**ked to do it!

 

[SilliamWhale]

Wheat into Kale. This is the time of year when i feel the soil breathing as the bits that seemed to be tight and dead start breathing.

 

[Simon Chiles]

View attachment 510572Wheat into Kale. This is the time of year when i feel the soil breathing as the bits that seemed to be tight and dead start breathing.

Any chance of translating that into English?

 

[SilliamWhale]

Spring barley. Bit dissapointed really. Have stuck some pgr on it to encourage tillers but wish it was thicker. Its probably rooting quite well but bloody hell its nearly june!

 

[Flat 10]

View attachment 519258 Spring barley. Bit dissapointed really. Have stuck some pgr on it to encourage tillers but wish it was thicker. Its probably rooting quite well but bloody hell its nearly june!

I think that is probably better than mine with flag leaf out........