Winter wheat drilling date and take all on light land.

[DrWazzock]

It’s been very noticeable this year that later drilled wheat is much better than earlier drilled wheat for spring die off even though conditions were appalling all round.
We always thought it was manganese deficiency that caused the problems but I think that’s secondary. Two identical very light sand fields. One drilled October a yellowed off disaster, the other drilled a couple of months later romping away.
We’ve noticed this before but put it down to a one off fluke but now I think we are onto something. Both had one year OSR break but even that isn’t enough on sand that’s in consolidated. I think take all likes oxygen in the soil but can be broken by very late drilling.

 

[Brisel]

What do the roots look like on both? I'm not sure I'd blame take all just yet unless you have the tell tale blackened pinched off roots. What is the soil pH? Same cropping history for both fields? Any seed dressing?

 

[teslacoils]

Later drilled wheat still has the green flush of youthful enthusiasm. October drilled wheat has that tired look from soil that has been pumelled into submission. Wheat drilled in October may have had a foot more rain on it!

 

[solo]

Sandy loam soil here. Second wheat would suffer badly with take all using a plough followed by springtines, accord suffolk coulter drill and cambridge roll. Planted late September or early October. Since going subdisc followed by horsch sprinter and cambridge roll in early October I have seen very little take all. The firmer ground and 4 days later planting is the difference in my opinion. The other factor which has changed has been the weather patterns over the 30-40 years between the two farming systems on the same fields.

 

[DrWazzock]

Sandy loam soil here. Second wheat would suffer badly with take all using a plough followed by springtines, accord suffolk coulter drill and cambridge roll. Planted late September or early October. Since going subdisc followed by horsch sprinter and cambridge roll in early October I have seen very little take all. The firmer ground and 4 days later planting is the difference in my opinion. The other factor which has changed has been the weather patterns over the 30-40 years between the two farming systems on the same fields.

That chimes with what we are finding on light land. It maybe doesn’t get us personally very far on this farm as we’ve a considerable amount of clay in every field as well as sand so later lower disturbance drilling isn’t always possible. We actually managed 4 t per acre Crispin with January drilling on sand direct into slightly loosened beet aftermath after sheep one year. Normally that field struggles to do 2t per acre with a plough based approach drilled in October and no amount of manganese corrects the yellowing and serious dieback. As @Brisel says though, I’ll have to look at the roots. Wasnt herbicide damage this year as it didn’t get any. But under consolidated early drilled wheat in free draining Sandy hillocks is nearly dead here despite lathering on manganese. Same sand next fieid drilled a bit later is fine. There are many mysteries to soil biology on different soil types. This autumn intend to disc, paraplow, spray off and drill to reduce erosion and under consolidation.

 

[average farmer]

Sandy loam soil here. Second wheat would suffer badly with take all using a plough followed by springtines, accord suffolk coulter drill and cambridge roll. Planted late September or early October. Since going subdisc followed by horsch sprinter and cambridge roll in early October I have seen very little take all. The firmer ground and 4 days later planting is the difference in my opinion. The other factor which has changed has been the weather patterns over the 30-40 years between the two farming systems on the same fields.

We found the same with second wheat drilled with the claydon . Put it down to the ground being a lot firmer