Would you drill into this..........?
- Thread starter Timbo1080
- Start date
wasted years
Member
- Location
- Cumbrian born and bread
No experience of that kind of land but won't the seed fall way down the crack?
Ooooeer missus.
Ooooeer missus.
Grass is always greener...there's a pumping station next door to this field, that mysteriously gets turned on by the "Moor people" (this is 1.5m higher than the moor, but is the artificial watershed that the water must cross to reach the river, so gets turned on over the winter so that they can carrying on grazing cattle in December).
However, sorry that you are jealous....is it of the dryness, or the soil type?
I'm counting on it now, as taken everyone's advice.....Never considered how much rain it takes to shut a crack up. This is recently acquired land that is a bit of a mystery to me...much more used to a higher clay content.
That is exactly my worry....too dry....perhaps there is some merit in foreplay.....
Will the rain actually close it up Tim? Certainly wouldn't hurt to wait if you've got other land to drill.
What are your other options, shallow pass with a cultivator? Will you have to deal with this scenario each year?
I'd be interested to see how you get on with it.
What are your other options, shallow pass with a cultivator? Will you have to deal with this scenario each year?
I'd be interested to see how you get on with it.
Yes, the rain will rehydrate the soil & it will swell & close the cracks...just never really contemplated how much would be required for a given soil type & size of crack. It's pretty standard for here, following Linseed. Even after a decade of direct drilling in the 70's & 80's the cracks would still form following Linseed. I'm loathe to do any cultivation as I'd lose all the tilth down the cracks & generally avoid cultivating at all this close to drilling anyway.
Will be starting first wheats in a week to ten days on the heavier land, but thought we might be able to have a look at the ex linseed ground as it's clean & much lighter.....and wondered whether the 750A disc would push the cracks shut at all.
Hooray, the rain has arrived...I'll go down and look in the morning & see how much it takes to shut up the cracks....and then pray that the forecast is correct and the rain stops!
Have never really drilled early here. Have had Blackgrass to deal with since at least the sixties, but it's seldom got out of control.....personally I put that down to "late" drilling over and above anything else WRT cultural control methods.
I suppose if we ever were Blackgrass free I probably would drill earlier...never really thought about it.
Mind you, given this season's weather down here, I would consider drilling now as relatively early....Late will be in the tiny windows we get in November....
How're your crops looking? Did the Rape go in well?
Have never really drilled early here. Have had Blackgrass to deal with since at least the sixties, but it's seldom got out of control.....personally I put that down to "late" drilling over and above anything else WRT cultural control methods.
I suppose if we ever were Blackgrass free I probably would drill earlier...never really thought about it.
Mind you, given this season's weather down here, I would consider drilling now as relatively early....Late will be in the tiny windows we get in November....
How're your crops looking? Did the Rape go in well?
Rape is looking very good, really think placing fert at drilling makes the difference with it. Happy for you to come over and see.
Certainly had some rain to help close those cracks, can you post a picture of its affect?
0.9 inch, now.
Plenty of these little heros too.
Wouldn't want to sweep the tilth into the cracks & lose it. And I'd consider paddles to be too much cultivation this close to drilling. No till won't make too much difference here WRT Linseed stubbles...at least it didn't for more than a decade. It's just the vertical nature of the linseed roots, drawing moisture evenly from depth, causing uniform shrinkage of the soil, without many horizontal roots to hold it all together compared to a cereal. Same applies to a certain extent behind OSR except that the root is bulkier, so makes up with their volume, a portion of the shrinkage.
Plenty of these little heros too.
Wouldn't want to sweep the tilth into the cracks & lose it. And I'd consider paddles to be too much cultivation this close to drilling. No till won't make too much difference here WRT Linseed stubbles...at least it didn't for more than a decade. It's just the vertical nature of the linseed roots, drawing moisture evenly from depth, causing uniform shrinkage of the soil, without many horizontal roots to hold it all together compared to a cereal. Same applies to a certain extent behind OSR except that the root is bulkier, so makes up with their volume, a portion of the shrinkage.
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clbarclay
Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
While it looks to be cracked all over, what % of the surface is actually cracks?
As a quick guess it looks like less than 10% so you could drill it and just up the rate accordingly to allow for the seed lost down cracks.
I have had some soil looking like that and the limiting issue was when it was that dry the disc drill just couldn't penetrate far enough. I have had only 1/4" disc depth before with a unidrill with as much weight as possible on its discs.
As a quick guess it looks like less than 10% so you could drill it and just up the rate accordingly to allow for the seed lost down cracks.
I have had some soil looking like that and the limiting issue was when it was that dry the disc drill just couldn't penetrate far enough. I have had only 1/4" disc depth before with a unidrill with as much weight as possible on its discs.
Good idea, I hadn't thought of that. If they don't close up soon I might just give it a go - I'd have a go out of interest if it was a little closer & I didn't have to swap drills over again yet (Contracting for some other farms that want our old KRM R600), until we're back on the home farm.
Do you think that the increased seedrate will just bulk up the areas that the seed doesn't fall down, and the cracked areas will still be bare? Or do you think that the increased seedrate will hopefully amount to some growing in the cracks?
Ground is taking a while to swell....figured it'd take about a 36 hours to show signs, and a further 4 days to close (given enough rain), but can see this taking a week to a fortnight.......