It is called Integrated farm management, nothing new and should be something we are all doing anyway.
Zero till may not be as environmentally friendly as we thought.
- Thread starter willy
- Start date
It is called Integrated farm management, nothing new and should be something we are all doing anyway.
Ah yes, that's another one from a few years back " integrated farming" 
anything that sounds new and clever, I guess, glamorous if you like, it happens when people get bored with something that's been done for a long time......
anything that sounds new and clever, I guess, glamorous if you like, it happens when people get bored with something that's been done for a long time......
- Location
- Berkshire
Absolutely agree. Also add in a lot less food about too...
- Location
- East meath/dublin
On the right ground continious wheat is more profitable than erratic performing break crops . Its a simple rotation but when the weather gets in the way you end ip with heavy land s barley !!
- Location
- Lincolnshire.
This is just a childish please let me continue playing with my toys attitude. The use of fossil fuel fixed N is on the way out as are chemicals. In reality, rather than farmers minds, the government are about to export the environmental damage abroad. Therefore the industry needs to adapt by persuading consumers and government to embrace locally produced organic food for local people. The cost of land and labour is too high for anything else in the UK. Of course this will need government support, but why not? Everyone else will be forced to “decarbonise” why does anyone think that UK ag will be excluded? I don’t buy the food security argument. Look what has just happened in the USA, the ethanol industry has collapsed that’s a huge chunk of cheap corn/pigs/chicken that poorer UK consumers will soon be able to access, tariff free, right there.
SilliamWhale
Member
The bit about there being more carbon 20cm under the ground because its been ploughed worries me greatly!
It was very profitable here until blackgrass!
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Well, it has come up. Take a look at the Weaving GD users thread for pictures. Let’s wait and see what the yield is compared to the other 3 methods of establishment (I have one field that was ploughed and combi-drilled, one GD drilled, one straight in with my combi and one straight in with a system disc Vaddy).
As mentioned in and earlier post, we can bang on all we Like about soil Carbon, Nox, fuel, earthworms etc.
But the real point is that we need to be totally flexible. Where No-TIL works, that’s fine. Where it doesn’t or won’t, We must be flexible enough to use another system such as ploughing.
I will say this. I got every field bar one of mine drilled last autumn and those crops look well. To do so I ploughed and combi’d the lot in and it was all done by 9th October.
I can’t tell you if I would have got the same in by DD’ing it in, because I didn’t have one to try. But I can tell you that from 22nd Sept, onwards, it might have been difficult on a lot of my heavier land! My gut feeling is that those drilled after 22nd Sept would not look as good as the ones I have got.
Then, there is the Blackgrass situation, that must take precedence over absolutely everything and anything else!
Replacing herbicides with more tillage and fungicides with the organic alternatives is not sustainable. Current organic is not fit for purpose, I agree current conventional farming is not fit for purpose either with the huge amount of nitrogen driving the overuse of chemicals.
your demand for us to get paid to all follow the current organic method is absolutely ridiculous and complete waste of tax payers money. Regenerative agriculture is the middle ground taking the good bits of both systems and the only way I can see us farming in the future.
- Location
- Lincolnshire.
I really think we will end up with the cheap stuff from abroad where the environmental damage is out of sight. Just my opinion.
Sadly, I think you're absolutely right.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
CA doesn't mention no-till or DD. It says "minimum soil disturbance" which can be taken as just enough disturbance to get the result you need. The obvious end result of this is no-till but there are plenty of times when we've recommended a light surface cultivation to produce some tilth. If, on the other hand, you are going to say every year that it needs cultivation and its the minimum to get the job done then you are fooling yourself and will never see the benefits of undisturbed soil.
- Location
- Chipping Norton
NOx emmissions don't only arise in anaerobic soil, I understand that aerobic soils can give off as much NOx , if not more, when the conditions are correct and N is applied.
Then let’s prove we can do otherwise
Not me, havnt tried to prove anything to anyone for years im better for it too.
- Location
- Lincolnshire.
Where is the evidence that conservation ag is any more environmentally friendly than well managed “conventional farming”? I haven’t any, in fact it is very reliant on glyphosate and other fast disappearing chemicals, not to mention fossil fuel derived fert. In effect it is no different to conventional ag and arguably less “sustainable” than mixed farming.
- Location
- Berkshire
I have an involvement working with an organic farm, I have no problem with Organic farming
What I can see is that issues like Couch grass that are non-existant with glyphosate develops into a decade long issue of constantly fallowing and cultivating to control it at enormous cost to the environment and productivity.
I can also see that the production is severely limited, a large swath of the population neither have the money or inclination to pay more for organic.
There is a balance between feeding an expanding population and caring for our environment, that is why I advocated a hybrid approach, not "let me keep playing with my toys" as you miss quoted and miss understood my post.
Is it in the long term? It’s a constantly evolving journey.
simonk88
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds
Fascinating discussion, who cares what system other people use? I know what works here, if people want to plough, cultivate or whatever then that's up to them. Our pesticide use, including glyphosate is declining by using new technologies and thinking about what we are doing and how we do it rather than just the same old same old.
What do you mean by "the conditions are correct?" Not excessively wet nor dry? What is your view on how to reduce NOx? Inhibited urea? Cultan? Better soil biology?
There's methane and ammonia emissions to consider too, before we start thinking about leaching.