Zero till may not be as environmentally friendly as we thought.

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
I think you are still approaching it from the wrong point of view.

A no tillers aim is to create a situation where he wouldn't need to use the plough ie it wouldn't need to come into the conversation because he has managed his cropping/ trying to manage his cropping not to need it. Its nothing about being "high" or "religious" that's just a cop out from the tillage perspective.

The no tiller is aiming not to use tillage because they think its better for their soil, time management and bank account not to need to cultivate. I don't always get it right but when I do it gives me cheap establishment and higher yielding crops than I ever managed to under tillage. The challenge is to make this repeatable as possible. Its still new ground as I've only been doing it 14 years and so I still get the odd thing wrong, but then so do ploughmen and they've been doing since before the bible apparently!

Which bit do you find so frustrating?
1. The bit where A one and only system is not always right for the bank account!
2. The bit where some DDer’s cannot see or understand that sometimes an alternative is better.
3. The bit where they seems to think their way is the best and only way and that the plough was the invention of the Devil.
4. Their intransigent attitude!
5. Their failure to realise that they are heading in exactly the same way and direction of the Organic movement in trying to rubbish conventional farming to the public.
 
1. The bit where A one and only system is not always right for the bank account!
2. The bit where some DDer’s cannot see or understand that sometimes an alternative is better.
3. The bit where they seems to think their way is the best and only way and that the plough was the invention of the Devil.
4. Their intransigent attitude!
5. Their failure to realise that they are heading in exactly the same way and direction of the Organic movement in trying to rubbish conventional farming to the public.

I think its fundamentally of wanting to think systematically about a host of things rather than just crop to crop. The bigger picture would be the aim is to get higher yields with lower costs but less carbon cost. If you can see the potential of it then it makes sense. If you can't see the potential then it doesn't make so much sense to you.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
1. The bit where A one and only system is not always right for the bank account!
2. The bit where some DDer’s cannot see or understand that sometimes an alternative is better.
3. The bit where they seems to think their way is the best and only way and that the plough was the invention of the Devil.
4. Their intransigent attitude!
5. Their failure to realise that they are heading in exactly the same way and direction of the Organic movement in trying to rubbish conventional farming to the public.
Again it’s not really about ‘DD’ that is just a small part of it as will has explained.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I agree and this is what I find so frustrating about some of the religious DDer’s . No-TIL drills and ploughing are both tools in the box.
What on earth is wrong in being able to use both, for different fields that suit different systems?
It’s like some of them get some sort of “high” and become so hooked that they are blinkered to any alternativ’s
That's my greatest concern re "the Regenerative movement", it's being flooded by a heap of mechanistically-minded people, and thus it's just becoming a different flavour fundamentalism.

Unfortunately, despite the big buzz in livestock circles, the agriculture in NZ is still locked (willingly) into the same degenerative commodity production mindset as most of everywhere else.

It could all be so much better than that . Part of setting your mind free is accepting that what we're doing today can be improved on.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
wonder what the difference would be, in a worm count, if we changed from yearly ploughing, to, say, once every 5 years, min-til/dd in-between. It could be used as a simple way, to explain how soil reacts to a different system.
Following on from an earlier post, we now have 5 molehills, in the 45 acres of spring reseeds, better than none 2/3 weeks ago !
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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