Since switching to strip tillage in the spring of 2012, RP Collier Farms in Sta ffordshire has seen its costs and labour go down signi ficantly. The farm’s main motivation for investing in a new drill, however, was the desire to improve the soil structure, an objective which has been more than achieved according to the farm owner.
Find out more.
Strip tillage is having an addictive effect in one part of the English/Welsh border.
John Joseph introduced it on his own farm a few years ago – and now drills crops for a number of farmers in the area who looked at his fields and liked what they saw!
And there is much to be liked, too.
Find out more.
Ditching a conventional tillage system for a one-pass strip-till drill is helping one Yorks farmer get his tired soils into shape.
“Knocking heavy, unyielding clay soils into an acceptable-looking seedbed is rarely an easy or cheap task.But when you’re based in a wetter-than-ideal location with poor land drainage, the job is even less entertaining…”
Find out how it’s bedding in.
Any farmer who expects a switch to direct drilling to sort out soil structure problems by itself needs to re-think their approach, and make sure they give this potentially valuable technique a go says independent consultant Philip Wright.
“Point number one: plan to start direct drilling where soil structure is already good. The biggest mistake you can make is trying to direct drill ropey fields.
“But if soil structure is not in good condition then you are relying on nature and plant roots to put it right, and that will take a number of years, during which time yields and margins will be lower than optimum”.
Rushing to judgement on the potential benefits of the technique on the basis of a trial in unsuitable conditions could lead to farmers rejecting it without giving it a chance: “Sometimes you may need to make a mechanical intervention. That may seem a little counter-intuitive, but if there is a problem that needs resolving then the right operation should help direct drilling work. Additionally there are other ways of giving nature a hand”.
He warns against starting to direct drill just because the technique seems to offer a low-cost option for establishing crops: “There is a real danger that if you don’t try the technique on soils that are already well structured then you may dismiss it on a false premise. If you do want to assess direct drilling on your own farm, choose a field that you know is well structured with no physical problems that may inhibit crop development, and give it fair trial.
“Ultimately nature will correct your soil structure problems, providing you don’t carry on creating them. Employing cover crops of the appropriate mix to help structure the soil also accelerates the move to good yields. Also, never miss the opportunity to build roots, as these ultimately provide resilience in all soils”.
The hardest part of direct drilling is getting used to doing very little cultivating after harvest while neighbours are working hard, says Northamptonshire farmer David Beesley.
Last autumn he was able to utilise this time by concentrating on other parts of his business, and leaving his new Mzuri drill parked up until it was needed at South Lodge, Ecton, Northampton. Once the drill – a mounted Pro Til3 – did get working a number of valuable benefits were quickly apparent: “We halved the time taken to establish crops, and halved the volume of diesel used. When we were using both conventional and non-inversion tillage we had to hire casual labour to start cultivating as we were still busy with harvest; last year we didn’t have to do that, which was a major financial saving”.
They have moved to direct drilling in two stages. Their original system was to plough and press, before leaving the land – predominantly relatively easy-working ironstone – to weather and then drilling. Their first non-inversion system typically might take four passes, with one or two passes of discs; then running a Guttler press to finish the seedbed ahead of a combination drill.
Now he uses Mzuri’s Pro-Til 3 mounted drill to establish all crops, and the only pre-drilling decision he has to make is whether to use a straw rake ahead of drilling: “It can be a benefit to spread the trash and stubble about and leave it more even. It is a different mind-set to normal tillage. You have to be able to walk away when everybody else is flying about”.
Last year oilseeds were sown in the last week of August: “They are looking well and – if anything – probably a bit too tall. We sowed at 2kgs/ha and could probably have used a lower seed rate”.
After that they waited until the last week of September to start drilling cereals from which they still finished by the end of the second week in October. “We started with the barley which is grown for seed with a seedrate of 90kg/ha and the crop looks fantastic. I have never drilled anything at quite so low a seed rate”.
They moved on to the wheat and finished with the oats in the second week of October: “We completed drilling on a Sunday which was fortunate, because almost immediately after we finished it started raining and never stopped”.
They drilled a break crop of mustard in late spring and drilled wheat straight through it after spraying it off: “We drilled wheat straight through the mustard which must have been 60cm high. The mustard soaks up the available nitrogen and locks it up so it can be released when the crop breaks down after being sprayed just ahead of planting the crop. As a result the straw does not compete with the crop because it is not breaking down as the wheat crop gets established.
“The drill follows the ground contours very well thanks to the oscillation of the individual seed tines, and the crops look much more even. We drill the headlands last to avoid compaction – as recommended by Mzuri – and the fields are wall to wall crops”.
Even when you have a well-designed non-inversion crop establishment system, moving to direct drilling can achieve significant time and cost savings.
Brothers Philip and Martin Gibbs have 700 acres of arable crops on the 1,300 acres they farm at Upper Bentley Farm, Redditch, Worcestershire, the remainder of the farm being grassland that supports 600 beef cattle and 300 sheep.
They were looking to reduce the amount of labour required to run the farm, and have moved from a non-inversion system that uses four passes to direct drilling with a Mzuri Pro-Til4 trailed drill with a grain-only seed tank (a split grain/fertiliser option is available).
Among the key factors in their choice of drill was the quality of service and support they receive from the company and the pedigree of the designer, says Philip: “We know Martin Lole well, and were confident the drill was going to be designed and built correctly because his engineering skills are brilliant”.
It can either work direct or after a single preparatory pass: “We were trying to change the system to make the farm easier to run”, says Martin.
Their arable system was previously based around primary cultivation with a combined disc/tine cultivator, which was used to restructure the soil before a power harrow finished off the seedbed. After that they drilled and rolled: “We have done away with that system now and all we do is consider whether to do any preparatory work, and then drill and roll”.
After combining they remove all straw for the livestock and then decide what else is needed: “We might FlatLift a third of the acreage every year to ensure we keep the structure healthy and then use a straw rake on the other two thirds to ensure we get a good weed and volunteer chit and get them sprayed off ahead of drilling. Raking costs next to nothing”.
He says soil workability is improving, something assisted by the regular spreading of manure, which they work into the ground with a disc/tined cultivator.
“The soil’s workability is getting better and it feels firmer, so we can get on with the sprayer earlier and it doesn’t have any ruts in it. It feels firmer and drains better because the earthworms are there and we are not disrupting their home or the channels they make vertically through the soil”.