Im looking at the possibility of min till on about 1250 acres.I wonder if anyone could give me some advice.The land is mostly light and i could pull a 6 furrow plough and press covering 2.7m with about 160hp creating a good seedbed on most of it so any min till option does have to be shallow and cheap. it would be usefull to get osr established into chopped wheat straw quickly particually where there is soil moisture in the top few inches and when you plough it you bury this and turn up dust. Would a pass with a vaderstad carrier and then a vaderstad drill work?. If it takes 2 passes will the soil moisture dissapear by the time i drill it Can i use the carrier to work down and level the odd ploughed headland or tough spot that the plough press hasnt broken up enough If i create a stale seedbed and spray it off when i go to drill it with a vaderstad shouldnt i remove the ststem disc so i dont get more weeds germinating in the crop or wont the drill work without a tool up front I tried to direct drill some osr in a small field with chopped straw with my neighbours vaderstad this year.It hasnt worked well .I lifted the system disk right out to disturb as little soil as possible but straw hairpinned in the slots and not enogh of the seed ended up in the ground.The slugs are munching away despite 3 applications of slug pellets.The pellets are on top of the straw while the slugs are underneath it. Would a pass with the carrier have improved this slug situation? Sorry for all the questions any help gratefully recieved

If you can plough and press followed by the drill, then carry on and save the expense on new tackle (that wont work every year) and the increased chemical bill. If you insist on having to min till then I will swap you acre for acre some land that is too heavy to plough at times and will never drill afterwards until it has weathered for a month.

I think your probobly right.Id like to take you up on your offer for a swap -a bit of clay would do wonders mixed in with my gravel can i leave the transport up to you though?thanks goblin

Our stubble appears to have a wonderful crop of self sown winter barley - with very few weeds so far - has anyone ever dared just leave this sort of thing and see how it crops?

a neighbour left some self sown rape last year but ended up ploughing it in the spring-i dont know why exactly but it just seemed to disapeer over the winter pigeons and slugs i guess

When set a side was first introduced there was rumours of 35cwt crops grown in that manner.

We left some wheat a few years ago - and my advice is don't.