Restore its condition to get yields
Restore its condition to get yields
FARMERS need to adopt establishment techniques which will provide the soil conditions needed to make the most of modern varieties and modern crop inputs, says independent cultivations adviser Steve Townsend.
"So many farmers are telling me their fields are getting harder and harder to cultivate to the standard they want and I believe it is because they are losing organic matter through over-cultivation.
"Farmers have to ask themselves whether they are in the soil moving business or crop production. Too many farmers are cultivating too often, too deep, too aggressively and are moving too much soil."
New coulter designs mean fast, efficient drilling is now possible after less intense cultivations. "Trash is less of a worry and although you may not be able to go in poor conditions, once conditions are right you can get across a huge acreage."
MIN-TILL TIPS
• A typical 308ha (760 acre) farm moving from a plough and one pass system to disc and cultivator drill can save £15/ha (£6/acre) and 330 hours of autumn labour, Steve Townsend maintains.
• Add up to 30kg/ha (24 units/acre) of nitrogen to boost autumn crop growth where a full straw crop has been incorporated, he advises. "With less mineralisation of nitrogen and N needed for straw breakdown crops can go hungry." Alastair Leake agrees. "Even where straw is baled and removed I would say 12kg/ha is justified."
• Take-all could be less severe where a well consolidated seed-bed is preserved through minimal or no-till drilling. In an HGCA-funded trial near Cirencester take-all seed treatment failed to bring a significant yield benefit on no-till plots, whereas it did after ploughing and minimal cultivations, says Nick Poole of ARC. "There is evidence that well consolidated soils preserve soil micro fauna which compete with the take-all fungus."