Couldn't agree more with you on the deeper cultivations and shallow cultivations, in my area,mid Cornwall, my min till winter barley is very yellow and struggling with the wet conditions, the ploughed and culivated with spring tine seedbed cultivator is looking perfect,some that direct drilled have next to nothing, have got away with min till the last two seasons but will be back to the plough from here on in, no point in saving on establishment costs if you don't have a viable crop come harvest
@@WardysWaffleAndrewWard with the costs involved today & the potential rewards, I see even less justification to 'cut corners',your point about the carbon sequestration of a healthy crop is a very valid one
Your land is different to our (heavish) fen land Andrew, but all ours is ploughed with subsoilers on the plough. No black grass or standing water on it atm. We’re potato growers too so we’re not leaving any land to “green up” over winter which encourages the wireworm population to multiply. It’s a shame we will be rail roaded into not ploughing because of net zero. By the way using a furrow press reducing co2 emissions by 60%! (Philip Wright told me this)
Exactly the same at the opposite end of the UK. In the Lothians and the Borders, non- inversion tillage has resulted in poor looking crops, while ploughed ground looks much better.
Likewise Cumbria. To much of this blunt narrative with no consideration for soil type or annual rainfall is being driven by so called advisers and the supply chain rather than the farmer shouldering all the financial risk. Our milk buyer requires us to deep cultivate no more than 50%. Try Thorncliffs at Sleaford if you are tempted on to the yellow side as they have some great deals on nearly new.
Congratulations on the front page of The Times today. Well deserved to you Andrew, the team at the farm and Warwick and let’s hope this becomes a successful crop for many farmers and the UK. We all hoped that following Brexit the government would support more home grown produce. On that note, what are the challenges and ideal conditions/locations for the Capulet beans? As a farmers son but not a farmer your videos are by far the most informative and engaging out there. I’d like to hear more on ploughing vs min-til too. Ploughing ticks so many boxes but I also get the need for min-til. With diesel use and emissions being such a small proportion in agriculture compared to transport and with alternatives around the corner such as Hydrogen (see JCB) there must be a balance point for ploughing vs carbon release to better guarantee successful crops. Keep up the excellent work. How you manage to farm, produce videos, NFU etc etc is staggering. I hope to visit next year if possible.
Other industries all insist on high vis but we struggle, have it on my truck seat but don’t often wear it. Wheat and barley all very yellow here mintill direct drilled but very little standing water and good rooting, last years subsoiled sat in a wet soup and didn’t root last year, always easy with hind sight. Great video.
Of course Andrew - thank you . The Aliopathic tendency and the control of the dreaded black grass. I forgot my Botany ..Thanks for the explanation . I enjoy the crop management and soil science. The advances in mechanisation over a short period of human history and food production is often providing more questions than answers . Simon
Thanks again for the interesting video! This topic is really interesting to me, and I have watched all your videos about this :) Here in Finland, a magazine called Koneviesti has been tested direct seeding experiments for 17 years. The soil is clay, they have compared minimal tillage, plowing, cultivation, and different direct sowings in the same 0,5ha plots in same field for 17 years now. The results, yield, quality, water penetration and release etc. are better with direct seeding. I don't know which is best. So far I have plowed through almost everything. Now I bought a direct seeding machine and I intend to try different tactics. The only thing that matters to me is a big yield. Cultivation/ploughing etc. costs etc. are of little importance if it gives more yield. But if the cultivation does not increase the yield, then of course different.
Greetings from Ireland,another very interesting video Andrew.Years ago I worked for a tillage farmer and now that I am retired I am still interested in all new developments and of coarse modern machinery.I always look forward to your videos and Finnegans Farm videos.I live a few miles from Finnegans farm
Agree about metal and fuel making yields but not ploughing. We are more like you Andrew more intensive min till. We used to plough and power harrow every acre but with the wrong amount of rain it would all run together and seed would rot. This can still occur with our current technique but much more resilient. Looks like patience will be paramount come spring !
Hi wardy nice work am close zm in sturton by stow little fact ripon farm services was set up by mr robert chester of robert chester farms copthewick ripon i lived in the village ic i was walking home from ripon he would stop in his rolls royce and give me a lift a real gentleman farmer. Congratulations on the beans .
Cracking update Andrew. Nice to see the rape coming out the shed and jeez there’s a lot off water out there. Bloody hell some off those sprayers are huge, you wouldn’t be able to use most off them here in west Cornwall you wouldn’t get them down the lanes 😊
As you say the soil is a sponge,which is at “field capacity in a large area of the country, If you have standing water then the land drains and their installation ,spacing is incorrect , if installed, I understand parts of your area are higher which the volunteer cereal was on. Due to the nature of the soil which is also found in a Holland and Germany, it is very difficult to master., in difficult years, Thank you for your interest, I donot need a reply
So you haven't had a visit from the new environment minister yet saying he's going to spend £50 million dredging the rivers? oh no, that's right.. he's spending it on creating new national parks isn't he! 🤣🤣
Headline in the Times, not bad for a lowly farmer! I do not know where modern food production is heading. The SFI options and current thinking is at a complete opposite end of the scale to food production. Direct drilling and “regenerative” farming is fine on the right soil in the right year and not a lot of us have those conditions.
Olly showed a graph of wheat varieties with no till ,against a conventional system and it seemed to show ,no till had better yields ,I dont know where the information has come from or the sites used to compile the data. Plough and combination will still have a role to play,interesting someone wrote that a furrow press reduces carbon loss by 60%,as you said working out the calculation of carbon used and saved in different systems is not straight forward,but looking at the crops ploughed and drilled would be taking in more carbon than no till unless drilled in good conditions,if there are grassweed problems you cant really drill early
Certainly all the standing water on your affected fields is caused by compaction, and minimal cultivation, you need to do everything possible to maintain a healthy soil structure. As for discussing carbon, you can sit around a table all day, and everyone will have an opinion, best not waste your valuable time.
We dig slot of holes in Sept and our soils were in great condition. We’ve used the solo for many years and been fine and the fields done with it this year are good, it’s the others which have water on.
Such a shame Andrew to see some parts of your land under water again, it’s just been so wet for so long that the water table in the ground is just full. Like yourself I’m a firm believer in getting depth in cultivation work, on heavier soils getting air down into the soil really makes a difference, not only helping with drainage but allow all of those microbes to do their thing and enrich the soil. I picked up on the carbon bit in your video. I’ve watched hours and hours on this topic because I wanted to make my own opinion on this, the conclusion I’ve come to is that co2 is not a pollutant as they would like us to believe, but it’s plant food. Since the year 2000 the planet has become greener by 20% which is an area the size of North America and that’s with historically low levels of co2. Most of the available co2 is in the oceans, as the planet warms which is driven by cycles of the sun, co2 is released. Vice versa when the oceans cool, co2 is drawn back into the oceans. The historical data shows there is a clear lag between temperature and co2. I’m sorry to waffle on but I could talk about this topic for hours. Plus why there is a push to demonise co2 and who benefits financially. In summary, basic science shows us that a increase in co2 results in bigger healthier crops with less artificial inputs from us, the farmers. I hope one day we all can put this net zero nonsense behind us, because in my opinion it’s just zero for us, the little people, while the elite get richer. Besides all this I hope you get a window in the weather to get some drilling done. All the best 👍
They have no idea about cattle Andrew you should be minister for agriculture we need someone with knowledge and understanding of farming you'd be perfect
andrew a silly question if the water board had straghtend there section of the dyke wouldnt the water flow threw it faster hence allowing more water 2 drain of the fields
It would and that’s what we try and tell the EA and environmentalists but they say that’s wrong, water needs slowing down, not speeding up. They are clueless.
Planting a spring crop such as barley, compared to winter wheat, allows for much better control over blackgrass as most of it germinates in the autumn months (August to October) so you are able to use cultivation and herbicides on the blackgrass, if you have planted winter wheat your options are limited.
Spring barley is very competitive and grows quickly so smothers the ground quickly which limits the amount of blackgrass which can grow. As the barley is not planted until the spring, we’re able to get 2 or 3 applications of Round up onto the blackgrass, throughout the autumn and spring, before the barley is planted, so lessening the amount able to grow amongst the barley.
Apparently Andrew according to a short story on the radio 4 today program this morning on a news paper stories round up a Lincolnshire farmer had produced just 12 cans of baked beans I don’t hear which paper had the story maybe the mail but they didn’t mention/name the farmer (rpd protection?! maybe) was it you ? 😅😂.
I think Mr Ward's farm is quite stoney under the surface, but i 100% agree, everything up north that ive seen has been ploughed with very little standing water.
Still a place for the plough imo in today's agriculture even it's every 4or 5 years.good man on the plough is the best weed control (not black grass). Also opens up the soil structure.
Couldn't agree more with you on the deeper cultivations and shallow cultivations, in my area,mid Cornwall, my min till winter barley is very yellow and struggling with the wet conditions, the ploughed and culivated with spring tine seedbed cultivator is looking perfect,some that direct drilled have next to nothing, have got away with min till the last two seasons but will be back to the plough from here on in, no point in saving on establishment costs if you don't have a viable crop come harvest
Totally agree. 👏👍
@@WardysWaffleAndrewWard with the costs involved today & the potential rewards, I see even less justification to 'cut corners',your point about the carbon sequestration of a healthy crop is a very valid one
Your land is different to our (heavish) fen land Andrew, but all ours is ploughed with subsoilers on the plough. No black grass or standing water on it atm. We’re potato growers too so we’re not leaving any land to “green up” over winter which encourages the wireworm population to multiply. It’s a shame we will be rail roaded into not ploughing because of net zero. By the way using a furrow press reducing co2 emissions by 60%! (Philip Wright told me this)
Exactly the same at the opposite end of the UK. In the Lothians and the Borders, non- inversion tillage has resulted in poor looking crops, while ploughed ground looks much better.
Likewise Cumbria. To much of this blunt narrative with no consideration for soil type or annual rainfall is being driven by so called advisers and the supply chain rather than the farmer shouldering all the financial risk. Our milk buyer requires us to deep cultivate no more than 50%. Try Thorncliffs at Sleaford if you are tempted on to the yellow side as they have some great deals on nearly new.
Good to see you on GB news, keep spreading the word
I agree we plough everything not a bit of water stood our neighbour direct drills looks dreadfull for get about carben and get land opened up
Congratulations on the front page of The Times today. Well deserved to you Andrew, the team at the farm and Warwick and let’s hope this becomes a successful crop for many farmers and the UK. We all hoped that following Brexit the government would support more home grown produce. On that note, what are the challenges and ideal conditions/locations for the Capulet beans? As a farmers son but not a farmer your videos are by far the most informative and engaging out there. I’d like to hear more on ploughing vs min-til too. Ploughing ticks so many boxes but I also get the need for min-til. With diesel use and emissions being such a small proportion in agriculture compared to transport and with alternatives around the corner such as Hydrogen (see JCB) there must be a balance point for ploughing vs carbon release to better guarantee successful crops. Keep up the excellent work. How you manage to farm, produce videos, NFU etc etc is staggering. I hope to visit next year if possible.
😊👍
I just listened to you on radio Suffolk talking about the beans 👍
I did 8 local BBC stations. 👍😊
Other industries all insist on high vis but we struggle, have it on my truck seat but don’t often wear it.
Wheat and barley all very yellow here mintill direct drilled but very little standing water and good rooting, last years subsoiled sat in a wet soup and didn’t root last year, always easy with hind sight. Great video.
Great Video Wardy! Cultivation is always a battle, you can be sure it will get worse, thanks for sharing
Of course Andrew - thank you . The Aliopathic tendency and the control of the dreaded black grass. I forgot my Botany ..Thanks for the explanation . I enjoy the crop management and soil science. The advances in mechanisation over a short period of human history and food production is often providing more questions than answers . Simon
Thanks again for the interesting video! This topic is really interesting to me, and I have watched all your videos about this :)
Here in Finland, a magazine called Koneviesti has been tested direct seeding experiments for 17 years. The soil is clay, they have compared minimal tillage, plowing, cultivation, and different direct sowings in the same 0,5ha plots in same field for 17 years now. The results, yield, quality, water penetration and release etc. are better with direct seeding.
I don't know which is best. So far I have plowed through almost everything. Now I bought a direct seeding machine and I intend to try different tactics.
The only thing that matters to me is a big yield. Cultivation/ploughing etc. costs etc. are of little importance if it gives more yield. But if the cultivation does not increase the yield, then of course different.
Greetings from Ireland,another very interesting video Andrew.Years ago I worked for a tillage farmer and now that I am retired I am still interested in all new developments and of coarse modern machinery.I always look forward to your videos and Finnegans Farm videos.I live a few miles from Finnegans farm
Loved it when I went there last week.
Agree about metal and fuel making yields but not ploughing.
We are more like you Andrew more intensive min till.
We used to plough and power harrow every acre but with the wrong amount of rain it would all run together and seed would rot. This can still occur with our current technique but much more resilient.
Looks like patience will be paramount come spring !
Hi wardy nice work am close zm in sturton by stow little fact ripon farm services was set up by mr robert chester of robert chester farms copthewick ripon i lived in the village ic i was walking home from ripon he would stop in his rolls royce and give me a lift a real gentleman farmer. Congratulations on the beans .
Thank you.
Useful fact re Ripon. 👌😊
A great video Andrew, I have met Martin on the combine run in Devon. He was very friendly.
He usually is with great sense of humour.
Love your videos I’m not a farmer but keep learning from you updates brilliant
Brilliant, thank you.
Cracking update Andrew. Nice to see the rape coming out the shed and jeez there’s a lot off water out there. Bloody hell some off those sprayers are huge, you wouldn’t be able to use most off them here in west Cornwall you wouldn’t get them down the lanes 😊
As you say the soil is a sponge,which is at “field capacity in a large area of the country,
If you have standing water then the land drains and their installation ,spacing is incorrect , if installed, I understand parts of your area are higher which the volunteer cereal was on.
Due to the nature of the soil which is also found in a Holland and Germany, it is very difficult to master., in difficult years,
Thank you for your interest, I donot need a reply
So you haven't had a visit from the new environment minister yet saying he's going to spend £50 million dredging the rivers? oh no, that's right.. he's spending it on creating new national parks isn't he! 🤣🤣
😂😂 I don’t think I’ll hold my breath!
Headline in the Times, not bad for a lowly farmer! I do not know where modern food production is heading. The SFI options and current thinking is at a complete opposite end of the scale to food production. Direct drilling and “regenerative” farming is fine on the right soil in the right year and not a lot of us have those conditions.
Totally agree
Olly showed a graph of wheat varieties with no till ,against a conventional system and it seemed to show ,no till had better yields ,I dont know where the information has come from or the sites used to compile the data.
Plough and combination will still have a role to play,interesting someone wrote that a furrow press reduces carbon loss by 60%,as you said working out the calculation of carbon used and saved in different systems is not straight forward,but looking at the crops ploughed and drilled would be taking in more carbon than no till unless drilled in good conditions,if there are grassweed problems you cant really drill early
We’ve proved here dd yields worse, suppose depends on soil type.
Sorry not a farmer but interesting video Andrew. Good watching the bulker s getting loaded still plenty of flooding
Great video 🚜🚜
Certainly all the standing water on your affected fields is caused by compaction, and minimal cultivation, you need to do everything possible to maintain a healthy soil structure.
As for discussing carbon, you can sit around a table all day, and everyone will have an opinion, best not waste your valuable time.
We dig slot of holes in Sept and our soils were in great condition. We’ve used the solo for many years and been fine and the fields done with it this year are good, it’s the others which have water on.
Martin's becoming a familiar face across the best ag TH-cam channels!
😊👍
Was going to ask, who is Martin? Farmer, NFU 🤷♂️
@peterre4422 farmer from Hereford, did the combine run with Olly, a good friend of both of us.
I mostly get walk on parts. Perfect face for radio amongst these HD ready boys. 😂
@@peterre4422 farmer from Hereford.
They allow me in the videos to make them look good.
Hi Wardy, see you got a comment on TV for growing beans for baked beans.? Also what prime mover d= is your preference.?
Lots on the media today about the beans.
Such a shame Andrew to see some parts of your land under water again, it’s just been so wet for so long that the water table in the ground is just full.
Like yourself I’m a firm believer in getting depth in cultivation work, on heavier soils getting air down into the soil really makes a difference, not only helping with drainage but allow all of those microbes to do their thing and enrich the soil.
I picked up on the carbon bit in your video. I’ve watched hours and hours on this topic because I wanted to make my own opinion on this, the conclusion I’ve come to is that co2 is not a pollutant as they would like us to believe, but it’s plant food. Since the year 2000 the planet has become greener by 20% which is an area the size of North America and that’s with historically low levels of co2. Most of the available co2 is in the oceans, as the planet warms which is driven by cycles of the sun, co2 is released. Vice versa when the oceans cool, co2 is drawn back into the oceans. The historical data shows there is a clear lag between temperature and co2.
I’m sorry to waffle on but I could talk about this topic for hours. Plus why there is a push to demonise co2 and who benefits financially.
In summary, basic science shows us that a increase in co2 results in bigger healthier crops with less artificial inputs from us, the farmers.
I hope one day we all can put this net zero nonsense behind us, because in my opinion it’s just zero for us, the little people, while the elite get richer.
Besides all this I hope you get a window in the weather to get some drilling done. All the best 👍
Every field requires different cultivation’s to best suit soil types and weather conditions and coming years crops
They have no idea about cattle Andrew you should be minister for agriculture we need someone with knowledge and understanding of farming you'd be perfect
I wouldn’t hold back I can tell you!!!
I think you still have to break the pan regularly especially with the tractors getting heavier.
The fields with standing water need deep ripping or just oversaturated?
A bit of both.
Mole Ploughing to pick up with the field drains?
Spot on. 👌😊
andrew a silly question if the water board had straghtend there section of the dyke wouldnt the water flow threw it faster hence allowing more water 2 drain of the fields
It would and that’s what we try and tell the EA and environmentalists but they say that’s wrong, water needs slowing down, not speeding up. They are clueless.
Seen you today on point's west, news, (30 nov, Thur's) canning your waffle Beans,
It was manic, I had so many radio and tv stations contacting me. Great exposure for the crop though.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
For us non farmers, what is the significance of growing Barley and not wheat on land infested with black grass?
Black Grass has an affect on yields of the crop being grown, hard to kill because it is similar to the cereal crop.
Planting a spring crop such as barley, compared to winter wheat, allows for much better control over blackgrass as most of it germinates in the autumn months (August to October) so you are able to use cultivation and herbicides on the blackgrass, if you have planted winter wheat your options are limited.
Spring barley is very competitive and grows quickly so smothers the ground quickly which limits the amount of blackgrass which can grow. As the barley is not planted until the spring, we’re able to get 2 or 3 applications of Round up onto the blackgrass, throughout the autumn and spring, before the barley is planted, so lessening the amount able to grow amongst the barley.
Apparently Andrew according to a short story on the radio 4 today program this morning on a news paper stories round up a Lincolnshire farmer had produced just 12 cans of baked beans I don’t hear which paper had the story maybe the mail but they didn’t mention/name the farmer (rpd protection?! maybe) was it you ? 😅😂.
Don’t know who it was!!!!!
i think all this no till and heavy tractors are just putting the land down so tight, need a good sub soil and plough
I think Mr Ward's farm is quite stoney under the surface, but i 100% agree, everything up north that ive seen has been ploughed with very little standing water.
Still a place for the plough imo in today's agriculture even it's every 4or 5 years.good man on the plough is the best weed control (not black grass). Also opens up the soil structure.
The solo has subsoil legs so does the trick.
@chrislee2221 our soils have a lot of clay and silt so plough terribly, the solo has the same effect but leaves it a lot leveller.
@kevinharker1840 The Heath is stony but the other farm has lots of clay and silt, about 80%, with little stone.
Wow channel 4 at it now. Unbelievable. It’s simple, back British farming.
I’ve seen that, people spouting rubbish about something they know nothing about.
There is a new model out now 542/100
I spotted that,
great update
Does triclpyr contol it ?
No!
👍👍👍👍🐶🐶🐶🐶🐝🐝🐝🐝
Martin strkes again 😂
😂😂
maybe think about sub soul get the water down to the drain
The solo has subsoil legs
Ye but ur only in 3 inch coz that deer cant pull it
@caseboy0101 as deep as that?