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Cover Crops


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Had my cover crops drilled today, so now fingers crossed for good growing weather, went for a home made mixture including canary grass & chicory to hopfully last several seasons.

 

A hen pheasant was also seen with 12 chicks no more than a day old.

 

How are others preperations going.

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We needed to replace most of ours as it had reached the end of its useable life, the old stuff was topped about 2 weeks about and now ploughed in. The farmer should be drilling in the next few days. We have gone for a few blocks of maze, a nice mix of most things we used before to good effect and on an exposed field top where it catches the wind from the sea something called Northern Star which is hardy to the salty wind.

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We have just today broadcast ( after ploughing ) Highland Game and Scottish Mix and then gone over it with the rotovator. I'm going up later to spray the grass before the seed strikes. We have a little Canary Grass to go in also. Looking forward to seeing what comes through.

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Mine has been in just over a week and the quinoa has just come up, not too sure how well everything is going to grow though as the seed bed is awful, cobbly is an understatement! No one's fault, the ground went from slop to concrete in a matter of days

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Ours is coming along fine on rough shoot after some initial misgivings. It really took off after the hot dry spell weather finally broke and we had a few downpours. Coming along very nicely.

We have seen loads of wild broods around and we're off to collect our birds tomorrow. Soon comes around eh!? :yes:

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Had a look at mine yesterday, got germination but neds warmth in the next few weeks as it may be a poor outlook, as i was hoping for 4-5 years with the mix i used, nay be able to help it a little with some fertilizer.

 

I would think the volume of showers and quantity of rain in short periods has done for any chicks born in the last fortnight, but some pheasant chicks the size of partridges were seen last week.

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Had a look at mine yesterday, got germination but neds warmth in the next few weeks as it may be a poor outlook, as i was hoping for 4-5 years with the mix i used, nay be able to help it a little with some fertilizer.

 

I would think the volume of showers and quantity of rain in short periods has done for any chicks born in the last fortnight, but some pheasant chicks the size of partridges were seen last week.

We had 36mm in half an hour on our yard the other day, where we have some tulips, they had 28mm in 8 minutes and the water was running that fast off fields that it was going into houses!

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Yourself , Matty*, and me are not far apart the weather seems to come through in narrow bands at the moment, got rained off doing a job in gedney dyke yesterday afternoon, travelled home to Holbeach next door was cutting his lawn in t shirt, very changeable.

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Yourself , Matty*, and me are not far apart the weather seems to come through in narrow bands at the moment, got rained off doing a job in gedney dyke yesterday afternoon, travelled home to Holbeach next door was cutting his lawn in t shirt, very changeable.

 

Its been some funny weather, i was working on a picker today in a boiler suit with a jumper on as well! , was not very warm. Doesnt feel like June at all, i'm hoping it doesnt effect the germination of the cover, as we've put a little more prep into it this year to try improve it as its been a little poor the last two years

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Well after a promising start, my covers have all been sprayed off, power harrowed in and will let be redrilled tomorrow! The frit fly had eaten off the cereals, flea beetle had got the kale and the survivors were slowly being choked with weeds! I don't think the weird cold and wet weather helped with establishment, so fingers crossed!

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Been to look at ours....maize is not looking too good,yellow and stressed

It's waterlogged and the ground is heavy clay ,gave it all a dose of fertiliser and hopefully the weather will warm up

 

It's hard work growing the cover crops,if only the guns knew what it was like walking up and down spraying by hand and fertilising with a push spreader

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a look at one of mine today, put a mix in so no chemical treatment available, but a good bit of chickory in there so next year should be ok. It's only for a walk round after fowling but always nice to see your work go ok.

Hope everyone else is getting on ok, as this is the out of our hands stage.

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Mine is spilt 50/50 half is coming along well, sorghum and millet up 7 or 8". The other half is on its second drilling after getting hammered by every pest known to man. It's got next week of sunshine and showers and a decision will be made on whether or not to put it in again, it's up to the agronomist and contractors

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