Farming Systems Research & Development Advisor, Niall Atkinson
“Project Lamport is in its seventh year. It started out as a means of investigating grass weed control, but through the years we’ve learnt so much more.
Fast forward to 2020 and Lamport is a full showcase of soil health - residue management, cultivations, cover cropping and rotations. There are huge benefits from the techniques that we have been using, from cropping diversity to improving soil structure and biology.
Piece this all together and it helps us to understand how to successfully grow spring crops on heavy land, whilst making major improvements to soil health.
Cover crops followed by spring cropping
For this introduction to Project Lamport, we’ll look at the differences between the plots, which primarily focus on cover crops followed by spring cropping. For those who can view our video here [LINK], this will show an in-person walk through.
System 3 is direct drilled spring wheat sown after a cover crop, that was established with a combi drill; System 4 is direct drilled spring wheat sown into an autumn cover crop using a Weaving direct drill (no-till). Both plots have good establishment and using the direct drill minimises soil disturbance.
For System 12, we direct drilled spring wheat and blew over the cover crop seed into the standing wheat crop pre harvest. This didn’t successfully establish the cover crop and it’s very patch at best, so will require further development as it does have many potential soil health benefits.
Again, system 5 was direct drilled spring wheat following a cover crop that was established using the Meir low disturbance Soil Conditioner with a seeder unit.
System 6 is spring barley direct drilled following a cover crop established using a combi drill last autumn. So far this is showing good and consistent establishment.
With System 7 we have spring wheat following a traditional over-wintered fallow. We loosened the plot a little, but it was otherwise left bare over autumn. We have grassweeds in this plot due to the increased soil movement at drilling, which has allowed germination. We will likely see other negative impacts later through the season.
System 10 is spring oats following a cover crop, which was established using the Meir low disturbance Soil Conditioner with seeder unit. The oats were then drilled using a Weaving GD and the results are promising. We’ve barely moved the soil.
Kerrin winter wheat
We have Kerrin first winter wheat drilled using a Weaving GD at the end of October for System 2. Previous to this, we straw raked the plot after harvesting oilseed rape, followed up by a Vaderstad CrossCutter Disc and Kverneland DTX cultivator. We then sprayed off any volunteers. Although we initially had reasonable establishment, excessive winter rainfall has washed much of the soil together particularly behind the tractor wheelings. This has resulted in areas with little crop bar weeds.
System 9 is Kerrin second winter wheat, again drilled at the end of October. This was after straw raking the plot, cross cutting and spraying off the stale seedbed. We have awful establishment due to wet conditions and the uncompetitive nature of the second wheat.
System 11 – again, awful establishment. The previous crop was spring oats, again we straw raked and used the CrossCutter, sprayed off the stale seedbed and drilled with a Weaving GD. It’s not clear as to why we have such poor establishment here, something unusual has happened in this plot.
Benefits of the CrossCutter
Another crop of Kerrin first winter wheat drilled with a Weaving GD forms System 8a. The previous rotation was oilseed rape and we used the same regime of straw raking followed by the CrossCutter. This is definitely our best example of winter wheat at the site.
For 8b, the only difference between this and 8a is we didn’t use the CrossCutter. As this hasn’t established as well, we are demonstrating the clear benefits of the CrossCutter following oilseed rape. It works because it provides intensive mixing at shallow working depths, creating the stale seed bed.
Comparison plots
We also have two comparison plots – 1 and 2. Comparison 1 is Extase drilled on December 5, perhaps demonstrating what much of the late autumn wheat is looking like around the country. Plot 2 is Kilburn drilled at the end of March and still looks great. I guess what this is demonstrating is you don’t need to force a crop in to unsuitable ground conditions, you can wait and have good results.”
For more information on Project Lamport 2020 click here.