‘The key to continued productivity and prosperity’
With the wet weather this year the annual process of soil preparation and planting has been a struggle for all of us, but here at Cley Hill we have had some encouraging results this November with our oil seed rape.
This year, with conditions as they were, we did not manage to get the OSR in the ground until the 26th and 27th September! So we were pushing our luck a little.
However, during a recent visit by agronomist ‘Simon Trenary’ from Country Wide Farmers we found that the root structure of the OSR plants was, in fact, very good indeed.
The Field in question, ‘Big Ham’ was cultivated using a 3m wide ‘Sumo trailed Trio.’ The legs were set shallower than usual due to the wet conditions and the fact that in the previous years we have used the same machine which has left the soil in great condition. A ‘D Ring’ press was then used to firm and work the seed bed even further.
We planted using a ‘Sumo Uni-Drill’ with the drill spacing at 18.5cm. The cast press wheel behind the drill helped to further consolidate the seedbed and has since proved to have reduced slug damage significantly.
On the subject of slugs, we do have a problem some years, particularly in ‘Little Ham’ the adjacent field to the one mentioned above and it seems that using a press, or in this case, the press roller on the back of the ‘Trio’ does help to keep the slug damage to a minimum. 
This care in preparation has resulted in a good, free draining, even seed bed with minimal ‘ponding.’ The Trio’s ability to produce this even seed bed has resulted in good establishment, long, straight tap roots, and the plants are tight to the ground with a short hypocotle minimising the chance of wind damage as they grow.
All in all a good success, thanks to the diligence of David, the quality of the machinery used to prepare the ground and the advice of our agronomist Simon T.
