Today we’ll talk about the 13 most common mistakes made by farm managers, agronomists, machine operators when cultivating the soil and try to find practical ways to solve these problems.
- The first mistake is the importance of incorporating straw into the soil. There is an opinion among farmers: “After harvesting, the field must be clean of straw, because it looks careless from the outside, and you can’t sow in such soil!” At the same time, they forget to apply an additional dose of nitrogen, which leads to its deficit due to the nutrition of the soil bacteria.
If you incorporate crop residues, 30 kg of ammonium nitrate should be applied for every ton of straw. So each ton of grain of the same winter wheat will give almost an equal proportion of straw. At a yield of 5 t/ha, 150 kg/ha of ammonium nitrate should be applied.
There’s also the option of leaving the straw on the soil surface. The choppers on the combine harvesters should be pre-set to evenly distribute small pieces of straw (5-6 cm). This will give an opportunity to use spring harrows for surface tillage (up to 5 cm) without incorporating straw. Shallow depth control discs can be used instead of harrows. - The second error stems from the first.;Plowing in the summer to incorporate straw into the soil. The negative impact of this method is that after harvesting the crop, in fact, the soil is already over-dry and the application of this agrarian technique turns out “suitcases” of land – large layers, which are even more dried in the sun, especially in the southern regions of the country, where black and chestnut soils. It is possible to crush them at best only after a good downpour or after a number – three or four mechanical land treatments. And this is a big loss of moisture, the cost of fuel and lubricants. The only option where basic tillage can be used in the summer is plowing for “overspray.” It is used on fields with weeds of rhizomatous agrobiological group (Pinus palticus, couch grass) to turn the rhizomes to the ground surface in order to dry them out and further comb them out.
- The third error is also a consequence of the first one. It is the deep discing of stubble with heavy disc implements. The consequences are the same: eversion of huge clumps, drying of the surface layer of the earth. The third error is also a consequence of the first one.
The heavy disc harrows can be a good alternative to the plough, provided the last tillage is done in autumn, with a levelling roller behind the discs. This will provide favorable conditions for preparation of both late spring crops and early spring crops.
4.The fourth mistake is using implements with a small working width. What does it affect? First of all it affects the performance. Machines with larger working widths can work more land per unit time.
Secondly, less fuel and oil consumption per hectare due to higher forward speeds, wider working widths and shallower working depths. In practice the consumption of diesel fuel is reduced by 1.5 – 2 times. Thus, ploughing can be replaced by deep discing, cultivation KPS-4 by spring harrow with working width of 10 meters or by discator.
Shorter tillage machines with a smaller working width (3-4 meters), making more passes, more often compact the ground with the tractor wheels, which leads to the inevitable use of deep tillage to restore the equilibrium soil density. So when increasing the working width to 10-18 meters, the frequency of compacted ruts is reduced 2 – 6 times, and therefore there is an opportunity to deep tillage less often.
5.Fifth mistake is leaving stubble for the winter without tillage.;There is another option – leave the straw on the surface of the soil. The choppers on the combine harvesters should be pre-set to evenly distribute small pieces of straw (5-6 cm). This will give an opportunity to use spring harrows for surface tillage (up to 5 cm) without incorporating straw. Shallow depth control discs can be used instead of harrows.
6. The sixth mistake is failure to observe the timing of the main tillage. There are times when the weather conditions are such that it rains in the fall and it is necessary to plow (for example, for the spring sowing of vegetables). And only when weather conditions improve, they plow, forming layers sticking together like plasticine. This means that the soil is not ripe for tillage. Physical indicators of ripeness of the soil for tillage are its disintegration into micro-aggregates of 4-10 mm. For this purpose one takes a lump of soil in hand and throws it from waist level, the lump of soil completely disintegrated means the soil is not overwatered and not dried out and has optimum moisture content.
The best solution in such a situation would be to plow the soil under frost, when the ground is frozen to a depth of 5-10 cm. Agrotechnical indicators of quality will be the absence of ridges (to enhance the effect behind the plough, a heavy steel bar is adapted for leveling), the soil has a fine crumbly structure. Thus, deep tillage in this condition should be the last tillage leaving for the winter. The need to level the furrow with a heavy cultivator is eliminated. Otherwise, the loosened soil after ploughing is reconsolidated by means of the ruts from the heavy tractor.
Picture – Consequences of untimely plowing
It’s important to consider the fact that soil freezes from moisture and sub-zero temperatures in January and February. And if you plow, large clumps of soil are formed that don’t meet agronomic requirements.
7. The seventh mistake is underestimating the technique of harrowing winter crops in early spring. This agricultural technique was actively used in Soviet times, as a means of controlling weeds. With the development of pesticides, this treatment was practically not included in the technology of cultivation.
8. Eighth mistake – the use of obsolete equipment. Farms with a small area (100-200 ha) in the arid zone, engaged in crop farming, usually equipped with equipment not suitable for their capacities: outdated heavy tractors DT-75, T-150K; heavy disc harrows BDT-4, etc., heavy cultivators KTS-4. These farms are burying themselves with deep tillage, high fuel costs, and low crop yields.
The use of spring harrows (as an upgraded type) allows early spring moisture closure on crops. And in southern regions, moisture is a major limiting factor in producing high, high-quality crops.
13. Thirteenth mistake – Lack of experienced fields on farms. It can be a small plot of field 10-20 hectares conventionally, where different variants of cultivation will be observed. For example, control – a strip on the classic technology, the first option – treatment with the disc, the next – treatment with a spring harrow, etc. And record observations, take photos, etc. Because soil and climatic conditions vary from place to place.
12. Twelfth mistake – Rigid adherence to a minimum tillage system. And a denial of the classical system, also leads to limited decision-making in non-standard situations.
10. Tenth mistake – Lack of understanding of what mini-till and no-till are. You meet farmers who deliver such thoughts that: “We work on mini-till and no-till …” although knowing how they do it, mini-till does not smell there, much less no-till. Worst of all, their words are published in the periodicals of agriculture, because they convey not quite the right order of things.
