To plant or not in these exceptional soil conditions

Good ground conditions are leaving many tillage farmers in a dilemma whether to plant or not. While the answer if this is the right thing to do or not will only be provided by hindsight, the risk is best judged by soil conditions.

If I had land that was in really good order now, not just very light land, I would be inclined to get some planting done. We have seen winter wheat planted for the past few weeks, but there is less risk with this crop than with, say, malting barley or spring oats.

For me, there are two main questions to be addressed when making this decision:

Soil condition is often a vexed question because it is normally judged by the top, or the seedbed itself. Start by answering this: could you roll post planting? If you could, then there is strong probability that the subsoil is dry enough.

If the sub-seedbed area is damp there is a possibility that it will tighten under traffic to prevent water percolation and potentially result in damage to the seed or the plant at a later date. This is a job for a spade and there are no shortcuts. I certainly do not advocate rolling, but the more traffic you have the greater the potential damage.

As for crows, they have not been too active on tillage crops this winter, but they are always about and if they begin to get hungry they will go for your seeds. But the more sowing is done locally, the more this risk is diluted. Areas and fields at greatest risk must put more weight on this element of risk assessment.

Experience last season with malting barley showed advantage from early planting in terms of meeting quality spec. While no two seasons will ever be the same, having a spread on sowing date should still spread the risk.

Beans might also be planted where conditions are good enough, but they must be put down below 10cm to help guard against crows. Seedbed conditions still matter. One might also consider planting spring wheat, but if you are planting oats you must be very conscious of the risk from crows – unless there is a lot of similar planting being done locally.

It is also sensible to take great care with planting, because having seeds left on top of the ground only serves as an invitation to a feast.

I would not see any good reason to significantly increase seeding rates on those used for normal early planting situations. Combining drilling of P and K is still advisable on low-fertility soils. However, one might question the use of nitrogen at this time of year, because it will probably take some time for crops to emerge and there must still be the probability of considerable rain over the next month or two. N can be applied post emergence.