Signpost: Deep ripping to counteract the soil compaction

Tom Barry on the Barry family farm at Kilavullen, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

Tom Barry

Arable Farmer

Killavullen, Co Cork 

January has been a month of preparation for us on the farm. I think that time spent wisely at the start of the year means you are ready for the spring. All machines have been serviced and the sprayer has been tested and stamped. It's good to have that job out of the way for the Spring. I do a few other checks on the sprayer also. 

Every year I take a graduated cylinder and measure the output from the nozzles of the sprayer. Using water, I put the graduated cylinder under each nozzle for a set time, say 30 seconds, and then measures the water output. I do that for all the nozzles to make sure the nozzles are all working, especially the ones I can’t see off the tractor. It’s a simple exercise but it works.

We will also make sure the fertiliser spreader is spreading the right application rate but also the right spread on it. We have all the apps and the GPS equipment but you can’t beat getting out in the field and doing a check yourself. We weigh the spreader full and empty and check the application rate in a measured area. 

I then get down off the tractor and walk between two tramlines to made sure of the spread. You can have all the technology you want but you can't beat getting out and walking the land. I sometimes think we over-rely on the computer rather than your own instinct.

At the moment we are deep ripping some of the land to counteract compaction. 

It's not common practice but we have been doing it for the last 10 years on the farm. Back then, I noticed crops weren’t yielding as well as I would like especially on the heavier clay soils, so we decided to investigate.

We took out a spade and dug a few test holes to see what the soil structure was like. We noticed a pan below the plough level and roots were stopping all of a sudden and not penetrating down. 

It was a clear indication of compaction. 

It was a very useful exercise for us and it's something I continue to do on a regular basis if I see things starting to slip. To deal with the compaction, there are a few things we do:

1. Deep ripping

2. Use of organic manures to increase the organic matter of the soil and 

3. We are putting in 100 acres of winter beans this year which are deep-rooted and will help break up the pan.

We didn’t get to roll the winter barley last Autumn with the poor weather conditions so it was a little thin and we have had a problem with slugs. We are preparing to go out with pig slurry in a month’s time. We use a lot of pig slurry on the farm, up to 2 million gallons. 

It means that 75% of the ground is Index 3 & 4 for P & K. The land that we can't get to with slurry is Index 2.

Our nutrient management plan has been completed and we will be matching our application rate of fertiliser to what the crops need and the soil indices.