Wild bird cover

Danube

Well-Known Member
Well lads looking to spray the wild bird cover to get some of the weeds under control (mainly docks) before it eventually goes back into grass. It will be getting ploughed and put back into bird cover this year. The father wants to mulch it then spray it but apart from improving the look of the field is there any point in mulching it first? I was also wondering what is the best spray to use? Thanks for the advice.

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Thanks very much for that. Is there much of a difference between the likes of roundup gold and roundup flex? Or is a generic glyphosate just as good?
I’d just go with 4L/Ha of Gallup 360. It’ll kill the docks properly.
If you mulch it before you spray, the plants won’t take up the spray as well.
 
Burnt of mine with Barbarian 10 days ago the scutch is looking ill now. You would need to fallow it or a crop of barley and be on top of the weeds in it before returning to grass I'd reckon. The weed bank will be massive in it.
 
I’d just go with 4L/Ha of Gallup 360. It’ll kill the docks properly.
If you mulch it before you spray, the plants won’t take up the spray as well.
Thanks for that. Yeah I was thinking that about the mulching myself. I think he just really wants to take the raw look off it but the plough will bury the trash anyway.
 
Burnt of mine with Barbarian 10 days ago the scutch is looking ill now. You would need to fallow it or a crop of barley and be on top of the weeds in it before returning to grass I'd reckon. The weed bank will be massive in it.
It won't be going back into grass for a while yet anyway. But you're right. I am not looking forward to managing the weeds.
 
Burnt of mine with Barbarian 10 days ago the scutch is looking ill now. You would need to fallow it or a crop of barley and be on top of the weeds in it before returning to grass I'd reckon. The weed bank will be massive in it.
Would you just glyphosate it then light disc it to keep the weed seeds near the surface?
 
I’d just go with 4L/Ha of Gallup 360. It’ll kill the docks properly.
If you mulch it before you spray, the plants won’t take up the spray as well.
If you left it for 2-3 weeks after mulching before spraying would the weeds have recovered enough to take up the spray?
You have till 31st May to sow the WBC.
 
If you left it for 2-3 weeks after mulching before spraying would the weeds have recovered enough to take up the spray?
You have till 31st May to sow the WBC.
I’m only being a perfectionist, at the end of the day it’s only wbc and the birds won’t care about a few weeds.
I could see established docks in the pic and I’d rather spray first then mulch to get uptake as good as possible into the roots.
Remember, there will be trash covering the weeds after mulching.
 
Would you just glyphosate it then light disc it to keep the weed seeds near the surface?
Glyphosate and plough the trash in. Burnt it a few times and light run of the grubber easy to sow then but prefer to plough in the organic matter than burn it. The ploughing will be left a bit sort of stale seed bed I suppose.
 
Glyphosate and plough the trash in. Burnt it a few times and light run of the grubber easy to sow then but prefer to plough in the organic matter than burn it. The ploughing will be left a bit sort of stale seed bed I suppose.
i was thinking a stale seed bed would work better if you didnt bury the seeds deep ,ie use the disscs 🤷‍♂️
 
Plough as shallow as possible but a short disk type machine would be better if I had one.
 
I just rolled mine with the ring roller this year and it went down very flat, no bother to bury with the plough.
The last few years I used to borrow a topper and top it.
I use a one year mix so plough every year to keep it in some decent order, might be different for the 2 year crops.
 
My annual approach to WBC is glyphosate.
A run of the disk to mulch the hairy long stuff down. Broadcast small seeds with the quad bike. Usually linseed and whatever mix of seed is left over after the spring planting all get thrown into the direct drill.
I have the WBC in the few soft sides of fields that are usually untrafficable till May.
What I have noticed is the fields are in great order underneath from not being ploughed in a good few year and all the trash getting mixed back in each year.
 
I should have said I will spray with Glysophate in a week or two. On the WBC I have always tried to destruct the high stemmy stuff before spraying off.
 
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a light tear of the grubber, lash the linseed barley and oats into the spreader, drive over and back and up and down a few times and roll her in. Works 100% for me every year.
Grubber done a nice job. A lot of the bird cover in Galway is in cut out bogs ( shouldn’t be allowed) one man however establishes a crop every year by pulling a 16 foot gate around a few times then in with the wagtail 🤣
 
Grubber done a nice job. A lot of the bird cover in Galway is in cut out bogs ( shouldn’t be allowed) one man however establishes a crop every year by pulling a 16 foot gate around a few times then in with the wagtail 🤣

He wasn't sowing Wild Bid Cover

He was putting down Iron Gate Seed.

Often heard lads joking about it years ago , sooner than tell the neighbours what they actually were sowing.
 
Grubber done a nice job. A lot of the bird cover in Galway is in cut out bogs ( shouldn’t be allowed) one man however establishes a crop every year by pulling a 16 foot gate around a few times then in with the wagtail 🤣
Glyphosate every year is key, stop the grass and weeds taking over
@KTM Farmer we were sowing barley beside it today and all the machinery was there and it’s a bit away from home so it’s a job done
 
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