pea stubble

[malta]

This is a crop production question, but not much trafic there. Anybody have suggestions of how to deal with pea stubble to heavy to seed through. Don't want to disc unless absolutely necessary.

[bucket]

Get a disc drill. On a good dry day with low humidity it will cut right through, no hairpinning.

And if you have rolled your field last year you will be impressed with how smooth the field is. No pulling up rocks that you have pushed into the ground.

I prefer a John deere but after looking at the bourgault design and wider widths, I can't help but think about switching in a few years.

[Daylate]

A guy here in 2010 was advised to seed peasl late to retain fert. levels etc. They froze and were unharvested. He no till disced(sliced them with zero degrees on the blades). His thinking was to try get the ground to soak up some spring moisture but it sliced up the plants well and he drilled through it in the spring.
Not sure how it would work doing it in the spring though. Pea stubble is usually so mallow that seeding depth can be all over the place even if you don't touch it right prior to seeding.
I would try that if i was u. The canola stand was good in it. It looked a little clumpy from the road after he seeded it but he said it cleared fine and it was just tufts of straw and vines with no dirt in it.
Not sure what else to do cause I remember one year that my peas actually stood well and i cut them off the ground, by next spring the vines were laying flat on the ground and it was a bitch to see through.

[bucket]

Pea stubble always cuts easily when its dry in the spring. It might mean have a couple extra cups of coffee before you start but I still think the best way is with an air disc drill. Besides why make an extra pass, if you figure the extra time and expense, just use the disc drill. Canola at 1" settings followed by a nice rain and you are in the money.

Heavy harrowing even on a dry windy day will leave you with rolled lumps worse than flax.

[furrowtickler]

give it a shot with a vertical disc machine. Go shallow and fast. 3 things will happen: It will cut pea stb up dramaticaly, alowing you to seed with any machine easily. Warm the soil up - more black dirt will help prevent frost damage. Help with the beakdown of plant material into nutrients quicker.
Disadvantage - or advantage in spring it will dry out the soil a bit depending on tillage depth. If done in the fall - non issue

[gustgd]

Not a typical answer but a few years back we
had a 100% hail storm on a field of peas. We
tried everything and in the end burned the
residue off. We had a monster crop of high
protien durum that year.

[groundspeed]

heavy harrow it on a dry day.

[highwayman]

Rent or borrow a rotary harrow. Cuts straw and very little bunching

[malta]

Thanks for all the replies

[bucket]

If a heavy harrow works on a dry day, you might as well be seeding with a disc drill. Why the extra pass?

My experience tells me a heavy harrow will ball pea straw up worse than flax stubble because you have no stubble to pull or distribute the pea vines. And you end up with bare ground.

Once again, if the harrow is breaking it up, you might as well be seeding.

[furrowtickler]

heavy harrow in the fall when dry/hot. spring harrow - I agree with bucket - seed.

[farmaholic]

Some seedtools have better trash clearance than others. We have never had success harrowing pea stubble, in fact have never had the guts to finish a field because it made too much of a mess. If you have a seedtool with better trash clearance I would simply seed through it, it may look a little lumpy but if there is no ground with the straw it will settle over the growing season. If the vines are long but still anchored to the soil that is better than ripping it all off with a harrowing operation and making piles. Good luck.

[TOM4CWB]

Malta,

We have a 20 foot flail shredder that is used in row crop for chewing up corn stalks and material.

With a 100hp tractor you can easily shred any material well enough to seed into.

If you know anyone with a Shelborne stripper header... they will most likely have a mower shredder. Flail type shredder gets the closest to the ground.
In pea stubble after seeding we often go around and shred up the bunchy and bad looking areas... the shredder does a great job... and just costs a little time to end with a great looking job. If you look around... you might even find a shredder to rent.

A 520JD is what we use.

http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/products/equipment/cutters_and_shredders/flail_shredders/flail_shredders.page?

[SASKFARMER3]

Kelly disc harrow. Works awsome.