Ideal land parcel sizes for growing bio-crops

Vorak

Hey,

Would anyone know or know where I could look, to find out the ideal field size for growing wheat, barley and rape seed? In terms of using a combine harvester to harvest the crop once grown, what does this mean for the field layout.

This is for a project that uses 59 acre piece of industrial wasteland in London. I'm guessing, long strips of fields may be best, the width of which could be a multiple of the area needed for the combine to turn.

Thanks

muffler

I think this may be more suitable for the green Issues forum.

Moved from Renewable Energies.

Rovi

When I was driving combines, I'd almost always work from one side of the field/plot to the other, running up and down the same side.
A combine will easily turn in its own width using the independent brakes, and depending on the width of the header and width of the headland, may even be able to do it without the brakes.
From a machinery efficiency point of view, make the plots as long as possible, to minimise downtime in the turns.
Ideally and for maximum efficiency, the whole area should be worked in monoculture, but that may or may not be practically achievable.

Vorak

Thanks man. I understand the concept of crop rotation. But would a wheat-clover rotation mean you would plant wheat in spring and harvest it in autumn, then straight away plant the clover in the autumn and then harvest it the following spring? So there is always something growing, ie no fallow period, and there are two harvests every 12 months, 1 wheat and 1 clover???

Rovi

I just operated the machinery, crop husbandry was left to others more qualified than me.
Try asking over in Farming & Forestry, there's bound to be someone there who knows what they're talking about.