phil-i-am
New Member
- Location
- cambridgeshire
The rapid lift looks a useful bit of kit marketed for OSR sowing. Anyone using it to successfully sow for cereals?
cultivating solutions rapid lift - cereals
- Thread starter phil-i-am
- Start date
I think you'd need enough wing on the legs to crack the soil profile on the two coulters furthest from the legs. The evenness of seed depth would concern me.
Do a search on Rapidlift in TFF. There are some other threads on this. Some users seem to be happy with drilling cereals.
Do a search on Rapidlift in TFF. There are some other threads on this. Some users seem to be happy with drilling cereals.
Surely moving soil at the time of drilling that hasn't been moved before is a recipe for blackgrass disaster. A stale seedbed moves soil to kill all the blgrass in that zone. Moving it again to push the seed in, hopefully there's a lot less to germinate. A rapid lift that does both in one go will stimulate at the time of drilling surely?
Mr Charisma
Member
- Location
- stratford on Avon
Not for me thanks , the ground I farm needs some weather on it before I put the drill in so best time to cultivate is behind the combine ,,,,, probably do a good job on rape tho
I have seen excellent results in osr even on heavy land because most clods brought up by the legs are worked down by the system disc & squashed by the rear press. My concern is less heave further away from the leg rows a) not cracking enough soil to provide a decent root zone for the cereals - these rows are normally blanked off and b) without the heave the seed depth will be shallower so you'll have to compromise on some being too deep and the others too shallow.
For weed control you'd have to do something outside the drilling pass like scratch a stale seedbed after harvest. On heavy land that also runs the risk of a wet slushy layer on the surface 2" when you come to drill. What you describe is certainly the main risk on blackgrass land & will be for strip till drills too.
For weed control you'd have to do something outside the drilling pass like scratch a stale seedbed after harvest. On heavy land that also runs the risk of a wet slushy layer on the surface 2" when you come to drill. What you describe is certainly the main risk on blackgrass land & will be for strip till drills too.
Mr Charisma
Member
- Location
- stratford on Avon
Your small tractor is a big machine for most on here but I do get your point.
To me these machines work well if you are lucky to farm kind free draining ground , if you farm clay then you are risking an awful lot hoping to start ground work when you decide to go drilling , similar to strip tilling , I've seen some excellent looking crops from behind these drills over the last 3 years but bloody hell have I seen some awful ones once the weather changes , question is how much can you get drilled in 10 days because that seems to be t he magic number ,
Although I was keen to start direct drilling a few years back im still trying to get our soil back into good condition after destroying it in the harvest of 2012 , nearly there , time will tell tho which direction I take
Mr Charisma
Member
- Location
- stratford on Avon
Okay then , next question , how different is the rapid lift / vaddy outfit to the first versadrill made by sumo , which effectively was a set of lifting tines in front of a moore drill , I realise that the vaddy has a set of system discs working in front of the drill element but around here it was the tines on the versadrill that caused the issues on heavy ground I believe
Mr Charisma
Member
- Location
- stratford on Avon
There's a versadrill ,which is working fairly well in our area but mainly on the easier ground , I believe when it was demonstrated on some of the heavier clays in the area a few years back that it could tend to heave and carry across its width leaving trenches and humps , not good when you are drilling . I believe this is one of the reasons why sumo moved on with the next design . So what I'm getting at , if that was a downside of the versadrill could it be the same for the rapid lift .
warksfarmer
Member
Afraid I agree. Absolute minimal disturbance when placing the seeds. If you need to move the soil, do so directly after the combine.