What converted you to DD?

Bumble Bee said:

I was converted by our neighbor who had bought the prototype 3m Hybrid.
We hired the drill off him for the first year and did some trials on our own farm. He was less impressed with the drill and as our own trials proved very successful, we bought the drill off him.

This will be our third full season with the drill. For the last 2 years I have had the feeling that other local farmers thought that I had lost my marbles. But now a few are starting to come forward and say that they are watching what we are doing with great interest.

The contract drilling has really taken off this year and we are now doing a few trial fields for customers neighbors as they have been impressed with what they have seen over the hedge. It appears to be spreading like a disease. If we get much more work I am going to have to invest in a second drill.

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Old John said:

Had lunch with my pal today and visited our old drill. Can't really see our tungsten points as they have sunk into the dirt floor but they have about 15 degree angle both forward and sideways to make penetration easy but not throw soil too much and the side tilt means there is positive closure of the slot. My friend has planted his OSR with it this year and will be planting beans soon.

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Bumble Bee said:

Our soils range from a bit of peat, sand and heavy clay (sometimes all in the same field).
We have no livestock but we do import FYM and apply sewage sludge.

Most of the contract work is on farms that are predominantly heavy clay. They are starting to come to the opinion that it is not sustainable to plough up big lumps and then try and beat it into submission.

One of the main reasons that I looked at the Claydon was to save time as I am always busy spraying in autumn. Ironically, the success of the drill has led to us being even busier.

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bert said:

I find dd more and more appealing, but i think getting the older generation to take it seriously the biggest stepping stone. Also have concerns with it working on a mixed farm that also has very low lying land where water stands easily going from blow sand to clay beds in the matter of 10 meters. Just cant seem to not make ruts down the tramlines in places whatever the year is like. Some land is too wet for arable really and goes into grass but gets taken out into wheat to try and keep grass layes fresh (dont want it to turn into permanent pasture either) Had a farm a few miles away go dd for a couple of years and i thought it looked a vast improvement as did others but he has reverted back to plough and combination but not sure why really, think he was leaving it too late too drill.

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Dan Powell said:

Good effort! I'm impressed that you have independent coulter contour following. All those rams must have cost you a bob or two though?

What are you running now?

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Old John said:

We managed to get the rams for £30 each through our Pan Anglia rep. No idea where he got them from, but brand new.
Took about three weeks to build, during Easter holiday. My elder son cut steel and drilled holes. I had made jig for coulter arms etc and tacked things together and our tractor driver welded things together. My younger son and our other chap put it all together, painted and did the hydraulics.
When we put the seed box on top our tractor driver said,"you are a lucky beggar, it fits perfectly". I thought yes it should it's been three years in the planning.
The coulter tips came from a Bamlett drill I got for swapping a very old mower. We subsequently made our own design. The steel, rams and the rest cost under £2000. We had loads of old hydraulic piping laying around.
I think building the drill enthused my elder son into farming and now at 33 runs the place so I can take it easy.
We now run an Amazone Primera 6 metre, which is what I would have liked to begin with. Bought in a very used state for not too much and then rebuilt for about £3500 for new pins and bushes, etc.

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bert said:

I find dd more and more appealing, but i think getting the older generation to take it seriously the biggest stepping stone. Also have concerns with it working on a mixed farm that also has very low lying land where water stands easily going from blow sand to clay beds in the matter of 10 meters. Just cant seem to not make ruts down the tramlines in places whatever the year is like. Some land is too wet for arable really and goes into grass but gets taken out into wheat to try and keep grass layes fresh (dont want it to turn into permanent pasture either) Had a farm a few miles away go dd for a couple of years and i thought it looked a vast improvement as did others but he has reverted back to plough and combination but not sure why really, think he was leaving it too late too drill.

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SilliamWhale said:

My old man is getting to secretly like it now. He's going round on the quad every day and it keeps clean and he can whip around anywhere without bumps, ruts etc.

Have made a few mistakes in my time though, there's always an explanation looking back but on occassions it does hurt to rue a mistake for over 6 months/12 months until you have another chance. But as long as you don't make the same mistake twice I think everyone has to give themselves a bit of leeway.

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bert said:

How would you go on with very unbroken down muck been spread from calf rearing and lambing pens and other very well bedded stock? Also ruts where the sprayer or fert spinner has been, often the combine can leave imprints everywhere it goes leaving the field unlevel?

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mikep said:

Always liked the idea and direct drilled rape after burning in the 80's with a Stegsted tine drill. Bloody awful dirty job but worked well and was fast. Looked again a few years ago and used contractor but on these soils you must be ready to go or wait as weather is critical. Looked to get a Moore but luckily found some new disc openers at very much the right price so made my own drill. A very steep learning curve and mistakes a plenty as the weather still continues to be unreliable the barsteward!

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Old John said:

What type of openers were they?

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doorknob said:

I have an overwhelming propensity to ask "why?" to pretty much every move I make in life. So while making about the 9th tillage pass over a field and hating not being able to see in font of me with all the dust, I finally asked "why?". I could'nt find an answer myself and all those that I asked had the old trained monkey reply...................."because. That's how we've always done it".

So started my education and transition into conservation practice.

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mikep said:

Set of flexicoil disc openers, have no idea what they were doing in the UK but ended up here!!!!!

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York said:

was that the 6 m unit which also had the option of changing to a corn planter bar?
the configuration was that the seed cart was behind the tractor and had a 2 point linkage where the seeding unit was attached with the option of exchanging between:
- tine drill
- barton opener / simular to JD 750
- 8 row corn planter.
all set up for 3m transport width.
York-Th.

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mikep said:

Sorry cant tell you as I only got the disc openers. I knew nothing about them so I contacted CNH Canada who are the owners of flexicoil and they were as helpful as a bad dose of flu. Told me to contact my local CNH dealer FFS! I believe these are the only set in the UK so would not get much help there. Searched the internet and blanked there as well. I believe they are a quite old design but they work fine.

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