farmideas
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire and West Wales
Do we have a seed drill mindset?
Some years ago Clive Bailye arranged a trial of 10 or so different direct drills on a level uniform 50 acre field. There was a spare plot which they seeded with a fertiliser spinner and then scratched over the surface. It performed far better than expected.
John Hawkins has been an enthusiast of spinning rather than drilling, and has developed a system to get an even spread seed by double sowing half the seeds at 24 metres. He was demonstrating at this year's Groundswell. Not that he had anything to sell, other than his experience and the set-up, and the way it sowed into a crop of green oats.
We feature his methods in the current issue 32 - 2 of www.farmideas.co.uk (pgs 5,6 and 7). John thinks farmers can get fixated on putting all their seeds down the spout when the spinner would do just as good a job at much less expense. A wet season like 2023 lends itself to sowing rather seeding, even sowing into the green.
I'd be very interested in reading comments, and maybe your experience of doing the same.
Some years ago Clive Bailye arranged a trial of 10 or so different direct drills on a level uniform 50 acre field. There was a spare plot which they seeded with a fertiliser spinner and then scratched over the surface. It performed far better than expected.
John Hawkins has been an enthusiast of spinning rather than drilling, and has developed a system to get an even spread seed by double sowing half the seeds at 24 metres. He was demonstrating at this year's Groundswell. Not that he had anything to sell, other than his experience and the set-up, and the way it sowed into a crop of green oats.
We feature his methods in the current issue 32 - 2 of www.farmideas.co.uk (pgs 5,6 and 7). John thinks farmers can get fixated on putting all their seeds down the spout when the spinner would do just as good a job at much less expense. A wet season like 2023 lends itself to sowing rather seeding, even sowing into the green.
I'd be very interested in reading comments, and maybe your experience of doing the same.