Direct beet drill

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Anybody direct drilling beet thinking about making one use of a ld subsoiler leg to make a slot
Any ideas welcome

I had considered this but never got round to doing it, like most things.

Depends on soil condition but we drill after winter barley which if left undisturbed since harvest is actually nice and friable and not compacted, so I reckon it would drill straight in. I enquired about fitting front roller/discs to my Kverneland drill and it was going to be £750 per unit so I couldn't afford it. So I went over the ground with a stubble cultivator terra disc machine and drilled straight into that. Worry is it turns to slop with heavy rain but at least the straw should is stopping a wind blow and it was quick and easy. The drill coped easily with the chopped draw after a bit of surface cultivation.

Could be worries with the leg making a bit lumpy on hard ground but otherwise I think it's a damn good idea. Toolbar between the tractor and drill to take the legs.
 

Fish

Member
Location
North yorkshire
image.jpeg
Sort of like this I guess,
drilling beans a few years ago.
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
That's what I sort of had in mind this year the I planted beet after grazed stumble turnips soul loosened with a home made 8 leg Michel type loosened and spring tine harrowed but wants to make it one pass
I did loose dat some ex big disc units in weavings yard to see if I could do anything with them but never got round to it
 

Ruston3w

Member
Location
south suffolk
If soil is stronger then i doubt you will get fine enough tilth for seed beside leg, we strip-till lighter going but cannot make it work on better land. Also likely to be too wet underneath for leg at what, 10"?
Better stuff gets rake/drilled CC/subsoiled and left on DD rings in the Autumn, then straight in with drill or maybe roll first.
Not sure how you avoid capping/drying out issues with drill on cultivator working at any depth, strip-till always goes better the next day(or two)
Richard.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Lots of people recommend ploughing heavy land in the autumn for beet but I find it difficult to turn that into a seedbed in the spring. You only have to walk on it to press the thin layer of mould into the putty underneath, especially in a year like this. Ploughing later leads to hard dried out slabs. It's sometimes possible to time the ploughing right if it's dry enough about mid Feb then you might still get a frost mould without the slump but that is rare. I have just about given up growing beet on our clay. Harvesting it is also very problematic in a wet Autumn.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
It's just a thought but this spring I have found a Paraplow to be useful on solid undisturbed ground. It does not bring up clods but leaves the surface intact except for hundreds of small cracks per square metre. Directly behind the leg there might be the occasional clod but between the legs across the shattered surface there are none. This surface direct drills very well as its dry and crazy cracked so forms a tilth easily, while the putty is left underneath. There is probably some smearing going on underground but I haven't found it any worse than that of a plough or tine.

It might be an idea to fit smaller versions of the Paraplow legs to the tool bar and drill into the shattered surface between the legs rather than the damp cloddy surface where the ground is ripped straight behind the legs.

In my experience beet hates over cultivated ground that slumps with following rains. It also hates compaction. I think there is a way forward for "direct drilled" beet maybe with a tool bar like an arraplow which is the successor to the old Paraplow, though for some reason it just doesn't look as good IMO.
 

Tallfarmer

New Member
I use a shakerator with weaving low disturbance tines with a mounted Sfoggia Sigma 5 drill going direct into sprayed off cover crops, with or without a pass from the kelly Harrow in front. Placing fert as well. I would put a picture/ video on if I knew how!
 

ih1455xl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
northampton
I use a shakerator with weaving low disturbance tines with a mounted Sfoggia Sigma 5 drill going direct into sprayed off cover crops, with or without a pass from the kelly Harrow in front. Placing fert as well. I would put a picture/ video on if I knew how!
Is that using weavings new legs would be good to see some pics of it
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Paraplow, and not Paraplow and terra-disc, and bog standard Kverneland drill has worked very well here.

Mulch till kits for beet drills are just too expensive to justify.
 

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