European & UK Cross Slot

Fred

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Mid Northants
Just read this on the BASF blog website , big news , from NZ , after a visit from UK farmers

Before the end of the year John is going to announce a new UK distributor of the Cross Slot, he told our farmers that they were the first to hear about it, and that they should all look out for the news of who it will be via The Farming Forum and Direct Driller magazine. Some of the fabrication will be done in Eastern Europe, where John says the quality of workmanship is outstanding (but a lot cheaper), assembly will be in the UK, and the all-important soil-contacting ‘openers’ will continue to be made by the Cross Slot team in Fielding. His hope is that this will make the drill cheaper.

Maybe the rumours are correct , whos the mystery man behind it ? Primewest ?
 

Fred

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Mid Northants
look, why do you want to unwrap this Christmas present?
What difference does it make in whom it is?
York-Th.

None whatsoever , I thought there was a distributor in the UK in Primewest , I saw the blog and just thought it was interesting ,

I have no interest in either, it just seemed an odd way of releasing the news .
 

Fred

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Mid Northants
Dv3KUaiUUAAoCaM.jpg:large
 

Fred

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Mid Northants
Very,
do we know who the new UK distributor is ?
what price would it need to be to make it competitive ?

Who would consider a lower priced cross-slot ?
 

Fred

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Mid Northants
It needs vision and a shed load of cash to market a product like this, demo machines , back up etc ,

I wonder how long the patent has left to run before someone else starts to market a similar product its already happening in France .
 
Last edited:

Simon C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex Coast
I have been a fan of the Cross-Slot principal ever since Baker's No-Tillage book came out because there is no question it is ultimate way of putting seed in the ground at consistent depth with minimal disturbance in any conditions.

Unfortunately I am starting to hear a few horror stories 2 or 3 years after they suddenly became popular. One guy with slugs everywhere, can't get on top of them; another has compacted headlands and water standing all over the place; another has gone out and bought a low disturbance subsoiler for "occasional" use. If you are three years into building a perfect natural soil structure, why would you want to subsoil it and put you back to square one.

There is a major flaw in the design. The winged coulters need to be on the front of the disc so that it's side is traveling down when the seeds is dropped rather than the back where it is coming up, which would bring seed out of the slot again. This means that the disc has to be in the ground two inches deeper than where you want the seed to end up. So there is the problem, huge amounts of weight are needed to get the discs in the ground and then massive power to pull the thing along, not just because of the draft from cutting slots 4 inches deep, but also from moving it's shear weight. It doesn't end there, the drills are pretty well balanced, so the tractor doesn't get and weight transfer through the drawbar and so has to be heavy enough in it's own rite to get enough grip through it's tires or tracks.

You end up with a 20 ton monster, the complete opposite of what you need to allow a natural structure to develop. Sorry, I get fed up with people bragging about their own drills, but you have to compare this with my Sim-Tech being carried on a small tractor shod with a pair of 1.2m wide terra tyres, it is no heavier that a quad bike or walking across your field in trainers.
 
I have been a fan of the Cross-Slot principal ever since Baker's No-Tillage book came out because there is no question it is ultimate way of putting seed in the ground at consistent depth with minimal disturbance in any conditions.

Unfortunately I am starting to hear a few horror stories 2 or 3 years after they suddenly became popular. One guy with slugs everywhere, can't get on top of them; another has compacted headlands and water standing all over the place; another has gone out and bought a low disturbance subsoiler for "occasional" use. If you are three years into building a perfect natural soil structure, why would you want to subsoil it and put you back to square one.

There is a major flaw in the design. The winged coulters need to be on the front of the disc so that it's side is traveling down when the seeds is dropped rather than the back where it is coming up, which would bring seed out of the slot again. This means that the disc has to be in the ground two inches deeper than where you want the seed to end up. So there is the problem, huge amounts of weight are needed to get the discs in the ground and then massive power to pull the thing along, not just because of the draft from cutting slots 4 inches deep, but also from moving it's shear weight. It doesn't end there, the drills are pretty well balanced, so the tractor doesn't get and weight transfer through the drawbar and so has to be heavy enough in it's own rite to get enough grip through it's tires or tracks.

You end up with a 20 ton monster, the complete opposite of what you need to allow a natural structure to develop. Sorry, I get fed up with people bragging about their own drills, but you have to compare this with my Sim-Tech being carried on a small tractor shod with a pair of 1.2m wide terra tyres, it is no heavier that a quad bike or walking across your field in trainers.

Im the opposite to you. Ive never been a fan. I can see the merit of the greater opener travel half way across a NZ hill thats never had any levelling off etc and the gas downpressure is genuinely a good design.

I also read the book very thoroughly and found the Yanks had by then engineered away most of the significant problems with single disc drill designs (which still have flaws dont get me wrong) with a few adaptations that the Cross Slot designers seemed unaware of at the time.

But the rest is just not terrible necessary in 95% of UK drilling scenarios. The Baker Boot on the Aitchison is a glorious thing though - cheap and effective.
 
I have been a fan of the Cross-Slot principal ever since Baker's No-Tillage book came out because there is no question it is ultimate way of putting seed in the ground at consistent depth with minimal disturbance in any conditions.

Unfortunately I am starting to hear a few horror stories 2 or 3 years after they suddenly became popular. One guy with slugs everywhere, can't get on top of them; another has compacted headlands and water standing all over the place; another has gone out and bought a low disturbance subsoiler for "occasional" use. If you are three years into building a perfect natural soil structure, why would you want to subsoil it and put you back to square one.

There is a major flaw in the design. The winged coulters need to be on the front of the disc so that it's side is traveling down when the seeds is dropped rather than the back where it is coming up, which would bring seed out of the slot again. This means that the disc has to be in the ground two inches deeper than where you want the seed to end up. So there is the problem, huge amounts of weight are needed to get the discs in the ground and then massive power to pull the thing along, not just because of the draft from cutting slots 4 inches deep, but also from moving it's shear weight. It doesn't end there, the drills are pretty well balanced, so the tractor doesn't get and weight transfer through the drawbar and so has to be heavy enough in it's own rite to get enough grip through it's tires or tracks.

You end up with a 20 ton monster, the complete opposite of what you need to allow a natural structure to develop. Sorry, I get fed up with people bragging about their own drills, but you have to compare this with my Sim-Tech being carried on a small tractor shod with a pair of 1.2m wide terra tyres, it is no heavier that a quad bike or walking across your field in trainers.

This is one fact BNT wouldn’t accept. Their view was the soil will correct itself. The simple fact is it doesn’t. It might do in NZ but that’s a different climate, soil type and farming system. It’s also worth pointing out majority of the NZ users are grass based, or they were 12 years ago anyway.
 

Beefsmith

Member
So what’s happening now since Novag won the battle and now seemingly are taking the proverbial with their adverts as in the DD magazine. Primewest’s advert only showed them as contractors as well rather than manufacturers. So is there a new importer? Or is it now Novag!
 

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