Moore Unidrill instead of 750A/Avatar

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I can see how the Avatar is more user friendly as that is the real weakness of the jd in my opinion. My question though is why you think the Avatar closed the slot better and worked in more adverse conditions when in all honesty the opener looks an identical copy.


It's the same principle/layout of components in the coulter but it's certainly not "identical" - the disc is bigger diameter, the gutler is bigger and heavier, the firming wheel a different size, the gauge wheel is narrower and more open so seems to attract less mud in wet spots, the seed boot is held against the disc very different way and again a different shape etc.

Which of those things makes the difference on our soil I don't know but it's, without doubt, doing a better job than the 750a would have in the same situation as we have right now - that's not saying our 750a wasn't good (it was great for us!) this just seems even better

Only real criticism so far is depth adjustment needs a spanner so takes longer and in a wet spot there is a lot of weight on those seed cart tyres when you are not using it on the coulters. Also the toolbar outer wheels can scuff up soil when you turn tight. none of these things are big deals though really
 

Rihards

Member
Location
Latvia
That's why I was asking about row cleaners. 2.5 t/ac of spring barley straw will be worse than a bigger quantity of winter barley straw. I'd sell the winter barley straw and buy it back as compost or sewage cake TBH.
You should bay simply Dale drill, so easy. Bay biger width and go slow, Best seed placment over any disc on heavy trash imo
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
Virkar dynamic out today drilling wheat direct into rape stubble. On clay and flint.As you can see from rear wheels pretty wet.
We’ve been doing things behind the scenes and have some new cutting discs. A variety of different seeding boots.
And other improvements in the pipeline
 

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Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
Am I mad spending over £100k on a new triple hopper 6m Avatar or £85k on a new 750A (plus the fertiliser kit) when things like this are available second hand? Even second hand 750As with the older openers are fetching serious money.

View attachment 839804

Same 7 degree disc angle. Good seed depth control and bias front to back as required for hard/soft conditions. Good slot closure most of the time. Ready availability of spares. Ok, so I'd have to add a front mounted liquid fertiliser tank and application kit to the drill.

My major reservation is the disc. I can't see it working in chopped straw without shoving the residues down the slot. Has anyone fitted row cleaners to a Moore??

This would be used as a disc no till drill where my Claydon isn't needed.

Is Edwin Taylor a TFF member? He bought one to get him started on no till but now has a JD, I think.

I’d think it was a good idea to test the system with a second hand drill. Try it for a couple of years and if it works for you then you can always buy a new drill in a few years time. If you buy a tidy drill like the one in the advert you probably won’t loose much money on it. The 750 has the edge over all other disc drills when it comes to trash clearance and has slightly better seed placement and slot closing compared to the Moore but, especially if you’re going to keep the Claydon for a bit, it’ll do the job you want until you’ve convinced yourself that it’s the route you want to take.
 

Thomas Simpson

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
N.Yorkshire
Had a unidrill moore drill 2008 for about 3 months till we swapped it for a 750a. a good drill but they lose their value at that price you wouldnt believe! The metering unit is not great, the tank is not great, the bearings dont like stones on the discs and packer. If drilling into nice land with no stones then it makes a great job.
 

Goldilocks

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Am I mad spending over £100k on a new triple hopper 6m Avatar or £85k on a new 750A (plus the fertiliser kit) when things like this are available second hand? Even second hand 750As with the older openers are fetching serious money.

View attachment 839804

Same 7 degree disc angle. Good seed depth control and bias front to back as required for hard/soft conditions. Good slot closure most of the time. Ready availability of spares. Ok, so I'd have to add a front mounted liquid fertiliser tank and application kit to the drill.

My major reservation is the disc. I can't see it working in chopped straw without shoving the residues down the slot. Has anyone fitted row cleaners to a Moore??

This would be used as a disc no till drill where my Claydon isn't needed.

Is Edwin Taylor a TFF member? He bought one to get him started on no till but now has a JD, I think.
I bought Edwin Taylors moore a couple of years ago when he switched to 750.Thought that I really needed a disc drill to compliment my tined kockerling drill and the moore was a cheap way of experimenting with direct drilling with a disc drill. Found that it worked OK` ish . Tried it in lots of scenarios sometimes in the same field as the kockerling to get a good comparison. Crops would often germinate and initially grow better than kockerling but after a while kockerling plants would catch up and overtake ( particularly with spring barley ) I put this down to mineralisation of nutrients and more air in the seeding zone with the tine drill. Moore sometimes struggled to close the slot ( esp if dry or wet ) Moore discs also hairpinned badly when drilling into chopped winter barley straw and would not even entertain putting it into a chopped spring barley situation ( Kockerling copes fine with both ) On softer,light soils ( icknield series ) with chopped straw discs would sometimes stall. Does not like stones at all.
Experimented with it for a couple of years then came to the conclusion that there were not many situations when it outperformed the kockerling so sold it on.
 

Goldilocks

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
That's why I was asking about row cleaners. 2.5 t/ac of spring barley straw will be worse than a bigger quantity of winter barley straw. I'd sell the winter barley straw and buy it back as compost or sewage cake TBH.
Had a demo of a sly boss this summer with row cleaners on . Very impressed with the way they cleaned the zone in front of the disc in thick mat of chopped straw. HOWEVER , could not see any difference in cover crop growth when compared alongside kockerling ( as per my comments in post about Moore )
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
The Kockerling jocky is certainly a very versatile drill. as Goldilocks shows. Although not an out and out direct drill
We have plenty of machines drilling direct into stubble. And it doesn’t move as much soil as the likes of the sky drill.
Being based on the allrounder cultivator you also have the option to use it as a cultivator. Two machines for the price of one. Also very capable of working in the wet (see pictures in getting concerned now thread) have sold a few this week
To get farmers with other leading brands out of trouble.
And you’ll get change from 60k for a six metre machine
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
The Kockerling jocky is certainly a very versatile drill. as Goldilocks shows. Although not an out and out direct drill
We have plenty of machines drilling direct into stubble. And it doesn’t move as much soil as the likes of the sky drill.
Being based on the allrounder cultivator you also have the option to use it as a cultivator. Two machines for the price of one. Also very capable of working in the wet (see pictures in getting concerned now thread) have sold a few this week
To get farmers with other leading brands out of trouble.
And you’ll get change from 60k for a six metre machine

Have you parked the Virkar up yet? Sorry to go off topic but did they redesign the leading disc assembly to run deeper?
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
Have you parked the Virkar up yet? Sorry to go off topic but did they redesign the leading disc assembly to run deeper?
No. It’s out running as well. We have a new disc that will cut in easier in hard conditions with a lot of chopped straw.
The standard old disc works fine in all other situations. We also have a shorter seeding boot if you want to run the disc
deeper when drilling shallow for OSR for example.
 

Goldilocks

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Drill will plant fine in those conditions but as you say ,a big ask for a crop to grow in such a large straw loading.In that particular field we were planting a multi species cover crop but it was only the mustard element that properly established ( plus a small amount of vetch )
That picture was three years ago .Since then we have learned to establish crops more succesfully behind chopped winter and spring barley straw. Chop quality and spread is crucial. We always use new chopper blades in barley and now stop combining in the evening as soon as chop quality deteriorates ( Even if grain moisture still OK ! ) Follow drill immediately with multiple slow roll passes. Apply DAP to provide nitrogen into the system.
 

Andrew K

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
Drill will plant fine in those conditions but as you say ,a big ask for a crop to grow in such a large straw loading.In that particular field we were planting a multi species cover crop but it was only the mustard element that properly established ( plus a small amount of vetch )
That picture was three years ago .Since then we have learned to establish crops more succesfully behind chopped winter and spring barley straw. Chop quality and spread is crucial. We always use new chopper blades in barley and now stop combining in the evening as soon as chop quality deteriorates ( Even if grain moisture still OK ! ) Follow drill immediately with multiple slow roll passes. Apply DAP to provide nitrogen into the system.
Which points/width do you use for DD jobs please?
 

Goldilocks

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
Which points/width do you use for DD jobs please?
Most of the time we use the 2 inch spikes .( Added advantage of this is that they are picking up and throwing a fair amount of soil which ensures that all seed covered even though we are rigid 10m with no contour following. We tried the demo 8m simtech a few years ago but found that if using narrow points ,as on the simtech , with no contour following some seed gets left high and dry when drilling shallow.)
We also have threequarter inch narrow points but these are much longer and gap between seed boot and point is too large so some seed ends up not in the slot.We should really extend the boots but get on so well direct drilling with the 2 inch spikes ( except in the spring in slubber or in heavy frosts when we cant penetrate ) that we have never bothered.
 

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