Andrew Ward's Drill Demo Day

Alistair Nelson

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
E Yorks
Anybody go? The Good, the Bad, the Ugly? Watching the first video on Youtube ground conditions looked testing with wet clay land and the soil pit actually filling with water overnight!!

Interested to hear people who went thoughts?

Cheers

Alistair
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
I watch all his videos.machines seemed to be doing a reasonable job but some far better than others and lots of seed still showing in places.I’m sure when it emerges we will see big differances especially the big disc drills with huge tyres recompacting the soil.I’m sure slugs will have a field day if he has any
nick…
 

JimAndy

Member
Mixed Farmer
I watch all his videos.machines seemed to be doing a reasonable job but some far better than others and lots of seed still showing in places.I’m sure when it emerges we will see big differances especially the big disc drills with huge tyres recompacting the soil.I’m sure slugs will have a field day if he has any
nick…

I was wondering are the wheels of the disk drills doing more compaction, than the tine drills or are we just noticing it more due to the lesser soil disturbance and there position at the back of the drill
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
One thought is that if rear transport tyres on a disc are having a noticeable effect on performance then they are probably drilling too soon in the spring. It can be hard enough getting every drill in a field though, let alone having good weather and ground conditions for them all. It's a similar timing issue with using contractors for direct drilling.

Having said that, I liked the look of Sly's early development drills which were mounted or very light weight trailed.
 

moretimeforgolf

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Kent, UK
I’ve watched the videos on YouTube.
My comment would be that conditions were a challenge, and that some drills coped better than others. No sign of chopped straw or cover crop … would have produced different outcomes!
I would say the strip till drills definitely came off worst and would have used more fuel.
 

BenAdamsAgri

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Oxfordshire
One thought is that if rear transport tyres on a disc are having a noticeable effect on performance then they are probably drilling too soon in the spring. It can be hard enough getting every drill in a field though, let alone having good weather and ground conditions for them all. It's a similar timing issue with using contractors for direct drilling.

Having said that, I liked the look of Sly's early development drills which were mounted or very light weight trailed.
From what I’ve seen of the rear transport wheels of direct drills they don’t seem to have much of an effect as most of the weigh is on the coulters
 

Heathland

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I went,just down the road from me,so its the same soil type as mine.
I run a Claydon and I wouldn't have been drilling,a fortnight earlier it would have been a different picture,just a shame due to the very heavy rain in the previous week,but thats demos for you it can make or break a demo.
They were all leaving seed on the top it was like plasticine,or completely sealing it up in putty plus the demo field had a heavy shower of rain at dinner time which didn't help matters....
I think out of all the drills the Horsch did the most impressive job,shame about the rear wheels on the drill,they really plastered it down.
They all did a reasonable job considering the tuff conditions,not very pretty.
The ground needed moving as there was no soil mode,The Claydon plot needed straw raking after drilling then rolling,thats what I would have done,well all the plots needed it doing really.
Not really a direct drilling principle.
I am in the same opinion as Andrew with cover crops, on paper it should work but in practice, well others think they know best......

This type of ground needs patience....... lots of it.

The results are going to be very interesting.
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Because once the seed is in the ground the drills job is done. Drills don't make yield imv.
Yes but its also got to cover it over and close the slot, preferably with no hairpinned straw. Closing the slot is the big thing on strong land. Low disturbance is also important in my very inexperienced opinion.
I would say the drill is very important. On nice land I guess anything will work.
 

britt

Member
BASE UK Member
Closing the slot is one thing, but if you drill when it's too wet in the spring the slot opens up as the soil dries. The soil need to be dry enough to crumble over the seed. Autumn drilling as a different matter, as the soil is getting wetter, not drier, at that time of year.
 
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Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Closing the slot is one thing, but if you drill when it's too wet in the spring the slot opens up as the soil dries. The soil need to be dry enough to crumble over the seed. Autumn drilling as a different matter, as the soil is getting wetter, not drier, at that time of year.
The issue is that’s about June here a lot of the time :) so you have to crack on. You certainly couldn’t drill here any better than when I drilled 2 weeks ago and the snow/frost has managed to break the soils a bit and covered the seed nicely on top of a bit of loose that fell in.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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