Wet conditions direct drilling option

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Been putting this together for use in case this rain doesn’t stop and it remains to wet f a disc drill here

B31BD380-80BC-48AA-AD0B-39003B67661E.jpeg
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this is our low disturbance converted Co6 we had already with the existing trailed seed and liquid fert cart dropped off, drawbar modified to connect directly to the tractor and an old DF1 hopper on the front linkage

Still a bit of refinement to be done yet but think it will work. ?
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Will the single metering unit on a DF1 put enough seed out to cope with a 6m drill applying 250kg/ha+ at 12km/hr?



will let you know!

Andy Guest thinks a single unit is ok for 24 coulters - as we are on a 25cm spacing with et low disturbance points that's how many we have so hopefully it will be ok. Possibly speed limited but the only way to find out is try I guess
 
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Bob lincs

Member
Arable Farmer
Been putting this together for use in case this rain doesn’t stop and it remains to wet f a disc drill here

View attachment 838440View attachment 838441View attachment 838442

this is our low disturbance converted Co6 we had already with the existing trailed seed and liquid fert cart dropped off, drawbar modified to connect directly to the tractor and an old DF1 hopper on the front linkage

Still a bit of refinement to be done yet but think it will work. ?
This front hopper / multiple coulter types is catching on !!
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Interesting. Will the car tyres cope with wet conditions? It looks just about possible to drop off the front and rear packer wheels, and the drawbar (very elaaborate btw) and mount the toolbar on the 3pl ala Triton!! If that doesn't drill, then nothing will.
 
Been putting this together for use in case this rain doesn’t stop and it remains to wet f a disc drill here

View attachment 838440View attachment 838441View attachment 838442

this is our low disturbance converted Co6 we had already with the existing trailed seed and liquid fert cart dropped off, drawbar modified to connect directly to the tractor and an old DF1 hopper on the front linkage

Still a bit of refinement to be done yet but think it will work. ?
Depending on your forward speed get a fan belt or something to slow stop metering wheel when lifted off the floor on your turns or there will be seed on the surface
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Interesting. Will the car tyres cope with wet conditions? It looks just about possible to drop off the front and rear packer wheels, and the drawbar (very elaaborate btw) and mount the toolbar on the 3pl ala Triton!! If that doesn't drill, then nothing will.


The front packer can be removed if its an issue - its an addition from a sprinter anyway and in the wet doesn't realy add anything to what we want to do. Rear tires control depth so can't be removed in trailed format, I'm told CO's are a good drill in the wet however in min-till so IM thinking that on clean stubble and cover crops they should run clean?

I guess we could maybe mount it but it long so would be heavy on the tractor when lifted - if it's too wet for this then I think we should really be staying in the yard probably !

Drawbar has been made elaborately like that so it can be put back on the seed / fert cart when not being used with front hopper
 

goodevans

Member
will let you know!

Andy Guest thinks a single unit is ok for 24 coulters - as we are on a 25cm spacing with et low disturbance points that's how many we have so hopefully it will be ok. Possibly speed limited but the only way to find out is try I guess
Isn't the amount of coulter's irreverent as its surely seeds per m2 that it's got to cope with but I guess less coulter's means that you can keep more air pressure in each pipe
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
The front packer can be removed if its an issue - its an addition from a sprinter anyway and in the wet doesn't realy add anything to what we want to do. Rear tires control depth so can't be removed in trailed format, I'm told CO's are a good drill in the wet however in min-till so IM thinking that on clean stubble and cover crops they should run clean?

I guess we could maybe mount it but it long so would be heavy on the tractor when lifted - if it's too wet for this then I think we should really be staying in the yard probably !

Drawbar has been made elaborately like that so it can be put back on the seed / fert cart when not being used with front hopper

It won't be heavy with no packers or seed hopper.
The rear wheels won't be running on clean undisturbed stubble will they?
iirc people fit cleated tyres in place of the car tyres to keep them running cleaner for longer?
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Isn't the amount of coulter's irreverent as its surely seeds per m2 that it's got to cope with but I guess less coulter's means that you can keep more air pressure in each pipe

True, as seed weight per ha. It's more about air flow than pressure, from my experience placing fert anyway.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
even on an undisturbed stubble or cover crop keeping them running clean? I'm working on the idea that the wheels won't have a lot of weight on them


we may yet remove the front packer as well

Undisturbed stubbles look like this here. And the bit above water you don't want to walk on. This pic before recent rain.
 

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Spencer

Member
Location
North West
You’ll need to go slow to get any volume of seed blown back I would of thought. As mentioned number of coulters is irrelevant, it’s kgs/ha being blown back. 300 is a lot for a 3m machine at 8 km/h, which would equate to 150 kg on your setup.. :unsure: Only one way to find out though...
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
will let you know!

Andy Guest thinks a single unit is ok for 24 coulters - as we are on a 25cm spacing with et low disturbance points that's how many we have so hopefully it will be ok. Possibly speed limited but the only way to find out is try I guess
I seem to remember that in the instruction book for our DF2 hopper that there is a formula for calculating the maximum forward speed for a given seed rate.
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
Been putting this together for use in case this rain doesn’t stop and it remains to wet f a disc drill here

View attachment 838440View attachment 838441View attachment 838442

this is our low disturbance converted Co6 we had already with the existing trailed seed and liquid fert cart dropped off, drawbar modified to connect directly to the tractor and an old DF1 hopper on the front linkage

Still a bit of refinement to be done yet but think it will work. ?
Get started and see , it might just stop raining and you can revert to plan A . Failing that if it keeps raining some time next week plan Z could be dragged out of the nettles ......
 

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