Andrew Ward's Drill Demo Day

SilliamWhale · May 2, 2022

turbo said:
All these people slagging of wardy what would you of done differently to make it a success?

I'm deffo not slagging him off.

I just saying timing is crucial. And not to make too many judgements about one days drilling in less than good conditions. I've been doing it for nearly 20 years and have made plenty of screw ups too - I still find spring barley a challenge and I cannot get no till rape to work the way I want.

I think the easiest place to jump in with no till is after legume with a winter wheat so it would be worth trying that out. One of the hardest is spring drilling with not much experience.

For any farmer its much more valuble to go off round the country and find some farmers who are making it work (and the make your own judgements about how they manage it and whether it suits you). The drill is a small part of the picture - all drills work fine as long as you have enough plants.

rs1 · May 2, 2022

nick... said:
I think he has done a great job getting machines together working in a real world situation and not controlled.only losers I can see are the manufacturers who drills have not worked aswell as others
nick...

I think it’s a very good idea. You can see some of the slots have opened right up, this is a big problem for any vertical disc or tine drills. It shows the benefit of angled disc or a share drills. You just wouldn’t normally drill in such wet conditions and this has highlighted the issues of direct drilling in the spring.

snarling bee · May 2, 2022

Trying to get all those drills there the same day was an achievement in itself. I want to see what they do in adverse conditions, anything will work when its perfect. On heavy land it is rarely perfect anyway, its either too wet or too dry with 24hrs about right. If you can drill it all in 24hrs your fixed costs are too high or you run a small farm and don't need sleep.

snarling bee · May 2, 2022

rs1 said:
I think it’s a very good idea. You can see some of the slots have opened right up, this is a big problem for any vertical disc or tine drills. It shows the benefit of angled disc or a share drills. You just wouldn’t normally drill in such wet conditions and this has highlighted the issues of direct drilling in the spring.

I've seen plenty of open slots following a DG.

rs1 · May 2, 2022

snarling bee said:
I've seen plenty of open slots following a DG.

Do you mean a weaving gd? The horizon has an angled disc also.

clbarclay · May 2, 2022

snarling bee said:
Trying to get all those drills there the same day was an achievement in itself. I want to see what they do in adverse conditions, anything will work when its perfect. On heavy land it is rarely perfect anyway, its either too wet or too dry with 24hrs about right. If you can drill it all in 24hrs your fixed costs are too high or you run a small farm and don't need sleep.

Its even rarer that a field is just right all over at the same time. However any one off trial day does risk demonstrating more about the issues of farming by set dates than the practical differences between drills.

turbo · May 2, 2022

How much of a yield penalty do people think he is going to get from those trails compared to his normal standard farm practice?

snarling bee · May 2, 2022

rs1 said:
Do you mean a weaving gd? The horizon has an angled disc also.

Sorry Weaving GD

Will Blackburn · May 2, 2022

turbo said:
How much of a yield penalty do people think he is going to get from those trails compared to his normal standard farm practice?

Depends if he normally waits for dubious soil conditions before drilling.

Wombat · May 2, 2022

Seemed an interesting video, made me chuckle when he said he Puma 220 is not a heavy tractor

What i have found with our sabre tine and every time out i learn something is you have to have some surface crumb before drilling and even then i can slot stuff but with a bot of crumb to drag in over the top it rarely shows an issue.

ajd132 · May 2, 2022

turbo said:
How much of a yield penalty do people think he is going to get from those trails compared to his normal standard farm practice?

We have found on our farm and soil type that winter crops yield perhaps abit better and there is a bit of a yield penalty on spring crops (spring barley really as oats don’t seem to fussed).
we aren’t averse to cultivation if it’s justified, we ploughed a couple of fields on one farm this year after some disastrous broadcast and cultivated in beans (land owner demand, he was warned!).
It really all swings in roundabouts but yield is only part of the story, I am confident we are much more profitable than if were running a full til/rotational plough system of 10 years ago.
since making these changes new opportunities have arrived, like selling carbon sequestration or being paid to grow cover crops by countryside stewardship which we do on some farms which are in the scheme. So on spring crops we are gaining about £200/ha extra output on just these extra goodies that weren’t even planned for!

turbo · May 2, 2022

ajd132 said:
We have found on our farm and soil type that winter crops yield perhaps abit better and there is a bit of a yield penalty on spring crops (spring barley really as oats don’t seem to fussed).
we aren’t averse to cultivation if it’s justified, we ploughed a couple of fields on one farm this year after some disastrous broadcast and cultivated in beans (land owner demand, he was warned!).
It really all swings in roundabouts but yield is only part of the story, I am confident we are much more profitable than if were running a full til/rotational plough system of 10 years ago.
since making these changes new opportunities have arrived, like selling carbon sequestration or being paid to grow cover crops by countryside stewardship which we do on some farms which are in the scheme. So on spring crops we are gaining about £200/ha extra output on just these extra goodies that weren’t even planned for!

What is the cost of gaining these extra goodie’s? I am presuming you have to drill a cover crop so that has a cost as does the seed or is the £200/ha extra after all costs?

ajd132 · May 2, 2022

turbo said:
What is the cost of gaining these extra goodie’s? I am presuming you have to drill a cover crop so that has a cost as does the seed or is the £200/ha extra after all costs?

Depends how you look at it. We were already drilling a cover crop as it’s part of the system. I then realised you can get paid £124/ha for doing what we are already doing, so it’s a no brainier. Cover crop cost £20-£25/ha for seed.

Case290 · May 2, 2022

The best looking plots were from a vertical disc and vertical tine . Go figure .
Which post was slagging wardy ( barstools) Name and shame

triumphsprint · May 3, 2022

snarling bee said:
I've seen plenty of open slots following a DG.

We run a Weaving GD and if the ground is "unkind" at drilling time it can leave the slot unclosed. However because the seed is placed under a flap by the angled disc it benefits from seed soil contact and an easy route for emergence. Not ideal, but a "result" in difficult conditions.

BenAdamsAgri · May 3, 2022

Case290 said:
Looked like the Moore drill was the best by some way from the video. Followed by the Amazone. What’s wardy done ! quad tracks gone.

Thought so too which was surprising, I thought it didn't look very good when it was drilled

Oldmacdonald · May 3, 2022

Case290 said:
Looked like the Moore drill was the best by some way from the video. Followed by the Amazone. What’s wardy done ! quad tracks gone.

ben__adamss said:
Thought so too which was surprising, I thought it didn't look very good when it was drilled

Whats the difference between that Sky drill and a Moore drill you can buy today?

GRASSLAND Mounted - Moore Unidrill®

The Original And Still The Best Direct Seed Drill for regenerative farming

www.moore-unidrill.com

BenAdamsAgri · May 3, 2022

Sky Easydrill effectively same design but few bits added on, I am no expert but here is the link

EasyDrill - Gravity Fed Direct Drill - Sky Agriculture

The EasyDrill is one of very few direct drills that can truly be advocated as a direct, a mintill, a grassland and a cover crop drill. Furthermore on well consolidated ploughing it can also be used in conventional systems.

www.sky-agriculture.co.uk

warksfarmer · May 3, 2022

Having chatted to Andrew briefly about it he didn’t have enough room but there wouldn’t of been any seed on the surface or open seed slots if Triton had demo’ed. This is why their rear closing blade is so important because it just works brilliantly by side pressing the seed row either side of it. It’s both the simplest thing in the world whilst at the same time one of the cleverest things. Honestly anybody with soil like Andrew’s that’s struggled with open slots should try one or at the very least spend a bit of time investigating the principle.

BTT UK Ltd · May 9, 2022

Will 1594 said:
Bourgalt ,
what would be a good opener to go on a vibroflex tine ,bought an old krm cultivator with 12 vibroflex tines in spaced at 250 mm .
so thinking a mushroom on top fed from front hopper to make a drill
any ideas ,will it work or not

Best bet is to speak to our technical man - Stuart Aldworth. Are you going to Cereals or Goroundswell??
Ian

Andrew Ward's Drill Demo Day

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