Grassland Direct Drill

BFL4437

Member
Livestock Farmer
Looking at Purchasing a Grassland Direct Drill and looking at an Erth agriseeder or a Moore unidrill. Leaning towards the Erth for dealer backup and looking at them think it's possibly the better drill. The guttler rollers on the Moore drill I prefer but just looking for other people's opinions. Any help appreciated
 

E_B

Member
Location
Norfolk
Had an Erth since last year. If you go into the direct drilling machinery (I think) section, myself and a few others have written quite a bit about it. Basically... well built, simple, can sow cereals if you get the big hopper. Closes the slot quite nicely but like all disc drills, has its limitations on stiff ground. Setting seed depth is a bit of a faff but you get the hang of it, and once set, it's bang on. Sectional contour following a nice touch. Have successfully sown grass, herbal leys, AB9, wheat at 200kg/ha all direct into residue.

PXL_20220610_102303249.MP.jpg
 

icanshootwell

Member
Location
Ross-on-wye
Had an Erth since last year. If you go into the direct drilling machinery (I think) section, myself and a few others have written quite a bit about it. Basically... well built, simple, can sow cereals if you get the big hopper. Closes the slot quite nicely but like all disc drills, has its limitations on stiff ground. Setting seed depth is a bit of a faff but you get the hang of it, and once set, it's bang on. Sectional contour following a nice touch. Have successfully sown grass, herbal leys, AB9, wheat at 200kg/ha all direct into residue.

View attachment 1045704
I want to try drilling wheat into grassland, would be after a 3 year lay, spray the grass off and drill a week or so later. Would the ground be ok left or worked a little with a sub soiler or something similar.
 

E_B

Member
Location
Norfolk
I want to try drilling wheat into grassland, would be after a 3 year lay, spray the grass off and drill a week or so later. Would the ground be ok left or worked a little with a sub soiler or something similar.

Is that with an Erth or another drill? With the Erth I'd say if it's loamy ground with plenty of moisture, and the dead grass is fairly short, it should be capable of sowing wheat nicely enough. The longer the dead grass, the higher the chance of hair pinning I suppose. The deepest the drill will do is about 2 inches I'd say.

Baked dry clay and you'd have not much chance. Conditions are the most important thing.

I think the drill would do a nicer job if you don't work the ground, unless there's obvious compaction.

I usually use my Mzuri for drilling wheat after grass, which isn't always a guaranteed success which is partly why I changed to sowing beans after grass, but I might experiment with the Erth a bit more this Autumn.
 
Erth drill is a very good drill one of the better disc drills.
Have a look at the NZ tine drills either a Duncan or a Aitchison / simtech
For the life of me I cannot get the Duncan to drill high enough seed rates for a crop of wheat - can’t remember the max figures now as it’s a long time since I last tried. From what I remember, couldn’t even get to high enough figure by using front and rear seed box in combination
 

icanshootwell

Member
Location
Ross-on-wye
Is that with an Erth or another drill? With the Erth I'd say if it's loamy ground with plenty of moisture, and the dead grass is fairly short, it should be capable of sowing wheat nicely enough. The longer the dead grass, the higher the chance of hair pinning I suppose. The deepest the drill will do is about 2 inches I'd say.

Baked dry clay and you'd have not much chance. Conditions are the most important thing.

I think the drill would do a nicer job if you don't work the ground, unless there's obvious compaction.

I usually use my Mzuri for drilling wheat after grass, which isn't always a guaranteed success which is partly why I changed to sowing beans after grass, but I might experiment with the Erth a bit more this Autumn.
My problem is if I,m going to work the ground, might as well stay with what I do now, heavy disk's 2/3 times then combi drilling, only issue is when very wet.
 

BFL4437

Member
Livestock Farmer
Wox Guttler Greenmaster, not a direct drill but works very well, full coverage and very adaptable piece of kit.
Used a neibough's to plant grass for a few years on ground after we've worked it. Like the rollers on the back but can't see it being the most use drilling into older pasture lays. Why I was looking at disk drills
 

BFL4437

Member
Livestock Farmer
Had an Erth since last year. If you go into the direct drilling machinery (I think) section, myself and a few others have written quite a bit about it. Basically... well built, simple, can sow cereals if you get the big hopper. Closes the slot quite nicely but like all disc drills, has its limitations on stiff ground. Setting seed depth is a bit of a faff but you get the hang of it, and once set, it's bang on. Sectional contour following a nice touch. Have successfully sown grass, herbal leys, AB9, wheat at 200kg/ha all direct into residue.

View attachment 1045704
Have rang dales agri and have sorted a demo for start of July so I'm hoping it'll suit us. How does the tractor handle it when full, do you need the weights on the front.
 

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

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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