2015 Sumo DTS Pictures/Blog

[jonnieboy]

If I'd turned round you would of seen the quarry that is slowly taking this field away
so its on borrowed time , but a good machine testing area

 

[green giant]

Finally got going today, the stubble was ripped up and pressed to try and get it dried enough to drill. Ok on the top but a little snotty at any depth. Cover crop field we tried is just to wet, that will have to wait until the autumn.
Spring oats at 200kg/h.

 

[Badshot]

Finally got going today, the stubble was ripped up and pressed to try and get it dried enough to drill. Ok on the top but a little snotty at any depth. Cover crop field we tried is just to wet, that will have to wait until the autumn.
Spring oats at 200kg/h.

Tgat sounds a very high seedrate for oats.

 

[green giant]

Tgat sounds a very high seedrate for oats.

Just doing as I was told

 

[green giant]

Back on beans today.

Finally had some warm weather and things are starting to move now.

 

[Dan Powell]

Finally had some warm weather and things are starting to move now.

I hope you picked those rocks. One of them looks like a combine wrecker!

 

[green giant]

I hope you picked those rocks. One of them looks like a combine wrecker!

Those are just pebbles, that's supposed to be the roller mans job

 

[green giant]

Just an update to the wheat drill into sprayed off grass lea.

 

[Shutesy]

Spring Beans today

Best bit of the spring barley, rest is not looking great :-(

 

[green giant]

Just an update to the wheat drill into sprayed off grass lea.

Taken this morning

 

[green giant]

Just to show that the DTS is a universal drill and can also work on min til & plough/pressed land aswell as its primary job of going straight into stubble.

Taken this morning

 

[Flintstone]

Well, after exactly 11 months since drilling, we are cutting the DTS drilled rape today. It was drilled at the same time as some in the field the other side of the track using a seeder unit on a Top Down style device.

Same seed rate, both rolled, same fert and agchem programme through the year too. Neither had pigeon damage, and both crops were wall to wall.

The seeder drilled one did 1.4 tpa (3.5 tph).

Any guesses on the DTS yield?

 

[Flintstone]

A picture says a thousand words.

 

[Shutesy]

Im hoping DTS is the left 2 plants. Yield... 1.6t/ac??

 

[Flintstone]

Spot on.

 

[Shutesy]

Spot on.

Good result then. Hope your Claydon does similar this coming season. Unfortunately my DTS drilled OSR didnt do anywhere near 1.6t/ac more like 1t/ac though wont know for sure till lorries have taken it all next week. All established v well but flea beetle larvae damage and flipping pigeons dont make for a happy OSR crop!

 

[green giant]

Taken this morning

Was passing this afternoon and came across this.......

 

[wellingtonfarmer]

I am thinking about some kind of strip till drill. My biggest worry is the row spacing is too wide and you putting ally of seed in a narrow band?

 

[Flintstone]

[USER=638]@wellingtonfarmer[/USER]

I was also a bit worried about that, especially in cereals. The DTS drilled my rape (demo) last summer, and there was a clear yield lift between the DTS crops and the seeder system that was used on the others.

I didn't go for a DTS in the end (various reasons I won't go into), and went for a Claydon Hybrid instead.

My first cereal drilling with it was last March, when I put in 300 acres of Spring barley. The yields were very good, and by the time it came to harvest time, you really couldn't see the difference between strip till and min till crops.

The trick with any strip till drill, is to make sure you prepare the stubble for it. So, a nice short stubble is important, especially if it's fresh stubble (ie rape drilling into barley stubble). If the stubble is too long, it can be a pain, especially if it's damp too.

Wheat into rape stubble is a doddle, although a post-harvest rake is a good idea to spread any thick bits of matted chopped pods/trash where slugs like to live.

Spring crops into over-wintered cereal stubble is also a doddle as it has had time to rot, and just disintegrates when you drill. As with rape stubble, an Autumn rake is a good idea. Not just to get BG chitting, but also to spread any lumps about and reduce over winter slug habitats.

I'm only two thirds of my way into my first full strip till year, and I'm learning fast. However, I do believe I can make it work. In fact, I WILL make it work. I do feel that people who buy a strip till drill and just expect to follow the combine around with it and achieve perfect crops with no effort will come unstuck. It does need some thought and consideration.

No system is perfect, but if I can keep my 'non-harvesting' labour bill at zero on 1100 acres, and my total 'non-harvesting' horsepower below 0.5 per hectare, with yields being unaffected, then my drive for efficiency will have paid off.

Feel free to message me if you want to chat it through.

I've included a picture of the stubbles so you can see it's not that much of a thin band.

 

[green giant]

Thought I'd best add some pics for summer/Autumn 2016

This morning, wheat into oats stubble