A Novice and his Aitchison Grassfarmer.

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Just put a deposit down on an Aitchison Seedmatic for delivery early next year, grant funded all being well. Looking forward to the future!!
We will need our own sub-forum at this rate! :D

Disc or Tines, big one? Trailed or mounted??

I do wish at times I had bought the Aitchison trailed kit, as there was one going spare at the time!! Would have been very useful in allowing a smaller tractor to be used. The things weigh HEAVY!
 
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adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
We will need our own sub-forum at this rate! :D

Disc or Tines, big one? Trailed or mounted??

I do wish at times I had bought the Aitchison trailed kit, as there was one going spare at the time!! Would have been very useful in allowing a smaller tractor to be used. The things weigh HEAVY!

3m 24-row tine. Comes with trailed kit that can be removed fairly easily. So I'll use it trailed normally but for things like stewardship plots that are fiddly but not much seed weight it'll be handy to have it mounted.
 

SpottedFlycatcher

Member
BASE UK Member
Pilot error... whats that...? ;) I intend putting a pair of markers on the wee drill, just to give me a clearer mark to drive on. Maybe the autosteer will sort this! (Which I don't actually have....yet!)

Agree totally about the seed "surplus" idea, it always comes in somewhere.
Did you ever put the bout markers on? We want to use the Seedmatic for cereals this autumn and the sprayer operator just pointed out we are going to struggle without bout markers for the headlands and that he will need a pre emergence mark for the tramlines. Any ideas for this? Being a novice (have only used it for grass and stewardship mixes) I hadn't realised this would be an issue
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Did you ever put the bout markers on? We want to use the Seedmatic for cereals this autumn and the sprayer operator just pointed out we are going to struggle without bout markers for the headlands and that he will need a pre emergence mark for the tramlines. Any ideas for this? Being a novice (have only used it for grass and stewardship mixes) I hadn't realised this would be an issue
No markers. I cheated and use autosteer :D

Finding the edge can be an issue and I still think a spring tine each side would work.
 

SpottedFlycatcher

Member
BASE UK Member
Ahh... Could but in some pre-em spring tine markers somehow? Surprised the sprayman has not invested in an aftermarket autosteer to be honest... 🤷‍♂️
He hasn't fitted it yet, but plans to. Apparently the issue is marking the first bout around the outside. He was also suggesting that without being able to shut off coulters for tramlines we would end up with green grain in the sample, plus we would end up with drill misses / overlaps. I don't understand why as we have GPS and autosteer.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
He hasn't fitted it yet, but plans to. Apparently the issue is marking the first bout around the outside. He was also suggesting that without being able to shut off coulters for tramlines we would end up with green grain in the sample, plus we would end up with drill misses / overlaps. I don't understand why as we have GPS and autosteer.
Sounds like he is making excuses for not having autosteer yet! ;)

It must be possible to fit shut-offs... I would message Ross in NZ, the MD of Aitchison, and ask him the question, my experience was that he is hugely helpful and will have seen most issues and seen how they were resolved.
 
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SpottedFlycatcher

Member
BASE UK Member
Sounds like he is making excuses for not having autosteer yet! ;)

It must be possible to fit shut-offs... I would message Ross in NZ, the MD of Aitchison, and ask him the question, my experience was that he is hugely helpful and will have seen most issues and seen how they were resolved.
Yes, thanks, good idea. A couple of months ago he was over and came out to see the herbal leys we drilled with it, so hopefully he will help. Thanks
 

SpottedFlycatcher

Member
BASE UK Member
I think this older thread sums up his concerns:

Thread 'Mapping headland boundaries and headland autosteering' https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...-boundaries-and-headland-autosteering.113360/

No real solution though I don't think. I had assumed he would want to drive around each field when they are stubble to map the boundaries, as someone suggests in that thread. I realise there will be accuracy issues but worth a try.

I still don't get why there is a problem for the drilling if there is no bout marker. Just use the autosteer as you said.
 

adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
IMG_4837.jpeg


I'm excited to have finally joined the Aitchison Club! Already had a couple of enquiries for drilling stewardship seed plots, and will be planting grass this summer, wheat in the autumn, then spring beans next year.
To solve the marker issue I'm looking at AgOpen GPS autosteer, or if I can't get my head around that then one of the off the shelf solutions like FJ Dynamics.
 

SpottedFlycatcher

Member
BASE UK Member
View attachment 1118541

I'm excited to have finally joined the Aitchison Club! Already had a couple of enquiries for drilling stewardship seed plots, and will be planting grass this summer, wheat in the autumn, then spring beans next year.
To solve the marker issue I'm looking at AgOpen GPS autosteer, or if I can't get my head around that then one of the off the shelf solutions like FJ Dynamics.
Great stuff! So you'll use whatever GPS system you get to mark the boundary (while drilling or just drive around without implement), and then use that same GPS boundary for autosteer for pre-em and other spraying on the cereals? Our problem is that we won't be doing our own spraying on the cereals and contractor wants a visible pre-em mark, plus tramlines as he doesn't have autosteer yet. We used NH GPS and autosteer for drilling grass and stewardship with the Seedmatic and it worked well, just an occasional blip on boundaries with big trees.
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
I’ve got the use of an aitchison to drill grass into an old pasture that has been sprayed off weeks ago and has had a good dose of lime. Im planning on cross drilling it at half rate, but wondering would there be any benefit to drilling it 3 ways? It’s only 8ac, don't mind the extra work if it would be beneficial?
 

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