Knockie
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Just noticed the forum, great idea......well done!
We are a family farming company growing arable crops on 2100ac, we also have 150 spring calving suckler cows where offspring are sold as stores at just under a year old.
We started to move away from the "traditional" plough and powerharrow method of establishment back in 2000 with a system based round a mixture of min-till, ploughing and one pass rape establishment. At that time we were using a Kockerling 4.8m PC cultivator and a Kockerling 3m AT drill, with an increase in acres I decided to change the drill and picked up a 1996 JD750a which drilled everything up 2008......wishing now I still had it!
In 2008 I realised we really had to take better care of our soils and set up some long term goals for the farm, the main long term goal being to reduce as much as we can the dependence on "volatile" inputs.
With our climate up here not being the kindest and having a very short window of opportunity for harvest and establishment sort of rules out min-till with no chance of getting stale seedbeds.
I decided to go for a one pass system based on a 6m Watkins Quad-Till with a Horsch drill on the back, this machine has worked well for us and has helped our soils. Last year we started setting up a 10m CTF system based on a 10m combine header, 10m converted Simba Free Flow drill with GEN openers and 30m tramlines.
I now really want to direct dill everything with the Free Flow, if we have acres that can't be DD'd they will be ploughed and power harrowed.
We apply green waste compost every third year and the FYM from the cattle. I'm very keen to introduce cover crops in the system, with good opportunities for sheep grazing lets.
Anyway, could go on forever and look forward to sharing views on this forum.
Cheers.
SD.
We are a family farming company growing arable crops on 2100ac, we also have 150 spring calving suckler cows where offspring are sold as stores at just under a year old.
We started to move away from the "traditional" plough and powerharrow method of establishment back in 2000 with a system based round a mixture of min-till, ploughing and one pass rape establishment. At that time we were using a Kockerling 4.8m PC cultivator and a Kockerling 3m AT drill, with an increase in acres I decided to change the drill and picked up a 1996 JD750a which drilled everything up 2008......wishing now I still had it!
In 2008 I realised we really had to take better care of our soils and set up some long term goals for the farm, the main long term goal being to reduce as much as we can the dependence on "volatile" inputs.
With our climate up here not being the kindest and having a very short window of opportunity for harvest and establishment sort of rules out min-till with no chance of getting stale seedbeds.
I decided to go for a one pass system based on a 6m Watkins Quad-Till with a Horsch drill on the back, this machine has worked well for us and has helped our soils. Last year we started setting up a 10m CTF system based on a 10m combine header, 10m converted Simba Free Flow drill with GEN openers and 30m tramlines.
I now really want to direct dill everything with the Free Flow, if we have acres that can't be DD'd they will be ploughed and power harrowed.
We apply green waste compost every third year and the FYM from the cattle. I'm very keen to introduce cover crops in the system, with good opportunities for sheep grazing lets.
Anyway, could go on forever and look forward to sharing views on this forum.
Cheers.
SD.
Also visited Soren Ilso whilst in Denmark to look at the GEN openers.
