Advice on sourcing No till drill for 100hp tractor

Obi Wan

Member
Location
Argyll
Hi - I'm looking to source a no till drill for putting clovers, triticale, and possibly some vetch into old grass. Ideally nothing new and fancy as it's an experiment trying to improve the pasture on rented ground. There's no sub contractors within 50 miles with the kit and I'm not overly sure what the cost per acre would be.

Is there any way I could modify other kit to suit ?

A bloke 10 miles away swear by spinning clover in the with manure then grass harrow park 3-4 times in varying directions to get a take. I'm not convinced.

Thoughts on the above appreciated.

Happy new year to everyone.

Regards
 

solo

Member
Location
worcestershire
Clover can be sown with slug Pelleters off a quad bike successfully.. Don’t know about vetches into grass . Maybe a disc drill which would also plant triticale.
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
Hi - I'm looking to source a no till drill for putting clovers, triticale, and possibly some vetch into old grass. Ideally nothing new and fancy as it's an experiment trying to improve the pasture on rented ground. There's no sub contractors within 50 miles with the kit and I'm not overly sure what the cost per acre would be.

Is there any way I could modify other kit to suit ?

A bloke 10 miles away swear by spinning clover in the with manure then grass harrow park 3-4 times in varying directions to get a take. I'm not convinced.

Thoughts on the above appreciated.

Happy new year to everyone.

Regards

i was thinking about putting clover seeds in with muck the other day :)
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Hi - I'm looking to source a no till drill for putting clovers, triticale, and possibly some vetch into old grass. Ideally nothing new and fancy as it's an experiment trying to improve the pasture on rented ground. There's no sub contractors within 50 miles with the kit and I'm not overly sure what the cost per acre would be.

Is there any way I could modify other kit to suit ?

A bloke 10 miles away swear by spinning clover in the with manure then grass harrow park 3-4 times in varying directions to get a take. I'm not convinced.

Thoughts on the above appreciated.

Happy new year to everyone.

Regards

I had an old Moore (which I moved on) and now have my second Simtech. However, drilling anything into old pasture is next thing to a waste of time, and only a temporary boost at best, ime. The old sward will outcompete almost everything, putting you back to square one very quickly, but having spent a lot on seed.
Rotational grazing will improve your old grass far more, and at less expense, than trying to introduce uncompetitive species.

The best success I’ve had for introducing clover to an existing sward, has been with a quad bike spinner, soon after taking a silage/hay crop, spreading just prior to heavy rain/thunderstorms. Even better if you can run a big mob of sheep over for a couple of days to press the seed in.
You need reduced competition, seed to soil contact and moisture. How you achieve that is up to you.:)
 

Obi Wan

Member
Location
Argyll
Thanks for the ideas folks, looking like a moore, guttler, aitchinson, simtech or heavy sprung MF will be the ticket, better idea what I'm looking for thanks.

I've considered trying putting the seed out with the dung heap or manure spinner with granulated lime and also in through the creep or lick blocks but I'm keen to know it's in the ground and applied at a measurable rate. That said If I can't find the right M/C I'll try grass harrow 3-4 runs, putting out seed with manure spinner & lime then hammer with sheep for a week to trample it right in.

drilling anything into old pasture is next thing to a waste of time, and only a temporary boost at best, ime. The old sward will outcompete almost everything, putting you back to square one very quickly, but having spent a lot on seed.
Rotational grazing will improve your old grass far more, and at less expense, than trying to introduce uncompetitive species.

Thanks neilo - it's being rotational grazed to a fashion with a few improvements planned next year, plan is to boost & fast track this whilst improving the natural P&K performance. I'm not planning to shut any off for haylage, can manage with stock numbers. Is that a sort of feasible plan or just me over thinking it. Currently the parks are being taken clean by ewes pre-scanning so there should be a clean start when grass starts to properly grow Late March/April.
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
I've had excellent takes just throwing the seed out in front of the cows here. We do stock very tight though, so they really hammer the existing grass. Works well with nearly all seed, from beans to clover, as long as you can make enough of a mess, but not too much.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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