Am I mad to be contemplating a new combi drill?

[JCfarmer]

Considering bying a new 5m folding combi drill, have a 3m Claydon which I will keep but will swap the kuhn megant tine drill and ridged kuhn power harrow. I do run a 5m carrier for seedbed mainly.
2 difficult autumns, tine drill fine but you still have to work it with an extra set of wheelings when wet.
With the way farming is going we are being persuaded to go more direct drilling and possible grants available now and in the future etc? I'm maybe thinking stick with what I've got?

 

[Hereward]

I sold a KV TS Evo which was a cracking drill, biggest downfall it will drill into anything, lead me into false sense of security, last few years drilled too late into wet bad seedbeds.

Going back to a Combi, I had a Vaddy before the Tine drill and a Combi before the Vaddy.

Always had good crops with the Combi, all the best crops on neighbouring farms are drilled with Combis, that made my decision easy.

Even going to do some ploughing but predominately following a Horsch Terrano.

 

[JCfarmer]

I sold a KV TS Evo which was a cracking drill, biggest downfall it will drill into anything, lead me into false sense of security, last few years drilled too late into wet bad seedbeds.

Going back to a Combi, I had a Vaddy before the Tine drill and a Combi before the Vaddy.

Always had good crops with the Combi, all the best crops on neighbouring farms are drilled with Combis, that made my decision easy.

Even going to do some ploughing but predominately following a Horsch Terrano.

I really like the kuhn megant, only real issues are does bring some stones up like any tine drill would and when following the plough the extra cultivation/wheels if a bit wet. Later drilling now with grass weed control not to mention bydv causes more issues.
The last 2 years I have chucked the old accord on the back of the power harrow to follow the plough on a fair acreage.
Combi with disc coulters(decent disc) I would go for.

How do you get on with the Horsch Terrano, is that mainly a tine cultivator?
Once through with that and combi?

We are, LD Topsoiler, carrier or powerharrow, tine drill.

 

[Hereward]

I really like the kuhn megant, only real issues are does bring some stones up like any tine drill would and when following the plough the extra cultivation/wheels if a bit wet. Later drilling now with grass weed control not to mention bydv causes more issues.
The last 2 years I have chucked the old accord on the back of the power harrow to follow the plough on a fair acreage.
Combi with disc coulters(decent disc) I would go for.

How do you get on with the Horsch Terrano, is that mainly a tine cultivator?
Once through with that and combi?

We are, LD Topsoiler, carrier or powerharrow, tine drill.

I've got a Kuhn with seed flex disc coulters, not used it yet hopefully be in action later this week. Like so many things, you end up going full circle realising what your first had was actually the best.

Terrano is brilliant, three rows of auto reset tine, disc to level and a steel packer. I have a Carrier as well but find the Terrano does a better job much better for removing surface compaction, mixing trash in and getting air into the soil. Can do either a single pass or two passes depending on conditions.
Will be doing some rotational ploughing on as need basis.

Hoping to be able to drill at fair speed, not over working the soil.

 

[Drillman]

Tine drill mounted on a power Harrow has to be the ultimate wet weather drill

 

[7610 super q]

I fear we may be forced by the powers that be to go down the DD route. ( For those that want to still claim subs etc ).
I'm not going to spend any money on anything till I see which way the wind blows.

 

[vantage]

I fear we may be forced by the powers that be to go down the DD route. ( For those that want to still claim subs etc ).
I'm not going to spend any money on anything till I see which way the wind blows.

What about spud and veg guys?
I remember the “ entrance” exam we had to sit at Seale Hayne, direct drilling spuds is seared into my brain!

 

[Nearly]

@Drillman
@Dman2

 

[jon9000]

We've just bought a combi after 13 years of the rapid. Still keeping the rapid but sick of wet autumns.... all the best corn round here is drilled with a combi

 

[DRC]

I keep looking at other drills, but the combi is king here. Theres a Claydon and KV tine drill on neighbouring farms, but the amount of stones they pull up would give me nightmares of the years me and my brother had to spend picking stones when all we had were spring tines etc.
you don’t have to plough all the time with a combi, as if it’s dry enough I will sometimes just disc in front.
Its interesting that the big operators locally, all have gone back to combi drills following a plough .

 

[Drillman]

@Drillman
@Dman2

I’m way ahead of you

for once

 

[Bobthebuilder]

A 5m folding combi is gonna be a fair old lump presumably front tank and rear harrow/coulter bar, 4m would be a lot easier to set up/run and a fair bit cheaper

 

[Sandy]

A 5m folding combi is gonna be a fair old lump presumably front tank and rear harrow/coulter bar, 4m would be a lot easier to set up/run and a fair bit cheaper

Better 2nd hand value too

 

[pembsarable]

Our best looking crops this last autumn have all been drilled with a combi. Pulled up stubble with a sumo trio and then in with the combi.

 

[Cowcorn]

Considering bying a new 5m folding combi drill, have a 3m Claydon which I will keep but will swap the kuhn megant tine drill and ridged kuhn power harrow. I do run a 5m carrier for seedbed mainly.
2 difficult autumns, tine drill fine but you still have to work it with an extra set of wheelings when wet.
With the way farming is going we are being persuaded to go more direct drilling and possible grants available now and in the future etc? I'm maybe thinking stick with what I've got?

No youre not mad but you may be a little out of step with the regen gang Best to get a new plough when youre at it . Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb .. But youre not alone a lot of farmers are u turning back to to the old reliable plough and combi up its arse to get crops in in the wet back ends that seem to be the new norm .

 

[JCfarmer]

No youre not mad but you may be a little out of step with the regen gang Best to get a new plough when youre at it . Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb .. But youre not alone a lot of farmers are u turning back to to the old reliable plough and combi up its arse to get crops in in the wet back ends that seem to be the new norm .

How very dare you, I don't follow fashion!
I certainly won't be buying a new plough, still do some rotational ploughing but mainly low disturbance soil loosening underneath the top 50mm.

I had a ridged 3m combi and then a 4m for years, probably 25 years untill I bought the megant in 2015.
The last combi was a 2011 kuhn venta with 3 rows of suffolks. Kept it for 3 years while running the megant, never used it so part ex it in against some new trailers. Kept the power harrow, the A frame and the pulley on the back mind which have been used since.

 

[Mr Charisma]

We had ourselves a 4 M combi a few years back thinking it was the way forwards , nope ,,,,,, not for us it wasn't , packer puts the ground down to tight IMHO , the drill bit is sulking somewhere in the nettles , the power harrow is useful occasionally but changed the 4 m rapid for a 6 m one and crack on when the weather is good , we have come to the conclusion that on the marl that once its to wet for the vaddy then you might as well pack in anyway , we also have a tine drill within our drilling circle with our neighbour , this has been out drilling headlands after the vaddy drilled the insides to fair success in the damper conditions , you can drill a fair bit in a day when you have two 6 m drills on the go

 

[JCfarmer]

Combi's have come a long way with good double disc coulters allowing up to 50kg of pressure, better designed power harrows with larger packers and pressurised front hoppers.
Larger tractors needed although to be fair they are not neccessarily larger just more horsepower than they used to be.
Drilling at 10k should be easily achievable 75% of the time. .

 

[Mr Charisma]

Combi's have come a long way with good double disc coulters allowing up to 50kg of pressure, better designed power harrows with larger packers and pressurised front hoppers.
Larger tractors needed although to be fair they are not neccessarily larger just more horsepower than they used to be.
Drilling at 10k should be easily achievable 75% of the time. .

This one has double disc coulter,,,,,,,,, in the end we wished we had a 3 m machine with a hopper up front
Neighbours pottinger does a nice job but at the end of the day our Rapid got 480 acres planted in under 4 days and if I had more ground cultipressed he would of drilled more..

 

[KB6930]

Simple answer for me is no your not mad .

But everyone has a different situation. We were running a 3m combi for a long time then bought a 4m trailed drill to rattle acres in quickly when conditions allowed . This will work but ties up 2 tractors and 2 men as them acres all need working in front as well so because of this and stones being a big problem behind it we went to a 4m combi and 1 man can just work away himself.

But were on mostly kind soil and not a huge acreage only 1200 ish so it's not an issue to get in 800 winter crop and the rest spring. Never had a crop failure yet (touch wood)