Covers are fine on heavy land, if you pick the correct things to grow and manage it accordingly spraying off early enough.I went,just down the road from me,so its the same soil type as mine.
I run a Claydon and I wouldn't have been drilling,a fortnight earlier it would have been a different picture,just a shame due to the very heavy rain in the previous week,but thats demos for you it can make or break a demo.
They were all leaving seed on the top it was like plasticine,or completely sealing it up in putty plus the demo field had a heavy shower of rain at dinner time which didn't help matters....
I think out of all the drills the Horsch did the most impressive job,shame about the rear wheels on the drill,they really plastered it down.
They all did a reasonable job considering the tuff conditions,not very pretty.
The ground needed moving as there was no soil mode,The Claydon plot needed straw raking after drilling then rolling,thats what I would have done,well all the plots needed it doing really.
Not really a direct drilling principle.
I am in the same opinion as Andrew with cover crops, on paper it should work but in practice, well others think they know best......
This type of ground needs patience....... lots of it.
The results are going to be very interesting.
If in continuous spring cropping having 7 months of the year where the soil isn’t growing anything is bad.