Avatar on Flints?

[Iford Ben]

Hi All,

First post alert!

Been searching through the threads looking for anyone using the Avatar on really high levels of flint... in places so bad you cant see any soil. The rest of the farm is light chalk with low levels of flints. Been min-tilling for many years, experimented with DD this season with Sprinter/VOS system... until the sprinter broke its back... my hand is being slightly forced into a new drill earlier than i would have liked.

I really like the sprinter and will be keeping it as a back up, but there's too much fatigue to risk keeping as main drill, the only alternative I can find is to replace the sprinter with a new one, but i really like the Avatar concept, just have reservations about the flints.

Any thoughts much appreciated, its a massive investment for it to go wrong!

Cheers

 

[fred.950]

We have a lot of flint in places like you describe and our Avatar copes really well but we do use a tine drill in rotation, mainly for establishing cover crops but also behind chopped spring barley. I just drill slower when it’s flinty at 9.5 or 10k

 

[Badshot]

Doesn't the flint just blunt the discs stopping them cutting trash?

 

[fred.950]

Realistically I don’t think you would ever keep them sharp enough to cut through trash on our soil, although it’s very stony it’s also puffy soil and just hairpins. We try and leave as much stubble standing as possible and just drill straight into covers in the spring. Anything trashy gets a tine!

 

[Iford Ben]

Realistically I don’t think you would ever keep them sharp enough to cut through trash on our soil, although it’s very stony it’s also puffy soil and just hairpins. We try and leave as much stubble standing as possible and just drill straight into covers in the spring. Anything trashy gets a tine!

Thanks @fred.950. Do you find the depth wheels get excessively cut by the flints? I'm happy to accept disc wear as part of the cost of farming flints, but wouldn't want to be replacing the wheels too often!

 

[fred.950]

Thanks @fred.950. Do you find the depth wheels get excessively cut by the flints? I'm happy to accept disc wear as part of the cost of farming flints, but wouldn't want to be replacing the wheels too often!

I’ve never replaced a wheel due to cuts but we had a lot fail on the last drill because the bearings parted company with the centre dish. We went for the spoked wheel this time and they are much stronger but occasionally jam up with a stone so I’m not sure which I would recommend. We get around 1200 hectares to a set of discs and have new coulters on the third set.