- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
Hello all. I am Andrew, farming around Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Total farmed area is 2000ha with about 80ha of that in HLS grass.
We have played with most toys over the last 20 yrs.
Plough, power harrow (once or twice)
Plough, top tilth (revolution in its time)
Simba 23C discs which we quickly decided to subsoil in front of
Solo, cultipress (once but mostly twice)
Currently run a 6m SLD and a 4m Top Down consolidating with either a 6.6m cultipress or 6m Rexius Twin. We establish the rape with a subsoiler equipped with a row of Claydon seeding legs following the subsoilers legs. We have just upgraded our 7 leg Simba to a 13leg 6.5m Cousins with a fert tank on board.
We grow a lot of OSR in a WW, OSR WW OSR rotation which for 8 years has been fantastically successful but we paid heavily this year with slug pressure.
Power wise we are kitted up with a 600 Quadtrac, 755B Challenger, JD 7530 (x2) and a 6930, 5430i SP sprayer and soon to replace a Bateman with a JD 840i. Cereal drilling is undertaken by an 8m Vaderstad Rapid.
The land is 70% properly heavy clay, the rest is slightly easier working but miles away from a plough and combi drill situation.
We have around 80 ha of sugar beet in the rotation which to be honest really bugger up the system but as most are on contract farms I think it would be difficult to persuade the landowners to drop the crop although I shall surrender my own CTE next year.
I am becoming very keen on strip till / dd.
My current thinking is to rotationally dd, OSR in with the subsoiler, 1st wheat dd and then possibly 2nd wheats Top Down or back in with the subsoiler for OSR (if I'm brave enough to continue with this rotation).
Initially I would only be considering this on our own land until I could (hopefully) demonstate the benefits to our contract farms. Therefore a 4m drill is probably where I would be looking to start with. I really like the look of the Weaving Big Disc but am sceptical about not being able to loosen at depth and therefore like the look of the Sumo DTS, Mzuri, and Vadertad Spirit.
So HELLO, and looking forward to following this section on an excellent forum.
BB
We have played with most toys over the last 20 yrs.
Plough, power harrow (once or twice)
Plough, top tilth (revolution in its time)
Simba 23C discs which we quickly decided to subsoil in front of
Solo, cultipress (once but mostly twice)
Currently run a 6m SLD and a 4m Top Down consolidating with either a 6.6m cultipress or 6m Rexius Twin. We establish the rape with a subsoiler equipped with a row of Claydon seeding legs following the subsoilers legs. We have just upgraded our 7 leg Simba to a 13leg 6.5m Cousins with a fert tank on board.
We grow a lot of OSR in a WW, OSR WW OSR rotation which for 8 years has been fantastically successful but we paid heavily this year with slug pressure.
Power wise we are kitted up with a 600 Quadtrac, 755B Challenger, JD 7530 (x2) and a 6930, 5430i SP sprayer and soon to replace a Bateman with a JD 840i. Cereal drilling is undertaken by an 8m Vaderstad Rapid.
The land is 70% properly heavy clay, the rest is slightly easier working but miles away from a plough and combi drill situation.
We have around 80 ha of sugar beet in the rotation which to be honest really bugger up the system but as most are on contract farms I think it would be difficult to persuade the landowners to drop the crop although I shall surrender my own CTE next year.
I am becoming very keen on strip till / dd.
My current thinking is to rotationally dd, OSR in with the subsoiler, 1st wheat dd and then possibly 2nd wheats Top Down or back in with the subsoiler for OSR (if I'm brave enough to continue with this rotation).
Initially I would only be considering this on our own land until I could (hopefully) demonstate the benefits to our contract farms. Therefore a 4m drill is probably where I would be looking to start with. I really like the look of the Weaving Big Disc but am sceptical about not being able to loosen at depth and therefore like the look of the Sumo DTS, Mzuri, and Vadertad Spirit.
So HELLO, and looking forward to following this section on an excellent forum.
BB
