clbarclay
Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
Thats a yes then.
Only if you already have a no till disc drill for it to compliment.
Bought a direct drill. Can you guess what sort?
- Thread starter E_B
- Start date
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
Reckon it's a Smyth from Peasenhall
Good game, good game...
Seems the consensus is that in our situation, a Simtech T-Sem would be the most popular choice, followed by a Sky EasyDrill... that's interesting, and obviously I can appreciate the benefits of less disturbance and seedbed consolidation, but unfortunately as we are dealing with such heavy land, at least partly, we were scared off the disc drill option. The drill would probably run better in wetter conditions than a tine but I fear all we'd be doing is putting the seed into a nice solid clay slot for it to drown in. Also we would be more comfortable with something that has the ability to deal with combine wheelings, as we don't have faith that this ground will suddenly miraculously structure itself immediately to take traffic better. Not to mention we hope to do some direct drilled maize in the future, albeit on very light land mostly, but the failure of no-till maize has been well documented on here in the past.
Anyway, taking everything into consideration, the chosen drill for the job is...
Reasons for the decision:
1. The front leg design. We're well aware that this design will involve more wear, more maintenance, and more pulling than other strip till machines but on the heavy land, assuming conditions are right, we consider this the main attraction for buying the drill. More sub-surface work, more of a lifting and fracturing effect, means that where we had the leg ran deep during a demonstration, the crop has gotten away quicker, is handling the rain better, is a healthier colour and is cleaner than the rest of the crop where the leg was in shallower because the contractor's tractor was undersized to handle heavy land on slopes at a decent depth. Combine wheelings were eradicated more effectively. Also the wings will hopefully help avoid slumping, which is evident on heavy ground where a straight leg has been used, according to other threads on here.
DEEP FRONT LEG
VS
FLEETER FRONT LEG
The front leg design also give us more confidence to try direct drilled maize. I know that maize into stubbles has been successfully done by other strip-till drills, just a personal preference that we favour this design.
2. The middle wheels. We think these will help with consolidation and slug control. In wetter times they would be a considerable hinderance on clay, but then we hopefully don't plan on using it in wet times. Consolidation also very important for maize on light land. Picture below is of J Riley Agri demoing the drill for us, who have incidentally been brilliant in making sure the deal got done.
3. Contour following coulters. Been some debate about whether retrospective depth control is a good thing to have or not, for us we think it is. Especially as we will be drilling into ploughed crop stubbles every year. Also acts as further consolidation.
4. The option to put beans down the front leg. We might experiment with this and put beans down considerably deeper than normal, via the front leg, but bring the drilling date forward significantly (last week of September even) to allow for drilling into hopefully better conditions than October usually brings. Also the option to put fertiliser down when we do maize is no bad thing.
So there are our reasons, now let's watch it all go wrong!
Seems the consensus is that in our situation, a Simtech T-Sem would be the most popular choice, followed by a Sky EasyDrill... that's interesting, and obviously I can appreciate the benefits of less disturbance and seedbed consolidation, but unfortunately as we are dealing with such heavy land, at least partly, we were scared off the disc drill option. The drill would probably run better in wetter conditions than a tine but I fear all we'd be doing is putting the seed into a nice solid clay slot for it to drown in. Also we would be more comfortable with something that has the ability to deal with combine wheelings, as we don't have faith that this ground will suddenly miraculously structure itself immediately to take traffic better. Not to mention we hope to do some direct drilled maize in the future, albeit on very light land mostly, but the failure of no-till maize has been well documented on here in the past.
Anyway, taking everything into consideration, the chosen drill for the job is...
Reasons for the decision:
1. The front leg design. We're well aware that this design will involve more wear, more maintenance, and more pulling than other strip till machines but on the heavy land, assuming conditions are right, we consider this the main attraction for buying the drill. More sub-surface work, more of a lifting and fracturing effect, means that where we had the leg ran deep during a demonstration, the crop has gotten away quicker, is handling the rain better, is a healthier colour and is cleaner than the rest of the crop where the leg was in shallower because the contractor's tractor was undersized to handle heavy land on slopes at a decent depth. Combine wheelings were eradicated more effectively. Also the wings will hopefully help avoid slumping, which is evident on heavy ground where a straight leg has been used, according to other threads on here.
DEEP FRONT LEG
VS
FLEETER FRONT LEG
The front leg design also give us more confidence to try direct drilled maize. I know that maize into stubbles has been successfully done by other strip-till drills, just a personal preference that we favour this design.
2. The middle wheels. We think these will help with consolidation and slug control. In wetter times they would be a considerable hinderance on clay, but then we hopefully don't plan on using it in wet times. Consolidation also very important for maize on light land. Picture below is of J Riley Agri demoing the drill for us, who have incidentally been brilliant in making sure the deal got done.
3. Contour following coulters. Been some debate about whether retrospective depth control is a good thing to have or not, for us we think it is. Especially as we will be drilling into ploughed crop stubbles every year. Also acts as further consolidation.
4. The option to put beans down the front leg. We might experiment with this and put beans down considerably deeper than normal, via the front leg, but bring the drilling date forward significantly (last week of September even) to allow for drilling into hopefully better conditions than October usually brings. Also the option to put fertiliser down when we do maize is no bad thing.
So there are our reasons, now let's watch it all go wrong!
Sandy
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
On the first photo I believe it was in around 7-8 inches, on the second I'm not sure, but some bit shallower to let the (undersized) tractor get up the hill!
Hopefully over time the front leg won't need to be run so deep, although I have my doubts on the heavy stuff.