Cheapest way into strip tillage

[Niels]

With only 300ac of drilling to do and a yard full of unfashionable and aged conventional kit to trade in, what is the cheapest/best value way to get into strip till.

No offense to anyone but I am not looking to be told what I really need is a 750a.

Speak to @Daniel on here? I believe he was in a similar situation last year and first demonstrated a 3m Claydon Hybrid and later purchased it.

 

[mo!]

That's a great shout, I have a 3m Claydon SR for sale and its cheap!

Not cheap enough for me sadly.

 

[Andy Howard]

Not cheap enough for me sadly.

Do you know the latest price? PM me

 

[mo!]

Do you know the latest price? PM me

That's more like it.

 

[frenchfarmer]

In the sologne yes, but the opposite in other areas!View attachment 83596
this farm is 50kilometres north west of frederic
in summary ; sold plough 30 years ago
sow cover crop with combine, mix of sarrasin radish phacelie linseed fenugrec and clover, and roll after,
growing peas, wheat, rape, winter barley,
soil is heavy wet red clay with flint,
yield between 7 and 8 tonne hectere in milling wheat,
drilling with a brazilian disc drill
the slugs eat the cover crop and not the sown crop
gave up with a tine drill as it bought all the stones to the surface,

hello.
Sologne surely gots the worst soil of France, but far away from others regions. 20cm of hydromofics sand beyound you will find a waterproof couch of clay. water can't cross this limit. work it with a big tine if you want to broke it, and your sand is going to stop the gap's worms. the only way to a good field, is using cover crops and no till.
frederic uses a lot of compost, drill is cover crops after the harvest with a direct tine till, with that option, you push away the trash and create a mineralization. and, in automn, when is coming back for drilling his weat, he used to take is direct drilling with disc.
the only way to have good fields in this region is cover crops and direct drilling.
Best regards.

 

[charlie@horizon]

I've seen claydons for 7k.

But forget strip till, its rubbish.

Thats rubbish

 

[SilliamWhale]

Thats rubbish

Strip till in the UK is basically high disturbance seeding for our normal combinable crops. Why cultivate soil the same time as drilling? There's no real point, it compromises efficiency and has no real effect on the plant yield and germinates weeds at the same time.

 

[mo!]

Strip till in the UK is basically high disturbance seeding for our normal combinable crops. Why cultivate soil the same time as drilling? There's no real point, it compromises efficiency and has no real effect on the plant yield and germinates weeds at the same time.

Oh yes it is....

Oh no it isn't...

He's behind you!

Etc etc.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Oh yes it is....

Oh no it isn't...

He's behind you!

Etc etc.

Have you bought one yet?

 

[will l]

Thats rubbish

which part?
do you mean dogs rubbish?

 

[clbarclay]

Oh yes it is....

Oh no it isn't...

He's behind you!

Etc etc.

Only TFF panto would feature ugly sisters in mankinis

 

[mo!]

Have you bought one yet?

Not yet. Lots to think on, Dad wants to try a bit and retain all our existing kit which means funds are very limited.

 

[marco]

Not yet. Lots to think on, Dad wants to try a bit and retain all our existing kit which means funds are very limited.

well then get yourself in a contractor for a year or two to show what can be done.

 

[Spud]

We've done something similar, dipped a toe in the strip til water, via @Bumble Bee and his Claydon Hybrid. So far so good, though I doubt we have enough acres in the rotation to justify buying one for a few more years yet

 

[mo!]

We don't have any spuds or beet so in theory we can manage with one drill. It's always hard to pay a contractor to do a job you can do yourself.

 

[Brisel]

What existing kit do you have?

How about a mounted toolbar with a hitch on the back? This is a bit drastic but I'm sure you might be able to fabricate something similar:

 

[Stuart J]

What did you end up doing @mo! ?

 

[mo!]

What did you end up doing @mo! ?

DTS. Sold it after 2.5 seasons and bought a Sulky Xeos Pro combi and a trio.

Our neighbour is running a Mzuri with success but on a large acreage, CTF with no straw coming off. On heavy land or maize stubble with straw off and muck on we couldn't make it work.

 

[Stuart J]

DTS. Sold it after 2.5 seasons and bought a Sulky Xeos Pro combi and a trio.

Our neighbour is running a Mzuri with success but on a large acreage, CTF with no straw coming off. On heavy land or maize stubble with straw off and muck on we couldn't make it work.

What was wrong with the DTS?
Are you drilling with the Sulky into triod land? No ploughing?

 

[mo!]

What was wrong with the DTS?
Are you drilling with the Sulky into triod land? No ploughing?

I don't think there was much wrong with the DTS, the front legs don't move that much soil and can slot on our wet clays but then all the DD lot will tell you not to move soil. Depth control was good, metering was good, build quality and backup also good. It didn't like trash but more modern ones with more clearance and different legs have sorted that.

It wasn't the machine that was wrong but the system for our situation. The trio and combi with an extra PH pass where needed is more reliable and copes with our traffic better.