Claydon TerraStar

[Rob Holmes]

Jeff told me that the Terrastar is to be used to complement the rake, not replace it, use the Terrastar to make an initial minimal tilth, then follow up every 10-14 afterwards with rake to break cotyledons and expose slug eggs.
I don't think that with Claydons bringing this out casts any doubts over direct/strip til drilling, it's just Claydon's response to customers requests.

 

[Clive]

Jeff told me that the Terrastar is to be used to complement the rake, not replace it, use the Terrastar to make an initial minimal tilth, then follow up every 10-14 afterwards with rake to break cotyledons and expose slug eggs.
I don't think that with Claydons bringing this out casts any doubts over direct/strip til drilling, it's just Claydon's response to customers requests.

If you running about that much you might as well get your plough out

What happen to strip till being a single pass operation ?

say mid August harvest and 1st October drill date

Terra star
X2 rake
Drill
Roll - a must behind a strip till IMO

That's a 5 pass establishment system ! ? I can't help but think the point is being somewhat forgotten by their customers if that's what they are asking Claydon for !

 

[Nearly]

http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/nothing-is-new.103650/#post-2103112

 

[Rob Holmes]

Maybe so, but it's flexible.

The above could be useful in heavy trash/slug situations, in others, i've happily drilled into stubble with no prior operation and had no issues

 

[Feldspar]

As ever, there will always be some fields that can be direct drilled and rolled with no other attention needed, but it won't necessarily be all fields.

The biggest problem that I have with direct drilling is the slow drying of the soil. If this can throw up a few lumps in the autumn which then weather down overwinter and then be drillable much faster in the spring, that will be useful. You see this effect in autumn drilled crops where in the spring they seem to dry much faster than unmoved ground (and I don't think this is to do with the growing crop).

 

[Feldspar]

http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/nothing-is-new.103650/#post-2103112

Interesting point made there about it leaving the soil in a more structureless and nasty state than if left untouched. I don't know if it's our type of clay, but the way it weathers doesn't really create that effect so much.

Agree though it is reinventing the wheel somewhat.

 

[Feldspar]

If you running about that much you might as well get your plough out

What happen to strip till being a single pass operation ?

say mid August harvest and 1st October drill date

Terra star
X2 rake
Drill
Roll - a must behind a strip till IMO

That's a 5 pass establishment system ! ? I can't help but think the point is being somewhat forgotten by their customers if that's what they are asking Claydon for !

The way I could see it would be this for some of the spring drilling:

Terrastar
Disc drill
Possibly roll

 

[Darren]

Jeff used to make a furrow cracker, now he is back into cultivation equipment how long befor a plough comes out of the factory.

I was thinking that. How will it be advertised as. Kv and some European manufactures made shallow, high speed ploughs. I'm waiting for the yellow version to appear

 

[Dockers]

Terra Star ! Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear
Get Jeff to the nearest hospital !

 

[SilliamWhale]

The way I could see it would be this for some of the spring drilling:

Terrastar
Disc drill
Possibly roll

But if its wet when would you terrastar?

I even think if the weather is crap then it may even best to just up the seed rate a little bit and maul a crop in with a disc drill if you can, its still only one pass and if the seed gets soil and rain the your 90% there. One pass with the drill wont damage the soil too much

 

[Feldspar]

But if its wet when would you terrastar?

I even think if the weather is crap then it may even best to just up the seed rate a little bit and maul a crop in with a disc drill if you can, its still only one pass and if the seed gets soil and rain the your 90% there. One pass with the drill wont damage the soil too much

We had some fields which were combined in early September after the rain in August. Really didn't want to plough them because they were spotlessly clean for BG but with a big seed-bank in the soil. The soil however never really dried enough to cultivate with something like a Terrastar / equivalent from the day we combined it to the day we mauled some in late October time, and the bits we left still haven't got anywhere close to drying this spring. In this case I don't think any machine of any colour could have really helped us. It's very heavy ground which will produce fantastic wheat if it is established well, but that's a big if.

 

[E_B]

But on the type of soil that Feldspar is dealing with, if the weather is crap and the soil is wet, one pass with a disc drill will just leave open slots, surely?

What we have here is another example of the classic DD battle of the pragmatist vs the evangelist, I never get fed up with reading it.

 

[Clive]

But on the type of soil that Feldspar is dealing with, if the weather is crap and the soil is wet, one pass with a disc drill will just leave open slots, surely?

What we have here is another example of the classic DD battle of the pragmatist vs the evangelist, I never get fed up with reading it.

im not sure its the normal DD vs tillage battle here really

I think the point is more that if a claydon (or any other strip till drill ) is a DD why do you need to resort to tillage to make the system work ?

where is the saving if you're doing multiple passes over more traditional tillage systems ? it like having a direct drill just to be on trend and not because you actually ever intend to direct drill much with it !

time for some honesty I feel - if you cant make DD work on your farm, soil, rotation and management etc then best face up to that and not spend money on loads of new shiney stuff to make it work, better to stick to what has worked for decades surely ?

 

[Feldspar]

im not sure its the normal DD vs tillage battle here really

I think the point is more that if a claydon (or any other strip till drill ) is a DD why do you need to resort to tillage to make the system work ?

where is the saving if you're doing multiple passes over more traditional tillage systems ? it like having a direct drill just to be on trend and not because you actually ever intend to direct drill much with it !

time for some honesty I feel - if you cant make DD work on your farm, soil, rotation and management etc then best face up to that and not spend money on loads of new shiney stuff to make it work, better to stick to what has worked for decades surely ?

In the example I gave above ploughing would not have worked either.

 

[Clive]

In the example I gave above ploughing would not have worked either.

so if tillage wont work and DD won't work maybe its a different crop or time all together thats the right solution ?...........grassland even maybe !

 

[Feldspar]

so if tillage wont work and DD won't work maybe its a different crop or time all together thats the right solution ?...........grassland even maybe !

The biggest improvement will be a bigger combine and some more gas burners for this harvest. Could have cut a lot of that crop before the rain in August and then it would have drilled a lot easier.

 

[SilliamWhale]

But on the type of soil that Feldspar is dealing with, if the weather is crap and the soil is wet, one pass with a disc drill will just leave open slots, surely?

What we have here is another example of the classic DD battle of the pragmatist vs the evangelist, I never get fed up with reading it.

But i dont always get the slots shut. In an ideal world i would but sometimes its too wet. Sometimes the rain shuts the slots for me and most of the time ill roll at an angle after.

 

[SilliamWhale]

The biggest improvement will be a bigger combine and some more gas burners for this harvest. Could have cut a lot of that crop before the rain in August and then it would have drilled a lot easier.

Blame Massey Ferguson!

 

[Feldspar]

Blame Massey!

I wouldn't dream of it.

 

[Andrew K]

I think if you farm proper heavy stuff like Feldspar you have to be flexible.If its wet your chosen system might not get the job done without a tickle with something else I quite like the Terrastar idea, certainly would do a better job than a rake at chitting weeds and getting a tilth on our land too, i suspect? Also far cheaper way of establishing CC,s in quick fashion.

We have the option of a Twin Tine kit for our Claydon, to allow it to integrate better into min till or even ploughing situations.
That makers us opportunist DD/Strip Till i suppose, but Plan A is always to strip till as much as possible, but not at the expense of a crap job. Sometimes more is in fact better.