clbarclay
Member
- Location
- Worcestershire
We tend to know our own ground better than anyone else thats never been there, but it can still surprise us at times as well.Not in 'one lump or two' soils like silty clays. Either slime or slab with bugger all in-between.
A few years ago I was drilling WW into a cover crop with a Unidrill, but had to stop because the moist clay soil disturbed by the discs was stick the stems together and they were being balled up between the press wheels until the drill blocked. After unblocking it enough times, I tried my tine drill (since been rebuilt) which pulled through that cover crop and finished the field without any trouble. Of course I have had other conditions when the tine drill has blocked in less than a bout while the Unidrill had no trouble at all (Linseed stubble).
Discs in front of tines is no guarantee either. I had a Simtech Demo and tested it on part of one field that had been flooded the previous winter and had a lot of dead weeds with tough long branched stems. The discs on the Simtech didn't seem to do much cutting, the ground was soft enough I think the stems were mostly just pushed into the soil by the discs and then gathered up by the tines.
A mile away and not quite so sticky clay, but these pics were from drilling beans last year. Oats harvested and straw swathed start of September and then no consecutive dry days for a month prevented the straw being baled. Late October I tried the tine drill and found it would drill across the swaths. 214mm row spacing and about 700mm between each bank of tines. The headland swaths needed flail mowing before I could drill along them. The second pic was taken in a thick patch of charlock that in places had grown over 1m tall and was no bother.
Talking to Duncan at Groundswell, they would sell leading disc units, but I can't remember if they mentioned a price.