Cotswold brash

[Henry020484]

Evening all

Taking on a new farm, Cotswold brash, starting with a fresh machinery plan.
Have experience and knowledge on current farm, but little on Cotswold brash.
Wanting to go DD, growing winter cereals and Spring crops, using cover crops in the rotation.

Does anyone have any knowledge to share regarding the best sowing system for this soil type?

I'm currently favouring the sumo DTS, running a straw rake or carrier along side
Thoughts?

 

[damaged]

Strip till may well "heap" the stone that ridge and won't roll down from our experience with another make.
We use a Moore tandem uni drill, it came off a brash farm and works well on shallow till/dd.

 

[damaged]

 

[damaged]

Left of dog, Moore dd ww. Right of dog simtech demo drilled.

 

[Henry020484]

Th

Left of dog, Moore dd ww. Right of dog simtech demo drilled.

Thanks for this

Do you run anything along side your Moore drill? Or simply DD everything with this drill? Is your soil shallow with high brash content?

 

[pear]

Left of dog, Moore dd ww. Right of dog simtech demo drilled.

Which simtech @damaged? Is it the wider row spacing one, the 'A' model?

 

[damaged]

@pear . It was the 300A basic box 16 legs. Excellent concept. Demo was in too deep but otherwise pleased.
@Henry020484 . I love the idea of "simply dd everything. ." No I'm not that experienced.We still shallow till some or no til surface but do drainage with mole. Organic land ploughed-better condition than arable rotation so no problem with soil life there. So a combination drill kuhn accord too.
The brash is shallow and stoney but all straw bailed off so Moore works fine on it all. Better, in fact , than deep tilled combination drilled headlands this wet season.
Have you much to drill?

 

[Henry020484]

A fair amount yes, but I've been told that if I tried to plough the land I would regret for 10 years, due to the brash content.

I feel strip tillage is a more versatile option at this stage than DD disc drills, but I do have concerns of bringing to much brash to the surface even with that system, and the row width of 300mm on strip leaving large gaps for drought conditions.

Just looking for the most versatile drill to cover as many bases as possible

 

[Flintstone]

Apart from the DTS, what else have you considered?

 

[Henry020484]

Claydon- I have concerns on slot closing with the Claydon, plus no cutting disc as standard

Mazuri - sledge hammer to crack a nut on this farm I think

DTS - individual coulter depth control, good slot closing system, and the most features I think you require form strip till, to be as versatile as possible, good cutting disc, decent cultivation tine, reasonably simple operation.
Demoed a DTS here on current farm, but would most likely do the same on new farm

 

[Shutesy]

I feel strip tillage is a more versatile option at this stage than DD disc drills, but I do have concerns of bringing to much brash to the surface even with that system, and the row width of 300mm on strip leaving large gaps for drought conditions.

Cant comment on bringing brash to the surface but even on 330mm row centres with our DTS, with cereals sown in a 150mm band you can see between the strips obviously until around now where our most forward wheat's are touching between the rows. Also if you are drilling into stubble, the trash left between each cultivated strip covering the ground should conserve some moisture for you in drier periods, more so than if you plough and cultivate it all letting all the moisture out, in some years that's not good, years like this one, letting some moisture out perhaps not such a bad thing who knows.

 

[Dockers]

Henry020484, go and see Nick August, just outside Burford. Doing a great job with his Seedhawk.

 

[Henry020484]

Cant comment on bringing brash to the surface but even on 330mm row centres with our DTS, with cereals sown in a 150mm band you can see between the strips obviously until around now where our most forward wheat's are touching between the rows. Also if you are drilling into stubble, the trash left between each cultivated strip covering the ground should conserve some moisture for you in drier periods, more so than if you plough and cultivate it all letting all the moisture out, in some years that's not good, years like this one, letting some moisture out perhaps not such a bad thing who knows.

What are your thoughts on the DTS

Pros cons

What was your establishment method before?

 

[Shutesy]

What are your thoughts on the DTS

Pros cons

What was your establishment method before?

We used to be all plough, powerharrow tine drill, roll apart from OSR which went in off the back of a cultivator. We now DTS drill everything but still plough for 1st wheats due to our contract for the grain.
So pro's for me would be the drill is very well built and designed and Sumo are v gd on backup. It changed our system to more of a 1 man operation for the majority which was part of our plan as we go direct into stubble now for most of the crops and the 1 drill can drill everything we grow. It has accurate seed placement, accurate metering and easy calibration. I like the individual coulter contour following. Its easy to clean out when changing crops etc, doesn't take much greasing despite quite a few parts. Its pulled quite easily by our 150hp tractor, the wearing metal seems to last a good while but then I haven't got anything to compare it to really. The coulter extension kit (new drills already have it fitted) has made a big difference in trashy straw situations for us. I also like the idea of growing crops in strips, for moisture retention as said in earlier post and for allowing air and sunlight to get in among the crop to keep it healthier.
Cons for me are its quite heavy when full of seed and a bit of soil stuck to it, could do with as bigger tractor really as ours only just lifts it, not exactly the drills fault though I guess. It doesn't work brilliantly in heavy wet clay thats a bit lifeless, but then again should you be drilling when its that wet and to be fair I doubt any strip till drill would work that well in that sort of soil if its that wet. Also I'm not sure having press wheels on the back is always the best option if it is a bit wet but there is no alternative currently (though thinking of ideas in my head). It has highlighted more so than a plough based system perhaps where we have a few drainage issues on headlands and low spots in fields, again thats more a field issue than a drill issue, sort the field drainage out and said headlands etc should improve irrelevant of the drill. Not really a con as such but trash management is crucial, we left some stubble to long at harvest and had issues with blocking when drilling soon after the combine, come october similar stubble went pretty well in comparison but shorter stubbles, raking, some baling possibly and the coulter extension kit fitted should fix all that hopefully. I did have to fabricate a handle to open and shut the calibration hole underneath the Orga metering system as it was very hard to open by hand. Don't know for sure but I would think Sumo probably fit there own handles now. I prefered the DTS to the Claydon and we couldn't lift or pull a Mzuri so I made my choice. Still learning everyday about the drill and the system as well.

 

[Henry020484]

We used to be all plough, powerharrow tine drill, roll apart from OSR which went in off the back of a cultivator. We now DTS drill everything but still plough for 1st wheats due to our contract for the grain.
So pro's for me would be the drill is very well built and designed and Sumo are v gd on backup. It changed our system to more of a 1 man operation for the majority which was part of our plan as we go direct into stubble now for most of the crops and the 1 drill can drill everything we grow. It has accurate seed placement, accurate metering and easy calibration. I like the individual coulter contour following. Its easy to clean out when changing crops etc, doesn't take much greasing despite quite a few parts. Its pulled quite easily by our 150hp tractor, the wearing metal seems to last a good while but then I haven't got anything to compare it to really. The coulter extension kit (new drills already have it fitted) has made a big difference in trashy straw situations for us. I also like the idea of growing crops in strips, for moisture retention as said in earlier post and for allowing air and sunlight to get in among the crop to keep it healthier.
Cons for me are its quite heavy when full of seed and a bit of soil stuck to it, could do with as bigger tractor really as ours only just lifts it, not exactly the drills fault though I guess. It doesn't work brilliantly in heavy wet clay thats a bit lifeless, but then again should you be drilling when its that wet and to be fair I doubt any strip till drill would work that well in that sort of soil if its that wet. Also I'm not sure having press wheels on the back is always the best option if it is a bit wet but there is no alternative currently (though thinking of ideas in my head). It has highlighted more so than a plough based system perhaps where we have a few drainage issues on headlands and low spots in fields, again thats more a field issue than a drill issue, sort the field drainage out and said headlands etc should improve irrelevant of the drill. Not really a con as such but trash management is crucial, we left some stubble to long at harvest and had issues with blocking when drilling soon after the combine, come october similar stubble went pretty well in comparison but shorter stubbles, raking, some baling possibly and the coulter extension kit fitted should fix all that hopefully. I did have to fabricate a handle to open and shut the calibration hole underneath the Orga metering system as it was very hard to open by hand. Don't know for sure but I would think Sumo probably fit there own handles now. I prefered the DTS to the Claydon and we couldn't lift or pull a Mzuri so I made my choice. Still learning everyday about the drill and the system as well.

Thank you for your drill knowledge very helpful

Do you run a straw rake along side

 

[Shutesy]

Thank you for your drill knowledge very helpful

Do you run a straw rake along side

Last harvest no but we needed one, but we will be this year as of today

 

[damaged]

 

[damaged]

Strip till showing ridges. Not a good pic but hopefully shows seedlings growing out of the hollows. We tried rolling pre em but to no avail.

 

[damaged]

 

[damaged]

It did grow okay tho.