Dale Eco-Drill

[Richard III]

I was really asking about Richard iii's simtech, would be interesting to hear about the wider ones if he owns one?

It's the 4.8m drill. I would think quality of depth control is similar to the 3m really. I tend to set the tines just slightly deeper than where I would ideally like them, to avoid any amount of seed going in too shallow. Some of the fields here are quite undulating and the drill copes fine.

 

[marco]

why don't more people get the dale simba freeflow conversion? what kind of cost per meter does anyone know?

 

[Jim Bullock]

It's the 4.8m drill. I would think quality of depth control is similar to the 3m really. I tend to set the tines just slightly deeper than where I would ideally like them, to avoid any amount of seed going in too shallow. Some of the fields here are quite undulating and the drill copes fine.

Richard...is the depth control fairly consistant..? I am having real problems with our Kuhn (4 metre) this spring..some areas I am having difficulty in covering the seed.. yet in wetter parts it's in nearly 2"... The dill is now 15 years old and in desperate need of replacement..but what with...? I am a great fan of the Simtech-T-Sem but I really need a 4 metre drill with sufficient hopper capacity to drill 8-10 has per fill up....which makes the Dale look like the answer....but where I have been drilling today I doubt if it would have been possible without a leading disc to deal with the residue....

 

[Richard III]

Richard...is the depth control fairly consistant..? I am having real problems with our Kuhn (4 metre) this spring..some areas I am having difficulty in covering the seed.. yet in wetter parts it's in nearly 2"... The dill is now 15 years old and in desperate need of replacement..but what with...? I am a great fan of the Simtech-T-Sem but I really need a 4 metre drill with sufficient hopper capacity to drill 8-10 has per fill up....which makes the Dale look like the answer....but where I have been drilling today I doubt if it would have been possible without a leading disc to deal with the residue....

I am sorry to hear your having a bit of a struggle with the drilling Jim, it sounds like it is a bit drier with us here, just short of some warmth though!

Yes depth control is very consistent I would say, it won't change when going from hard and dry to soft and wet soil or light to heavy soil. Depth only really varies when going through humps or hollows.

I can certainly see why your struggling to choose your next drill. I am not keen on heavy mounted drills, and would rather have a trailed drill with individual coulter depth control. However I think I need the leading disc and the SimTec was cheaper than a Dale.

I would like to see a Dale and a SimTec run alongside each other in wet conditions. I wonder if the T boot is less likely to produce a waterlogged slot due to it's little side wings. But on the other hand the Dale could possibly drill shallower, which could be an advantage?

 

[Pilatus]

Clive, did you take any pictures of the guttlers? I can see they have different ones compared to last year, but can't see clearly what they are like

The the spindles onthe Guttler wheels on the Dale drill that I know of, are an extremely crude form of engineering .They consist of just a bolt,wth no bearing at all, from what I can see,and although the actual wheels are secuerd by lock nuts on the bolts,they still consistently come undone,and of course the centre of the wheels wear quite quickly.Another problem is now that the operator has made a mod so that they run as a V some the bolts bend.

 

[robinsjanis]

How's anyone coping with Dale ecodrill currently?
They now offer leading disc before tine, so should help with lots of trash. Also you can replace discs with leading tine..
To me seems good concept to avoid hairpinning and you don't need huge tractor to pull 4m or 4.8m drill. Some mentioned here that 6m requires 200hp.
Has the performance of wearing parts increase or not?

 

[clbarclay]

Dale were talking about only 120hp on their first 6m drills.

 

[robinsjanis]

Dale were talking about only 120hp on their first 6m drills.

I jave heard this,but I wanted to know first hand experience,because I like this drill and variable row is very good feature.

 

[Against_the_grain]

200hp pulled our 8m fine in most conditions. 240hp is master of the job in all.
2011 drill here. Massive output. Bit crude in certain areas but would have another. Not the same build quality as a vaderstad or horsch but way more versatile.
Haven't got leading disc option so cant comment.
Probably 50%direct drilled into stubble 25%mintill 25% ploughed.

 

[Cotsfarmer]

We have a 10 metre here. We are going into our second season with it and we love it. 250hp demo tractor pulled it last summer up a fairly steep hill but we are on brash.

I drilled about 4000 acres with it last year and I would say the tines and coulters will last another 4000 before we have to change them. Drilling into 800 acres of stubble turnips that had been grazed in the spring really wore them down.

 

[B'o'B]

4.2m on a 105hp JD3350 no trouble but only gentle rolling countryside. It could handle a 5m and that would make the tractor work a bit harder and make the driver slow the forward speed down a bit which I think would probably be beneficial.

 

[Chae1]

Hows the op BB pigman getting on?

Looked at the dale drill at groundswell and spoke to the guy that sells it. Was impressed with drill and him. Think they'd a 6215r on a 3m.

 

[AF Salers]

OP's farm was sold by landlord a few years ago from memory, when he was last he posting he was a salesman for his local AGCO dealer, Peacock & Binnington

 

[Brisel]

Who is using a Dale for sowing cover crops or osr into chopped spring barley stubbles? I've demoed the single disc openers fitted to Avatars and the 750A. Both pushed a bit of straw into the slot. Unless I can get row cleaners to clean the ground in front of the disc, a tine drill is the logical way to go to sweep stones & straw out of the way.

 

[Cotsfarmer]

We’ve used ours to drill cover crops and OSR into chopped wheat and winter barley straw. It leaves a lovely clean slot but it will leave a few lumps of straw dotted about if the chopper hasn’t spread very well.

 

[Brisel]

We’ve used ours to drill cover crops and OSR into chopped wheat and winter barley straw. It leaves a lovely clean slot but it will leave a few lumps of straw dotted about if the chopper hasn’t spread very well.

Thank you. What row spacing was that? Both legs nearly in line or spread wide for minimum row spacing? Osr and cover crops wouldn't need the narrower spacing but spring cereals would though a winter's worm activity and weathering should help.

 

[Cotsfarmer]

To be honest we’ve never drilled into a cover crop. We put mustard in behind the winter barley this time which we will try to drill next time it comes dry. All the cover crops were drilled at the 5 inch spacing and the OSR at 10 inch with the fertiliser going on at the same time.

 

[Will7]

Who is using a Dale for sowing cover crops or osr into chopped spring barley stubbles? I've demoed the single disc openers fitted to Avatars and the 750A. Both pushed a bit of straw into the slot. Unless I can get row cleaners to clean the ground in front of the disc, a tine drill is the logical way to go to sweep stones & straw out of the way.

Me. If the seedhawk counts. Same principle. How long have you got.....

 

[Brisel]

Me. If the seedhawk counts. Same principle. How long have you got.....

A month or two! I'm happy to chat on the phone if you'd rather not type a long diatribe!

I'm trying to have my cake & eat it - I hate selling straw but unless I can find a drill that can cope with it that's what I will have to keep doing. A tine theoretically would be better on a stony soil with loose debris.

 

[B'o'B]

We did rape into s.barley stubble with chopped straw. With a Dale with the seed hawk tine, I didn’t have the counter knives in enough on the straw chopper so straw length was a bit too long and didn’t flow well through the drill.

We ended up blocking off the middle row of tines and putting angle irons over the rams to keep the tines out the ground. This got the crop drilled with pairs of rows 25cm apart with 50cm between the pairs which looked a bit odd but did the job.

We now have a second GPS dome on the drill and so can now reliably drill in between the rows of stubble which has taken the drill up a level for handling residue in my opinion.