Direct drill longevity

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Just contemplating a few options

There's been a lot more direct drills both come onto the market and been sold these last few years, but what is taking the test of time well, and what is becoming quickly uneconomical to run?

Some of them seem to have a lot of moving parts to wear out.

Our old Accord combi on CX discs was phenomally expensive compared to both the Farm Force and then Pottinger Aerosem ADD that replaced it

Some drills seem to command big money second hand - is that because they are cheaper to run, rare on the market, or (more likely imo) a mirror of exorbitant new prices?

I thought ten grand a metre was far too dear, but some have gone past double that now!
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Every machine that is the current must-have is always expensive, why there is even an old 4m Moore uni drill in FW for nearly £9k , which must be near twice what it was new in about 1985:ROFLMAO:.
So true, just look at the price of used Vaddy's, cheap as chips as a lot are moving to Sabre tines and proper direct drills. My Massey Direct 130 drill has lasted well although not been used since they went out of "fashion"
 

alomy75

Member
We were looking at drills in 2016 at Cereals and basically everyone was give or take 10k/m for run of the mill stuff. Since then dd drills have exploded in popularity and as lots of farms think they ‘only’ need a drill so many manufacturers have cottoned on and priced accordingly imo. Add to that the massive increase in cost of everything these last 2 years and it’s become expensive buying anything!
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
My 3m Simtech has been very cheap to run, just because it’s such a simple drill with nothing to go wrong really. There are a couple of broken spars to replace on the Springflex roller, which I’ll sort over the winter, but haven’t spent anything on it yet.

I’m not on a big scale, but the original points still look almost new, whereas the points on the older model would have been changed by now (that cost about £1/ac on points), and a few would have been broken on stones.

I thought the Simtech has gone silly dear for what it is, but it’s still under £10k/m. I guess it depends on how many bells and whistles you decide are ‘essentials’ these days?
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
My 3m Simtech has been very cheap to run, just because it’s such a simple drill with nothing to go wrong really. There are a couple of broken spars to replace on the Springflex roller, which I’ll sort over the winter, but haven’t spent anything on it yet.

I’m not on a big scale, but the original points still look almost new, whereas the points on the older model would have been changed by now (that cost about £1/ac on points), and a few would have been broken on stones.

I thought the Simtech has gone silly dear for what it is, but it’s still under £10k/m. I guess it depends on how many bells and whistles you decide are ‘essentials’ these days?
I do like the Simtech. It's biggest flaw for us is a lack of contour following ability
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
Tbh, if you've got contours (wheelings) too deep for a tine drill to level a bit by drilling at an angle, you probably need to level them first with something else.
I'm drilling 40-50mm deep, removing straw and putting muck back, in a mixed rotation. There's going to be wheelings.

There's lots of options out there that don't need pre cultivation
 

Barleymow

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ipswich
20211014_070611.jpg
Well my bamlett cd is still going strong must be over 35
 

Ruston3w

Member
Location
south suffolk
I've given up the battle with our 3m weaving gd, going back to doing all with Simtech. Despite reducing forward speed (max 8k), leaving CC drilling until we had a bit of rain we have worn out a set of discs in 600 acres, lots of small stones on some of it but by no means all. Once the big disc wears down to the diameter of the smaller, which it did some time ago, we struggle to get through the straw without being silly deep.
A pity as it does a cracking job of putting seed into heavy bits where there is grass. One step forward and two back! Just too expensive to run.
Richard.
 
It's like anything, and I bet direct drills are one of the biggest victims of 'fashions' and also the weather. It's all new and shiny one minute and next season it doesn't seem to work and everyone is in the pub laughing at those crops of yours by the road.

Some of them no doubt have expensive parts (min-till/cultivator drills must be the worst for this) but in reality the overall saving compared to ploughing and X,Y,Z must be staggering where you get it right.
 

jack6480

Member
Location
Staffs
I've given up the battle with our 3m weaving gd, going back to doing all with Simtech. Despite reducing forward speed (max 8k), leaving CC drilling until we had a bit of rain we have worn out a set of discs in 600 acres, lots of small stones on some of it but by no means all. Once the big disc wears down to the diameter of the smaller, which it did some time ago, we struggle to get through the straw without being silly deep.
A pity as it does a cracking job of putting seed into heavy bits where there is grass. One step forward and two back! Just too expensive to run.
Richard.
So your saying the only down fall is wearing parts?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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