Direct drills

[Drillman]

Having finally got my head round DD were probably going to try a bit this next year.

for now I will use a contractor but going forwards if the results are favourable I will take the job back in house.

reading thru various things I see a lot of farms big and small are home building drills.

Is this because of the lack of off the shelf machines?

Or the sheer cost of machines nowadays?

or another reason?

we’re very much at the smaller end of the scale but do like the flexibility of running our own kit. So would certainly not want to spend much on shiny paint.

 

[Kevtherev]

What sort of crops will you be drilling @Drillman ?

 

[Drillman]

What sort of crops will you be drilling @Drillman ?

Wheat, barley, oats,OSR

Not necessarily in that precise order though

 

[Kevtherev]

Wheat, barley, oats,OSR

Could you find a used Moore as a starting point or would you prefer a tine drill?

 

[Bob lincs]

Would you like to build a drill yourself ?

 

[Drillman]

Could you find a used Moore as a starting point or would you prefer a tine drill?

I’m not sure yet but would think on our land a tine would be better than a disc.

 

[Drillman]

Would you like to build a drill yourself ?

I’m not that skilled to do it myself but wouldn’t discount getting someone locally to help me once I figured the right concept out.

cost obviously is the main factor especially as we’re only talking double digit acres, And existing conventional kit I wouldn’t sell as need it to fulfill some contracting requirements

 

[Kevtherev]

 

[Drillman]

View attachment 946677

That one is £6950 now

not really at the purchase stage yet.

just interested in how and why folks are building there own drills.

 

[Kevtherev]

That one is £6950 now

not really at the purchase stage yet.

just interested in how and why folks are building there own drills.

Yes very interested myself as it’s something I’ve always wanted to do
(More grassland based here though)

 

[Bob lincs]

That one is £6950 now

not really at the purchase stage yet.

just interested in how and why folks are building there own drills.

We have designed and built several drills that suit our farm and soil type , when we looked on the market for an off the self drill we couldn’t find anything we liked and thought would be suitable. We run front hoppers so build different back ends and are now building our sixth one .

 

[Drillman]

We have designed and built several drills that suit our farm and soil type , when we looked on the market for an off the self drill we couldn’t find anything we liked and thought would be suitable. We run front hoppers so build different back ends and are now building our sixth one .

Must admit the front hopper/toolbar concept does appeal, mainly as I’m always aware of how much harder our combi is to pull when the hopper is full.

 

[som farmer]

we bought a well maintained used 3m rapid vaderstaad, for £7,500. Mainly for dd, or grass seed, we have used it for rape, vetches, rye, and corn, it is an amazingly versatile piece of kit, and accurate. We have used it for dd, and as a conventional drill, and paid for itself in 2 yrs. I used to think £50/60 on a drill was utter stupidity, but i can see why they cost that now, the 3 metre ones are cheaper, to small.

 

[Wombat]

Mine was built for cost and versatility

 

[hally]

View attachment 946677

It’s a fair age that drill, manual depth control was a real pain in the backside in fields with differing soil types

 

[Bob lincs]

View attachment 946677

Thats my old drill i sold about years ago for £6000 , i brought it from a local farm sale at 3yrs old for £8500 .

 

[Warnesworth]

By the time you've built a drill I bet it'll be very near the cost of an old Horsch CO or Simba Freeflow that you can simply retrofit narrow opening tines to for very little money and have a drill that'll work very well in almost all conditions. Then if you don't carry on the drill is still worth near enough what you paid for it. In fact these drills seem to to appreciating now so you might even be quids in.....

 

[Warnesworth]

I don't suppose anyone's got a 2.4 m Moore they don't want? I think they did a 2.4m?

 

[del_boy]

I don't suppose anyone's got a 2.4 m Moore they don't want? I think they did a 2.4m?

I've got a 3m moore i might be interested in selling if thats any use. New discs and bearings and coulters with an accord hopper on with hydraulic fan

 

[TWF]

I don't suppose anyone's got a 2.4 m Moore they don't want? I think they did a 2.4m?

We were looking at a Horsch Sprinter as a tine drill to complement our disc direct drill , and trying to find a fert grain one ,there weren't that many. They are really holding their money now that every one has cotton on to putting the narrow tine conversions on.
We also have an old 4m Moore they are hopeless at holding a constant depth in a DD situation where the soil type changes a lot. fine for DD grass margins though. You would be better with an old Rapid drill just to try and learn what you are doing.
We were also looking for a second hand Dale. Non. So we are now importing a vaderstad 800c Seedhawk 30 series for not much more than these 6m Sprinters are making.
Nearly went with this " https://www.mascus.co.uk/agricultur...riathlon-10-meter-trailed-drill/rcscvbnb.html " to home build a drill. The hopper is split so you could do seed/fert. Looked at putting Vos openers on it. We were just worried about closing the slot and no room to put a harrow in front of the press wheels. Would make a cheap cover crop drill.