Drilling now

[Brisel]

Brisel and others

how many horses would you reckon your 6m Claydon actually needs in medium soil assuming front tines set fairly shallow (say 25mm deeper than A share) ?

I have 210 on a 3m hybrid and was guilty sometimes of drilling too fast...added 2 legs to make drill 3.43m and tractor still playing with it.
Now wondering about 4m or even 4.8 ...

12 years ago i had 180 hp on a 3.45 V-drill and needed all available, but soil was more raw back then, plus i was running front tine too deep (probably).

Mine is running 4-5" deep on the leading tines. 19 legs on mine, so 31.58cm spacing. The 7" A shares aren't doing much more than keeping the soil off the outlets & the seed is 1-2" deep. 370hp is working reasonably hard on slopes, not throttling back much at 12 kph. Steeper ground and clay brings it to its knees. That's 62 hp/metre. You'd get away with 50 hp/m on light flat well structured ground with the legs at 3-4" but a bit of clay will soon need every pony under the bonnet.

Without knowing your ground, at that depth I'd say you could pull 4m with 210hp. The 4.8m extension is really only 1 extra leg either side.

 

[Flintstone]

@John Slejpner

What speed do you drill at with the Hybrid?

I only ask because I’ve done loads of tests and have decided that in cereals, 9.4 kph is perfect.

Too slow and the ridges stay there after the batter boards pass over them, and too fast and the ‘throw’ is too much and seed depth can be affected.

 

[DrWazzock]

Surely even if its not doing as much good as in the autumn its still doing some good.

I hope so. Certainly shattered the surface. And hasn't brought up clods or lost too much moisture. Might have smeared at depth but never mind.

 

[tw15]

I spent 3 yrs driving a fw60 auto a few years go she was a beast. What sort of drill is that?

Pillar laser dischoe drill , centre section of a 40ft drill over there in Canada , it would be good to have the wings on it 40ft .
The fw is only running at about 1400 revs as fitted a hatz engine to the cart to run the hydraulic fan as also fitted its own oil supply as ford fw,s don't do constant pumping . The engine driving the fan is running just over tick over and only uses a tank of fuel to around 200 acres of drilling .

 

[John Slejpner]

@John Slejpner

What speed do you drill at with the Hybrid?

I only ask because I’ve done loads of tests and have decided that in cereals, 9.4 kph is perfect.

Too slow and the ridges stay there after the batter boards pass over them, and too fast and the ‘throw’ is too much and seed depth can be affected.

10-11 kph but i agree slightly slower would be better.
I am mostly a mix of nice clay and evil clay and i cannot get on v well with batter-boards, so i have removed them. Parmiter type zig-zg harrows, usually next day, is my BB equivalent..

 

[Brisel]

12 kph is plenty fast enough, but with half the farm to sow now plus a job for a neighbour, my patience is limited. I can cover the seed at that speed but not much more. Jeff Claydon says it's the optimum speed but slower does seem to be better.

 

[Flat 10]

10-11 kph but i agree slightly slower would be better.
I am mostly a mix of nice clay and evil clay and i cannot get on v well with batter-boards, so i have removed them. Parmiter type zig-zg harrows, usually next day, is my BB equivalent..

Its not ideal an extra pass.......

 

[John Slejpner]

No Flat, it is not ideal,
but not much of my farming quite hits "ideal".
The main and v important job of the harrow is too help make a rolled surface that is billiard table flat for best flufenacet efficacy.

 

[Flat 10]

No Flat, it is not ideal,
but not much of my farming quite hits "ideal"..

Nor does mine.....,
Can you not tow harrows behind drill as they used to back in the day behind MF 30’s ? Being flippant sorry.

 

[R.B.H]

Finally started after neighbours have all finished. Bit of a change this year with the "new" drill, been using an Accord air drill for years. Drilling a few acres of spring wheat for the 3rd crop, not ideal but should have a local home for it.

 

[Matt77]

No Flat, it is not ideal,
but not much of my farming quite hits "ideal".
The main and v important job of the harrow is too help make a rolled surface that is billiard table flat for best flufenacet efficacy.

Last autumn was the first year of doing it but I used paddles on the rolls for this very reason, was very successful especially as the top had gone off a bit more.

 

[JCfarmer]

Finished drilling spring barley this afternoon , gone in well with some moisture underneath on some heavy clay. It was subsoiled and worked with the carrier in the autumn for black grass. It was rolled after for bg chit and sprayed again and again in the spring. Ran through it with spring tines in feb to move it and dry the top 2”. Roll tomorrow and then rain.

 

[tw15]

Barley planted on Saturday is chitting well some has 10mm roots on already . DD into old cover that was grazed of by sheep over winter .

 

[MrNoo]

Going to need some rain soon, forecast looking dry. Spring wheat going in yesterday.