Duncan Ag : Alternative New Zealand direct drill.

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Just to offer balance to the direct drilling machineary that gets discussed on this forum & share what I've learned ( on a fast curve) & get views opinions from like minded folk.
I'm attaching a few photos of a Duncan drill that arrived on farm 12 months ago. Some of the farm land has seen 2 Duncan drilled crops while other fields have only been drilled once last autumn with winter crops. The soil type is a heavy clay & was previously ploughed + one pass drilled + rolled. All fields needed shallow discing to remove plough/ wheelings & generally level up ground. This will have to continue till year 3. Then I'd hope to drill direct. Using cover crops & FYM to assist.. So far, crops look fair to good except WW after OSR.. Slugs have been a menace. OSR may have to dip out of rotation for a few years....!
The drill has been farm workshop modified to suit needs & seems to work well. Which proves to me you don't need to spend the big money on the perceived best make, which likely needs modifying anyway. !
And the disc or tine debate ?
Choose a drill type that suits you soil type & climate ( and your pocket ) !
Cheers.
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damaged

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
I understand that small wedges are needed in the tine clamps to adjust angle of seeding boot. And seed delivery tube needs back cutting open as a result. Have you done any of these mods or is it not necessary (on your soil or newer drills)?
 

Jim Bullock

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Very interesting... What does 3 or. 4 meter machine cost in NZ. I think there would be a lot of UK growers who would risk going down the direct-drilling route if they could lay their hands on a drill in the £15k-£25 price range...
 
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Four or five years ago I was looking for a second hand seed drill and basically found that anything that was cheap was just about buggered and that anything half decent wasn't much cheaper than new.
Ended up looking at the Atkinson Grass Farmer and the Duncan Ecoseeder, ended up purchasing the later, a trailed, twin box with disc openers, used with grass seed either direct drilled into existing pasture (@10-12kg/ha) or drilling after crops of either maize or turnips (normally at 24-26 kg/ha, cross drilled).
The last picture will be the odd one out, maize paddock single drilled at 10kg/ha, sown end of March/early April.
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@damaged ive seen that tread on TFF re the wedges but I'm undecided as to wheither it would be an improvement with benefits ( or not ). The best test on the machine I've done to date was drilling beans into grass & it worked well, Harrow & roller closed 90% of the slots. Beans all up !
@Jim Bullock the 3meter, twin box, trailed costed circa 25k Euros. But then I added box extensions ( from 350 litre to 500 litre), extra box section to drill frame to accommodate moving 1 tine (for extra clearance) & weights & towing roller, after harrow, trailed roller, electronic seed box indicators & LED lighting.
The drill doesn't come with tramlines or markers but then why would I need them when I want to drill diagonally every other year.
It's certainly a more affordable option when it seems the competitor drills here are all north of 50k E. ,!
 

zetor-man

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northern Ireland
Hi Tractor Tom

are you based in Ireland

how has the drill done this wet autumn ,

do you put any fert on along with winter sown crops

im based in Northern Ireland and looking at establishing spring barley using a Duncan and putting fert down the pipe

zm
 
Then I added a home built liquid fert kit to make better use off fert in the slot & allow both boxes for seed & keep fert away from the drill as much as possible
 

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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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