Establishing cover crops

[Secret Agronomist]

Bear with me here,
At the moment we run a plough/press then power harrow drill system (6m with a front tank for the seed on the biggest tractor which is 270hp). For cover crops if its just a cereal we spin it on and then cultivate it in with a Lemken Karat. For more expensive stuff such as radish etc we cultivate with the Karat or a subsoiler, and then drill it. The cultivation would ideally be 12" deep to loosen compaction and let the cover crops get their roots down as far as possible. So I'm thinking I could get a 3m power harrow and one of those grange machinery toolbars, blow the seed from the front and then we'd be in business. This is in a rotation that has carrots and potatoes with cereals so the ground gets a hard time but I want to try and mitigate that as much as possible. All the straw is baled but is used on the place for the carrots.
My reasoning is;
1) a 3m should be pretty cheap and could be pulled at a reasonable lick behind 270hp even with a deep cultivation toolbar in between.
2) 1 pass with a 3m machine would still be quicker than a 3 or 4 metre cultivator and a 6m drill, the forward speed of the drill is limited by HP.
Any comments?

 

[Will 1594]

use this yellow contraption for stubble tonnops and oil radish , seeds drop behind rings in the grooves they leave coil rolls it in nicely
other pics is bean drill which is shzkerstor legs and bodged those pipes up to blow seed in front of packer when putting cerial radish buckwheat etc mix on a stocks seeder cannot deal with cerial mix and pull an old press behind on a chain
do around 300 acre with the pair

 

[Matt77]

Just be careful how much HP you put through some 3m power harrows, my Kuhn didn’t seem to enjoy 260hp! And because you’ve all the power you don’t always notice when it’s finding it hard work, just my opinion of course.