Horsch Avatar 12.25 SF Zerotill bean drilling

[Clive]

Some drone footage I got last week while drilling our winter beans

 

[juke]

why such a high seed rate is that for weed suppression or was the germ on seed not to good or was it the weather related

 

[Clive]

why such a high seed rate is that for weed suppression or was the germ on seed not to good or was it the weather related

Germ is good FSS (92%) - I have just found over the years that I get much better yields and cleaner crops from higher seed rates

 

[yellowbelly]

Some drone footage I got last week while drilling our winter beans

As a dyed-in-the-wool, pretty much 100% ploughing disciple all my life, I have to say that, that is very impressive.

It would be very interesting if you could post monthly pics of the progress of that - apologies if you already do that sort of thing already, but as mainly an inhabitant of Livestock & Forage, I rarely venture into the threads of Direct Drilling or Cropping?

 

[redsloe]

Agreed, it's pretty impressive! I would like updates too, it would be interesting to see anything grow through having got the drill through it!
12m might be a bit big for our Cornish fields but the idea must be an ambition for us all imo.

 

[Oilseed]

Incredibly impressive.
My only worry with a cover crop is in a dry autumn , if you have lost all the moisture and cant get the drill in the ground.
Have you ever had that problem?

 

[Hindsight]

Thank you. Very impressive. And the subtitles explained all. In particular pleased you included an actual soil series as reference. Makes it so much easier to understand than a generic term 'loam' or 'clay'.

Best wishes for the future. Certainly the correct thing to do on that soil type.

Link to description of Wick series

https://www.landis.org.uk/services/soilsguide/series.cfm?serno=2225

 

[cb387]

Was the cover crop established through chopped straw or was straw baled?

 

[yellow belly]

If it is a dry autumn no till on any soil type is in its element
last autumn was perfect
this autumn patience is the only option
soil that is too wet needs to wait forcing it and hopeing is not a good option
cultivation can make it worse and undo the benefit of notill
the more years of notill the easier it gets especially heavier soil types
the cost savings mount up

 

[Oscar]

Is that your yard behind with all the buildings ??
Shame combine is still outside !!!
Very impressive drill. How deep are you able to drill the beans ?
Noticed in a couple shots ,it seemed to have a heap of trash on left side of drill. Just wondered if that just falls out or do you get problems at time and have to clear .
As others have said, please give us some updates during the season, thanks.

 

[Farma Parma]

as impressive that whole idea looks, how do you kill off the covercrop so that the beans can get away & none of the cover crops is still there
strange weve spent 50years of making the job right by cultivating the land & getting rid of atleast most of the previous crop (BIOMASS)
and this just says na stuff that idea.

surely that doesnt work in all cereals tho?

wish i could drill 13ha an hour...

Hats off if it works but it looks a right mess.

Please tell us & show pics of all them beans sown & all that green cover crop gone now that will be something

Better sell me drill & all the land kit & order one of them horsch drills.

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Questions,questions, questions!

 

[Clive]

Questions,questions, questions!

I’m in Germany at Agritechnica at the moment so not a lot of time to spare - I will answer questions when I get back at the end of the week

glad you’re liking the video !

 

[Clive]

Been doing this a while, it certainly works and for all crops not just beans ! - this was last years beans with our old drill

They ended up looking like this and doing 2-3t /ac

 

[ajd132]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=913213649019239

This a video of us planting osr into stripper header spring barley. It certainly looks messy. We’ve done wheat the same way and yielded the same as nicely cultivated soil. Need to stop worrying about things looking a mess.

 

[Clive]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=913213649019239

This a video of us planting osr into stripper header spring barley. It certainly looks messy. We’ve done wheat the same way and yielded the same as nicely cultivated soil. Need to stop worrying about things looking a mess.

“Mess” is subjective

to me that looks tidy and a brown cultivated field looks a “mess”

 

[ajd132]

This is what it looked like after, it’s generally worked well although I did lose some, but that was more down to my bad management than the technique! Heavy rain outside but I am happy the soil is well protected.

 

[deleted user 837354]

How in the world can either video show anything looking a mess?

The only possible thing I could see going wrong was that there wasn't an 828 in either.

About time we started an online petition to make Clive buy a stripper header too..... All this chopping of straw seems unnecessary.

 

[ajd132]

How in the world can either video show anything looking a mess?

The only possible thing I could see going wrong was that there wasn't an 828 in either.

About time we started an online petition to make Clive buy a stripper header too..... All this chopping of straw seems unnecessary.

The stripper header works well in certain situations we have found but you need to be careful and not go mad with it. Can cause more hassle than it’s worth.
I certainly learnt a lot from trying this technique this year and I know why it didn’t work very well on some of the fields (basically idiot on the seat,me, doesn’t know how to set a disc drill up and was unaware how a little bit of rain can affect depth).
this is a picture of the other way we do it which is with a tine drill, in between the rows using RTK taken yesterday and was the last bit we drilled circa August 10th I think and probably the best field!

 

[ajd132]

This is nearly exactly where that earlier video was made taken just now. This is the best bit, some of it doesn’t look this good.