Moore Unidrill instead of 750A/Avatar

[Brisel]

Am I mad spending over £100k on a new triple hopper 6m Avatar or £85k on a new 750A (plus the fertiliser kit) when things like this are available second hand? Even second hand 750As with the older openers are fetching serious money.

MOORE UNIDRILL TANDEM DPA600 Direct Drill 6 metre - Agri-Linc

MOORE UNIDRILL TANDEM DPA600 Direct Drill 6 metre, Front Tandem wheel packer, tungsten coulters, Sulky Metering with Tramline control, 36 coulter

www.agri-linc.com

Same 7 degree disc angle. Good seed depth control and bias front to back as required for hard/soft conditions. Good slot closure most of the time. Ready availability of spares. Ok, so I'd have to add a front mounted liquid fertiliser tank and application kit to the drill.

My major reservation is the disc. I can't see it working in chopped straw without shoving the residues down the slot. Has anyone fitted row cleaners to a Moore??

This would be used as a disc no till drill where my Claydon isn't needed.

Is Edwin Taylor a TFF member? He bought one to get him started on no till but now has a JD, I think.

 

[juke]

Edwin got a 750 think hes onto his 2 nd season with it now, he has a horsch co aswell

 

[SilliamWhale]

Have you trialed a 750 on the land yet?

 

[GeorgeK]

We have a 3m version of that type of Unidrill. The new Sky Easy Drill is pretty much the same design, with improvements to the longevity of the linkages and bearings (which wear quickly on ours). It doesn't seem to have any problems with pushing chopped straw in the slot, but from what I read on here the 750 has better seed placement and slot closure. For the acreages you do I think you will want the 750, ours does the job and grows good crops but a bit crude compared to the results people seem to get from their 750's

 

[Bob lincs]

Am I mad spending over £100k on a new triple hopper 6m Avatar or £85k on a new 750A (plus the fertiliser kit) when things like this are available second hand? Even second hand 750As with the older openers are fetching serious money.

MOORE UNIDRILL TANDEM DPA600 Direct Drill 6 metre - Agri-Linc

MOORE UNIDRILL TANDEM DPA600 Direct Drill 6 metre, Front Tandem wheel packer, tungsten coulters, Sulky Metering with Tramline control, 36 coulter

www.agri-linc.com

Same 7 degree disc angle. Good seed depth control and bias front to back as required for hard/soft conditions. Good slot closure most of the time. Ready availability of spares. Ok, so I'd have to add a front mounted liquid fertiliser tank and application kit to the drill.

My major reservation is the disc. I can't see it working in chopped straw without shoving the residues down the slot. Has anyone fitted row cleaners to a Moore??

This would be used as a disc no till drill where my Claydon isn't needed.

Is Edwin Taylor a TFF member? He bought one to get him started on no till but now has a JD, I think.

Why not a GD ?

 

[Brisel]

Why not a GD ?

I’d need an 8m one instead of a 6m because they need to go slower for good seed placement. I didn’t like the 8m demo I had this spring. Not good across slopes and IMO it wouldn’t cope with my stony ground well over time. Yielded 1 t/ha less than the Claydon.

I’ll see if there are any second hand ones about. Great concept though.

 

[Brisel]

Have you trialed a 750 on the land yet?

Yes. Pro Series openers too. Did a great job but 17mm rain the day before on chopped spring barley straw meant it did hairpin straw into the slot. The seed grew ok though and to be fair the discs had some wear. Easily the best opener on the market, and easily modified for extras like Guttlers, row cleaners etc. Just that daft chassis and extensive work needed to add fertilser etc. Second hand ones start at £60k last time I looked.

 

[Clive]

Having done a few acres of wheat with the Avatar finally now I rate the slot closure as much better than the 750a

it’s done stuff today we couldn’t have done with the JD

It’s loads better built / engineered as well and much more operator friendly

sorry but not really helping re the Unidrill question ! Just been very impressed by the avatar today !

 

[Andrew K]

Brisel,
Not sure but think the Sly Boss drill will work quicker than the GD in terms of forward speed but a few around now?

 

[DrWazzock]

An expert operator can achieve as good a result with a Unidrill as any of these other expensive disc drills. It's all about getting the depth right. Which you can do with a Undrill with front press wheels or on the move depth adjustment.

By all means pay another £20k to make it idiot proof, but I'll stick with the Undrill.

I find many things in farming are priced so that 80% of the price achieves about 5% improvement.

 

[DrWazzock]

Why does pushing a bit of residue into the slot matter? There is still soil and moisture there. It still grows. Smear slot, flooded slot, sealed over slot is a real problem.

 

[Brisel]

Brisel,
Not sure but think the Sly Boss drill will work quicker than the GD in terms of forward speed but a few around now?

I liked the Boss drill too. Not many around yet & am worried about backup. Proven opener design from Oz.

 

[Brisel]

Why does pushing a bit of residue into the slot matter? There is still soil and moisture there. It still grows. Smear slot, flooded slot, sealed over slot is a real problem.

It matters a lot to me as I grow a lot of spring barley & want to sow cover crops or osr right behind the combine. Straw around the seed = dead seed as the straw decays.

 

[DrWazzock]

It matters a lot to me as I grow a lot of spring barley & want to sow cover crops or osr right behind the combine. Straw around the seed = dead seed as the straw decays.

By the time spring comes, chopped straw isn't a problem for my Undrill. It cuts through it.

Drilling into chopped cereal straw immediately post harvest is a problem, admittedly. Drillng into chopped OSR or bean straw post harvest isn't a problem for my unidrill.

Cereal straw, bale it, wait till spring or cultivate stubbles.....or pay another £20k for a drill that might work.

 

[DrWazzock]

Id be very surprised if any disc drill will direct drill into a 4 t per acre winter barley straw without hair pinning.

 

[DrWazzock]

Plenty of volunteers growing out the top of wet Hestons as well this year.

 

[Brisel]

Id be very surprised if any disc drill will direct drill into a 4 t per acre winter barley straw without hair pinning.

That's why I was asking about row cleaners. 2.5 t/ac of spring barley straw will be worse than a bigger quantity of winter barley straw. I'd sell the winter barley straw and buy it back as compost or sewage cake TBH.

 

[DrWazzock]

I have used row cleaners in front of a beet drill. A reekie tine and the clod pusher. Rowed up chopped wheat straw very well between rows on my accord Kverneland beef drill. Never tried in front of undirill. Row widths too narrow to accommodate volume of straw between them. Bale or a quick run over with stubble cultivator. No biggy. Helps chit more rubbish.

 

[Farmer Roy]

That's why I was asking about row cleaners. 2.5 t/ac of spring barley straw will be worse than a bigger quantity of winter barley straw. I'd sell the winter barley straw and buy it back as compost or sewage cake TBH.

I run "trash whippers" or row cleaners on my double disc row crop planter on 1 metre row spacings.
I had one field of very heavy, lodged cereal straw, that they were successfully clearing, but the resulting windrow / bulk of straw they produced was causing issues with clearance between the rows ( 1 m row spacing, so at a guess 75 cm of actual room between rows ) and causing blockages there or dragging

in the end, I just removed them, set the depth deeper to account for the mat of straw, increased down pressure & carried on. Did a better, tidier job

dunno how they would go in heavy straw with narrow rows ?

they work best in STANDING straw, I have found

 

[Tractor Boy]

Having done a few acres of wheat with the Avatar finally now I rate the slot closure as much better than the 750a

it’s done stuff today we couldn’t have done with the JD

It’s loads better built / engineered as well and much more operator friendly

sorry but not really helping re the Unidrill question ! Just been very impressed by the avatar today !

I can see how the Avatar is more user friendly as that is the real weakness of the jd in my opinion. My question though is why you think the Avatar closed the slot better and worked in more adverse conditions when in all honesty the opener looks an identical copy.