Most Stable and Easy Grain Drill Depth Control.

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I have a Moore Unidrill and an MF30.
I can get depth satisfactory in the end but it always seems a bit of a battle and a head scratcher.
Why aren’t grain drills made like beet drills? Set and forget. Stable depth through soft and hard going not constantly on the lever.
I have soft sand and clay like concrete here. I’m tired of on the move manual adjustment.
The unidrill is a confusing one. The deeper you go, the more sand it pushes to the side. Then the heavy press wheel pushes a bit more sand to the side. So the coulter can be 3” in but the seed covered in half an inch in the bottom of a deep open trench. Rain or wind can level it off adding another inch. Always had good establishment though so not complaining. It’s just a bit bizarre. The MF30 is extremely sensitive in the sand, but tends to run on top of knobbles.
What are tine drills like? Do they hold depth better? If so how? Can’t see it myself.
I’d prefer to trade in the unidrill and MF30 for something better if there is anything. Unidrill won’t drill beans down 25mm seed tubes, hence have to keep the MF30.
Maybe it’s just as good as it gets on my budget.
 

Shutesy

Moderator
Arable Farmer
I have a Moore Unidrill and an MF30.
I can get depth satisfactory in the end but it always seems a bit of a battle and a head scratcher.
Why aren’t grain drills made like beet drills? Set and forget. Stable depth through soft and hard going not constantly on the lever.
I have soft sand and clay like concrete here. I’m tired of on the move manual adjustment.
The unidrill is a confusing one. The deeper you go, the more sand it pushes to the side. Then the heavy press wheel pushes a bit more sand to the side. So the coulter can be 3” in but the seed covered in half an inch in the bottom of a deep open trench. Rain or wind can level it off adding another inch. Always had good establishment though so not complaining. It’s just a bit bizarre. The MF30 is extremely sensitive in the sand, but tends to run on top of knobbles.
What are tine drills like? Do they hold depth better? If so how? Can’t see it myself.
I’d prefer to trade in the unidrill and MF30 for something better if there is anything. Unidrill won’t drill beans down 25mm seed tubes, hence have to keep the MF30.
Maybe it’s just as good as it gets on my budget.
Tine drills (KV TS/Weaving Tine drill etc) pretty basic in terms of depth control, can get fairly consistent depths with a well cultivated even seedbed and a bit of tinkering. Nowhere near as good as a Vaderstad Rapid though which has excellent depth control, no use in the wet though. Could you find a cheapish old Rapid?
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
For the time being here is my depth indicator. Barrow wheel runs on surface as datum. Green arrow links to counter. Keep the green arrow point on the washer and depth is about right. Barrow wheel needs a damper though.
125E9C0D-9187-4323-9487-1CF2C0301B67.jpeg
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
We’ve just built our own tine drill bit like the weaving/kvernland type and have found drilling into hard stuff much easier than soft stuff re depth control. We are looking at making extra depth wheels for it. As stated Vaderstad Rapids are very good but what about a Simba Freeflow as a cheap alternative. I’m looking for one still.
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
To be fair to the unidrill, it is an ancient design which provided some contour following and single point depth adjustment.

I do remember the headaches of depth control using one. The GD I use know is so much better in most ways, but can be a little tiresome to change the position of 28 pins when adjusting the depth.
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
For the time being here is my depth indicator. Barrow wheel runs on surface as datum. Green arrow links to counter. Keep the green arrow point on the washer and depth is about right. Barrow wheel needs a damper though.
View attachment 1025296
Interesting pic, my unidrill is the old style, but new enough to have the ram on the drawbar. I was think at one time of having a depth sensor controlling a valve to adjust the ram on the go, as the hopper emptied, but hadn't come up with a good way to measure depth on the go.
 

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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“

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