New combination drill?

[APJ]

We started out with a combi in the mid 80s with a jd 2040s 2wd with a Rau powerharrow and an accord Suffolk Coulter, duals on the back pump wound open and crawled along and only just hovered over the ground when lifted 10ac was an impressive day, fast forward today Kuhn lc seedflex discs and jd 195r with auto steer and 50ac plus is a comfortable day, 4m folding combi maybe next just to go a bit slower currently drilling at 12kph plus certainly wears the drill out fast.

 

[Drillman]

2 tanks of diesel
Foot to the floor

how long was the day tho

started at 7am was in the house for 9pm but never stopped all day apart from filling seed and diesel. can only do about 7-1/2hrs on a tank full at best when drilling and often engine dragged down to 900pto rpm on the hilly bits.

 

[texelburger]

We run a Horsch KR Express and it's a big heavy drill ,with 120 kg of Coulter pressure the seed is put where you want it.Pulled by a Kubota 171 4 cylinder kvt which is always on top of the job we can do up to 40 acres on a good day in a min till system.The new Amazone has a very similar twin disc set up and looks a good tool.Happy with our set up,though.

 

[Chae1]

I find all these numbers impressive. I'm running 3m Maschio on 125HP 6cyl old school with a front press on mostly medium to heavy bits of land. Mostly onto ploughed and furrow pressed land. Don't think I ask the PH to do too much though obviously this makes a big difference, it has erads so no need to work deep to pull up wheel marks. Mostly struggle to do 30ac in day. Either running back for seed or taking my own out in the morning. How fast are you chaps going 12k + ? I tend to be about 8k and do quite a bit up to 10 and horrible bits down to 6. But I don't have hills like some of you either.

Me too, we're obviously very slow!

We've 4m folding on 220hp and happy with 50-60 acres per day. Starting at 8 and working till about 9.

We've seed in field, and ends levelled to try and increase output!

Guess sowing grain and fert slows the job down a bit, some places we're putting on 375kg/ha of fert on too.

 

[ollie989898]

Me too, we're obviously very slow!

We've 4m folding on 220hp and happy with 50-60 acres per day. Starting at 8 and working till about 9.

We've seed in field, and ends levelled to try and increase output!

Guess sowing grain and fert slows the job down a bit, some places we're putting on 375kg/ha of fert on too.

All dirt is not created equal.

From my experience of running a 3m powerharrow, I'm almost inclined to think talk of 50 acres a day is nearly pub-talk territory. On kind dirt and with a nice shaped field with no slopes it would be going some. I'm nearly tempted to do the area/forward speed calculations to work it out.

 

[KB6930]

Me too, we're obviously very slow!

We've 4m folding on 220hp and happy with 50-60 acres per day. Starting at 8 and working till about 9.

We've seed in field, and ends levelled to try and increase output!

I'll be starting at 7 and finish at 9 to 10 depending how the fills work out level my own endrigs and shift my own stones now I'm on Sat steering I'm never stopped unless I need to be for seed or fuel or moving fields

 

[KB6930]

All dirt is not created equal.

From my experience of running a 3m powerharrow, I'm almost inclined to think talk of 50 acres a day is nearly pub-talk territory. On kind dirt and with a nice shaped field with no slopes it would be going some. I'm nearly tempted to do the area/forward speed calculations to work it out.

I'll be the first to admit we're on mostly easy soil with front press with shatter boards helps too but need plenty power up front to get output only reason we've not went 4m is the moving thing

 

[Flat 10]

All dirt is not created equal.

From my experience of running a 3m powerharrow, I'm almost inclined to think talk of 50 acres a day is nearly pub-talk territory. On kind dirt and with a nice shaped field with no slopes it would be going some. I'm nearly tempted to do the area/forward speed calculations to work it out.

I've done some and if my maths is correct 3m x 10k = 3ha an hour. I think someone said on here deduct 20% turning time as an approximation = 2.4ha an hour. Even allowing for seed filling up thats 2ha per hour. And 12 hour day 24ha = 60 acres so definitely possible. Just have problems achieving that here. Think where I slip up is working 12 hour day but lose half an hour each end to take loader out/home plus time travelling to field and admit I often stop for half an hour for lunch/walk with dog so 12hour day becomes nearer 10. Even then struggling to exceed 30ac a day. Must try harder

 

[KB6930]

I'll be the first to admit we're on mostly easy soil with front press with shatter boards helps too but need plenty power up front to get output only reason we've not went 4m is the moving thing

I'll also admit it's a long season with a 3m so we've now got a 4m vaderstad to rattle out some acres when the conditions suit and if conditions don't suit it the 3m combi is still there

 

[Phil P]

Its surprising the difference in the size of tractor just going from a 4m rigid ph to a 4m folding! I use to drag a 4m rigid Kuhn with a box drill-Suffolk coulters behind a jd6520 at around 6-7kph. On a good day we’d do around 25ac manly due to the fact the drill would only hold about 10cwt which meant having to constantly stop to either drag some seed to the ends of the box! Or refill.
We’ve since gone to a 4m folding ph, disc coulters and a df1 front hopper, which means no dropping the drill off to move fields. I can now just drop a couple of bags of seed in the hopper and go to the field. The only real downside is the shear weight of the rig, we now have a 6215R up front mainly just for the lift but we now get 50ac a day drilled on the lighter ground without much stress, perhaps having 255hp also helps!

 

[Drillman]

All dirt is not created equal.

From my experience of running a 3m powerharrow, I'm almost inclined to think talk of 50 acres a day is nearly pub-talk territory. On kind dirt and with a nice shaped field with no slopes it would be going some. I'm nearly tempted to do the area/forward speed calculations to work it out.

I've done some and if my maths is correct 3m x 10k = 3ha an hour. I think someone said on here deduct 20% turning time as an approximation = 2.4ha an hour. Even allowing for seed filling up thats 2ha per hour. And 12 hour day 24ha = 60 acres so definitely possible. Just have problems achieving that here. Think where I slip up is working 12 hour day but lose half an hour each end to take loader out/home plus time travelling to field and admit I often stop for half an hour for lunch/walk with dog so 12hour day becomes nearer 10. Even then struggling to exceed 30ac a day. Must try harder

as can be seen it’s perfectly doable. And is the average hourly figures I can achieve sometimes a bit more in really good going.

 

[ollie989898]

I've done some and if my maths is correct 3m x 10k = 3ha an hour. I think someone said on here deduct 20% turning time as an approximation = 2.4ha an hour. Even allowing for seed filling up thats 2ha per hour. And 12 hour day 24ha = 60 acres so definitely possible. Just have problems achieving that here. Think where I slip up is working 12 hour day but lose half an hour each end to take loader out/home plus time travelling to field and admit I often stop for half an hour for lunch/walk with dog so 12hour day becomes nearer 10. Even then struggling to exceed 30ac a day. Must try harder

I was working it out roughly as well, definitely do-able if the forward speed is kept up which I think is the crux of it.

Bigger tractor, front press and higher forward speed using GPS steering is all a big help, if folk are getting at least 30% more out of a working clock hour then you can see that savings from the GPS etc soon mount up.

 

[Flat 10]

I was working it out roughly as well, definitely do-able if the forward speed is kept up which I think is the crux of it.

Bigger tractor, front press and higher forward speed using GPS steering is all a big help, if folk are getting at least 30% more out of a working clock hour then you can see that savings from the GPS etc soon mount up.

I think GPS is a good point. I'm sure not all on here have it but if you normally overlap 5% its a quick output gain for nothing.

 

[ollie989898]

I think GPS is a good point. I'm sure not all on here have it but if you normally overlap 5% its a quick output gain for nothing.

Keep you fresh for 10 hours if you aren't having to stare at a line on the ground as well plus all the bonuses it brings.

 

[goodevans]

All dirt is not created equal.

From my experience of running a 3m powerharrow, I'm almost inclined to think talk of 50 acres a day is nearly pub-talk territory. On kind dirt and with a nice shaped field with no slopes it would be going some. I'm nearly tempted to do the area/forward speed calculations to work it out.

Isn't 10kph with a 3m machine 3ha /he spot rate

 

[ollie989898]

Isn't 10kph with a 3m machine 3ha /he spot rate

It is indeed, if you had a mythical field 3m wide and 10,000m long!

 

[Phil P]

I think GPS is a good point. I'm sure not all on here have it but if you normally overlap 5% its a quick output gain for nothing.

Autotrac must be the biggest advance in agriculture since the fwd front axle! not only does it reduce operators fatigue but the increase in productivity from reducing overlaps, reduces chem and fert overlapping as well with accurate tramline positioning. It’s the gift that keeps on giving

 

[goodevans]

It is indeed, if you had a mythical field 3m wide and 10,000m long!

Did you not notice spot rate,that's what most combine operators quote

 

[Spud]

I started with a 3m 14rotor Maschio HB with a Fiona drill on a 2wd MF 399 (the Ford 5600 wouldn't lift it with the drill full, so it ploughed with a 4f KV conventional.

The 399 became a 3085, then a 6170 and the combi became a 3m Amazone KE with box drill

The 6170 became a 6290, then a 7480, and the combination became a KV Accord, and a 1.5m front press arrived. Spuds demanded the 7480, so the autosteered 6490 took over, and the drill got swapped for a Farm force with KRM discs - still on the KV harrow. 4m Amazone box combi and cousins front press with rigid tines joined the fleet to increase capacity.

6490 became a 7620, and the much modified farmforce/KV rig was swapped for a Pottinger Aerosem, 1.5m press swapped for s/h 3m Lynx DD press with rigid tines. Same year (I think) we bought @Dim Reaper 's Kockerling drill (still use it for beans and some cover crops) and put a tine bar in front of it to drill direct. 3m Moore arrived last year after a bit of experimenting with a bettinson, and we step forward again.

Output on combis with our little fields is about 1ac/hr/metre of width. Kockerling a bit more, Moore probably 40% more.

 

[jh.]

My amazone can hold over 1500kg of wheat. If forkies get tied up on other work it was handy just to fill it up full , as long as I wasn't in really steep or wet going but it still gave the option . No much stopping with fills those sizes