New Weaving DD drill

[charlesbrown]

They are investigating at the moment! To be fair they have sent me new ones and have been waiting for me to send the old ones back (which I did yesterday) so we will see

That's interesting willy! I had one of the first gd's and bearings started to go after first seasons use which was a pita because they are a pita to change.
Was told they had a possible manufacturing problem with damaging them as they were pressed on?
I love the drill, and partly because the new ones have slight improvements (i.e.the disc kissing point has been altered and they have sourced "better" discs) plus the fact that I was offered a good exchange price, we swapped it for a new one this autumn.
So I am hoping they have sorted out the bearing problem , will post again this autumn if not!

cb

 

[willy]

uhmmm lets hope so.........

 

[Cutlerstom]

Anyone else getting through bearings on the big disc on the gd. I must have got through at least 40, weaving tell me that no one else is, so I am not sure if it's the stone content of my soil or what.

None yet. It's only done 1000 acres thoug

 

[yellow belly]

I have only changed on bearing in 2000 acres with the gd a big disc would have needed a set of bearing and discs in that time hardly any wear on the discs

the biggest problem I have is crabbing on slopes this means that sometimes one side press wheels do not follow the slot this is usually a problem on hard notill ground the best conditions for notill on heavy land

I am looking into running left hand discs on the front with righthand on the back instead of all right on one side and all left on the other
I recon the down hill pulling coulters have more pull than the uphill pulling coulters for some reason

 

[kiwi]

Yellow belly I had wondered if hill side crabbing would be an issue. Please let us know how you get on. I like the concept of this drill and maybe all the issues mentioned will be resolved with experience. Fertiliser down the spout or lack of it , doesn't seem to be a concern in your part of the world but I would be most interested to hear from someone doing this with a gd.
Hard to find the perfect drill for all situations and I have always thought the cross slot would be a much superior drill if they could overcome having a fert blade and seed blade on opposite sides of the disc. If they could somehow place fert on the same side of the disc as the seed they would not need all the weight and horsepower to pull such a drill. The weaving gd has my attention at the moment given its simplicity but seems like a bit more experience is needed with it yet to find its limitations.

 

[yellow belly]

Crabbing is less of a problem on narrower drills I have a 9 m and crabbing is worse at higher speeds in hard conditions with a part filled drill
With dry hard conditions slower speed and a full hopper is a must
I have filled the caddy wheels with water and I am considering adding weight to the tool bar for hard ground they are the best conditions for notill

 

[Hillplanter]

Yellow belly I had wondered if hill side crabbing would be an issue. Please let us know how you get on. I like the concept of this drill and maybe all the issues mentioned will be resolved with experience. Fertiliser down the spout or lack of it , doesn't seem to be a concern in your part of the world but I would be most interested to hear from someone doing this with a gd.
Hard to find the perfect drill for all situations and I have always thought the cross slot would be a much superior drill if they could overcome having a fert blade and seed blade on opposite sides of the disc. If they could somehow place fert on the same side of the disc as the seed they would not need all the weight and horsepower to pull such a drill. The weaving gd has my attention at the moment given its simplicity but seems like a bit more experience is needed with it yet to find its limitations.

Not to mention cost of the CS!

 

[kiwi]

It is interesting reading this forum and taking in all the different opinions on drills. The weaving certainly has my attention at the moment but you read lots of threads about the John Deere 750a and some well respected members of the forum using them. On the face of it the weaving Gd handles residue very well but many of the 750a users are looking into row cleaners for their drills. Now I know we all have to make do with what drill we have sometimes, as economics allow but it would seem they are getting very complicated compared to the weaving. Or am I missing some information here?

 

[Will Blackburn]

It is interesting reading this forum and taking in all the different opinions on drills. The weaving certainly has my attention at the moment but you read lots of threads about the John Deere 750a and some well respected members of the forum using them. On the face of it the weaving Gd handles residue very well but many of the 750a users are looking into row cleaners for their drills. Now I know we all have to make do with what drill we have sometimes, as economics allow but it would seem they are getting very complicated compared to the weaving. Or am I missing some information here?

There are a few happy with unadulterated JD drills, and there is a potential benefit from having a drill with proven components and proven residuals.

 

[Old John]

It is interesting reading this forum and taking in all the different opinions on drills. The weaving certainly has my attention at the moment but you read lots of threads about the John Deere 750a and some well respected members of the forum using them. On the face of it the weaving Gd handles residue very well but many of the 750a users are looking into row cleaners for their drills. Now I know we all have to make do with what drill we have sometimes, as economics allow but it would seem they are getting very complicated compared to the weaving. Or am I missing some information here?

I know we've only had two Springs and one autumn experience with the GD, but so far it has done very well in every situation we have used it. Its been used mainly as a true direct drill and the results have been good, seed 99% buried, slots closed , although sometimes they don't look perfect, they are tight where the seed is. The deeper you plant , the further
to one side the discs enter the ground, which then don't look fully sealed
We've had no problem with penetration, but we've been very min till and no till, a long while now and our soils are very friable now.
It also works very well in more conventional tillage, so long as you keep the speed under control, so there's not too much soil throw.
I think it's a good tool, but of course it's quite new compared to the 750 and only time will tell, but we've been very pleased so far. Back up has been good , not that we've needed much ..

 

[kiwi]

So Will can you handle considerable amounts of chopped wheat straw while not hair pinning to much?
Old John, what sort of drill were you using before the gd? Is the seed tucked in under the flap of soil enough on the occasions the slot stays open somewhat.? I imagine when you get dry conditions the slot will open up due to shrinkage, which in the past with a standard double disc would have been major issue . I also imagine plenty of soil armour or residue would reduce this problem.

 

[Tractor Boy]

So Will can you handle considerable amounts of chopped wheat straw while not hair pinning to much?
Old John, what sort of drill were you using before the gd? Is the seed tucked in under the flap of soil enough on the occasions the slot stays open somewhat.? I imagine when you get dry conditions the slot will open up due to shrinkage, which in the past with a standard double disc would have been major issue . I also imagine plenty of soil armour or residue would reduce this problem.

In my opinion the JD can't deal with large amounts of chopped cereal straw without hair pinning. This is part of the reason I'm looking into row cleaners.
The only other option is to not drill any Autumn/winter cash crops into the chopped straw but leave it to brittle and drill Spring crops. The only winter exception I have found that isn't bothered about hair pinning is beans.[/QUOTE]

 

[Old John]

So Will can you handle considerable amounts of chopped wheat straw while not hair pinning to much?
Old John, what sort of drill were you using before the gd? Is the seed tucked in under the flap of soil enough on the occasions the slot stays open somewhat.? I imagine when you get dry conditions the slot will open up due to shrinkage, which in the past with a standard double disc would have been major issue . I also imagine plenty of soil armour or residue would reduce this problem.

Hi. We were using an Amazone Primera before the GD, for about seven years. I think this was a good transition machine for the period while the soil was improving from maxi cultivation to no till. Before that we used our own built machine, quite like a Dale, but with only one coulter per press wheel, for nine years.
Although the flaps do not always appear quite tight, they are where it matters, at the bottom of the slot.
Haven't noticed too much in the way of slots opening with shrinkage, possibly because our soils are in a fairly friable state nowadays, after many years of low till and no till and we do have a fair amount of loose cover laying about to shade the soil.

 

[kiwi]

Old John, thanks for telling me the history of your drilling operation. We have been using the Dale drill since 2003 and before that tried the cross slot for a few years but I don't think our soils were ready for the cross slot. The weaving would be a move back to discs for us that has me a bit hesitant but at the same time a lower disturbance drill and the ability to plant through cover crops seems quite exciting as I can see the benefits that would create. The other issue is that we have to accurately sow between last years rows or go on an angle to get through high amounts of residue with the seedhawk and it looks like the weaving can do this without that complexity. The only other concern is the placement of fertiliser as we do this for a spring crops with large benefits but maybe the right cover crops would help this.?

 

[Old John]

Old John, thanks for telling me the history of your drilling operation. We have been using the Dale drill since 2003 and before that tried the cross slot for a few years but I don't think our soils were ready for the cross slot. The weaving would be a move back to discs for us that has me a bit hesitant but at the same time a lower disturbance drill and the ability to plant through cover crops seems quite exciting as I can see the benefits that would create. The other issue is that we have to accurately sow between last years rows or go on an angle to get through high amounts of residue with the seedhawk and it looks like the weaving can do this without that complexity. The only other concern is the placement of fertiliser as we do this for a spring crops with large benefits but maybe the right cover crops would help this.?

We have the facility to put fertiliser in the slot, with the seed, which we do sometimes, but not all the nitrogen for a spring crop.
We also have a slug pellet/avadex application system built on the back. We use it as fits the bill best. If we do avadex we have to go back with the quad for the slugs, if necessary.
We've done a lot of stubble turnips and the ability to put on fertiliser and slug pellets is a real benefit. Less work and better crops.

 

[kiwi]

Is it solid or liquid fertilisers? What would be the highest rate you can safely get away with? We don't have the granulated Avadex here yet but it would be a good option as we have some resistant wild oats now to twinax and puma s. With notill the option to pre incorporate disappears as we have tried to incorporate treflan by sowing with mixed results.

 

[Old John]

Is it solid or liquid fertilisers? What would be the highest rate you can safely get away with? We don't have the granulated Avadex here yet but it would be a good option as we have some resistant wild oats now to twinax and puma s. With notill the option to pre incorporate disappears as we have tried to incorporate treflan by sowing with mixed results.

We have solid fertiliser. I'm not sure how much fertiliser we put on as I'm not the operator since we had this drill, I had an ankle replaced seven years ago and last year pulled my Achilles' tendon on my other leg, so I'm not able to carry bags of slug pellets or avadex up the steps at the back of the drill. But it'll put on as much as you want as the fertiliser is measured via a stainless steel auger with variable electric drive. We used to put about 50kg/hectare of N years ago when we combine drilled conventionally, for spring barley. It did slow emergence a bit though. We stopped combine drilling in the mid seventies. I think our soils had been built up over time by then and combine drilling of cereals didn't have much benefit any more. Also nitrogen usage had gone up and we couldn't put all of it "down the spout " with the seed.