Old moore unidrills

Upland livestock farm doong about 10-15 acres of spring cereals and 20-30 acres of forage crops and 10-15 acres of grass reseeds a year. Currently using an old ransomes 3f plough and equally old worn out 60s and 70s cultivation machinery. Want to move over to DD for various and obvious reasons but on a pretty limited budget. Been looking at different options but the only thing i can find that i think would be suitable (and cheap enough) is an old 3metre moore unidrill. Would this do what i want it to? Pros and cons? Anything else more suitable for less than £5k? Seen a few moores for £3k ish or less even. Would love a simtech but ££££!

 

Club together with others like minded ....2 of you could buy a new old stock Aitchison grass farmer, or 3 or 4 members could buy a Duncan or Simtech.
There will be running costs don't forget,... its not a silver bullet.

 

Not a bad idea at all. I know a few whi might be interested as well i could make a few phone calls and ask around.
Trouble is everyone wants it at the same time and someone is bound to lose out sometime. Probably me having the smallest farm. Same problem with contractors theyre always busy and always go do the bigger jobs first (dont blame them really) and someone like me with 10 acres at a time gets left till last.
Theres running costs with a plough too some wearing parts for that ramsomes are like hens teeth and very expensive. Its a rare model so some of the parts like discs arent available anymore either. Cant see a DD being much worse?
Big problem with ploughing here is go down more than a few inches and ROCKS!! Pribably spend a week+ a year picking rocks off ploughed fields

 

@Ritchie

 

A Moore of the age that you'll get for £3-5K won't be depreciating any more, but it will likely want a bit spent on it. The old ones were simple enough drills so not much to go wrong and parts still readily available. The one I had didn't work very well on heavyish soil in a wet time, just cutting a smear through the clay that closed back up and sealing the seed in. I sold it and bought a tine drill (Simtech) which is far more flexible IMO.

You can get a new Simtech Grassfarmer for about £16K IIRC, with £10339 available towards it on the Welsh FBG. It will hold it's value well and do everything you need of it. @le bon paysan uses one for all that you want and more IIRC. You would be obliged to keep it for 5 yrs for the grant, but even if you sold it after that it would make far more than the £6k you've laid out for it.

 

Thanks neil. Thats still an option and probably my prefered one. I havent ruled anything out yet. Just seeing what everyone thinks of the moore before i commit to anything. Got some heavy land it wouldnt be suitable for but if its cheap enough i can live with that its mostly permenant pasture anyway. Saw a moore on ebay go for £1500 a while ago apparently worked well

 

These grants are great aren’t they but you still have to find six grand! Why can’t they save a few quid and spend fifteen hundred quid on something that will do the job?

 

That was my thinking for the post. If something for £1500 will do it then thats £4500 i can save for something else. Still relies on getting grant money too

 

Of course, I was just pointing out an option made possible by the current grant scheme.

I also pointed out that a Moore of the age/value in the OP wouldn’t depreciate any more.

 

They have made this particular grant scheme very simple, ‘cos we is thick. They have already worked out that a 3m drill capable of slot seeding grass and clover will cost just short of £26k, so they pay 40% of that figure. If you buy a drill that fits the spec for less, you still get the full amount.

 

I use an old Moore Unidrill for direct drilling arable crops and also for drilling into cultivated seedbeds. I have never used it for grass reseeds but have drilled chicory and stubble turnips into grass leys with good results.

If drilling small seed at shallow depths the coulters need to be in good order and set about 1/2" from edge of disc or even less.

Setting up the coulters to get them nice and flat against the discs is very important but does take a fair bit of time and patience. It's well worth the effort though. In this respect the drill isn't a machine for amateurs in a hurry.

Attention to drilling depth is also important in the field. It's easy to end up putting the seed too deep or sprinkling it in top. I'd go for a model with a ram in the drawbar to give on the move adjustment from the tractor, otherwise, with variable soil hardness results will also be variable.

The disc bearings also need careful attention. Best way is the take the entire coulter/ disc unit off the drag arm and set it up in the vice. The disc bearing needs a certain amount of preload in my experience. When spun it should exhibit a certain amount of drag, not spin freely.

It's a good old simple drill that will work well and do as good a job as a machine ten times the price but it really does need attention to detail to serve you well. The Sulky metering is fairly foolproof.

I cannot imagine how a tine drill could possibly cope with the level of trash and stones that we have here.

 

mf 30 direct drill on ebay circa £4k.....how do the mf 30 or the bettinson compare to the moore?

 

Chap from Somerset been doing a good job with his on here in the past year. Forget his tagline

 

so you can buy a £16k drill...get £10k grant...so it only costs you £6k.....whats to stop you selling it on for for say £10k and making £4k profit

 

You can get spares for the Unidrill.
The unidrill rolls the seed in as it works.

The others fall short in these aspects as far as I know.

 

That would be me then
Thanks great info

 

I have a duncan here very similar to an Aitchison
Really pleased with the results

 

It only takes me a day in the workshop to replace and/or set up 24 coulters across my 4m drill. Once you get used to the method of tweaking the set screws to get the coulter alignment right it isn't such a bad job ......until next year when you have forgotten how you did it last year and have to learn all over again.

I am an amateur but I am not in a hurry.

 

@hendrebc, if this happens, would you be so kind to give me first shout on your plough and cultivation kit?