Written by cpm
Wanting to move away from cultivator drilling to minimise soil movement, but unconvinced a full shift to direct seeding would work on his heavy clay, one Cambs farmer has switched to Amazone’s Cayena disc opener/tine coulter drill. CPM visits to find out how it has performed. I wanted to remove the cultivation element of drilling, but not necessarily go for a true direct drill. By Martin Rickatson In a ‘my soil’s tougher than yours’ competition, those working the heavy clays around south-west Cambs have got some sound bragging rights. The ground on which Alan Rule farms varies a little, but not a lot – from clay loam at its kindest to heavy clay at its most challenging. Water and nutrient-retentive, it has the potential to produce high combinable crop yields, but if the weather isn’t favourable during establishment, they can become unworkable, whether very dry or very wet. And while cereals and oilseed rape don’t take kindly to such conditions, blackgrass thrives in them. Alan Rule reasoned that a tine drill suited his strong clay land better than a disc type. That’s why, back in the late 1990s, Alan moved from annual ploughing to rotational, and to min-till crop…
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