Power Harrow Combis, Are they really any good?

[glasshouse]

The company I drive for have a 6m folding Amazone with front grain tank on a big John Deere very useful bit of kit. They won't min till but now don't plough everything. Very big and successful outfit with potatoes on the rotation. I am not going to be the one to tell them they are doing it wrong.

I used to pull a 6m ffolding kuhn power harrow, with a 6m accord dv towed behind on adrawbar with 250hp on front.
It waa a pig to handle ,, but road legal.
We went back to a 4m fixed powerr harrow with krm disc drill on top

 

[KB6930]

How do they sow small seeds?

Perfectly.

We don't do our rape with it any more due to doing it off the sumo but I do forage rape occasionally and as with everything the calibration is spot on and these new ones are very easy to set seed depth the older lc nc were a bit more of a faff to set depth

 

[Drillman]

I know Clive would agree that the ph combi has its place in many situations and on smaller one man operations it takes some beating, also roots in a rotation don’t allow the soil conditions to develop which are needed for successful no-till.
As a weatherproof system close behind the plough it will do a great job and that’s how a lot of folk still managed to get their wheat in last autumn despite the wet. I’m no fan of power harrows mind you, forcing a tilth is no good for soil structure.
Stubble is the safest state for the next operation and that’s where DD scores, Having seen some heavier land ploughed into horses heads and then left to dry into concrete, then batterred into some sort of tilth by multiple cultivation passes,
I’m sure that on such land DD would not only be possible, but economically desirable and save a massive amount of time and diesel.
Seeing Simon Chile’s heavy land DD convinced me that it could work anywhere. After all almost all the crops elsewhere in the world are grown that way?

A sensible balanced reply from a DD man

a lot of other countries run very wide headers and drills and are drier than UK conditions as well with much less in field traffic.


with us we often have to actively help remove moisture from soil Using cultivation so it’s drillable.

 

[chaffcutter]

@FarmyStu we drilled bean stubble which had a mixture of compost and horse muck spread on it with the Avatar last week, no problem. The more organic stuff we can put on the better, wish we could get more.

 

[holywell farmer]

My old 155/65 can't believe these pictures were taken 10 years ago. I still have the combi but it now had tined coultersView attachment 914870View attachment 914873View attachment 914872View attachment 914871

Good looking drilling rig there.

 

[glasshouse]

Perfectly.

We don't do our rape with it any more due to doing it off the sumo but I do forage rape occasionally and as with everything the calibration is spot on and these new ones are very easy to set seed depth the older lc nc were a bit more of a faff to set depth

On a venta doyou change the seed roller?

 

[KB6930]

On a venta doyou change the seed roller?

No they're like the accord you alter the distance that the roller is covered and for fine seeds you put another piece in to shallow the depth of the flutes

 

[Cowcorn]

Not wishing to suck up clives arse but how many businesses is he running? He's not actually what you'd call a 1 trick pony?

Farming forum, grain storage, contract farming keeping many individual customers happy isn't easy, simple in my experience. Runs commercial storage sheds. Sells grain conditioning equipment. Lecturing on farming practices That's just ones I'm aware of.

Wouldn't say your unique in juggling lots of balls.

Clive is indeed a man of many talents. !! I think he throws us a bait now and again to bring out the fire in us Best of luck to him with his many irons in the fire and i hope he has good crops this year . Mind you if he stars screeching about looming disaster after a few dry days next May i will be ready to pounce and advise a good deep ploughing to freshen the land as the top inches are getting tired .
Im just in from drilling headlands on the last field of wheat after potatoes and i cant believe how we are getting better weather than the the east of england . Its been a cracking week and got the maize cut and the spudman showed up with 2 sp harvesters and cleared the 40 acres fast . It all got drilled in excellent order and hopefully should do the business
3 metre Nordsten packtop on a lemken powerharrow here behind a massey 6290 . A { new to us } massey 7614 and the old reliable 6180 with 4 furrow rev plougs went a day ahead . A well respected soil scientist once said that if the same hp tractors as you used 20 years ago can still work your land with ease then you are probably doing a fairly good job at minding your land .

 

[chaffcutter]

Certainly the east is getting the dirty weather so far, seems to be many who haven’t sown a seed yet

 

[Clive]

Still not had any advice for which D Drill for my partly flooded clay land stubbles

wrong question! success is not about the drill

thats why no answer

 

[Farma Parma]

Still not had any advice for which D Drill for my partly flooded clay land stubbles

Fix the Drainage !!!! Works for me in the most hellish ground.
Not a cheap pastime mind.

 

[Drillman]

wrong question! success is not about the drill

thats why no answer

Correct.

at the end of the day as long as it produces a good crop It doesn’t matter what method folks use to get the seed in the ground. What works for one maybe won’t work for another etc. The most important bit is the seed goes in the ground right. How the individual farmer chooses to do this is down to them.

what is more important is the whole farming system. Good traditional mixed farming with copious amounts of muck is still the way forwards. It’s what until fairly recently a lot of arable only units seem to have forgotten but are now cottoning onto what us mixed farms have been doing for years.

now I’m sure I will get torn into for this but

the only difference is us lads don’t make a lot of noise about like we have reinvented the wheel

 

[Clive]

Correct.

at the end of the day as long as it produces a good crop It doesn’t matter what method folks use to get the seed in the ground. What works for one maybe won’t work for another etc. The most important bit is the seed goes in the ground right. How the individual farmer chooses to do this is down to them.

what is more important is the whole farming system. Good traditional mixed farming with copious amounts of muck is still the way forwards. It’s what until fairly recently a lot of arable only units seem to have forgotten but are now cottoning onto what us mixed farms have been doing for years.

now I’m sure I will get torn into for this but

the only difference is us lads don’t make a lot of noise about like we have reinvented the wheel

most important bit is rotation, followed by diversity and organic matter building...... the drill comes a long way down the list

So I do agree with your post above, mixed farming and muck are great, just a shame you waste money oxidising all that good you do through cultivation!

I invented nothing, mother nature did

 

[Drillman]

most important bit is rotation, followed by diversity and organic matter building...... the drill comes a long way down the list

So I do agree with your post above, mixed farming and muck are great, just a shame you waste money oxidising all that good you do through cultivation!

I invented nothing, mother nature did

As I’ve said before If I felt there was a better way I would do it. But like I also say the costs at the moment I feel don’t stack up on our area. And existing kit has to stay to satisfy contracting requirements.

And as I also said a neighbour is having a go I watch with interest.

 

[FarmyStu]

most important bit is rotation, followed by diversity and organic matter building...... the drill comes a long way down the list

So I do agree with your post above, mixed farming and muck are great, just a shame you waste money oxidising all that good you do through cultivation!

I invented nothing, mother nature did

How would you incorporate muck without cultivation?

 

[Lincsman]

Fix the Drainage !!!! Works for me in the most hellish ground.
Not a cheap pastime mind.

Its fully drained, gravel backfill at 20 m spacing installed 4 years ago and are running well, its only flooded due to no cultivation since 2019 harvest, good cover crop of charlock and some wheat though.

 

[Farma Parma]

Its fully drained, gravel backfill at 20 m spacing installed 4 years ago and are running well, its only flooded due to no cultivation since 2019 harvest, good cover crop of charlock and some wheat though.

oh bugger how much rain you had last few months a lot by the sounds of things...
patience is the game now then

 

[Lincsman]

wrong question! success is not about the drill

thats why no answer

Whats the right question then? what should I have done since 2019 harvest... nothing has been in the field.

 

[Lincsman]

oh bugger how much rain you had last few months a lot by the sounds of things...
patience is the game now then

Not that much, august ploughed land will take quite a bit more rain before it will stop the drill, the biggest lumps are quite dry in the middle.. they were like concrete 3 weeks ago.

 

[Farma Parma]

Not that much, august ploughed land will take quite a bit more rain before it will stop the drill, the biggest lumps are quite dry in the middle.. they were like concrete 3 weeks ago.

weve been a bit luckier than 12months ago but still had over 3.5" since the 3rd of Oct. Land is too wet up here now.
good old Oct does what it does 9/10 years it stops you end of... shut gates until spring now.