With this extreme weather bursts we get now, its got me thinking what is the right drill for all weather conditions? We have all been led to believe direct drilling or min till is the best for your ground? but what is best for your income? After all this wet all us direct drill boys are now probably done till spring , but with still winter wheats to drill our incomes will be reduced. Yet the plough and follow with a combi drill guys are turning dry soil up and sowing winter wheat around here . So who right and who wrong ?
RIGHT OR WRONG DRILLS
- Thread starter WOODCHIP
- Start date
- Location
- Wiltshire
All my sticky ground is drilled, everything left is chalk which will dry quickly once it stops raining. Half it is after maize the rest is grass with fym on top or a weedy mess after peas.
Normally all except the grass would min till. Took the decision to plough the lot yesterday. It’s a PIA will take too much time. But experience says that once the sun comes out it will dry quicker. So plough, press drill. Won’t give up until the end of January, been here before.
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Normally all except the grass would min till. Took the decision to plough the lot yesterday. It’s a PIA will take too much time. But experience says that once the sun comes out it will dry quicker. So plough, press drill. Won’t give up until the end of January, been here before.
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Nearly
Member
- Location
- North of York
2 or 3 drills and a plough in the nettles.
Or a lot of patience.
Or a lot of patience.
- Location
- leics/warks border
Get a contractor in on the odd years that you need it. Ploughing once every few years "when needs must" to get a crop in is not like ploughing every year.
Having said that, in 2019 a couple of farms local to here got wheat drilled with ploughing and combi drills on tracked tractors. Much of it failed due to the wet and a lot of what survived did very poorly. With the benefit of hindsight they would have been better keeping off the ground and planting in spring. But it was a kind spring.
Sometimes you just have to accept that the weather has beaten you and that you can't beat mother nature.
I put some beans in yesterday for a friend with my tine drill on light land, our land would not have gone and their disc drill wouldn't have done it, you just have to make the most of what's available.
Having said that, in 2019 a couple of farms local to here got wheat drilled with ploughing and combi drills on tracked tractors. Much of it failed due to the wet and a lot of what survived did very poorly. With the benefit of hindsight they would have been better keeping off the ground and planting in spring. But it was a kind spring.
Sometimes you just have to accept that the weather has beaten you and that you can't beat mother nature.
I put some beans in yesterday for a friend with my tine drill on light land, our land would not have gone and their disc drill wouldn't have done it, you just have to make the most of what's available.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
If you have time and the right soil plough and combi works every year and keeps on top of grass weeds.
I doesn't matter if you have the 'right drill' (or multiple types of drill), if you make (with hindsight) the wrong call on 'pushing the button' to start drilling.
Year after year there are threads on here from September through to November that start with "won't sow until late October because of black grass and BYDV", but end with apparent surprise that 9 years out of 10 we get heavy rain in the UK in October.
It's not as if we haven't had multiple weather windows where any drill would go**, it's just that many farms routinely leave their drilling until the clock has ticked down to an undetermined period of 'extra time', and then they're caught by surprise when the final whistle blows.
[** Apparently the drilling window in Yorkshire totalled about 10 days between heavy rain, so the correct answer for 'right drill' there is 'a big one'.]
Year after year there are threads on here from September through to November that start with "won't sow until late October because of black grass and BYDV", but end with apparent surprise that 9 years out of 10 we get heavy rain in the UK in October.
It's not as if we haven't had multiple weather windows where any drill would go**, it's just that many farms routinely leave their drilling until the clock has ticked down to an undetermined period of 'extra time', and then they're caught by surprise when the final whistle blows.
[** Apparently the drilling window in Yorkshire totalled about 10 days between heavy rain, so the correct answer for 'right drill' there is 'a big one'.]
Unless you have 6000 acres in front of you which will put you in the same situation as everyone else!
Obviously can be only 1…. Triton
oil barron
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Your only really sowing half the ground though with 12” row spacing
It would depend when you start
Theres one method which works almost in any conditions:
@farmideas
thefarmingforum.co.uk
On a similar theme:
This was broadcast on the 10th October, we've had an unbelievable amount of rain since as have many,
Untreated Skyfall broadcast at 200kg/ha. Emerging crop pictures taken this morning.
@farmideas
Sowing rather than drilling?
Do we have a seed drill mindset? Some years ago Clive Bailye arranged a trial of 10 or so different direct drills on a level uniform 50 acre field. There was a spare plot which they seeded with a fertiliser spinner and then scratched over the surface. It performed far better than expected...
thefarmingforum.co.uk
On a similar theme:
This was broadcast on the 10th October, we've had an unbelievable amount of rain since as have many,
Untreated Skyfall broadcast at 200kg/ha. Emerging crop pictures taken this morning.
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Could u post a few more photos in a couple of weeks time please. Looks interestingTheres one method which works almost in any conditions:
@farmideas
Sowing rather than drilling?
Do we have a seed drill mindset? Some years ago Clive Bailye arranged a trial of 10 or so different direct drills on a level uniform 50 acre field. There was a spare plot which they seeded with a fertiliser spinner and then scratched over the surface. It performed far better than expected...
On a similar theme:
This was broadcast on the 10th October, we've had an unbelievable amount of rain since as have many,
View attachment 1144543
View attachment 1144551
View attachment 1144544
View attachment 1144545
View attachment 1144546
Untreated Skyfall broadcast at 200kg/ha. Emerging crop pictures taken this morning.
- Location
- BEDALE NORTH YORKSHIRE
Sprinter any day
- Location
- South Notts
The long and short of it is there isn’t one drill that’s the right one and they can all be right and/or wrong. Taking this year as an example we could have started off nicely with a direct disc drill in hard conditions but then after a bit of rain found a direct tine drill to be slightly better. Then after more rain a vaderstad rapid would have worked awesome. Then after a bit more rain a horsch sprinter would have been the thing. Then it rains more and a mounted tine seeder would be the way to go. Then it rains more and you’re left with plough and PH Combi. Then it rains more and you’re all out of options until the spring when you have the same dilemma and choices in reverse.
- Location
- Wiltshire
One near me was drilling on Monday, not sure how much he has left to do.
I was Ploughing today and that field would drill tomorrow if it doesn’t get wet.
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