Rolling & Flints

[Bignor Farmer]

My biggest barrier to doing more direct drilling with my Sprinter is pushing the flints back in the ground. If we don’t cultivate to 4” then we smash our Cousins rollers to pieces and do a fairly poor job on the flints.

Some fields we might get flat rolled in the spring, some we leave and cut high.

Do I need a stronger set of ring rollers? A wide set of flat rollers for the spring or something else?

We have fields white with flints from the size of your fist to the size of a football!

 

[deleted user 837354]

Buy a wider flat roll and do them in spring?

 

[Bignor Farmer]

Buy a wider flat roll and do them in spring?

I think that’s where I’m heading in my mind.

Does anyone know where to get a set of flat rollers wider than 6m?

 

[Alistair Nelson]

I think that’s where I’m heading in my mind.

Does anyone know where to get a set of flat rollers wider than 6m?

Cousins, walter Watson , heva, possibly Dalbo?

 

[PSQ]

Cross Engineering use forged steel rings (not cast) and EN24t steel shafts.

 

[ih1455xl]

Change it for a disc drill problem solved

 

[Zippy768]

Buy a wider flat roll and do them in spring?

Is it wise to rely on HAVING to do it in the spring?

 

[Bignor Farmer]

Change it for a disc drill problem solved

We’ve demo’d a few disc drills including the Avatar which I really liked. Unfortunately in hard/dry conditions on the flint it just couldn’t keep a uniform seed depth at around 8kph. The Sprinter on Metcalfes was much more successful side by side. It would also be a very expensive drill for us to run, not just disc wear but every bush, bearing, pin and pivot.

 

[Bignor Farmer]

Is it wise to rely on HAVING to do it in the spring?

Not ideal. In reality anything early, stubble turnips, rape or cereals in September we would have the option to flat roll behind the drill if there isn’t a deluge of rain on the forecast. Hopefully we could keep it down to a few hundred acres to do in the spring most years.

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

Just look into a heavier roller, we have plenty of stones and use a 12m heva king roller. Try to do as much as you can in the autumn and anything left do in the spring

 

[Sorbaer]

Sorry to hijack this thread but am looking at getting a carrier type set of discs and have plenty of flints and wondered which rear packer may be best suited? thanks

 

[clbarclay]

We’ve demo’d a few disc drills including the Avatar which I really liked. Unfortunately in hard/dry conditions on the flint it just couldn’t keep a uniform seed depth at around 8kph. The Sprinter on Metcalfes was much more successful side by side. It would also be a very expensive drill for us to run, not just disc wear but every bush, bearing, pin and pivot.

What was the emergence like?

Someone posted a pic on here a couple of years ago showing where a simtech and unidrill had drilled side by side on some very stoney ground. The unidrill side looked like it had established much better despite it struggling for depth compared to the tine drill. There are of course always a lot of variables.

 

[sjt01]

We’ve demo’d a few disc drills including the Avatar which I really liked. Unfortunately in hard/dry conditions on the flint it just couldn’t keep a uniform seed depth at around 8kph. The Sprinter on Metcalfes was much more successful side by side. It would also be a very expensive drill for us to run, not just disc wear but every bush, bearing, pin and pivot.

Disc + flint = wear.

We started with a GD, now on Metcalfe tines. Hand pick the biggest flint, our ancient Cambridge rolls seem to cope so far.

 

[BenAdamsAgri]

What was the emergence like?

Someone posted a pic on here a couple of years ago showing where a simtech and unidrill had drilled side by side on some very stoney ground. The unidrill side looked like it had established much better despite it struggling for depth compared to the tine drill. There are of course always a lot of variables.

Struggled hugely with the new fancy sky drill on stoney land here kept riding out and struggled to get back in

 

[Brisel]

Sorry to hijack this thread but am looking at getting a carrier type set of discs and have plenty of flints and wondered which rear packer may be best suited? ththanks

I have used the solid rings in flints without any problems. They do wear but not badly. No problem with stones jamming them up.