Strip till or direct drilling with a tight rotation

[Deere 6430]

Posted this in cropping but realised it should be here! My mistake!

Looking for some advice on the following please.

How would strip tillage, ie using a Claydon, Sumo DTS, McConnell seedaerator type drill vs a more low disturbance type of drill such as a Sky Easydrill work with the following type of rotation

Growing wheat and winter/spring oats (as we have the contract for a feed market with the oats) sometimes beans, (either winter or spring) and grass which is for hay so it’s down for 2 or 3 or maybe 4 years. We also grow stubble turnips or forage rape for sheep keep and would like to try cover crops occasionally IF WE HAD TIME AFTER HARVEST.

we always plough for the grass and currently for some of the cereals but would like to reduce the ploughing, (soil benefits etc)

we have tried a bit of low disturbance drilling with a disc drill, seems to be a bit hit and miss, but feel it needs a bit more air or tilth when sowing. We don’t have masses of time in the autumn as we finish combining late due to having to do 2nd cut hay.

Drills listed above are the options as they are available secondhand,never really tried the min till route as feel it’s not really ideal as the time we’ve cultivated to get a ‘stale seedbed’ we’ve probably missed the opportunity to get anything drilled as it gets wet and then wouldn’t dry out.

Drill doesn’t need to sow the grass. Haven’t tried a tine drill but did have a demo of a Horsch Sprinter into the ploughed and cultivated ground which we quite liked

soil is a medium clay loam, easy to work but isnt much fun in the wet and will dry out in the spring if overworked.

 

[Dukes Fit]

When do you finish combining roughly and what's your window for drilling?

Do you have spare tractor/manpower for stale seedbed prep?

 

[Northern Luke]

Soil type will play a role here. DTS is very good, but wide spacing and will find stones if you have any, a tine drill will help get underneath the seed and allow roots to go down, you can lift the ground a bit as well.

Do you incorporating manures, suppose you have a plough for this but something to think about with drill choice.

Disc drills will cause a lot less soil disturbance, but you need good conditions to get even seed depth without compaction, and I guess this is where you've seen it 'hit and miss'.

Medium clay loam should cope with both drills, I'd say if it's the start of a journey go for a tine drill, and maybe in time you can go disc once the soils have adapted.

(I'm using a sky drill and DTS, only plough one in six for potatoes)

 

[Deere 6430]

Finish harvest in September but bake all the straw so have that to haul as well so would cultivate for a stale seedbed in October, but by the end of October or by the time it’s greened up I don’t get a spray day or time to get drilled if it’s turned wet so that is why I’m not so keen on min till.

 

[Deere 6430]

No stones here, no manures to plough in either.

@Northern Luke if you had just one drill out of those two which would you choose?

Is the wide row spacing detrimental is you’re only really growing cereals?

 

[Deere 6430]

Don’t have spare tractor or man power for stale seedbed preparation, I’m on my own as such with only occasional help

 

[Badshot]

Buy a weaving gd.
The only thing it doesn't excel at is slot seeding grass into grass
Every thing else is easy for it.
Have a low disturbance subsoiler if you're worried about compaction.
But my experience so far says it's unnecessary.

 

[Northern Luke]

To cover every scenario I'd go DTS. Nothing wrong with sky, but the DTS will go when the sky won't.
Direct drilling is a journey in my experience, would be worth getting a few demos and have a comparison.

 

[alomy75]

e have tried a bit of low disturbance drilling with a disc drill, seems to be a bit hit and miss, but feel it needs a bit more air or tilth when sowing.

From that statement I think you can instantly forget any disc drill (and I would agree with you) then you can decide how much disturbance/tilth you want with Claydon at one end of the scale and metcalfe/sabretine/condor at the other.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Posted this in cropping but realised it should be here! My mistake!

Looking for some advice on the following please.

How would strip tillage, ie using a Claydon, Sumo DTS, McConnell seedaerator type drill vs a more low disturbance type of drill such as a Sky Easydrill work with the following type of rotation

Growing wheat and winter/spring oats (as we have the contract for a feed market with the oats) sometimes beans, (either winter or spring) and grass which is for hay so it’s down for 2 or 3 or maybe 4 years. We also grow stubble turnips or forage rape for sheep keep and would like to try cover crops occasionally IF WE HAD TIME AFTER HARVEST.

we always plough for the grass and currently for some of the cereals but would like to reduce the ploughing, (soil benefits etc)

we have tried a bit of low disturbance drilling with a disc drill, seems to be a bit hit and miss, but feel it needs a bit more air or tilth when sowing. We don’t have masses of time in the autumn as we finish combining late due to having to do 2nd cut hay.

Drills listed above are the options as they are available secondhand,never really tried the min till route as feel it’s not really ideal as the time we’ve cultivated to get a ‘stale seedbed’ we’ve probably missed the opportunity to get anything drilled as it gets wet and then wouldn’t dry out.

Drill doesn’t need to sow the grass. Haven’t tried a tine drill but did have a demo of a Horsch Sprinter into the ploughed and cultivated ground which we quite liked

soil is a medium clay loam, easy to work but isnt much fun in the wet and will dry out in the spring if overworked.

Great rotation.

A disc drill in great condition can do a job a lot of tines can't. But you need to find out the, why, when disc drill stands are poor. It's usually a management decision

 

[Deere 6430]

Thanks for all the replies etc so far.

Have been to see a Claydon Hybrid and it looks a good drill but maybe concerned about the amount of soil it would move or more importantly if it was wet. But liked the simplicity of the design.

Have looked at a Mzuri as well, as there was one to see and that wasn’t for us, it was 3 metre but huge, seemed a sledgehammer approach to sow cereals for us.

Haven’t seen a DTS yet as nothing close by to look at.

Looking again at the Sprinter and seeing what cultivator would let us make a seedbed for it to sow into as another option.

 

[alomy75]

The sprinter is a very versatile drill as you can fit a wide range of coulters to it to suit your system and if you go for a later (2010 ish onwards) it won’t wear out either. A vote for metcalfes here; I’ve drilled into everything from ploughed/pharrowed to direct into stubble. I’ll never replace it with anything but another sprinter. Forget drilling into dead cover crops with one though.