Sumo DD Spring Drilling

MDA

Member
Trade
Hello all,

I thought I would start a thread on here to show the progress of our new direct drill throughout the coming season for everyone to see, comment on and add to.
We are currently getting the drill ready for spring demos with some final small adjustments and a small trial in a few local fields to make sure everything is working correctly before we start properly.
The drill will make a final show appearance at Agri-expo on the 4th of March in Kent before the spring campaign begins if anyone is thinking of going, we will be on the Burden Bros stand along with a large selection of our other equipment.

So yesterday we tried the drill on a bit of spare ground and some old game cover which we were pretty pleased with.
Drilling seed at around 40mm travelling at 10km/h in the game cover and 15km/h on the stubble.
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The disc cuts through the trash well and I didn't see any hair pinning as such. I noticed that seed was placed right at the bottom of the trench an any material in the sowing trench was pressed in above the seed by the following slot closing wheel. Early days anyway, we have a lot to learn! I will keep updating this thread with any new pics and observations.

Marv.
 

Fuzzy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
Hello all,

I thought I would start a thread on here to show the progress of our new direct drill throughout the coming season for everyone to see, comment on and add to.
We are currently getting the drill ready for spring demos with some final small adjustments and a small trial in a few local fields to make sure everything is working correctly before we start properly.
The drill will make a final show appearance at Agri-expo on the 4th of March in Kent before the spring campaign begins if anyone is thinking of going, we will be on the Burden Bros stand along with a large selection of our other equipment.

So yesterday we tried the drill on a bit of spare ground and some old game cover which we were pretty pleased with.
Drilling seed at around 40mm travelling at 10km/h in the game cover and 15km/h on the stubble.
View attachment 119136 View attachment 119150 View attachment 119152
View attachment 119158View attachment 119154

The disc cuts through the trash well and I didn't see any hair pinning as such. I noticed that seed was placed right at the bottom of the trench an any material in the sowing trench was pressed in above the seed by the following slot closing wheel. Early days anyway, we have a lot to learn! I will keep updating this thread with any new pics and observations.

Marv.
Do you have any photos/video of the autumn drilled DD crops?
 

6910

Member
I DD spring barley into conditions a bit like that last year, maybe even less thrash and the barley didn't like it, actually neither did I when it came to harvest.
It will be interesting to see how yours does so please keep us updated.
 

MDA

Member
Trade
As said in the first post, the pics are showing testing on some ground that is destined for the plough and maize that a local farmer very kindly let us have a play on earlier this week! It might make it to emergence before it gets ploughed, and if it does I will see if I can get some pics.

Today we got chance to drill a small area of Kilburn spring wheat into a two year lay that had been sprayed off with 4ltrs. glyphos and mucked with fym. It is probably a little early and the ground was wet, but we were given the chance to do this next to the farms own system of plough, press and Pronto drill in the same field so it will be interesting to see how it compares.
Field was described as sandy loam running into slightly heavier loam in parts.
We drilled 6 ha total and the tractor used 11.4 ltrs/ha fuel.
Sowing depth 40mm

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MDA

Member
Trade
Drilling Sanette spring barley today on some light land that has been DTS'd for the past 2 years.
The focus was to see how much soil disturbance was created by the rear angled press wheel in light soils. In the end we found the best setting was to run them at an almost straight angle to DOT and un-pinned so they were floating worked well and no seed was observed being flicked back onto the surface which sometimes can be a problem with this type of closing wheel. Their own weight coupled with the weight of the press wheel arm seemed to be enough to break the furrow wall and cover the seed. We may try some less aggressive designed ones if this problem becomes apparent later.
We also had to make a better designed cranked more adjustable drawbar end to get the drill to run more level as the John Deere one is very low.
Drilling speed 12km/h using 8.2ltrs/ha fuel.
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
8.2 l/ha I wouldn't consider that too bad

zero-till should be half that - 750a here 3-4 l/ha and the Dale was similar

I suspect the meter in the tractor used there wasn't right as I cant see any reason the sumo drill would take more pulling than either of the above ??
 

Andrew K

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
Looks like we will have a UK contender soon for the No Till crown, Watch out John Deere and Cross slot!
Well done lads, looking good so far.
 

MDA

Member
Trade
Why so deep (40mm) and why so fast ?

Sowing depth was at the farmers request, his reason being that his soils are prone to drying out very quickly.
We also intend to test the drill at all different speeds and ground conditions, as seen in other threads drills of this type are expected to work at speeds of up to 16km/hr.
 

MDA

Member
Trade
Fair enough, I'm not saying you have to and we would probably have got less soil disturbance in the light soil if we had gone slower but I wouldn't say 12km/hr was excessively fast for this type of disc drill. I've seen other direct drills travelling at speed in certain conditions, so I feel its important ours can match them!
 

MDA

Member
Trade
Do you have any photos/video of the autumn drilled DD crops?

Most of the crop has fared pretty well over winter considering the conditions it went in I think, but there has been considerable slug damage in areas. maybe the problem was made worse by not being able to close the slot well enough in the sticky soils.
A question from me though, as we have dual product metering on the drill, would it have been a good idea to apply slug pellets at point of drilling with the seed? I believe there can be some restrictions on incorporating certain types of pellets into the soil. I also think some people believe that pellets too near the seed can attract slugs to the seed in the first place.
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Most of the crop has fared pretty well over winter considering the conditions it went in I think, but there has been considerable slug damage in areas. maybe the problem was made worse by not being able to close the slot well enough in the sticky soils.
A question from me though, as we have dual product metering on the drill, would it have been a good idea to apply slug pellets at point of drilling with the seed? I believe there can be some restrictions on incorporating certain types of pellets into the soil. I also think some people believe that pellets too near the seed can attract slugs to the seed in the first place.View attachment 124968 View attachment 124976 View attachment 124974

pellets contain attractants - personally I think the last place they want to be is with seed

fit a pelleter to throw them on the surface behind the drill IMO, if you use something like a Wizard it can double up as a avadex applicator when required
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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