Sumo DD Spring Drilling

I walked over my neighbour's trial field with the Sumo and Dale areas. When I walked back over the field shortly after drilling I really didn't feel that optimistic about it - there was quite a lot of open slots and hair-pinning in sticky clay in the Sumo, and a pretty lumpy finish in the Dale area with quite a bit of smearing. Not a reflection on the drills' abilities because I don't think one would have chosen to go in these conditions.

Nevertheless, having just walked some of our Claydon drilled fields which were drilled on the same day and which we had to maschio after drilling, I was pretty impressed. The wheat has come much better than I had expected and is not looking anywhere near as yellow as some of the min-tilled wheat around. The emergence down the row is better than I would have hoped for and wheat plants seemed to have grown through some pretty thick mats of straw. The Dale area also looked better than expected, although it does move a lot more soil and I think could struggle with trash clearance on the narrow row spacing - finished product is still good considering though.

I'm not sure whether this year has been particularly kind, but this result has certainly increased my enthusiasm about disc drills' abilities. The result is probably better than Claydon drilled fields we did in slightly worse conditions (so not an entirely fair comparison) but with a lot less damage to the soil.

Sumo:
2015-12-01 14.54.03.jpg
(Sorry, still have the same carp phone.)

Dale (drilled a few days later IIRC):
2015-12-01 15.00.21.jpg


Generally around here 2nd wheats are looking pretty sad and yellow with all the wet and I would say this field looks better than average. Also, in this trial field areas with less straw definitely look better.
 
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Where there were combine wheelings the plant establishment is definitely compromised, but this shows that even in a pretty ugly looking open slot that the plants can still grow:
2015-12-01 15.01.50.jpg

Not 100% emergence but still a reasonable % which I think will tiller and not be too bad come harvest.
 
Redo them

Yes, sir. As you wish, although it took me weeks to get round to seeing this field so don't hold your breath.

I shall use my other Galaxy S3 with its unscratched lens which would be my main phone if I hadn't broken it trying to fashion a homemade SIM card holder which bent all the contacts.

I refuse on principal to buy a third phone in a year. Nokia 3310 is being prepared as back-up (it has a colour screen!).
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Yes, sir. As you wish, although it took me weeks to get round to seeing this field so don't hold your breath.

I shall use my other Galaxy S3 with its unscratched lens which would be my main phone if I hadn't broken it trying to fashion a homemade SIM card holder which bent all the contacts.

I refuse on principal to buy a third phone in a year. Nokia 3310 is being prepared as back-up (it has a colour screen!).
If you break your phone it's probably covered by your home contents insurance. ;-) well mine was anyway, both times.
 
If you break your phone it's probably covered by your home contents insurance. ;-) well mine was anyway, both times.

Do you think if I present a collection of broken phones they might start to think I enjoy torturing them for fun and refuse to insure me from that point on?

Also, I'm not sure the policy covers damage by ham-fisted ignoramuses.
 
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Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
Do you think if I present a collection of broken phones they might start to think I enjoy torturing them for fun and refuse to insure me from that point on?

Also, I'm not sure the policy covers damage by ham-fisted ignoramuses.
1. Maybe. But I have buggered two phones in less than a year with NFU and no problem except getting the pee taken out if me by the local office now.
2. It covered me so...................

3. As these smart phones are worth more than my laptop it's well worth insurance on them.
 

Spencer

Member
Location
North West
Just wondering why this thread got mothballed?

You really don't see many Sumo DD drills about, despite them looking and setting off well with advertising?

Why is this, don't they suit UK soils?
Made of cheese?
Low resale value?

In the market for a disc drill and sumo on the radar but all seems quiet....
 

Tractor Boy

Member
Location
Suffolk
6 years ago I bought a jd750a which I still have whereas a neighbour bought a sumo dd. They have now swapped it for an avatar. I think it did them well but they did say that the angle of the disc along with the seeding boot created a wider slot than the covering wheels could deal with comfortably on clay soil, meaning a lot of open slots. I don’t know much about the avatar but the disc angle on the jd is less than the sumo and the boot is set back in the shadow of the disc to create the narrowest slot possible.
 
Location
Cheshire
6 years ago I bought a jd750a which I still have whereas a neighbour bought a sumo dd. They have now swapped it for an avatar. I think it did them well but they did say that the angle of the disc along with the seeding boot created a wider slot than the covering wheels could deal with comfortably on clay soil, meaning a lot of open slots. I don’t know much about the avatar but the disc angle on the jd is less than the sumo and the boot is set back in the shadow of the disc to create the narrowest slot possible.
Have you got the new coulter, supposed to improve it further?
 

FarmerBruce

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Just wondering why this thread got mothballed?

You really don't see many Sumo DD drills about, despite them looking and setting off well with advertising?

Why is this, don't they suit UK soils?
Made of cheese?
Low resale value?

In the market for a disc drill and sumo on the radar but all seems quiet....
🤔
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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As reported in Independent


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

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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