The history of Zero Till/Direct Drilling around the world?

[Pilatus]

I am interested to know about the history of the thread title. As some of your are Nuffield Scholars I would be interested to know if any of you have researched the history of who,when and where Zero till was first tried around the world.
I posted a thread back in June 29 2019 titled "One of the first zero till drills "The Conserva Pak". I was not implying that Jim Halfords Conserva Pak drill was the ACTUAL first zero till drill but that he must have taken zero till forward with his Conserva Pak drill. Thanks for any info on such a concept that was obviously viewed with such doubt at the time but is now accepted by so many progressive farmers a round the world.

 

[sjt01]

Start at 1316 BC for a direct drill?

 

[Farmer Roy]

I am interested to know about the history of the thread title. As some of your are Nuffield Scholars I would be interested to know if any of you have researched the history of who,when and where Zero till was first tried around the world.
I posted a thread back in June 29 2019 titled "One of the first zero till drills "The Conserva Pak". I was not implying that Jim Halfords Conserva Pak drill was the ACTUAL first zero till drill but that he must have taken zero till forward with his Conserva Pak drill. Thanks for any info on such a concept that was obviously viewed with such doubt at the time but is now accepted by so many progressive farmers a round the world.

ive been doing it my whole farming career of 30 + years, it’s so common place & normal here it is pretty much the default method of establishing crops . . .

Old Hector Todd ( among others ) was doing it in southern Queensland in the 70’s, with home made / modified equipment
It was all farmer driven

We have a long history of people adapting / modifying machinery to suit & a long history of companies supplying aftermarket components to suit

All of our local planter ( drill ) manufacturers predominantly make “zero till” machines, most if not all of them, that’s the ONLY type of planter they make

Plenty of newer companies around, but names like Gyral & Janke have been around for a long time

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Dad and his brother had a homemade one, built it in the late 70s and refined through the 80s until it was really quite a good machine, it was mainly based on grain-drill and Storrie ridger parts, with worn-down Reid&Gray plough "openers"

going by that, they must have seen something somewhere to provide the inspiration for it