Virkar Group Ocean/Dynamic Drills

Hello fellow direct drillers. Always on the look, I came across this drill from a fresh Spanish business. See video below or their website. I’m fond of the concept of individual contour following on a tine drill and also with the pressurized turbo discs running up front to make a low disturbance job.
Now, all videos I find are from drilling in bone dry conditions and with little amount of straw. Perhaps it won’t suit any other climate, but I can’t see this do worse than Seed Hawk, Dale or similar. And I kind of think it would cope better here than our current disc drill. OSR drilling especially.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=1s&v=R_IhDyTWG2Y

https://www.virkargroup.com

No idea of the build quality, company history or any references. Anyone know of them?
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
We are currently negotiating with virkar on getting a machine to England for this spring to start field testing.
It will be the dynamic version. We had information and pictures of these machines on the Kockerling stand at lamma show and had a good number of very interested farmers and contractors
Keep looking here and on other social media for updates
 

topcat2006

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
The Cotswolds
I visited them in Barcelona in around 2014 just as they were starting out. At that time I sold them some control systems to go onto the drill - don’t know what they are using now.

The drill itself was well built and built like it should last. I haven’t seen them since.
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
7B633CA7-F5BA-456B-BE7A-C81AC109D88A.jpeg
4315B311-6C0B-43C8-8834-AE0B58170BB4.jpeg
229ED4F0-8B87-4F05-8BEA-7118C6BA7D8E.jpeg
Virkar update
Machine arrived last week of March. Since then it has drilled spring
oats, and spring barley. This week it has been out drilling maize,
and kale into knee high winter wheat. We are pleased with the
results so far.
Above spring oats drilled 28th March into ground that was shallow
Cultivated in September. The surface was baked hard but like
Putty 2cm down. This particular machine is on 25cm row spacing.
The other option is to have 19cm row spacing
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
F6E503BA-46BC-4250-AE22-267ACB986BA0.jpeg
B2A6D581-1D39-41A1-98C8-13E5DE0F84B1.jpeg
24979DE3-C58F-4251-89D3-3F5DACB6CE90.jpeg
These pictures are of spring barley sown 29th March.
The field had been worked deep in October but it turned wet and didn’t
Get drilled. The land had slumped and was very uneven so giving us
A good opportunity to test out the contour following ability.
The crows did their best to dig it all up some 90 odd shot in one day
Mr packham was to late to save them.
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
I really like the look of this drill. Is there any more news on it? Are they going bigger than 6m? Really nice design IMO
We have been putting the drill into some extreme conditions to find its limitations this autumn. The weather has certainly helped with this. First dry and hard and now extremely wet. We have made some changes to enhance its
Performance in the dry with large amounts of chopped straw.
There are plans for a 8/9m hopefully for next summer.
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
This drill appeals to me also. Not got the acres to justify one at the moment, but if there was a localish demo I'd be keen for a look.
Currently using a Moore, Kockerling and two different combis.
Project ongoing of building a toolbar for the (mounted) Moore - leading disc and low disturbance leg - one leg between two pairs of coulters.
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
@Northdowns Martin
Thanks for your interest in the Virkar drill we did have plans for a open day and crop walks but with the weather the way it is has been has put a stop to that as not much drilled, it was performing very well in the wet and drilling into some pretty sticky ground no problem so it defiantly works in lots of different situations.
The drill is still available to demo if that would be of interest to you we still have demos to try and fit in but again weather has hampered that but if it does dry up the drill is available.

In terms of videos there is a good one of it on the Virkar website and we have lots of images of the drill and crop pics on our instagram page
Samagriltd to view.

If you require any more information we’re more than happy to help and answer any questions you have
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
This drill appeals to me also. Not got the acres to justify one at the moment, but if there was a localish demo I'd be keen for a look.
Currently using a Moore, Kockerling and two different combis.
Project ongoing of building a toolbar for the (mounted) Moore - leading disc and low disturbance leg - one leg between two pairs of coulters.
What Kockerling drill are you running?
 

Spud

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
YO62
What Kockerling drill are you running?

It's a 2001 AT300 - great for beans in particular, a bit max disturbance ideally, but transformed beans for us. Drill cover crops with it sometimes too. Bit power hungry, it's a big lump.
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
Some pictures from this autumn.
First two are direct drilled into rape stubble 23rd october
Next two is drilled into ground that was cultivated in August. It was drilled on 31st October.
The field was like a sponge after 230mm rain in the previous month.
The fields have had another 130mm since being drilled.
9BD5A31F-34DA-484E-85D4-1B5F79C99972.jpeg
FFE24BC8-12A2-48B0-B270-6A938F319451.jpeg
937DB36F-DF1D-476A-B1AB-34FCCB37125E.jpeg
24A8BC18-E410-4468-B6A1-F1A026FE862E.jpeg
92349DE5-2324-4AD2-B4D7-603B29C95378.jpeg
 

Petewaudby

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincs
Hi Vitu, we really like the look of the drill. We run very varied land types, from heavy clay to very light silt. We know the drill would work well either directly or after a low disturbance subsoiler on our heavier land. Have you any experience on running the drill after a plough and power harrow. On the light silt land we have a lot of root crops and vegetables so we have to plough, especially in a wet year like this. Thanks
 

Vitu

Member
Location
Hampshire
Hi Petewaudby
We have not tried it after a power Harrow. But have drilled on ploughed ground no problem.
Some was just Cambridge rolled. And other cultivated ahead of the drill.
Because of the way the turbo disc creates a tilth for the seed to drop onto you don't need such a
good seed bed on ploughing as you would for a conventional drill.
If you would like any more information you can contact us on 01256 384208 or email [email protected]
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

  • 1,286
  • 1
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/
Top