Weaving GD user thread

[Adeptandy]

Drill earlier. If you are DD’ing, you can afford to drill earlier in good condition (in the Autumn), because you are not moving much soil and releasing nitrogen which means that emergence is much slower.
You are also not disturbing anything like as much Blackgrass, which then doesn’t want to grow.
I’ve cut my pre-em amounts in half this year, thinking that if I need to top it up to full rate, I could go back post-em.
No need so far and probably won’t need to at all.
Here is a bit I drilled on 15th September into Linseed stubble.
View attachment 989882
View attachment 989883

I am fast coming to the conclusion that if you can Direct drill earlier into good conditions, we should all be doing so.
And I’m the one who famously quoted that I had given up ploughing in my farming career 3 times and there would never be a 4th!

When I consider that I’ve already saved more money by DDing and reduced Pre-em chemicals /ha than the BPS comes to AND yields are just as good if not better, it just seems an utter no brainier!
I’m shocked to say so.
But I need to thank all of you on this thread for your input and advice, as well as @Warnesworth , @Brisel , @SilliamWhale and @Clive .
I also really wonder if Simon Weaving actually truly realises what a fantastic drill the GD actually is!

I think he does

 

[EddieB]

Drill earlier. If you are DD’ing, you can afford to drill earlier in good condition (in the Autumn), because you are not moving much soil and releasing nitrogen which means that emergence is much slower.

I would love to have started drilling earlier but have been and still am waiting for seed.

 

[EddieB]

Have you been down to 6kph ?

Not quite, but certainly 7.

 

[EddieB]

What do you mean unblocking discs? What’s blocking them

Soil, it’s not particularly wet, was drilling into wetter soil last week. This was on sandy ground.

 

[ih1455xl]

I did try varying the speed but didn’t make much difference. Also played around with the depth.
First season with it but no problems until today, drilling into a variety of situations.

Is there any gap between the discs what are the scrapers like

 

[jack6480]

Soil, it’s not particularly wet, was drilling into wetter soil last week. This was on sandy ground.

Front row of discs or back?

 

[EddieB]

Front row of discs or back?

Back

 

[EddieB]

Is there any gap between the discs what are the scrapers like

No gap, scrapers good, only done 200 ha.

 

[jack6480]

No gap, scrapers good, only done 200 ha.

It’s soil flicking off front row of tyres into back discs. They need mudguards or something to cover the V on the back discs. I get this a lot.

 

[tr250]

It’s soil flicking off front row of tyres into back discs. They need mudguards or something to cover the V on the back discs. I get this a lot.

^this

 

[Two Tone]

I would love to have started drilling earlier but have been and still am waiting for seed.

I too was waiting for seed. Ordered Sensation Winter Barley 28th April for delivery September the 1st. It still hadn’t turned up by 27th September, so I got some more wheat from a local firm Milcote Hall Seeds and drilled that. Huge claim on its way to Wynstay for the trouble they have caused. But I wasn’t going to wait. I’d rather have drilled it straight off the heap in the Grainstore (Some of which I did!).

If you are forced to drill late so that it causes the problems you are getting, get it off the heap in the Grainstore, end of!
Drilling with a GD in those conditions cannot be right.

 

[Badshot]

Would the stone guards stop the soil flicking into the rear discs?
I've only ever had disc stall due to stones getting in between the discs.

 

[Clive]

Drill earlier. If you are DD’ing, you can afford to drill earlier in good condition (in the Autumn), because you are not moving much soil and releasing nitrogen which means that emergence is much slower.
You are also not disturbing anything like as much Blackgrass, which then doesn’t want to grow.
I’ve cut my pre-em amounts in half this year, thinking that if I need to top it up to full rate, I could go back post-em.
No need so far and probably won’t need to at all.
Here is a bit I drilled on 15th September into Linseed stubble.
View attachment 989882
View attachment 989883

I am fast coming to the conclusion that if you can Direct drill earlier into good conditions, we should all be doing so.
And I’m the one who famously quoted that I had given up ploughing in my farming career 3 times and there would never be a 4th!

When I consider that I’ve already saved more money by DDing and reduced Pre-em chemicals /ha than the BPS comes to AND yields are just as good if not better, it just seems an utter no brainier!
I’m shocked to say so.
But I need to thank all of you on this thread for your input and advice, as well as @Warnesworth , @Brisel , @SilliamWhale and @Clive .
I also really wonder if Simon Weaving actually truly realises what a fantastic drill the GD actually is!

great to see it working for you

 

[tr250]

Drill earlier. If you are DD’ing, you can afford to drill earlier in good condition (in the Autumn), because you are not moving much soil and releasing nitrogen which means that emergence is much slower.
You are also not disturbing anything like as much Blackgrass, which then doesn’t want to grow.
I’ve cut my pre-em amounts in half this year, thinking that if I need to top it up to full rate, I could go back post-em.
No need so far and probably won’t need to at all.
Here is a bit I drilled on 15th September into Linseed stubble.
View attachment 989882
View attachment 989883

I am fast coming to the conclusion that if you can Direct drill earlier into good conditions, we should all be doing so.
And I’m the one who famously quoted that I had given up ploughing in my farming career 3 times and there would never be a 4th!

When I consider that I’ve already saved more money by DDing and reduced Pre-em chemicals /ha than the BPS comes to AND yields are just as good if not better, it just seems an utter no brainier!
I’m shocked to say so.
But I need to thank all of you on this thread for your input and advice, as well as @Warnesworth , @Brisel , @SilliamWhale and @Clive .
I also really wonder if Simon Weaving actually truly realises what a fantastic drill the GD actually is!

I share exactly the same feelings on the drill only problem for me is it’s our only drill and putting beans in with it is a bit painful and I’m starting to get a fair few bearings go.

 

[Badshot]

I share exactly the same feelings on the drill only problem for me is it’s our only drill and putting beans in with it is a bit painful and I’m starting to get a fair few bearings go.

In 1100ha I changed 8 bearings.
All on the bigger serrated disc.
Speed knocks the hell out of them.
I keep at 8kmh now, they definitely last longer.
Just changed the serrated discs.
The worn ones were exactly the same size as new smaller disc so I've swapped them round and am going to try using the worn discs.
The new discs come complete with bearings.
And if my cunning plan works it's cost me less than 40p per acre in discs and bearings.

 

[Two Tone]

I share exactly the same feelings on the drill only problem for me is it’s our only drill and putting beans in with it is a bit painful and I’m starting to get a fair few bearings go.

So far, I haven’t had any problems with the bearings. I’m fairly convinced that what it doesn’t like I’d turning on the move with the coulters still in the ground and I try to avoid doing so.
I would say that rather like a Vaderstad drill, it a dry weather drill and not so good when it turns wet and sticky.

I had an interesting experiment this Autumn. A former 1ha trail plot needed ploughing to bury all the crap from 2 years of trials that had become very compacted and weed ridden. After ploughing and power-harrowing, I drilled it with the GD very successfully.

 

[Adeptandy]

Personal experience has found if there’s a cover crop it will go when a lot of drill won’t when it’s wet

 

[Two Tone]

Personal experience has found if there’s a cover crop it will go when a lot of drill won’t when it’s wet

I have found that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a cover crop. Volunteer Linseed or Oilseed rape is particularly good if you can drill into it within a day or to of Roundup’ing it off, while it is still green.
The same goes for volunteer cereals and especially after grass.
Try to plant into something green rather that something that is completely dead.
If nothing else, because it isn’t completely dead, it has been sucking up water and losing it to the atmosphere by transpiration. On top of which, when drilling in early Autumn, it actually stops soils from become too dry and hard to get the drill coulters to penetrate enough.

Soils don’t like nothing growing on them and want to capture Carbon when green crops or weeds photosynthesise.
If you can keep the gap between the last harvested crop and the new one short by drilling early or allow the volunteers to grow for as long as possible before you drill the next one, IMO you probably don’t need a cover crop.
But I drill early and I don’t grow any Spring crops (yet!).

 

[Two Tone]

In 1100ha I changed 8 bearings.
All on the bigger serrated disc.
Speed knocks the hell out of them.
I keep at 8kmh now, they definitely last longer.
Just changed the serrated discs.
The worn ones were exactly the same size as new smaller disc so I've swapped them round and am going to try using the worn discs.
The new discs come complete with bearings.
And if my cunning plan works it's cost me less than 40p per acre in discs and bearings.

You can buy the bearings (and discs) separately and the bearings aren’t that difficult to replace. I bought my drill second hand when it was 2 years old and had to replace all the serrated discs and couple of bearings. Where the bearings had gone, it was cheaper to buy the disc and bearing as a complete assembly. It also gives me the chance to make sure that all the coulters were correctly shimmed such that both discs just touch each other. Which I’m also convinced help the bearings last much longer.

 

[Badshot]

You can buy the bearings (and discs) separately and the bearings aren’t that difficult to replace. I bought my drill second hand when it was 2 years old and had to replace all the serrated discs and couple of bearings. Where the bearings had gone, it was cheaper to buy the disc and bearing as a complete assembly. It also gives me the chance to make sure that all the coulters were correctly shimmed such that both discs just touch each other. Which I’m also convinced help the bearings last much longer.

I won't need any bearings for ages now.
I bought a box of spares earlier this year, and now I've got 18 I took off the worn out small discs.
They've done a lot already, but they all felt fine when removed.
I notice the new bearings are no longer peer, they have weavings name stamped on them.