Whats the weaknesses of a simtech.

Oldmacdonald

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scotland
Lurker here. Very interested to move away from plough and combi on our small mixed farm. 160acres cereals, 350 acres grass on regular rested programme plus forage crops .
I like the look of the simtech. Low cost comparative to other options.

What would be its drawbacks?

Fairly loamy souls here, ranging to mid clay in a couple fields.
North East Scotland.
 

rob1

Member
Location
wiltshire
Price wise they are a the lower end of the scale, they are simple,take little power to pull so the biggest disadvantage is you cant brag about having the latest hi tech power hungry kit that costs an arm and a leg.

Seriously they are fairly heavy so need some weight on the front to hold them down, we have the box version not the air type and as with all box drills they are a pain if using to drill a handful of acres with small seeds, the only issue we have had is the rear roller blocking up last autumn, but it was very extreme and perhaps shouldnt have been drilling, I know some remove alternate rings to stop that in very wet times. Very happy with ours must have had it three/four seasons now
 

Ruston3w

Member
Location
south suffolk
Open slots/slugs if you are drilling anything a bit too sticky, poor drilling depth if the ground isn't level or patchy soil types in one field. I love our T-sem air drill but I bought a weaving GD to drill spring barley because of drilling depth problems. The ww I drilled with the Simtech came better than the GD where we got late, I will happily keep both and pick the best suited for the job.
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
After two years with a 4m I would agree with all said above. Additionally I would add that stones of a certain size, 3-5cm-ish can find their way into the top of the disc brackets and jam the discs so I do have some discs with flats on them where this has gone unnoticed for a while. Personally I often feel I am drilling too deep but you have to accept depth control is by the law of averages and the 4m is the worst of all being a 4m rigid frame. This leads to emergence being less than even very often but in my experience not to any detriment although we all like to see every plant coming out the ground at once.

Operating speed has to be kept low for the best job and the harder the ground the slower you need to go, 6-9km/hr is where I normally work. I have the big hopper and can get a tonne of wheat seed in which along with generally big fields means I expect to drill 20-25ha a day.

Slightly tongue in cheek I would say that they are too simple and too low cost to attract much attention? Furthermore they work just fine out of the box without much "pimping". Overall I would say most other direct drills prove the law of diminishing returns compared to the Simtech, it is certainly a good starting point and even if you want to add alternative drill later like @Ruston3w .

The Simtech will also go in wetter conditions than most other no-till drills to the point that you can over do it much like a power harrow drill in conventional tillage - whether that is strength or weakness is down to your judgement!
 

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
Sim tech drilled Spring Beans.
image.jpg
 

nick...

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
south norfolk
Why not ring Claydons direct 01440 820327?
They called me yesterday after one of their staff contacted me on her Sunday night.still got no idea of price and they chased dealer whose rep I’ve been waiting to hear from fir 6 weeks.i got a txt from said rep saying he could not contact me via phone and woukd I call him back which I did.got voice mail and left a message.my phone works perfectly and had several calls yesterday as I do most days.he could call land line and he knows where I live too.pretty poor really.
Nick...
 

Andrew K

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
Ingnore the dealer then,that is poor service. Never had any issues with Claydons themselves, a brilliant company to deal with.
 

Bill Turtle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Essex
No. The field was Trio’d last autumn, but had capped badly due to the winter rainfall. It was straight into the sprayed off Trio’d land at an angle, thus using the old tramlines again, then rolled a little later. No other sprays up to now.
 

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