I remember it well. He and we all thought direct drilling wouldn't work once the burning ban came in...his old Bettinson sat in the nettles for years, we heaved it out once for some experiment that I now can't remember, Chris got quite nostalgic about the old thing.Just a bit of input to you M. when I did DD work for your cousin Toby in the 80's he had a famous saying that I use to follow and lately ignored.
"Dont mind how late you get to do my Direct Drilling but make sure it is all finished by the 15th October" we had good success up there on that big field that faced Walkern.
When I told Toby's widow Pooh that we'd gone 100% direct drilling, she said 'Why?' I took from that that the wheels had come off his dd trial, but that big field you mention always looked good. No blackgrass, to get the thread back on track...