Drills

Sole importers of the Kockerling and Virkar ranges of cultivators and drills, Samagri says its experience using the products on its own farms means it can advise farmers on the best machines for their business.

New and updated drills and cultivation machinery would have filled Weaving Machinery’s stand if the LAMMA show had gone ahead. David Williams visited the UK-based manufacturer for an exclusive preview.

As Covid-19 prohibits face-to-face machinery trade fairs, Pöttinger will launch its new products for the 2020/2021 financial year directly into its customers’ living rooms and offices, with a new virtual trade fair this month.

With last autumn’s wet weather significantly impacting winter cereal crop establishment, many growers will be contemplating bringing this year’s drilling dates forward into late September or early October. ADAMA’s Bill Lankford therefore examines why this strategy goes against all best practice advice for controlling black-grass populations and explains why – alongside weed mapping, rotation planning, cultivation technique and herbicide programmes – delaying drilling is still one of the key tactics for beating black-grass.

After the sodden conditions last autumn, some arable farmers may consider drilling wheat earlier to guarantee a decent area next harvest. But threats such as grass weeds and virus carrying aphids are both more of an issue in early drilled crops. Bayer’s Darren Adkins gives his thoughts on how farmers can balance the need for wheat area with pest and weed threats.

Farmers who drilled oilseed rape in July and August without applying a pre-emergence herbicide will need a tailored approach to weed control this autumn.

At a time of unprecedented uncertainty and challenges for businesses throughout the world innovative family-owned UK agricultural machinery manufacturer Claydon has reported strong sales for the first quarter of 2020.

Thanks to the mild and dry weather conditions the UK has been enjoying recently, the annual British pea production has begun, allowing around 700 farmers to take to the fields to officially begin the drilling season.

With local fields just about dry enough for spring drilling, many exhibitors at the G&J Peck Spalding depot annual open day feared attendance would suffer but, with orders placed and many enquiries for follow-up, the day was judged a great success. David Williams was there.

Following the successful roll-out of a three-year warranty on Kverneland power harrows, that same guarantee now extends to Kverneland power harrow drill combinations. And choices have further increased with the arrival of a new grain and fertiliser model, called the e-drill Maxi Plus.

Despite a difficult autumn, the Cereals Event reports 100 per cent of exhibitor crop plots at the Cambridgeshire site were drilled and growing by the end of October.

A new tine drill, designed to cope with some of the heaviest clay soils, has continued working in wet conditions in Essex when most other drills had returned to their sheds. David Williams saw it at work.