Article taken from Agronomist & Arable Farmer Magazine
A range of drills are being examined in the Growcrop Gold trials to show what can be achieved through reliable germination and establishment. Results to date show there is often no significant difference between drills tested so far, provided steps are taken to alleviate any compaction where needed. This year, the attention is focusing further on precision drilling and the best way to progress this on farm, says Mr Martin.
“We know that spatial arrangement required to optimise canopy structure and we now want to find better ways of delivering that.” There are six drill on test this year. Amazone’s EDX, is a precision maize drill set up at 50cm row spacings, sowing a seed every 6.6cm, exactly 15/m of row. Vaderstad’s Spirit C Strip drill is perhaps the most practical for farmers in the trial, says Mr Martin. He believes it’s 33cm row spacing could provide ideal, with 15 seeds/m of row equating to 45 seeds/sq m.
Vaderstad’s Topdown with following coulters continues in the trial due to its ongoing popularity with growers. Seed is sown in 25cm bands – reducing seed rate to 10/m of row (40/sq m) has shown no detrimental effect on yield in trials, says Mr Martin.
Great plains YP drill is being assessed at one site. Seeds are precision sown in a zig zag pattern 10-15cm either side of low disturbance legs carried in front of the drill, which centres around 76cm. The list includes two newcomers – The Great Plains 00 Planter and the Vaderstad Tempo. The 00 Planter also uses a sub soiler type approach, sowing two rows of seed at 20cm spacing, 10cm either side of the tines, which are fitted at 58cm centres. “15 seeds/m of twin row length equates to 28 seeds/sq m, providing an excellent spread of seed” says Mr Martin.
The Tempo is a premium precision drill, primarily designed for maize and included to help benchmark the performance of other drills in the trials, says Mr Martin. The version in the trials has 40 cm row widths, so 15 seeds/m of row equates to 37 seeds/sq m.
“There has been little to choose between the drills so far, on visual assessment at least,” says Mr Martin. “All drills on test have produced good crops. Establishment has generally been very good – certainly all the plots look to have a fantastic population counts. This is where we need to be – all the drills have so far produced the type of stand we were looking for.”
A range of drills are being examined in the Growcrop Gold trials to show what can be achieved through reliable germination and establishment. Results to date show there is often no significant difference between drills tested so far, provided steps are taken to alleviate any compaction where needed. This year, the attention is focusing further on precision drilling and the best way to progress this on farm, says Mr Martin.
“We know that spatial arrangement required to optimise canopy structure and we now want to find better ways of delivering that.” There are six drill on test this year. Amazone’s EDX, is a precision maize drill set up at 50cm row spacings, sowing a seed every 6.6cm, exactly 15/m of row. Vaderstad’s Spirit C Strip drill is perhaps the most practical for farmers in the trial, says Mr Martin. He believes it’s 33cm row spacing could provide ideal, with 15 seeds/m of row equating to 45 seeds/sq m.
Vaderstad’s Topdown with following coulters continues in the trial due to its ongoing popularity with growers. Seed is sown in 25cm bands – reducing seed rate to 10/m of row (40/sq m) has shown no detrimental effect on yield in trials, says Mr Martin.
Great plains YP drill is being assessed at one site. Seeds are precision sown in a zig zag pattern 10-15cm either side of low disturbance legs carried in front of the drill, which centres around 76cm. The list includes two newcomers – The Great Plains 00 Planter and the Vaderstad Tempo. The 00 Planter also uses a sub soiler type approach, sowing two rows of seed at 20cm spacing, 10cm either side of the tines, which are fitted at 58cm centres. “15 seeds/m of twin row length equates to 28 seeds/sq m, providing an excellent spread of seed” says Mr Martin.
The Tempo is a premium precision drill, primarily designed for maize and included to help benchmark the performance of other drills in the trials, says Mr Martin. The version in the trials has 40 cm row widths, so 15 seeds/m of row equates to 37 seeds/sq m.
“There has been little to choose between the drills so far, on visual assessment at least,” says Mr Martin. “All drills on test have produced good crops. Establishment has generally been very good – certainly all the plots look to have a fantastic population counts. This is where we need to be – all the drills have so far produced the type of stand we were looking for.”