New drill delivers
Matching the right drill for your farm is never an easy task and with the rising cost of new modern machinery, it is an expensive mistake if farmers get it wrong. This week the Scottish Farmer caught up with Marc Skivington, Farm Manager at Slains Park Farm near, Kinneff, to find out why the Amazone 6m Cirrus was the right choice for John I Forbes and Partner.
“It was our first move into a trailed drill,” Marc explained. “My uncle’s brother worked a trailed Vaderstad in Arbroath in my first employment, so it was always at the back of my mind. I think it is how we should be sowing crops. For me going to a trailed drill, we save on labour, fuel, and downtime changing worn parts and speed up the process.”
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The extensive business at John I Forbes and Partner is run over multiple farms with arable, dairy cattle, suckler cows, pigs, vegetables, horticulture and an aerobic digestate plant. Also a large part of the business sowing peas and beans for East Coast Viners. This year the business is growing 940 acres of spring barley, 400 acres of winter barley, 820 acres of winter wheat, 320 acres of oil seed rape, 300 acres of seed potatoes, 450 acres of silage grass, 76 acres of ryegrass, 100 acres peas or beans and 250 acres of daffodil bulbs.
READ MORE: Success Unveiled: Amazone Drill makes impact at Slains Park
The land varies considerable from heavy clay at Fourdon, to stoney ground at Slains Park to lighter sandy soils at Ury estate. The land runs a typical Aberdeenshire rotation of winter barley, oilseed rape, winter wheat then two years of spring barley before starting again. Heavier ground may get a second wheat whilst better land can be put to potatoes, peas or beans in a rotation.
Historically the business ran a traditional system with all the crop ground being ploughed then sown with a combi power harrow drill then rolled. The issue with this system according to Marc, was it take taking too long to cover the ground which is a challenge in a short sowing season. This is especially true for a business which typically sows 1000 acres Spring Barley and 2200 acre of peas and beans for East Coast Viners in the spring and 1600ac acres in the autumn. On top of the time, there was also the rising cost of fuel and wearing parts.
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The decision to switch to a trailed disc drill came to Marc who explained: “It had been at the back of my mind for some time, demonstrating various options throughout the years and finding a suitable drill that fitted both enterprises and adapting to change.
I made the big decision at the start of the year, our current 6m Amazone Avant still had some life left in it but after another season it may well not of. Still feeling the need to have a power harrow for possible the end of the season drilling wheat after potatoes if the weather turns against us.
READ MORE: New Amazone drill delivers for Slains Park
“I felt we were limited by the area we could turn over in a day. Even if conditions were good and we could plough a few hundred acres out ahead to keep the drill going, if the weather pattern turned changable we often got caught out and would be stuck, especially over at Jacksbank.
In the autumn the business would aim to sow 60 acres per day which was the limit under the old system. However, running the new drill, on a good day we can cover nearer 100 acres in a day.
The business has two Kverneland 5 furrow ploughs, and a Lemken six furrow onland plough, but the process was still slow and costly for Marc, though he admits there is still a place for the plough at Slains Park.
Last year the business trialled direct drilling when Marc borrowed East Coast Viners’ 4m Vaderstad rapid drill. This was used to sow 150 acres of oilseed rape directly into stubble using its disk system. Historically with the one pass system, the ground was cultivated with a 3m Lemken Karat, using the direct drill method cut the time in half and reduced labour and fuel inputs. Last year’s direct drilled crop proved successful at harvest yielding 1.87t/acre from well-established plants.
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When picking a drill Marc contacted Chris Powell and considered the Pottinger Terrasem before settling on Amazone Cirrus as their preferred option.
He said: “We have a great relationship with the Amazone product support team, this now being our third drill in 12 years we have faith behind the brand. They brought us over to the factory in Germany to see them being made and helped us to understand what was possible using cover crops. We need a drill which can last as we put them to the test here, they get hounded and pounded every day getting crop into the ground.”
The new 6m Amazone Cirrus drill arrived earlier in the year for £109,000 and in its first spring season clocked up 3200 acres of sowing. The drill was originally an ex demonstrator drill before heading to Slains Park.
One of the features which Marc is so keen on is the option to drop fertiliser in two places when sowing. Firstly after the cultivation discs there is a single disc with 250m spacing which places 50% of the fertiliser down their and then secondly down the spout with the seed. The ratio of application can be varied between the two options. Marc believes dropping fertiliser slighter further from the seeds may stimulate root growth and prevent scorching of the tip of the seed.
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Currently they are splitting the application 50/50 between the two options but in the coming years he hopes to fine tune this to ensure improve utilisation of inputs and plant growth. When drilling beans, Allan uses these discs to ensure the row spacing and depth is at is optimum, as the season becomes drier in the spring sowing the beans deep to ensure moisture for germination.
With the green drill has been added bonus to us, dabbling in cover cropping, sowing wild bird seed cover crops, undersowing spring barley with grass we have seen good catch of grass and takes off after being wholecropped and this year sowing the WOSR we have been able to apply slug pellets, again reducing another pass. The agronomy at the business is being delivered between Frontier and Agrii who share half the farms each. Marc believes “to make this transitional change from the traditional system your agronomist has to be on side too”
This is the first year of trying a new system with Magnus Sinclair of Sinclair Agriculture & Recycling Services. With them recently purchasing a Class Xerion Saddle Trac and 6m Horsch Joker to incorporate the slurry leaving a tilth to sow into, this is allowing us to apply slurry or digestate further from the farm, and again reducing the downtime of ploughing.
Another advantage of the drill according to Marc was safety when working on the machine. Both sides of the machine can fully fold up so that full access available for someone standing beside the drill. The prevent people from having to work on the drill whilst lying underneath the machine.
The drill is pulled by a Fendt 939 which has 400hp which is about to be swapped for the larger Fendt 942 which commands 942ph. Marc believed to effectively run the machine the tractor pulling needs the power. He explained: “You could get away with a smaller tractor, but you need to maintain speed and if you go up a hill you can not afford to drop below 12km/h. If you slow down, you will struggle to get the optimum seed contact with the soil.”
Compared to the combi drill Marc calculates he is 52p/acre for cultivation disks compared to £1.09/acre for power harrow blades. Similarly diesel usage is half of the volume with the new machine. Where previously the Fendt would be filled up daily, now tractor operator Allan only fills every second day saving 250l per day.
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Savings can also come in the form of labour as Marc runs a team of eight people, and looking ahead he believes it is going to be harder to maintain the calibre of employee. The new drilling method requires fewer passes of the ground which is a great saving when it comes to machinery and staff.
The machine isn’t the first Amazone in the business with a 2018 Avant power harrow combi drill bought new five years ago. The 6m folding avant machine has locked up a colossal 25,000 acres since its arrival. The machine is being kept in reserve in case it is needed during the busy drilling season.
Looking to the future, Marc sees a big role for the drill in established green cover crops on the farm. As farmers come under pressure from government to reduce tillage and sow cover crops, Marc feels the amazon is ideally suited for job as he hopes to use the cutter bar on the machine to be able to mulch and sow in a single pass in spring time. Or cover crops in the back end which can be grazed by sheep before going back into a cereal crop in spring and reducing fertiliser input
Best things about the drill
- Versatility of the machine with the disc cultivation we have various cultivation options, wether direct into stubble, cultivated ground or ploughed land.
- Large hopper and Green Drill, giving us more capacity to sow for more ac
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Things to consider if buying this drill
- Horsepower and wheel grip of the tractor in front of drill to maintain a constant working speed
- 7m Telehandler to fill it.
Next piece of equipment to upgrade finding a suitable cultivator to work alongside the drill.
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