Anyone using an x-press for primary and secondary tillage? Does it do a good job onto of heavy ploughed land? I am woundering wether an x-press would allow me to replace my old disces and press with one tool!!! Is the machine too much of a compromise for me? I would welcome any thoughts. Dose anyone know wether simba are going to make their presses into a system cultivater? I think it would be useful for them to have a double/single press that could be fitted with either tines or dics or both depending on conditions. I had a word with a lad on their stand a Smithfield suggesting the idea. Responce was a little luke warm although he said they were looking at it. TIA

Have run a 6.6mtr x press for the last 2 season,s . Very good machine in the right condition,s , But not as versatile as a set of disc and culti press on behind . The problem we have found with the x press is if the ground is a little bit sticky the double d rings pack the ground back down so the ground cant dry out . Also if it,s sticky the mud build,s up around the DD scraper,s so making it harder to pull. We found last spring time we were pulling the disc,s across the ground to leave the soil up in the air to dry out a little before we could go in and drill. With the disc and press at least you can pull the pin and carry on . Just changed it for a new type culti press with spring tine,s on . As for the system cultivator i think you will see something from simba but not for a while . Hope this helps What sort of Ha are you looking to cover .

500-700ha is the area I would be looking to cover. A 6.6m is a little serious of me. The machine I want is one that can use for primary min-till and secondary/seedbed creation on top of heavy ploughed land. The x-Press seems to fit the bill on paper. Itll need to travel well on the road as we are not ring fenced. I do use a large Horsch FG as part of our system at present so I woud intend to use it behind it aswel. Any thoughts on something that I might of missed on the market would be much appreciated. Thanks

Had demos,s of most of the min till type,s of machine,s last autum Rabe Horsch Vaderstad went for a top down in the end . Topdown did a very good job at mixing all the surface trash and lifting hard patches. Had 4 different zones the could be used as needed. The vaderstad carrier i would say comes in between the x press and the top down. The Rabe field bird or fire bird did a good job a copy of the John Deere mulch Finisher which would do a good job but not as versatile as the top down in my opinion. Horsch FG did a good job but did not mix and chop the trash enough for what we needed. What you could with the x press on your ploughed land is just tip it back a little and just run as a press if you find the disc stall due to the soil being loose and stalling the disc. On the travel side they fold up nice and travel well . Go for the braked axle if you can as these machine,s can weigh up around 6-7 ton,s and that can take some stopping. What would be your plan of operation for it. Nice good secondhand one at Simba,s yard.

"Nice good secondhand one at Simba,s yard". also at Brocks have you looked at the Knight presses? they seem to have several different models now. I would agree with comment re DD rings sealing land when damp and remarks about scrappers. DW

Glad to hear you tried Rabe. What was "more versatile" about the Vaderstad? and on what soil type/location were your comparisons made? Martin Holden Rabe UK

The Rabe was very good. I liked the harrow which followed behind the tines - set up right, this done a very good job. I ran a John Deere mulch finisher for a number of years and thought the Rabe machine was very much along the same line. There are a couple of things that in my opinion would make it a better machine. Make the disc gang on the front so that you can angle it, because when you go around the outside of your field it takes the soil and moves in to the centre, So after a while you end up with a ridge which is very hard to get rid of. Also make the tines break back adjustable and the sweeps cut all of the ground. Soils types range from heavy clay to light cotswold brash. I felt that the top down would be able to cope with the hard areas in the field and not need a seperate operation to deal with them. Also I liked the way you were able to run the machine with the the packer lifted off the ground if conditions were too tacky for it.

If you lift the packer out in sticky conditions I guess the wheel is transferred to the wheels which will then cause compaction the conditions when you least need it. I think Vaderstad would be better to design a packer with their own shouldered ring so that it could cope with wet conditions, which will then keep the weight spread across the full working width, and not in two positions where the wheels run.

If you lift the packer out in sticky conditions I guess the weight is transferred to the wheels which will then cause compaction the conditions when you least need it. I think Vaderstad would be better to design a packer with their own shouldered ring so that it could cope with wet conditions, which will then keep the weight spread across the full working width, and not in two positions where the wheels run.

Anyone tried the He-Va (Opico) disc roller? it looks to be a bit heavier than the carrier with larger dia press discs and is said to be able to work up to 5" deep. http://www.opico.co.uk/agmac/cultivation/discroller/discroller_intro.htm DW

Ok. Interesting to see your experiences. The break back is adjustable by changing the compression on each spring. The idea of lifting the packer defeats the object of the exercise as you must consolidate what has just been mulched - slugs, moisture retention etc. Ideally you should not be in the field when the conditions are "tacky", but sometimes time dictates. Everyone is trying to find the perfect solution to cleaning and scraping rollers, whlie at the same time maintaining good consolidation. Front disc gang is only meant for cutting straight slots through crop residues. Turning in the field with any disc system places enormous sideways pressure on the whole assy'. I'll pass on your thoughts to the designers. Martin Holden Rabe UK

At work we have two Opico Disc-Rollers, an Opico Vari-disc and a Vaderstad Carrier. This year the only two machines we really got on with were the Carrier and Vari-disc as the Disc-Roller had serious problems with it bouncing when you got anywhere near 15km/hr. However the year before the disc roller worked better than the Carrier but over the winter they had modified it and basically buggered it up! He-Va came over a few times during the summer putting new discs and rubbers on the Disc-Rollers with no success but apparently they have now found that the problem lies in the notched roller vibrating too much and so the two disc-rollers are both in having new rollers fitted. Hopefully give them a go in the next few weeks when it gets dry again and see it the problem has been solved. To add a bit of twist however, I know of one farm locally who had a new 6.3m disc-roller this year and it worked brilliantly for them. Hope this is of some help. Regards Peter

Hi Martin What i meant by the disc gang angle was if you went along the side of a wall or hedge it would take the soil from the outside edge of the machine and move it into the middle so creating a ridge effect across the field. I had this problem with the JD mulch finisher. It needs to have the facility to adjust the gang angle. On the spring front make them heavier so that with wide sweeps fitted they stay at the correct angle in heavy going but break away if they hit something big. As for the packer I would only lift it to allow me to run the machine through the ground and to lift it and a put some air into it. Take for instance over winter stubble into a spring crop I do not need the machine to retain the moisture I need the machine to chop up the residue and move all of the surface trash. I thought that your design team had put a lot of thought into the harrow system by the way it was so easy to adjust for different amounts of residue. I think it was the Field Bird I had. The Fire Bird is like the Carrier isnt it. Make a small drill to drop on the top for OSR and you will be really flying. I will have a demo then.