Increasing pressure from water companies to reduce the amount of run-off from maize stubbles has prompted Weaving Machinery to build a dedicated companion crop drill.

It’s not the first of this type – a number of contractors and farmers have assembled their own from Weaving bits. However, this is the first time the firm has made a complete machine to list in its brochure.

See also: Driver’s View: Henry Muntz’s Weaving GD drill

The IR uses Weaving’s tried-and-tested double-disc coulters, which are mounted in banks of three to sow grass or other seed mixes between the maize rows. Crucially, this allows the companion crop to be planted into established maize so that it doesn’t smother it.

Row spacing is 187.5mm and each coulter has its own rubber press wheel and spring tensioner for adjusting downward pressure.

Up top, there’s a 300-litre hopper that feeds the coulters via a simple volumetric metering system. This is controlled by an RDS Artemis Lite screen teamed with a GPS speed sensor.

Weaving is building both six-row and eight-row versions, both with a minimum power requirement of 80hp.

The six-row IR6001M costs £16,800 and the eight-row IR8001M costs £18,800.