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News and user views on the latest cultivation techniques to optimise crop establishment, minimise environmental impact, improve soils and reduce costs through direct drilling, minimum tillage, conservation tillage – as well as traditional ploughing and drilling techniques.

Latest cultivation and drilling articles

CULTIVATION AND DRILLING

Smart-Control system for latest 3-15m Einbock tine harrows

Tine weeders for arable and vegetable crops have become more sophisticated with the introduction of Smart-Control for Einbock’s flagship harrow, the Aerostar-Fusion. Available in six sizes from 3m to 15m,…

CEREAL DRILLS

Horizon develops lightweight M-spec DSX no-till drill

Horizon Agriculture has put its DSX no-till disc drill on a serious diet, creating a lightweight version that’s suited to smaller farms. Coulters on the M:DSX are the same undercut…

CEREAL DRILLS

Novag shows 9m, 18t tracked T-ForcePlus 950 drill

Some careful manoeuvring was required to get the latest T-ForcePlus drill on Novag’s show stand. With wings that fold out to 9m, a tracked undercarriage, a monster 7,700-litre hopper and…

CEREAL DRILLS

Vaderstad redesigns Seed Hawk no-till drills for Europe

Vaderstad is bringing its Seed Hawk no-till tine drill back to Europe, with a frame that folds to road legal proportions of just under 3m wide and 4m tall. The…

CEREAL DRILLS

Weaving launches low-cost Lynx tine drill

Evesham-based outfit Weaving returned to the halls of Hanover for the first time in a decade with a new min-till tine drill – the Lynx. It is a lighter, more…

CEREAL DRILLS

Ultimate Guide to buying a trailed combination drill 2024

Consolidation is the theme for this year’s Ultimate Guide to trailed combination cultivator drills – not in the soil-firming sense, but rather in the way manufacturers are sticking to tried-and-tested…

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CEREAL DRILLS

Direct drills revisited: 9m custom-built John Deere 750A

After spending several years heavily modifying a 9m-wide, US-built John Deere 1890 drill for European conditions and UK roads, Leicestershire farmer Steve Heard put the implement – and the rest…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver's view: John Mair's Ma/Ag SSP drill

John Mair from March, Cambridgeshire, gives us the low down on his Ma/Ag no-till drill. He reveals the benefits to soil and cost, tells us how it has performed, and…

TILLAGE-LIVE

Tillage-Live's top cultivators and drills put to the test

Visitors to last week’s Tillage-Live event were treated to another September scorcher as the mercury touched 30C at Monks Kirby, Warwickshire. Here Farmers Weekly’s Machinery team presents some of the latest cultivators, drills…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver’s view: Sky Easy Drill

Cambridgeshire grower Edward Davison picks out the best and worst points of his Sky Easy Drill, which he bought in 2016 when his crop yields were hammered by a high…

CULTIVATION AND DRILLING

Driver's view: Jack Tooley's McConnel Seedaerator

McConnel’s Seedaerator is a single-pass strip-till dril that cultivates and seeds the crop in bands. Nottinghamshire farmer Jack Tooley talks us though the highs and lows of his machine. What…

CEREAL DRILLS

Direct drills revisited: 5m Cross Slot delivering 7 years on

Spending £120,000 on a 5m Cross Slot drill has proved a worthwhile investment for Suffolk farmer David Bird. The aim of switching to the system from a Vaderstad Rapid seven…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver's view: John Hawkins' Simtech T-Sem drill

Simtech’s T-Sem no-till drill uses a disc and inverted T-shaped coulter to establish a crop without the need for any prior cultivation. We visit Dorset farmer John Hawkins to see…

CEREAL DRILLS

Direct drills revisited: 3m Triton aids blackgrass fight

Wet weather was halting harvest progress when we caught up with Robert Hinchcliffe to see how he was getting on with his 3m Triton direct drill. While adverse conditions can…

CEREAL DRILLS

Direct drills revisited: 3m Simtech T-Sem

When John Hawkins abandoned his intensive arable rotation for a low-input farming system, a 3m Simtech T-Sem Pneumatic was his new drill of choice. His aim was to use it…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver’s View: Jean-Baptiste Bady’s Claydon Hybrid 3m

Estate manager Jean-Baptiste Bady and farm manager Callum Orr, who run an arable operation at the world’s most northerly castle on the small central island of Shapinsay, Orkney, have picked…

CEREAL DRILLS

Driver's view: James Grandy's Amazone drill

Yorkshire farmer James Grandy runs through the good and bad points of his Amazone Cayena drill and how it has slotted into his establishment system. What drill are you using?…

CEREAL DRILLS

Direct drills revisited: Novag TForcePlus 440 improves soil

Since we visited Andrew Tucker last year, he has put another autumn and spring season’s worth of work through the farm’s 4m Novag TForcePlus 440 drill. It has performed well…

Cultivation and drilling buying advice

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ARABLE

Top stubble management tips to kill slugs

Cultural methods of controlling slugs have a key role to play in reducing the risk of metaldehyde slug pellets reaching water, as well as helping to cut the costs of…

CULTIVATORS

Chain-linked disc harrows offer speedy stubble management

Chain-linked disc cultivators have yet to take off in the UK, but their simplicity, moderate power requirement and ability to incorporate stubbles at high speeds could change that. The versatility…

EVENTS

Latest high-speed disc cultivators set to work at Tillage-Live

Designed primarily for shallow cultivation of stubbles, the short disc cultivator, has become an increasingly popular farming tool – and so the makes, models, features and options available have multiplied. Underlining their appeal,…

CEREAL DRILLS

How to fit a fertiliser kit to a John Deere drill

John Deere’s 750A drill is recognised as being one of the longest-serving no-till seeders used in Europe today. Other smaller manufacturers from around the globe are working hard to grab…

CULTIVATORS

How, why and when to mole drain

Soggy fields, ruts deeper than your wellies and bubbling water from broken drains are all telltale signs your field drainage could do with a boost. It’s only in a wet…

SOILS

How to raise headland yields by cutting soil compaction risk

Yields on field headlands are typically 10% lower than the rest of the field, which is why farmers will benefit from measures that minimise the impact of increased traffic on…

CEREAL DRILLS

Ultimate guide to buying a min-till drill 2021

Our latest Ultimate Guide focuses on direct, min-till and disc cultivator drills, with the listings providing a snapshot of every make, model and variation in terms of format, specification and retail…

ARABLE

Growers highlight soil and cost advantages of using no-till

There’s no silver bullet when it comes to putting no-tillage cultivation techniques into practice, but there is a basic recipe that everyone can follow. Minimal soil disturbance, diverse rotations and…

TECHNOLOGY

Aqua Till waterjets offer ingenious alternative to coulters

Just when you thought variable rate, variable depth, turn compensation and limitless fertiliser combinations had taken drilling technology to its limit, the rule book has been blasted open once again.…

Refurbed farm machinery could save you money

Got an old Kuhn power harrow sat out among the stingers? Oliver Mark knows a man that can get it running sweetly and looking smart again, and it’ll cost less…

CULTIVATION AND DRILLING

Cover crop destruction machinery options compared

Heading out with a set of Cambridge rolls after a heavy frost can be an effective way of bringing cover crop growth to an end, as the time to establish…

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CEREAL DRILLS

6m disc drill ticks the boxes for contractor’s CTF system

While striving to limit the travel of machinery across arable acreages is a very worthy cause, it’s not always that practical. True controlled traffic farming (CTF) zealots will tell you…

TECHNOLOGY

Opico to sell FarmDroid drilling and weeding robot

Opico has branched into uncharted waters by taking on the distribution of Danish-made autonomous tool carriers. Carbon neutral and powered by sunshine alone, the so-called FarmDroid is the brainchild of…

TECHNOLOGY

Dot and Raven combine precision tech systems

Two precision technology companies are teaming up to add as many bells and whistles as possible to the Dot Power Platform, which was featured in Farmers Weekly earlier this year.…

TECHNOLOGY

Aqua Till waterjets offer ingenious alternative to coulters

Just when you thought variable rate, variable depth, turn compensation and limitless fertiliser combinations had taken drilling technology to its limit, the rule book has been blasted open once again.…

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CULTIVATION AND DRILLING

Video: Horsch reveal drilling innovations and tillage tweaks

German implement maker Horsch is experiencing strong UK sales from its tillage and crop protection machines. However, with the uncertainty surrounding glyphosate regulation and Brexit, the company thinks that exploring…

PLOUGHS

Video: On test - Hubert's seven-furrow plough

Late last year, Suffolk firm Agri-Hire agreed a deal to take on Dowdeswell’s engineering operation with a commitment to restarting plough production on a national scale. Dowdeswell folded last summer,…

CULTIVATION AND DRILLING

Video: Grower builds cover crop broadcaster for £3,000

A farm-built broadcaster costing less than £3,000 has given James Hopkinson the opportunity introduce cover cropping as part of a "regenerative" approach to the arable enterprises he manages. The tractor-mounted…

MACHINERY

3 Cereals videos: Top tractors, cultivation kit and sprayers

Machinery makers from across the globe flocked to Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire this week (10-15 June) for the annual Cereals 2015 event. We captured a few highlights from the tractor manufacturers, cultivation…