Simpler and lighter single-disc coulters are a new option for the Sky Agriculture (formerly Sulky) Progress piggy-back air drill.

The established P30 coulter design is already used on the manufacturer’s Tramline mechanical drills and the Progress M, a relatively simple single-hopper 3m combi drill.

It has a plain opener disc alongside a seeding boot, making it best suited to easy-going soils, with a pin-and-hole adjusted press wheel available as an option.

See also: Sulky goes high-tech with small combination drill

Alternating short and long tubular coulter arms configure the seeding units into two rows.

From 3kg to 30kg of adjustable down-pressure is available from a compression spring mechanism that Sky says allows sufficient lift for decent under-clearance when the disc has to ride over an obstruction or excessive trash.

Sky’s Progress drill is normally supplied as a package with an HR power harrow or an XR short disc cultivator capable of working at up to 12kph.

Sky progress with P30 openers ©Sky

Both versions are available in 3.5m and 4m widths, with P20 Suffolk-type coulters, the P50 double-disc opener with press wheel, and with the P100 notched single disc on a leaf spring with press wheel, which is the current favourite in the UK.

The drill can be had with a 1,250- or 1,750-litre seed-only hopper, a 1,200-litre plus 800-litre two-compartment hopper; or any of those plus a 100 litre supplementary hopper for microgranules, companion cropping seed, and the like.

A 3.5m, 1,750-litre Sky Progress and HR220 power harrow with packer roller is priced from £47,384 equipped with P30 single-disc openers, and weighs about 0.5t – or 30% less than the same combination with P100 coulters, which starts at £57,866.