The Cereals event returned to its regular southern haunt at Chrishall Grange, Cambridgeshire this week. Farmers Weekly’s Machinery team headed down the drills and cultivation isle to pick out some highlights.

Brocks Campaign drill

Making its Cereals debut in the working plot area was the huge Campaign drill built by Essex machinery dealer Brock.

The orange-livered unit was launched last November at the firm’s open day and is available in widths from 8-13.3m – ideal for controlled traffic operations.

See also: Cereals 2018: sprayers and spreaders

A monster 5,500kg hopper has a 50:50 split to allow seed and fert to be drilled together and has hydraulic folding lids to keep the rain out.

There’s also a nifty diesel-powered heater to remove any moisture that has worked its way into the hopper overnight to avoid seed becoming damp and bunging up the pipes.

Key to the drill’s design is the two central flotation wheels that bear the weight, leaving the following tine arrangement (spaced at 150mm centres) free to follow ground contours and deal with wetter conditions.

Top-spec Streamline models have Topcon software on-board for auto shut-off on headlands and automatic calibration, while LED lights are standard too.

A swing out mini-auger helps remove left over seed from the hopper.

An 8m model should need 280hp and will cost close to £127,000.

Horsch Serto disc drill

The trend for later drilling has prompted Horsch to introduce a wide disc drill that can cover the ground as quickly as possible.

Called the Serto SC it boasts a 6,000-litre hopper, working widths of up to 12m and drilling speeds of 20kph, meaning it should be able to deliver on that promise.

There are no cultivation elements to the drill (other than a set of disc wheel track eradicators) so it’s designed to work in a conventional plough-based or min-till situation.

In these conditions, the full-width tyre packer consolidates the ground before the heavy-duty double-disc coulters deposit the seed.

These have hydraulic pressure adjustment from 5 to 150kg per unit, with colour-coded shims for fine-tuning the settings. The coulters are also mounted on a parallel linkage for better contour following.

Unlike many double disc units with a leading disc to cut a slot, the Horsch units are mounted in line to force a more pronounced opening. An adjustable press wheel at the rear then pushes soil over the seed.

The hopper itself is split into two 3,000-litre sections with separate metering, meaning two types of seed or seed and fertiliser can be applied. There’s also a microgranular applicator on board.

The 12m machine pictured needs about 300hp on the front and has a list price of £160,000. There’s also a smaller 10m version that comes in at about £135,000.

Lemken Azurit

Taking centre stage on the Lemken stand was the Azurit 9 precision maize drill, which made its first UK appearance at the Lamma show.

This techy piece of kit places the seed in two rows at alternate spacings, with the added bonus of being able drop a line of fertiliser between the seeds. Lemken also says it will maintain accuracy at speeds of up to 18kph.

Manual depth and pressure control for each seeding unit is available too, as well as a tramlining feature and Isobus connectivity.

The machine can also be connected to the rear of the firm’s Solitair cereal drill when the toolbar has been removed. This allows the Solitair’s standard 3t hopper to be used for fertiliser, while the 200kg Azuirt hopper can hold the maize seed.

The Azuirit is available in 3m, 4m and 6m-wide guises with the option of 50cm, 75cm and 80cm-row spacings. The eight-row version is likely to be the most popular in the UK and this has a list price of £62,312.

Landquip Stack and Jack

To put an end to jacking up kit off a wobbly section of wooden blocks found around the yard, Landquip has come up with the Stack and Jack.

This adjustable-height piece of lifting gear has a 15t bottle jack at the top and four interlocking steel sections that can be added or removed to get you to the correct height.

To prevent slippages when in use, the sections are locked in place with a pin and the whole unit is mounted on a trolley, making it easy to shunt around. When the front of the trolley is lowered the rear wheels lift off the ground for added stability.

It’s available in various combinations of sections, but the full 250mm to 1,750mm system pictured costs £699.

Sahco Geacut 600

For those with bulky cover crops to knock down before direct drilling, parts supplier Spaldings is offering the Geacut 600 from Sacho Land Solutions.

This 6m folding implement has three serrated rollers that can thunder along at speeds of up to 30kph to help reduce the bulk of the crop to more manageable levels.

At these speeds, there’s a considerable shock impact between the outer wings and the frame, so large rubber doughnut-style bushes have been fitted to absorb it.

In standard form, the Geacut weighs 5,210kg but water ballasting can push this up to 7,020kg to provide extra cultivation on heavy soils or to penetrate through particularly dense vegetation.

As well as cover crop bashing, Spaldings says it can be used on long maize or oilseed rape stubbles. The full-width steel blades can also be replaced when they’re worn out.

It has a list price of £28,000 and apparently a 150hp tractor should be adequate to pull it.

Agrimaster R250W hedgecutter

Alongside the 8m GD drill, Weaving was showing off several more modestly sized items from its Italian-built Agrimaster stable.

The first is a cheaply priced Golden R250W hedgecutter that uses a joystick in the cab to provide proportional movements of the trimmer’s hydraulic functions via cables, much like an old loader tractor control.

The basic design does away with any unnecessary electronics and is perfectly suited to running on a sub-100hp tractor.

Base spec models cost just £9,800 and come with a rotor reverse function, parallel arm, head float and power slew.

The company was also showing what it reckons is the first fully offset flail mower – the Blade N260.

This means the tractor doesn’t have to run on the grass while mowing, which helps to produce a more consistent cut.

A hydraulic break-back mechanism offers some protection from immovable objects too, and sprung suspension helps with self-levelling.

There’s just one width – 2.6m – and it pivots backwards to lock into transport mode. The asking price is £5,800.