Salford disc drill

[ado089]

Is anyone out there running one. I'm looking to get down to 7.5" spacing on some crops and I'm considering a disc to minimize draft and cut through trash. What's the good the bad and the ugly with these?

[biglentil]

Lots have tried disc drills if they worked well here they would have caught on. I would want to demo it on a couple quarters 1st.

[farmaholic]

Maintenance, maintenance, and some more maintenance.

[ado089]

I think fertility rates are an issue holding back the disc drills but I do things differently.

[TOM4CWB]

Soil disturbance during frosty springs is a problem with disk openers. A 2inch black strip gives heat off and saves small canola just coming up down in the grove.

Wear and rocks are also big issues... but these can work for some farms!

[MBgrower]

Disk drills, fantasitic seed placement, but as stated, maintainence.

[furrowtickler]

Not interested in the drill - maintance issues stare at me looking at any disc drill. But that tank is an excellent set up IMO .

[furrowtickler]

I wish bourgualt would get their head out of their ass and build a tank like that . The are so blinded with the huge dry fert tanks for 100 % all in one pass .

[Lex]

ado,

Have you looked at the Amity Disk Drill?

It is 7.5 inch spacing. It doesn't have cleaner wheels so less bearings and maintenance. It has mid row banders so fertility is not a limitation. It blackens up a 6 inch strip with its paired rows so helps with warming up the soil for canola.

The tank is stainless steel and has a simple metering system. All hydraulic drive for easy calibration and variable rate.

It's an awesome machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6gJyBXBehs

[Lex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJmg-tN03eg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJR4qw4HL_A

[ado089]

Thanks lex. I hadn't look too closely at them yet. The opposing disc setup is a neat idea. I probably won't use a disc for canola and if I did I would be temped to run it through the 15" MRB. What I'm really interested in accomplishing is to give cereals and peas a little more space to grow within the row. I'm also looking at trying some low disturbance organic production where I only work the soil once in the spring and try to control weeds with a heavy harrow after that. Furthermore I like the idea of putting high risk crops like chickpea down the MRB and using something like Soft white wheat as a disease break and something to push maturity between rows. I also think it would be slick for planting clover or safoin for plow-down between oats.

[Lex]

Yes you can seed canola on 15" centers but we have had awesome canola crops on 7.5 inch spacing. And we have done it at speeds up to 10 mph with our Amity drill. Our cereals definitely do better on narrow row spacing but canola doesn't seem to care either way.

We put a valmar on the hitch of the drill that we use for canola and in all other crops we use the valmar for inocculants and myke pro.

[ado089]

Do you have rocks?

[Lex]

Yup. Rocks are a nuisance. Gotta pick em.

[Lex]

Amity disk rolls over anything except perfectly sized 6" rocks. Those will get stuck and start plowing.