Drills & Drilling
Making short work of tough soils James Thorp’s adapted Vaderstad Rapid with three rows of coulters.
Cambridgeshire-based AG Wright and Son (Farms) Ltd, farms 1,830ha at Haddenham, Ely where a wide variety of soil types – from heavy clay to black fen – are employed to grow sugar beet, potatoes, winter wheat, oilseed rape and spring barley. “Our aim is to maximise production and profitability of all crops,” says company director, James Thorp. Ground destined for root
crops is ploughed which, along with other areas of the farm, means that about 30 per cent is inverted each year. Like many farms, it has its share of black-grass and what is not ploughed is cultivated and allowed to green up before it is sprayed off with glyphosate prior to drilling. Recognising that later drilling dates can provide another opportunity to
spray off black-grass and reduce its presence along with several other benefits, Mr Thorp decided to have some modifications made to his Vaderstad Rapid 800S drill which would enable it to handle the more challenging seedbed conditions which could be expected in October and beyond. “Over the years we have had several Vaderstad Rapid drills and
we’ve always thought of them as being well suited to the type of land and crops we grow,” says Mr Thorp. “Its ability to apply pressures from 88–175kg to individual coulters has been particularly useful in ensuring depth control is maintained in varying soil types and conditions with the result that even germination is achieved. “Our most recent drill was
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