In this issue..

Drill setup key to cover crop success
When it comes to crop establishment after
cover crops, drill setup is extremely important,
says Agrovista’s Niall Atkinson.
“Although direct drilling is preferable, it’s not
essential. Much of the work at Lamport has
been done with the Great Plains Spartan, but
conventional drills can do a good job, provided
they’re adjusted to minimise soil disturbance.
The cover crop has been restructuring and
working the soil so you don’t necessarily need
to direct drill, though a disc drill is preferable to
a tine drill,” he notes.
“To adapt the Väderstad Rapid to drill into
cover, lift the System Disc clear of the soil. If
you have GPS then keep the bout markers up,
To adapt the Väderstad Rapid to drill into cover,
lift the System Disc clear of the soil.
make sure the track eradicators and rear
scratcher tines are also lifted out of the ground.
On the Väderstad Rapid there are different
coulter settings against the disc and this is
factory set on the middle setting. You’ll probably
need to adjust this to the top setting so that the
disc is cutting the slot and the coulter sits above,
placing the seed.”
For the Claydon hybrid drill, the standard
setup has too much soil disturbance, he advises.
Either change to the wet weather setup or to the
low disturbance option using the disc to cut
through the trash. Dale has also developed a
modification for their Ecodrill especially for use
in cover crops, replacing the opening tine with a
disc instead.
One of the things growers will find really
noticeable is that the seedbed will always look
scruffier than normal, warns Niall Atkinson. “The
cover crop is still fastened to the ground by its
roots and the drill will just comb through the
material on the surface. That means drilling
will probably be slower than usual to avoid soil
disturbance, more likely 8-10km/h instead of
12-14km/h. On the plus side, the roots of
the cover crop hold the soil, minimising soil
movement and therefore blackgrass germination.”
Getting the seed rate right is another key to
successful establishment into a cover crop. “At
A Great Plains Spartan is used at Lamport, but
conventional drills can do a good job, provided
they’re adjusted to minimise soil disturbance.
Lamport we’ve been using up to 500 seeds/m 2
–– you don’t want to be in the conventional
region of 250-350 seeds/m 2 ,” he advises.
As far as fertiliser application goes, he prefers
combined application at drilling if available. If
not, apply fertiliser just ahead of the drill, with
50% of planned nitrogen applied to the seedbed,”
he suggests.
Another point to be aware of is that you may
not get full closure of the drill slots when surface
conditions are slightly damp. “It’s preferable to
run a set of rolls over 24 hours after drilling when
the surface has dried a little to complete closure
of the drill slots and maximise soil-to-seed
contact,” he adds.