Direct drills revisited: Sumo swapped for versatile Weaving

There have been some changes since Farmers Weekly last checked in at Chestnut Tree Farm, with Tom Hounsfield previously running day-to-day operations and drilling done with a custom 4m linkage-mounted Sumo DD.

Fast forward to this summer and things are looking different, with a new manager at the helm and a 3m mounted Weaving GD now the tool used to establish its crops.

Jamie Parker, who was promoted from foreman to farm manager at the 290ha arable unit, says the Sumo DD was a great drill that served the farm well during its move away from conventional establishment.

See also: Driver’s view: Tom Hounsfield’s Sumo DD drill

However, as it continued to evolve its regenerative system, a machine with a split tank that allowed the operator to sow different crop species at the same time was attractive.

This could include bi-crops such as peas and barley or wheat and beans, for example. Jamie was also interested in experimenting with companion crops, with clover sown between wheat rows to fix nitrogen.

Weaving switch

With a Defra grant available for changing drills, it led the business to buy a mounted 3m Weaving GD, which impressed after a visit to a local direct-drill demonstration.

“The Weaving disc coulter, which is angled at about 10deg, does a really good job of placing the seed, sealing up the row and firming it down afterwards.

“Having the split tank and ability to shut off rows with rubber bungs also allows us to try different combinations of species and row spacings, and apply fertiliser as well, so it gave us the versatility we were after.”

Weaving 3001T © Adam Clarke

The new drill has lost a metre compared to its predecessor, but Jamie sees this as an advantage for road travel. Farming some land near Newark, he no longer requires an escort to shift it backwards and forwards from the Wellingore base.

With a 2.5t total capacity of the split hopper, the drill will also last three-quarters of a day when drilling wheat because of the slightly narrower width.

This means Jamie can drive back to the filling point just once and, as a one-man operation, this saves a lot of time and maintains the efficiency of the drilling operation.

Performance has been good in all conditions, with the Weaving capable of working in fields that are very lightly cultivated to take out sheep poaching, or direct into high biomass cover crops.

“I went contract drilling a few weeks ago and they’d sprayed off a thick, grassy stewardship mix and it drilled beautifully into what was a very dense mat of material. You wouldn’t have known it’d been in there unless you looked very hard for the lines.

“We are very happy with the performance of the drill and the establishment of the crops,” says Jamie.

Issues with the drill thus far include the cracking of the three-spoke press wheels that came with the drill. Weaving changed all of them for a solid-steel-rimmed version free of charge, which has rectified the problem.

Plastic scrapers that stop the build-up of soil between the two angled discs were found to wear very quickly.

This causes large seed, particularly combining peas, to bounce off any built-up soil or trash and impact on seed placement.

Weaving replaced the plastic scrapers with steel ones, but these have also worn fast and the firm is due to introduce a tungsten carbide version to solve the issue for good this winter, ready for spring drilling in 2024.