ADVANCED MECHANICS

that he is not going to plough any field this year. I’m not as convinced as he is with this new Claydon drill. I love to see a clean ploughed field to give the seed a really good start.

When you use a direct drill and see the straw on the top of the clay it’s hard to get used to.

As for picking stones, I reckon I could have a fine extension on the house with all the rocks I picked. The drill definitely pulls up more stones than any plough. I have been reassured that this is only for the first couple of years, then it improves.

Over the last few year we have been increasing the amount of organic manures we use to help the soil structure and this is an- other reason he feels we can go the direct drill route. It is very fast and you cover acres much quicker than a plough and one pass. It also means we can get out with a pre-emergence spray to help control grass weeds.

For many farmers that have been doing direct drill for years this is nothing new, but for us this is our first year to try the whole farm.

OIL SEED RAPE

We previously only direct drilled after the oil seed rape and beans as the soil was so pliable. It will be interesting to see the difference from other years.

The oil seed rape varieties we went with this year are Pioneer PT256 and DeKalb Exential. The winter barley we had last year were all two row varieties and this year we have decided to go back to six row as well as the two row.

We are trying Bazooka, Belfry (both six row) and Cassia (two row). For the winter wheat we are going to use JB Diego for one more year, with Lumos, Costello and Garrus.

We were thnking that we should change to winter beans rather than spring beans but because of the extra disease without the yield bonus we have decided against it.

Philip and Helen Harris are tillage farmers in Co Kildare. Follow them on twitter P&H Harris @ kildarefarmer.