Sowing days: Cereals and pulse vegetables

In our opinion, the sowing task is our favourite job. We work to sow a few days per year (about 15 days) but they are really funny. It is a job you must carry out with high accuracy (our Cerea autoguidance system by GPS helps us) because it is the first step to have a good crop and good harvesting yield... when we finish sowing a field we are satisfied with the work done, as long as the result is appropriate. In our area it rained in October and first days of November so soil was fine to sow. Our followers told us that in others areas of Spain it didn't rain for a few months and they aren't enjoying their sowing tasks.

This campaign we have diversified our crops and we have sowed a few varieties of cereals and pulse vegetables. We have been carrying out this process for many years to rotate our fields with different crops and in order to have better weed control. Normally, we sow sunflowers but this year we have already sowed all our fields except some fields that are going to be fallow whole year.

The seeding dose used in our crop sowed are below:

• PR Wheat: 240 kg/ha
• Narbonensis Vetch: 225 kg/ha
• Comanche Pea: 220 kg/ha
• Trujillo Triticale: 210 kg/ha
• Hispanic Barley: 210 kg/ha
• Mariana Vetch:  180 kg/ha
• Lentil: 150 kg/ha

What seeding dose do you use in your farm?

Our great friend Oscar (from El Provencio) sent us a few interesting pictures of his sowing works and his new Lamusa Europa 2000 XSR seed drill. He told us the seed drill works really very fine and he will be able to finish sowing tasks really soon... Unfortunately, the soil is dry and the work is not perfect as he likes it... we hope it rains soon because we need water in our fields. ​Also, Diego and Cesar sent us a few pictures about their Claydon, Aguirre and Lamusa seed drills...thank you very much!!​

Versión en español.

Claydon Hybrid: A new system of direct seeding

​Our friend and follower Diego Gala (who is from Escalona del Prado - Segovia) is owner of one of the best dairy farms in Spain (it is planned to publish a post about that in December) sent us some pictures and comments about his new Claydon Hybrid Stone-Pro seed drill to drill​ing​ direct into stubble and also into cultivated soils. He can brag to be the first customer of Claydon in Spain (Claydon is a British company that manufactures machinery to tillage and sow).

As he commented, he knew this seed drill on the Internet and in the last edition of Fima 2014,​ ​he could see it and he decided to buy because it is exactly the seed drill needed by him to perform his direct sowing tasks required in his 200ha what are dedicated to produce feed for his cows, despite the fact that this see drill is not cheap. 

This seed drill is a mounted Claydon Hybrid Stone-pro of 4m working width. It has an Accord metering system and it uses 13 seeding tines​ (furrow of 18cm where seed is deposited)​ and ​13 tines to tillage (hydraulic stone release); this machinery allows him to carry out tillage and sowing jobs​ a​t the same time. The weight, with the seed hopper full, is about 3,500kg so his new Massey Ferguson 7626 Dyna-6 can work very fine with this seed drill. It has hydraulic marker arms but we think they aren't necessary because the tractor uses a very good ​guidance steering system.

In our opinion, the work done is really not a direct seeding because this seed drill has tines to tillage and other seeding tines to sow... direct sowing has always been known for not moving soil and just makes a small furrow where the seed is deposited, so we think this seed drill is to minim​um​ tillage tasks... what do you think about that? This machinery is ideal for our friend Diego because he throws purines on his fields and the weight of the tank together with the passage of sheep produces much soil compaction so he needs to complete some superficial tillage tasks.

We have pictures about other Spanish Claydon's customers (Paco Bernabé, Eutiquiano Migueláñez y Florentino Arribas) who have an agricultural society in Villovela de Pirón - Segovia where they till about 1,000ha with their ​new ​Claydon Hybrid Stone-Pro seed drill of 4.8 working width and their Fendt 718 Vario.

Thank you very much for your pictures and comments.

Versión en español.

Video:

Pictures:

Joaquín Herminio Tribaldos (Twins' Farm)