Sabre Seeder Grain Drill

OPICO LAUNCH NEW SYSTEM FOR TILL-SEEDING CEREALS

Major benefits for single-pass operation

A new grain drill that will allow farmers to use the Till-Seeding system for cereal crops will be launched by OPICO Ltd. at Cereals 2007 on June 13th/14th.

The launch of the Sabre Seeder grain drill marks a significant expansion of Till-Seeding and will apply the same principles that have proved so successful in oil seed rape.

The Sabre Seeder grain drill allows cultivating and seeding to take place at the same time. Furthermore, its versatility allows it to drill uncultivated land, or land partially or significantly cultivated. Where conditions require, it can also be used as a cultivator for creating stale seedbeds etc.

The major benefits of the single pass operation are savings in time, fuel and machinery wear, say OPICO. Plus, it allows farmers to create a smaller carbon footprint when producing crops.

The launch takes place after a huge amount of trial work in the UK and Europe over the past three years. Dozens of fields have been drilled in the UK on a number of farms with varying soil types.

The Grain drill has been developed as an entirely new machine, using the proven HE-VA disc roller as the host unit. HE-VA have engineered the coulter tube around the disc roller arm and disc and have changed the press roller to suit drilling rather than cultivation/consolidation.

“The key fundamentals of grain drilling are to place the seed at a consistent depth, cover the seed and consolidate to obtain good soil to seed contact,” says OPICO managing director James Woolway.

The Sabre Seeder grain drill does each of these as well, as or more accurately than, most other systems available, he claims. “So although we are doing less work to the soil we are achieving the essential requirements for good germination and growth.

“As a whole establishment system, using this grain drill reduces costs and achieves as good an establishment rate as comparable modern grain drills."

A major feature of the grain drill is the Sabre disc coulter, which has been taken from the HE-VA disc roller. This allows the seed to be dropped at the bottom of the opening created by the Sabre disc coulter at a consistent depth and ensures it is covered, no matter what the conditions.

In common with the other grain drills in HE-VA’s range, the Sabre seeder grain drill also employs the proven Rauch metering system, which has been used for several decades in this country.

The grain drill range consists of 3m and 4m rigid units, and 4m, 4.8m and 6m hydraulic folding machines. Machines with working widths of 3m and 4.8m will be available for demonstration this year and the first units will be on sale in the UK this autumn for the 2008 season.

3m and 4.8m units will be on show at the Cereals Event and a plot drilled by the Sabre Seeder grain drill will be available for viewing.

Prices for the 3m and 4m rigid units are £24,729 and £26,806 respectively.

“With the advent of Total Till-Seeding Solutions and the launch of the Sabre Seeder grain drill we are now able to offer a complete Till-Seeding establishment system,” points out Mr Woolway.

“Many farmers have commented on the benefits of Subsoiler Till-Seeding in subsequent cereal crops where they have not needed as much cultivation to establish the crop, or cereal crops have been seen to benefit from a better soil structure.

“The Sabre Seeder grain drill is the ideal drill to follow Subsoiler Till-Seeded rape,” he says. “The integrated Till-Seeding System keeps establishment costs over the whole rotation down to a minimum whilst attending to the soil structure requirements of both the break crop and the cereal crops.”

For more information on the Sabre seeder grain drill click here.