When his contractor struggled to cover maize seed while planting into flinty soils, Wiltshire grower Geoff Homer reached for a Qualidisc cultivator to provide adequate soil cover.
That was in Spring 2023, and he says the adjustability of the 5m trailed cultivator enabled it to work at an ultra-shallow depth, guaranteeing its place in the machinery fleet.
“With hindsight, we should have rolled the flint land ahead of drilling to prevent stones from bull-dozing,” he says. “We tried to cover the seed by rolling, but it didn’t work – so we hitched onto a demo Qualidisc that we’d got from Chandlers and set the machine as shallow as possible to put soil back on the exposed seeds. It proved a great test, and it worked a treat.”
Based at Chisbury Lane Farm near Marlborough, Wiltshire, Homer Farms has grown from 250 acres and 180 cows to 3,000 acres and 900 cows on three dairies. Alongside 145 acres of maize, it grows 1,200 acres of cereals comprising winter wheat, winter and spring barley, oilseed rape and hemp, with the remaining acreage providing grass for grazing and silage crops.
“We’ve swapped kit to suit the way our arable workload has grown in the last two years,” adds Geoff. “We’ve embarked on min-till and no-till processes too, while adding cover crops and companion crops to our rotation to enhance soil biology.”
He says that while no-till is the primary goal, the Qualidisc is used to address shallow compaction in Spring, when sheep have grazed the cover crops, and also for stale seedbed creation following oilseed rape.
“It is a great way to manage a slug burden without moving too much soil, and it’s a highly effective tool for removing combine compaction,” says Geoff. “With a Fendt 724 up front, we can hit 12kph at our maximum working depth of 5cm. When working shallower, our fuel use drops considerably.”
He says seedbeds remain level, and the length of the trailed Qualidisc assists soil flow between the two rows of discs, ahead of consolidation with the Actipack rear roller.
“I do like to fine-tune all my kit to get the best results possible,” he adds. “And that means making adjustments on a field-by-field basis as conditions change, and this is where the Qualidisc has proved to be a great asset for the farm.”
Kverneland products are available from Chandlers Wallingford, Cirencester, Devizes, Bristol and Southam depots. For more information contact your local salesman.